Amazon Sidewalk • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#511

Post by stanmancan » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

greggman3 wrote: post #493

pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

I'd buy one. Is this something you can do like Drop where you take orders and only release if you get enough orders to make it worth while? I guess you have to deal with bad units and other stuff but just wondering. I think people will have different ideas of "dumb". For example. * A TV with only 1 input. If you want more inputs get an external switch etc... * A TV with no audio. If you want audio use external speake…

I could be wrong, but I would imagine most people consider a dumb TV to be exactly how pre-smart TV's worked: Screen, speakers, multiple inputs, and a remote.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#512

Post by WorldMaker » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

atonse wrote: post #469

crazygringo wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you. I'm baffled by how positive the HN community was to AirTags, but not to this...? And aren't more networks a good thing? Shouldn't there be another competitor here? Also, I'm not sure where people are getting that Amazon is bad at privacy. Amazon isn't Facebook, nor is it even Google Analytics, nor has it been involved in any user/privacy data scandal I can think of. I mean, most of the criticism of Amazon…

That's because there's deceptive language here. There's lots of details out there about the great lengths Apple has gone to preserve actual privacy with AirTags. AirTags have been designed so nobody, not the random device holder, or even Apple, can ever see any information. But look at Amazon's language on "privacy" - they basically say "everything is encrypted" which is essentially meaningless for privacy. It's mean…

Plus Apple's model is opt-in by default. "Find My" has always been opt-in. Buying an AirTag is an opt-in decision.

Amazon announced Sidewalk with a "most Echoes and Ring devices that have never had a feature like this before are going to support it opt-out by default in the near future". Even if they had the best intentions that sort of planned roll out isn't a great way to assuage people's privacy fears.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#513

Post by axaxs » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

Out of curiosity, how much would such a thing cost?

I'd love a 'dumb' display, but it would be hard for me to justify dropping thousands to have one, when I'm perfectly satisfied just leaving the internet disconnected from my $400 'trash tier' TV.

This isn't knocking the idea, it's a genuine question that also kinda ties into the question of how much money mfgs are making from this privacy invasion.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#514

Post by ziml77 » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

pupdogg wrote: post #486

macjohnmcc wrote: post #481

Modern televisions have made me wish they were just dumb (as possible) monitors with no software interface. Just select the input, power, volume, brightness etc those things no Roku or other smarts.

Amen. I also wish cars would just have dumb push-button or radial-knob controls vs a smart touchscreens. I'm a big fan of things that simply work and work for a long time.

I'd also love a return to physical controls, but my concern with the touchscreens is actually less to do with durability and more to do with tactility and muscle memory. Before I stopped driving altogether, I had a car with a touchscreen interface. It had more functionality than other cars I'd driven and I appreciated that, but it also felt more dangerous to operate at times. Dedicated buttons for all the controls might have been impractical, but I think they should have at least gone with the older style of having dynamic function, phsyical buttons along the side of the screen.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#515

Post by thrav » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

Grab anyone else in this thread interested, and pitch it to Wyze as a new product division.

Granted, their products aren’t dumb, but they seem to be very consumer and quality focused. I have loved everything they’ve done.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#516

Post by discardable_dan » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

gonehome wrote: post #468

pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

I think there’s a market for this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26290427 “Make it OLED, dumb TV, instant on, Apple TV box plugs in. Separate box with front facing ports that connects to screen with one cable. A remote designed by someone who thought about it for ten seconds (why do modern TVs have dozens of buttons no one ever uses?). This entire market is in desperate need of someone to make something decent…

Doesn't Spectre fill basically all of these requirements? For example, this 4k offering on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sceptre-U550CV-U-Ultra-2160p-60Hz/dp/... There is no smart functionality, just some HDMI ports. I haven't owned one myself, but I plan to when it's time to eventually replace my 10-year-old TV.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#517

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:06 PM UTC

pupdogg wrote: post #363

If anyone is interested, I wouldn't mind collaborating to create a privacy oriented SmartTV or PC for devs or simply an industrial grade dumb TV. I have experience designing and building 70" industrial displays that utilize Samsung LCD panels. These "industrial" panels are normally twice the price of consumer grade ones but are designed to operate 24/7 with a MTBF of 100k hours (approx. 11 years) and are usually twic…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#518

Post by werber » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:07 PM UTC

discardable_dan wrote: post #516

gonehome wrote: post #468

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there’s a market for this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26290427 “Make it OLED, dumb TV, instant on, Apple TV box plugs in. Separate box with front facing ports that connects to screen with one cable. A remote designed by someone who thought about it for ten seconds (why do modern TVs have dozens of buttons no one ever uses?). This entire market is in desperate need of someone to make something decent…

Doesn't Spectre fill basically all of these requirements? For example, this 4k offering on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Sceptre-U550CV-U-Ultra-2160p-60Hz/dp/... There is no smart functionality, just some HDMI ports. I haven't owned one myself, but I plan to when it's time to eventually replace my 10-year-old TV.

I have two tvs from them, bottom of the barrel Black Friday deals and they work great and seem fairly durable (they've both been through a few moves)

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#519

Post by KMnO4 » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

tehwebguy wrote: post #461

pupdogg wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except for the LCD panel itself, everything else (the controller, PSU, wire harnesses, connectors, etc) are already easily serviceable. If you can build a computer, you can service this display. A big bonus with my industrial design would be that the casing itself is made out of metal and harder to damage than plastic casing of most large format displays. For your specific case, is that a consumer grade panel? What i…

Awesome! Yeah it’s a super thin, dumb TV and other than the fact that black shots always revealed some inconsistent lighting on it it’s decent. The recent problem is that once in a while a vertical segment (probably 1/5 or 1/6 of the width of the screen) is discolored and mostly black.

If you get weird colours or it's black but fully lit up, then its the TCON board (the LCD controller). These are easy to replace as they're usually on their own board and you can just swap it out for a new one.

If you get the full image but its dark (you can hold a flashlight to the panel to see), then it's the LED strips. You simply take off the panel and replace the strips that are broken (though you should probably just replace them all). Fairly easy to do.

Rarely it could be the PSU that drives the LEDs, but that would usually mean the entire screen is dark.

TVs are actually quite nice to work on. They usually have big circuit boards which are nicely labeled and enough space that you could easily replace a capacitor or two with a soldering iron. :)

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#520

Post by Loughla » Tue, May 11, 2021, 5:09 PM UTC

foobarian wrote: post #431

Loughla wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. We just got a sceptre from walmart. Stupid big for the price, great picture, and did I mention the low price. Oh, and not one smart feature; just television with various inputs. I haven't TV shopped in literal decades. It astounded me that there was (a) a market for more advertising on your television via smart features, and (b) seemingly low-end models are the only ones that are available as 'dumb'. Other manu…

How are they vs. LG OLED panels? Lack of dumb option is what's stopping me from getting a LG :(

Compared to any OLED, they're just as good. A bit bright, but everything else is solid. The speakers are what are often complained about, in that they're small and not that loud. Ours is loud enough that we keep it on 7 (out of like 50? I've never gone above 10) for a room that is 14'x28'.

I'm sold on them for future purchases.