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Amazon Sidewalk

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Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#541

Post by jiofih »

ascagnel_ wrote: post #312
jiofih wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tile can have access to the Find My network, as can others. They chose not to.

Unless Find My supports Tile hardware being able to simultaneously connect to both Find My and Tile's own network by default , this access is a Sophie's choice for Tile: - If their hardware only connects to Find My, then the Tile network (and Android phones specifically) will have fewer connection points available, making the devices less attractive to Android users who will not have access to Find My. - If their har…

As far as I’m aware nothing stops them from doing just that. You’ve got the dynamics right, but the hardware is not the problem, it’s the app.

They want iOS users to download the Tile app instead of using the native Find My. If they don’t, coverage will be severely degraded for Android users as you mention.

The hardware is just a dumb emitter. Fixing this would require either:

1. The Find My api to be available on Android, so phones can track and locate tags

2. Find My on iOS uploads tag data to a third party service of the users’ choice

The latter is absolutely unlikely as it exposes user data defeating all of the privacy guarantees Apple developed. #1 is more likely but still a long shot.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#542

Post by patmorgan23 »

jasonjayr wrote: post #529
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…

Define a standard form factor for a box that can have attachments to it. (Say approximatly 1 x RPi or 1.5 x RPi), that has a secure modular connector that is fed HDMI IN/OUT, Power, a data bus (Ethernet?), and space so custom connectors can be on the other side. Offer panels with a 'startup' block, and maybe 1 or two others for other devices. Ensure there is enough ventilation for passive/silent cooling. Set up partn…

Existing manufacturers make more by locking their hardware into their platform for ads.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#543

Post by yumraj »

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…

I have a Sony x90ch, it has no ads, just a thin panel with some content suggestions which we ignore. It may be because I run it through pi-hole but I don't think Sony tvs do ads in general. I had to make to not accept a particular option for a service, don't remember the name, which does tracking. Pretty stock Android from what I can tell.

Compared to what I've been hearing about Samsung and LG it's been rather nice in this respect.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#544

Post by sneak »

ogjunkyard wrote: post #539
gonehome wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not OLED, also looks pretty cheap? I don't want a crappy, cheap, panel with no smart features. I want a premium panel without smart features. Think like Apple Pro Cinema Display in TV form.

Exactly. That's my biggest struggle with finding a TV these days. I want to make sure that the networking functionality is what I attached to it, not something built into the TV that I have no way of possibly disabling or removing entirely. With some of the relatively recent PiHole posts, it's become clear that some of these smart TVs are including some level of DNS resolution on their end to get around ad blocking f…

Just don't give it your network password, don't connect it to the wifi.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#545

Post by pupdogg »

justicezyx wrote: post #503
pupdogg wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Higher-end can mean a lot of things, especially when talking consumer grade. I generally translate consumer grade high-end as being more aesthetically pleasing vs operationally. My expertise are more aligned with industrial grade equipment where size is typically not the limit. I've deployed a 16ft x 9ft high-res LED display for a customer in the past. That's something you don't normally find at BestBuy or even at th…

Let's say: Something that can match LG OLED CX 77 2020 model priced $3,099.99 I'd be happy to pay at the same price without the smart features.

Fun fact: some LG displays use Samsung panels internally and vice-versa

Another fun fact: When Samsung started in 1938, they specialized in trading dried fish. They came into the electronics industry in 1960s.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#546

Post by debrice »

Two things bothers me here. It is described as free of charge while you should be paid to provide internet connection and power to consolidate Amazon network’s infrastructure. Second is the risk of the protection being too weak to prevent people other to access your camera, voice recording, wifi… this shortcut seem to mainly benefit Amazon while most of the costs and risks are put on its clients.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#547

Post by balozi »

Banks should be being more like Amazon. Send everyone a free $5 gift card. Then convert all those cards automatically into credit cards after three months.

Amazon should be more like banks. Gamify the experience and entice users into your program with rewards, points or "miles".

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#548

Post by sneak »

zschuessler wrote: post #445
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 don't know if this falls in your vision or not, probably not, but I'll say I would pay top-dollar for an Android TV that was veritably privacy focused. I purchased a Sony TV that runs Android and adore it. I initially purchased it because it was a no-nonsense take on Android with high-rated privacy support. Sadly, over the past year they have begun introducing ads, promotions, and privacy policy readjustments that…

How could they introduce anything if you don't connect the TV to the internet at all?

My Sony OLED smart tv works the same way it did when I got it.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#549

Post by pupdogg »

clairity wrote: post #525
pupdogg wrote: post #483

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's easily doable. However, unlike consumer grade displays, it's much harder to find dumb controllers with multiple HDMI inputs for industrial displays. A new growing trend in the industrial sector is to move towards dumb controllers having 1x HDMI input and 1x IPTV (ethernet) input. This might fit your requirements as you could easily put the display and your streaming devices on the same VLAN and stream dir…

1 hdmi input is fine for connecting whatever a/v receiver you want to it that can have multiple hdmi inputs and outputs, as well as speakers and audio zones and such. the only problem is now the receiver becomes the privacy/speed bottleneck. i have an older receiver that doesn't require internet, but now receivers are going down the same invasive road as smart tv's. so while i like my current setup, i think the tv wo…

I did some research for you and multiple HDMI inputs won’t be an issue.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#550

Post by cptskippy »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #439
jpm_sd wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think successfully partnering with streaming services might be the tricky bit of a "privacy oriented SmartTV" project? How will you get Amazon, Netflix and Hulu on board?

You might consider talking to PlayOn. They've found a way to record video from streaming services locally and stream encrypted video to DNLA/UPnP devices without encryption for over a decade - despite operating in the US. The Video Stream is only 720p, but it's better than nothing. With their software, you can record Netflix/Hulu/Peacock/Disney+/Whatever to your computer or stream videos from those services to a Kodi…

PlayOn on the PC is on life support at this point it seems. It uses Internet Explorer and may still have dependencies on Flash, though I think that was more a provider dependency.

It's very fragile and almost like they use Selenium or some other automation tester for UI then just screen cap the whole thing. I say this because it breaks frequently when providers change their UI.

Plugins constantly come and go and stop working.

They amount of support required to keep it going is tremendous and they're pushing the cloud as a service to support and maintain it.

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