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Amazon Sidewalk

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Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#621

Post by ShamelessC »

ActorNightly wrote: post #425
Someone1234 wrote: post #279

It is interesting how stark the reaction to this Vs. Apple's "Find My" network is. Apple's version adds every iPhone to part of their network. It uses battery AND expensive mobile data even when the owner has no eligible devices, and that isn't considered controversial. But Amazon wants to use data on non-battery/non-pay per transfer lines and this is considered controversial (and an "abuse of their market position")…

Its just part of the general online narrative that Amazon is "evil", while Apple, who still works with Foxconn in China and did things like have poor authentication on iCloud that cause celebrity photo leaks, goes largely unnoticed. My guess is that tech people just really like the flashy Macbooks so the bias is present.

Apple's PR efforts are important here but I think the more nuanced take I see on this is that it's currently a competitive advantage for Apple to care about privacy concerns.

No clue if that's true. People should generally assume that if a big corporation is doing anything at all (in America) - it is to make money. They will only "protect you" to the level that it makes them money and they'll be happy to change their business model to something a little more like Google/Facebook for something as simple as a change in leadership.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#622

Post by nucleardog »

pupdogg wrote: post #615
nucleardog wrote: post #607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is more or less my car. Volume and tuning are knobs and steering wheel controls. HVAC is all controlled through physical knobs and switches for the heated seats and reported on a small (non-touch) display on top of the dash. The touchscreen is for maps and more detailed radio/audio controls. Configuration and preferences are configured through whichever system it's relevant to. Driving settings are configured on…

Please puts us all onto the make and model of your car. Seems like such capabilities are a rare breed nowadays!

Mine's a 2016 Subaru WRX. Cars101 has posted a lot of photos of the interior: http://www.cars101.com/subaru/wrxsti/wrxsti2016photos2.html

I don't know that it was so much a conscious design choice as that Subaru, as a smaller manufacturer, tends to buy/develop a bunch of disparate systems rather than some single integrated monstrosity. Though looking at interior photos of some of the newer vehicles (Impreza, Forester, etc) they all look to have more or less continued the trend and same general design of still having some basic physical buttons and switches.

And yeah, it's great. Along with having all the pertinent information basically in my line of sight without looking away from the road, I can operate most of the important features of the car without having to look away because they're physical buttons and knobs I can feel for.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#623

Post by mattkevan »

patrickk wrote: post #496
pupdogg wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There’s so many products that fall into this category. Stuff designed several decades ago was often more reliable and easier to fix with simple tools (I’m thinking of Japanese cars in the 90s up to the early 2000s but you can apply it to many products). And now with ‘smart’ products, aka internet of shit, it’s gotten worse. I have a modded iPod classic for this reason, keep a NAS for ripped media, keep a dumb TV as l…

Worked in a tv repair shop back in the mid-90s. We would mostly fix aged soldering or replace dodgy capacitors, but even then newer TVs were getting less and less repairable. Just a transformer, circuit board and CRT.

They shut down not long after I stopped working there as there was nothing left that they could fix.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#624

Post by buran77 »

sneak wrote: post #544
ogjunkyard wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I find the easiest way to make the TV dumb is to reject every EULA and ToS I'm presented with. Basic TV functionality can't really be disabled (not without making the device unfit for the purpose it was sold), and any further collection of data would expose the manufacturer to some massive legal liability.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#625

Post by dang »

criddell wrote: post #282

Didn't you see the part where it's been designed to protect your privacy? It's only there to make sure all the cameras and internet microphones around your neighborhood stay live. You know, to protect your privacy.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27116416.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#626

Post by lancepioch »

Someone1234 wrote: post #279

It is interesting how stark the reaction to this Vs. Apple's "Find My" network is. Apple's version adds every iPhone to part of their network. It uses battery AND expensive mobile data even when the owner has no eligible devices, and that isn't considered controversial. But Amazon wants to use data on non-battery/non-pay per transfer lines and this is considered controversial (and an "abuse of their market position")…

First the battery and "expensive" mobile data used is negligible for an iPhone. The data used for sidewalk is not necessarily but could be. Second, Find my is NOT on by default. You have a choice to enable Find My when you set up the phone. Sidewalk is on by default. Third, the data that the iPhone sends is encrypted end to end and they heavily mention that they can't even read it. Amazon does not mention that, even if it happens to be true. Fourth, sidewalk ALWAYS uses your home network. You mentioned mobile data, at the very least, that's completely separate.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#627

Post by kstrauser »

Someone1234 wrote: post #279

It is interesting how stark the reaction to this Vs. Apple's "Find My" network is. Apple's version adds every iPhone to part of their network. It uses battery AND expensive mobile data even when the owner has no eligible devices, and that isn't considered controversial. But Amazon wants to use data on non-battery/non-pay per transfer lines and this is considered controversial (and an "abuse of their market position")…

If an Amazon device which supports Sidewalk is hacked, and that device has formed an ad-hoc network with my own Amazon device on my home Wi-Fi, then the attacker is now on my network even though they started on my neighbor’s.

There is literally no comparable possibility with Find My. A random AirTag isn’t using my phone’s network connection to talk to Apple. Instead, my phone is telling Apple that it’s seen this random AirTag.

This isn’t me being an Apple fanboy or an anti-Amazon hater. The two scenarios have nothing in common. If a stranger’s AirTag was hopping onto my Apple network, I’d be furious about that. It’s not how that works though.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#628

Post by herbstein »

mPReDiToR wrote: post #455
sofixa wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are legally obliged to install a smart meter, smart smoke detector and smart heating control in your home If that's all they do, what's the problem here? All three have big and direct positives for everyone ( you, your home, your community) - a smart heating control saves energy ( climate catastrophe incoming, so could be useful), a smart smoke detector can alert the fire department if smoke is ongoing for more…

You're missing the whole concept of choice. Being forced into something "for your own good" is still being forced, and is anathema to some.

And yet people are generally fine with seat belts, driver's licenses, etc. being "forced" "for your own good" in modern society.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#629

Post by pupdogg »

mattkevan wrote: post #623
patrickk wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s so many products that fall into this category. Stuff designed several decades ago was often more reliable and easier to fix with simple tools (I’m thinking of Japanese cars in the 90s up to the early 2000s but you can apply it to many products). And now with ‘smart’ products, aka internet of shit, it’s gotten worse. I have a modded iPod classic for this reason, keep a NAS for ripped media, keep a dumb TV as l…

Worked in a tv repair shop back in the mid-90s. We would mostly fix aged soldering or replace dodgy capacitors, but even then newer TVs were getting less and less repairable. Just a transformer, circuit board and CRT. They shut down not long after I stopped working there as there was nothing left that they could fix.

I miss being able to go into those shops! Nowadays, the closest thing that exists is phone repair shops and they generally don't even know what soldering is. I'm not knocking their business; but something inside me remains irritated knowing that we're more advanced yet we make less reliable/serviceable pieces of equipment.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#630

Post by saruken »

pupdogg wrote: post #555
greggman3 wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 like your list. A lot! Yes, possible. We’ve manufactured approx 3000x 70” industrial displays since 2015...since then, we have yet to run into any bad panels. 2 of the panels did get damaged during the handling process but generally, a panel being bad from the factory has never been an issue. I’ll keep monitoring your list for any updates. Thank you!

Sign me up too!

I have a 48" RCA dumb TV from like 10 years ago and I live in perpetual fear of it dying. My list would be: HDMI input and some kind of speaker, although I'd be willing to buy an external speaker if building one in made a bare-bones setup impractical.

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