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Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

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Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#81

Post by tyingq »

Scaevolus wrote: post #20
gpspake wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hope is that Nvidia will just develop a launcher. I think a lot of people will jump ship to third party launchers because of this, though, and the damage will be done. Then we just wait for an HN post about thousands of Shield devices being hacked because users installed launchers from who knows where.

Supposedly part of the Android TV certification requirements include only using their launcher.

Hopefully there's some negotiation going on. If Google insists that the ad-laden launcher MUST be the default, they are killing any possibility of an "upscale Android TV". Seems dumb to purposefully kill that market.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#82

Post by pdimitar »

loosescrews wrote: post #69
sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

One aspect of modern hardware products which contain a lot of software is that they need a steady stream of software updates in order to remain useful and functional. Security updates are essential. Not only is a device full of unpatched vulnerabilities dangerous to use, but as we saw with the recent Western Digital scandal, is a serious risk to the continued functionality of the device. Because the Shield is a strea…

Yes, it is a bad thing. I paid fair and square for the device. I expect the vendor to have factored in all costs beforehand for the expected lifetime of the device. If it physically lasts 10 years then bill me all your expenses for those 10 years. Don't bill me for 3-4 years and then go "Oops, you still have that device, huh? Take those ads because we can't finance support for 6-7 more years out of all our billions. No really, we promise that we can't".

Additionally, I expect a corporation like NVIDIA or Google to have amortized the costs of supporting several ecosystems by the mere virtue of having engineers on them on a constant payroll -- those costs are not increasing, they remain the same for long periods of time -- plus to finance the support by other venues if need be. Brand loyalty and stuff?

This penny pinching by billionaire conglomerates leaves a sour taste in my mouth and it makes it all the more likely for me to invest in several specialized PCs, a home video / streaming player included. They'll never stop being shady, it seems, so we have to take things in our own hands, apparently.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#84

Post by pdimitar »

tyingq wrote: post #71
gpspake wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My hope is that Nvidia will just develop a launcher. I think a lot of people will jump ship to third party launchers because of this, though, and the damage will be done. Then we just wait for an HN post about thousands of Shield devices being hacked because users installed launchers from who knows where.

>My hope is that Nvidia will just develop a launcher I don't see that they have a choice. Nobody is going to pay for a premium device that shoves ads in your face. Roku has ads, but they are less aggressive, so I imagine they would start picking up Nvidea customers. The bad review bombing hit both nVidea apps and Google's AndroidTV launcher pretty hard: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nvidia.teg...…

They'll just delete the bad reviews after the initial PR storm subsides. Various big apps have been "caught" in the past doing it. Apparently if you have Google's ear then everything is possible under the table.

This also reminds me of the famous BlizzCon where they announced Diablo Immortal -- where the Chinese exec infamously exclaimed (after the audience started booing): "Do you guys not have phones?" -- when the dislikes of the videos reached into dozens of millions and Google has reset the dislikes, several times in a row.

So yeah, these things do happen and will likely happen again.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#85

Post by seanp2k2 »

sneak wrote: post #11
sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

You don't have to bend over and take it, you can throw the device in the garbage. This is what I did with my Alexa hardware the instant it suffixed a routine response to a unit conversion or the weather or something with an ad for some unrelated Amazon service.

Have you considered alternative ROMs? https://www.reddit.com/r/ShieldAndroidTV/comments/h7ihw3/shi...

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#86

Post by tyingq »

pdimitar wrote: post #77

I might be the dumbest observer on these trends around here but does it seem to somebody else that this is a normal part of the end-of-life lifecycle of many devices and that it usually goes like this... - "Sir, sales are falling... we actually haven't had new sales in months". - "How much does it cost to support the infrastructure for these devices?" - "X million a month". - "Feck it. Cram ads into them, we're not s…

I don't think NVidea is getting any of the revenue for these ads. If I understand it right, Google is getting the revenue...the launcher is Google's app.

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#87

Post by hanniabu »

sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

Can you use it without accepting the terms of service? If not, it should be required you accept the terms at purchase, otherwise it's just a trojan horse (assuming you're somebody that actually reads the tos).

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#88

Post by ji0 »

sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

[flagged]

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#89

Post by wlesieutre »

slownews45 wrote: post #79
sdflhasjd wrote: post #6

My shield updated to this the other day. I'm pretty furious about it, it's not a cheap device, and it's certainly not Google's. To be adding these "features" without asking, irrespective of whatever agreement between me, Nvidia or Google exists, is ridiculous. I know it's in whatever terms I, uh, "accepted", but there's just no escaping it in this day and age. Fortunately, I know how to use ADB and just installed ano…

I use apple TV all the time and I've yet to see an ad. Meanwhile both the TV itself (gone) and other devices seem to push ads all the time. When we say Apple is as bad - what are we talking about? Inside the individual apps obviously developers do push things.

Apple defaults to playing big trailers on the home screen, but it's easy to turn off and IMO not nearly as bad as what Google has done here

https://9to5mac.com/2020/01/19/how-to-remove-home-screen-tra...

Re: Nvidia Shield TV Owners Are Pissed About the Banner Ads in Android TV

#90

Post by pdimitar »

tyingq wrote: post #86
pdimitar wrote: post #77

I might be the dumbest observer on these trends around here but does it seem to somebody else that this is a normal part of the end-of-life lifecycle of many devices and that it usually goes like this... - "Sir, sales are falling... we actually haven't had new sales in months". - "How much does it cost to support the infrastructure for these devices?" - "X million a month". - "Feck it. Cram ads into them, we're not s…

I don't think NVidea is getting any of the revenue for these ads. If I understand it right, Google is getting the revenue...the launcher is Google's app.

Gods, that's even worse then! So NVIDIA will have to deal with Google just randomly deciding to monetize a launcher...?
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