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Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

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Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#692

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never had a good experience with a Samsung device. Their TV screens are too blue for me, their appliances fail too quickly and are not user repair friendly, their phones have too much bloat. Admittedly, this is all down to personal experience and taste but I am decidedly anti-samsung. I've had a few decent computer monitors from them but otherwise everything I've owned from them has become e-waste with far too m…

If you can find a good stylus, I won't need a Note anymore. The Note is the last Samsung device that I buy, but only because there is absolutely no competition. I don't even use all the fancy S-Pen software, I just use the stylus for the same functionality that every Android device has.

Moto has a stylus phone out now.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why is everyone confused that smart TVs are popular?" TBH, Im more confused by the parent comment. (Although this is a very typical type of HN comment, passive-aggressive denigration of anything "not popular".) These type of comments make me wonder why would anyone, other than the companies benefitting, care if some HN commenters do not love so-called smart TVs. This is not a mainstream audience. Moreover, I see no…

> "Why is everyone confused that smart TVs are popular?" In his Appendix, Orwell explains the syntactical arrangement and the etymology of the Newspeak. A living language, such as English, one that has the capability of diverse expression, has the tendency to gain words and therefore broaden the awareness and knowledge of its speakers. Newspeak, on the other hand, loses words, by removing words that represent opposin…

I have never encountered a group as amenable to "Newspeak" as software developers. For example, note how many times developers describe things, including "startups", in terms of what they "are" rather than what they "do".

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#694
post #688

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course it does, because “popular” in the original example was referring to their ubiquity and lack of over viable alternatives. An example of a once-dominant product that appears to be losing in the market to a fast-rising new alternative is not analogous.

Argument goes then more for “is this scenario possible at all for term ‘popular’?”, when it certainly is. Example was just weak. Another example could be, why driving a car is “too popular” on country side to move between places. It might be popular, because there is no public transportation. Is the situation same with public transportation? Can we call it popular, because it is forced?

The whole point is that there's a difference between saying that the popularity of a product can be caused by the lack of what would be a viable alternative (like your example of public transportation versus cars), and saying that the popularity of one feature of a product is caused by the lack of alternatives that do not have that feature. The latter is more like saying "the popularity of 4-wheeled personal automobiles is caused by the lack of 3-wheeled personal automobiles on the market" or "the popularity of touchscreen smart phones is caused by the lack of smartphones with physical keyboards on the market."

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disconnect from WiFi. It makes my “smart” tv a normal one that doesn’t serve my shitty ads, lag or turn on some random SamsungTV channel.

Just because you disconnected it from wifi does not mean they cannot connect it through lte without your knowledge

That’s true. But it does help with the blocking their ads.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#696

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMEI blacklisting has nothing to do with private information or user of previous phone number, it does not try to do that, it's a technique that attempts to prevent stolen phones to be used by anyone as the operators would refuse to allow that device (identified by the device's IMEI number) to connect to their network.

But the crucial question is when was device stolen; "a priori" of someone using it or "a posteriori" of someone using it. Samsung refers to TV being stolen "a priori" of consumer using it("A TV blocking system has been activated on Samsung television sets stolen from our warehouse") but if a TV is stolen posteriori of someone using it maybe blocking can come in handy in order to protect consumer's private information…

They want proof of a valid TV license when I only use my TV for streaming and do not need or have a license? If that's a hard requirement in their system they'll be getting some complaints down the road.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#697
post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

10 years is actually quite good for major appliances. If you're warrantied for 3 and manage to get 10 years out if it you've exceeded the design parameters. Environmentally, replacing a broken fridge is usually the only time someone will even research something more energy efficient.

Wow. So the idea is that we want them to wear out more quickly so that they buy a new product that's more energy efficient? That strikes me as terribly wasteful. What about the impacts of a discarded appliance?

The compressor is almost certainly the most expensive part of the fridge. It's also one of 2 moving parts on fridge (the other the being the fan, which is cheap), making it the most likely to fail.

I checked some list prices, and they're a substantial price of the fridge itself. Some site said $200-$450 to replace one, another said the part itself is $100-$500 without even including labor. At those prices, I can see why people might just buy new. It's also something most people would want to hire a professional for; refrigerants are not good to inhale, and this needs to be air-tight.

I would also hope that most of them get refurbished. It's pretty hard to just "discard" a fridge. You have to call someone at the city (or GoodWill), and I presume they sell those to refurbisher. They're worth some money.

So I think in reality, it goes to a refurbisher who fixes it, then sells it to someone else who replaces and even older fridge. So the fridge that actually ends up in a landfill might be a 1960s deep freeze. The same idea as used cars.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#698
post #634

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> A/V receivers are the typical devices to support HEC Then you surely can name a few models that support Ethernet over HDMI? (Somehow people keep claiming that this is totally a thing, but nobody ever can confirm a single device)

Not one of these says anything about HEC being discontinued: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hdmi+with+ethernet Can you name a manufacturer of devices or chips that has committed to never implementing Ethernet over HDMI? The same wires are used for the audio return channel, so they have to be present in cables. The HDMI consortium website still refers to cables as "HDMI with Ethernet".

If you claim that receivers are "the typical devices" to implement something, you should really be able to at least show one or two models that support it. No, it's never been formally declared dead, but it de-facto is by virtue of not existing in practice.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Why is everyone confused that smart TVs are popular?" In his Appendix, Orwell explains the syntactical arrangement and the etymology of the Newspeak. A living language, such as English, one that has the capability of diverse expression, has the tendency to gain words and therefore broaden the awareness and knowledge of its speakers. Newspeak, on the other hand, loses words, by removing words that represent opposin…

I have never encountered a group as amenable to "Newspeak" as software developers. For example, note how many times developers describe things, including "startups", in terms of what they "are" rather than what they "do".

Strictly speaking, this is not "Newspeak" by Orwell's definition. However the underlying assumption seems to be the same: ambiguity is to be ignored, or eliminated. Fewer words are used; often they are made-up words. Details are hidden. Objectivity, i.e., how something works, is replaced with subjectivity, i.e., what something "is".

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be about as huge of a security failure as an attacker sending out a malicious OS update for any other device, except with a planned, controlled way to disable TVs, Samsung could reenable them promptly once they realize. Intentionally disabling purchased devices to force them to buy new ones is called trespass to chattels and is illegal.

Which part of the South African laws says that?

I am not a South African lawyer, but it is almost assuredly part of their common law if nothing else. Being based more on Roman-Dutch law, they probably call it an Aquilian action instead.
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