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Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

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Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#261

Post by q-rews »

xg15 wrote: post #201
q-rews wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, sure, technically any vendor can push updates to brick your device, but that doesn’t happen because of the law. This stuff often gets through because it’s small enough, gray enough, and done by smaller companies. Have Apple pull something like this and you’ll see on the NYT.

> and you’ll see on the NYT. And then what? It might generate a bit of outrage, but at the end of the day, users have no leverage (without legal support). No one wants to lose their device or the data on it, so for individual users, there are not a lot of options apart from doing whatever the vendor wants

Then it depends, maybe 4 years later it will be discussed by the EU and Apple will be forced to pay 1% of what the change brought them. /s

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#262

Post by Beaver117 »

emerged wrote: post #221
JJMcJ wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> trigger mass exodus Or YouTube. Without blockers or YouTube Premium, it's getting to be like watching old shows in syndication on one of these TV stations you can never remember the channel number for. Five minutes of The Dick Van Dyke Show, five minutes of ads for things not available in stores, back to the show etc etc.

The best is when the YouTuber bakes their own ad into the video so it can’t be skipped, and then that ad is interrupted by a normal YouTube ad. Yesterday I watched a video where a normal YouTube ad was immediately followed by a baked in ad and then that was again followed by another normal YouTube ad.

Try SponsorBlock

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#263

Post by discordance »

10000truths wrote: post #53
api wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PC laptops are now budget machines so they compete on price. Anything that competes on price tends to become a deflationary race to the bottom. This is part of why people feel almost stuck with Apple. Their hardware is a lot better than most of the competition, though it comes with a price premium, and while there are privacy concerns they are less than with these shitware-loaded machines. You can also install Linux…

There are plenty of 1000$+ laptops you can purchase these days with good specs that compete with Apple’s lineup of MacBooks.

We have a 2012 Macbook Pro 13" that's been handed down from me, to wife to kids. Incredible to think this machine is near 10 years old, and even with how much abuse it's been through it is still going strong.

Although I don't think Macs between 2014 - 2019 are as well built (have had a string of issues with those), I haven't had any other PC/Macbook last as long as that 2012 MBP. Some of my old Thinkpads still work, but have coil whine, noisy fans etc.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#264

Post by sedatk »

MBCook wrote: post #204
ypcx wrote: post #140

As much as I'd love to have alternatives in this particular Simulation, there are none. You either use Apple and minimize your suffering, or you don't use Apple and go live in hell, provided by companies running their product design & development by teams of chimpanzees (obviously & unfortunately).

What about a MS Surface? Do they pull this stuff too? I was under the impression they were decent.

They're decent. Windows comes with a few bloatware (like Candy Crush Saga etc), but they can be easily uninstalled.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#265

Post by [deleted] »

gruez wrote: post #107
tyingq wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instructions for one specific Dell laptop: https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetai... Expand the "Installation Instructions" part, and you'll see "Updating the BIOS from BIOS Boot Menu (independent of operating system)" I don't know if Dell supports it across all their laptops, but it has on the ones I've owned.

GP said the device was "bricked", so I'm not sure whether that feature would work. "bricked" to me would imply BIOS is broken (otherwise it's not really bricked because you can reinstall the OS). The feature on various gaming motherboards involves you copying the BIOS file on a formatted USB, plugging it into the motherboard, and pressing a button (on the motherboard itself). This works even if the current BIOS is br…

[deleted]

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#266

Post by [deleted] »

gigel82 wrote: post #129
gruez wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP said the device was "bricked", so I'm not sure whether that feature would work. "bricked" to me would imply BIOS is broken (otherwise it's not really bricked because you can reinstall the OS). The feature on various gaming motherboards involves you copying the BIOS file on a formatted USB, plugging it into the motherboard, and pressing a button (on the motherboard itself). This works even if the current BIOS is br…

That's correct: the BIOS was corrupt; the machine had no display at all, so no way to enter the BIOS menu or "boot" an OS. Other Lenovo laptops have a recovery mode (Fn+R) where some bootstrapping firmware would flash a BIOS from USB, they neglected to include that feature in the (presumably lower cost) Flex lineup. Some folks out of support went as far as desoldering the EPROM with the BIOS and hooking it up to a fl…

[deleted]

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#267

Post by anonymousab »

elric wrote: post #22
ithinkso wrote: post #12

I wonder if the ad bombardment we are suffering for some years now will eventually reach a critical point to trigger mass exodus or protests. TV got annoying with ads and viewership greatly decreased but that was caused by the emergence of the internet I think, what new technology options we have to escape the current ads to? The only other hope is that the massive amount of money in ads and data collection is actual…

Digital TV in Belgium now includes unskippable ads, including in recordings of those shows. The reason why people switched to digital TV subscriptions, of course, was to be able to skip those ads in the first place. Apparently Netflix can afford to offer a wide variety of content for a small monthly fee, without any ads, and spend money on content creation; but digital TV stations somehow don't make enough money off…

> Apparently Netflix can afford to offer a wide variety of content for a small monthly fee, without any ads,

For now, the most they'll do is advertise their other services. But true external ads seem inevitable, especially in the face of the balkanization of digital video content. It's just a matter of when.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#268

Post by nicbou »

MBCook wrote: post #204
ypcx wrote: post #140

As much as I'd love to have alternatives in this particular Simulation, there are none. You either use Apple and minimize your suffering, or you don't use Apple and go live in hell, provided by companies running their product design & development by teams of chimpanzees (obviously & unfortunately).

What about a MS Surface? Do they pull this stuff too? I was under the impression they were decent.

I bought one and returned it. It's a laptop without a keyboard, not a tablet.

I spent the first day waiting for Windows Update and turning off telemetry and other annoyances. I spent the second day trying mamy apps that were significantly worse than Procreate. I returned it on the third day.

If you want Windows on a tablet, with all its issues and annoyances, you'll get exactly that. If you want an iPad experience with access to productivity tools, you won't get it.

I wanted an iPad for replacing a Moleskine and a laptop. The laptop replacement part was OK, but it was a very unpleasant drawing experience. Opening and editing files sucked all the fun out of it. Procreate on the iPad felt a lot closer to the real thing: flip through pages, select one, pick a tool, have fun.

I can't overstate how annoyed and angry this tablet was making me compared to my friend's iPad.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#269

Post by imwillofficial »

fomine3 wrote: post #222
2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least within the eco system, Apple aren’t going to push ads onto your computer. The dichotomy isn’t Apple vs PC anymore. It’s walled garden vs freedom. If you’re going to choose a walled garden, Apple sure is the nicest. If you want to own your hardware you need to start supporting the smaller players.

I don't believe Apple will pushing ads, but their laptop can't run OS other than macOS. So if they do harmful thing for macOS, there's no way to escape with same hardware, until Linux hackers make it possible to run Desktop Linux.

^ Absolutely not true.

I even got Linux running on an decade old 12in PowerBook G4.

There is even a browser made for PowerPC, although the name escapes me.

Re: Lenovo tablet forced update shows un-dismissable, un-mutable, ad notifications

#270

Post by fomine3 »

imwillofficial wrote: post #269
fomine3 wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe Apple will pushing ads, but their laptop can't run OS other than macOS. So if they do harmful thing for macOS, there's no way to escape with same hardware, until Linux hackers make it possible to run Desktop Linux.

^ Absolutely not true. I even got Linux running on an decade old 12in PowerBook G4. There is even a browser made for PowerPC, although the name escapes me.

Do you know what's happened on M1 Mac?
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