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People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

arstechnica.com

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Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#131

Post by bigiain »

cosmicgadget wrote: post #114
shawn_w wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it even possible to buy a non-smart tv these days? All I really need or want is something I can plug a few gaming consoles into... so HDMI, composite and preferably s-video. No bells or whistles or Internet connection necessary.

Don't connect it to wifi?

Wasn't there a minor scandal a while back where I think Samsung TVs were discovered to be connecting to nearby unsecured wifi to send their telemetry back to HQ? I feel to be safe you'd want to consider opening them up and removing the wifi radio or antenna.

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#132

Post by bigiain »

aworks wrote: post #104
jm4 wrote: post #39

Amazon sucks. They are one of the greediest companies there is. What they do with online shopping, logistics, AWS is incredible. They are in a different league and could generate more revenue than any company could ever need by just doing those things well. But that’s not enough. They have to stuff ads into everything and find every possible way to piss off customers all in the name of another buck.

How do you measure greediness? I worked for companies 4 levels removed from the consumer and they were all very motivated to get financial results for the current quarter. Despite their advantages, I assume Amazon is now short-term focused as well. Having said that, I finally tossed my Alexa devices.

> How do you measure greediness?

I think a decent first indicator might be "Is the Founder and/or CEO a billionaire?"

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#133

Post by ycombinatornews »

osigurdson wrote: post #109
ycombinatornews wrote: post #99

Same with any Amazon device. I wish there was a way to recycle Alexa so it’s not just a e-garbage… after all my personal data and insights were mined

Don't stress about it. The junk was created the moment you bought it. Take it to the dump, they usually have some kind of electronics recycling so maybe less than 100% goes to the landfill ultimately.

Thank you and agree! I am waiting for a good moment to get rid of that ad display listening device. Life gets its way!

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#134

Post by Terr_ »

osigurdson wrote: post #108
Terr_ wrote: post #33

We're way overdue to abolish the DMCA, in particular the "anti-circumvention" felonies. It shouldn't be a crime for me to customize the product I purchased. Or to sell people a kit to do the customization themselves.

A simpler regulation would be to disclose at the time of purchase how much ad content that a given device that one is purchasing will display. That way if you want something cheap and are ok with an ad sponsored device, everything is fine. If you don't want ads, buy a competitor's product that doesn't have ads. If competition isn't broken this model should work fine.

> A simpler regulation [is disclosing] how much ad content

I disagree, it's much less simple in the long run. (A phenomenon I'm sure is painfully-familiar to a lot of software developers.)

First, it's playing whack-a-mole with just one of many kinds of infringement on the user's ownership. It does nothing to protect against aggressive spying "telemetry", against forcing users to make an Acme Fridge Online Account to continue, or against standard/free features being "discontinued" and then introducing a suspiciously similar paid-subscription option.

Second, even in that narrow "showing ads" aspect, there are too many dimensions to lock down by spec. For example, consider the difference between a system that shows X minutes of ads when idle which are instantly-dismissable, versus another system that shows fewer/shorter/smaller ads which are unskippable phases of normal operation.

In contrast, freeing users to fight back--and to share what they've developed--encourages a democratized and counterbalancing force, which will naturally be strongly aligned to consumer interests regardless of yearly electoral changes.

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#135

Post by aaronbrethorst »

I have tried building 'apps' for Alexa on a few occasions over the years. The developer experience has always been such trash that I've simply given up in some combination of frustration, despair, and disgust.

I'm not surprised that the end user experience has continued to get worse and worse.

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#136

Post by dingaling »

dmalik wrote: post #90
robomartin wrote: post #85

I see many comments that express the same level of disgust I have for modern TV's, of nearly every brand, having mutated into intrusive digital signage with integrated behavioral tracking in my home. The question is: Would you pay $1000 to $3000 more (depending on size, etc.) for a TV with none of that. Zero. I would.

No need to connect or use any smart tv feature. How much is your time worth? Apple TV is the best experience (not even close to FireTV) for the cost of it. There are ways to get completely ad free if you have time. I've been using a HTPC for close to 20 years for example.

> No need to connect or use any smart tv feature.

Many 'smart' devices now have their own 5G modems, you don't have a choice of connecting or not.

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#138

Post by testdelacc1 »

kaonwarb wrote: post #137

I can't reconcile Amazon's growing flood of ads with their famous first Leadership Principle: "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust."

Amazon’s leaders put revenue before principles I guess.

Re: People regret buying Amazon smart displays after being bombarded with ads

#139

Post by jmyeet »

I've never had a "smart" speaker or a "smart" display or a "smart" fridge and the only "smart" TV I've had has been intentionally not connected to the Internet. I have got a Nest and a "smart" washing machine and dryer. Some random thoughts:

1. I've literally never wanted a cloud-connected always-on microphone in my home and I'm surprised anyone does;

2. All of the home automation software is awful, bar none. The only thing it's going to impact in society is being the source of future DDoS attacks most likely. Every time I've tried to use it I'm met with unhelpful error messages, networking software that can't get a DHCP IP address or a million other faults. Or the hardware is just deprecated in favor of the newest, shiniest softare or API (I'm looking at you, Google Matter);

3. "Smart" displays are probably most akin to "smart" TVs. No good comes from connecting TVs to the Internet. It's just uploading data about your viewing habits to sell as well as inserting ads. Some TVs get pretty aggressive about this too. I've heard tales of them trying to find an open network. If any TV did that to me I'd put a drill through the Wifi chip. But "smart" displays have to be connected to the Internet. I have no control over such a device so I'll simply never get one.

I honestly don't know who buys this stuff.

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