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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

#141

Post by EasyMark »

jopsen wrote: post #121
HiPhish wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of normies still think that when they buy a smart appliance they are buying an appliance like from yesteryear, except with more features. In reality they are buying a computer shaped like an appliance of yesteryear. Your smartphone? That's not a phone, it's a computer shaped like a phone. Smart TV? Computer shaped like a TV. Smart watch? Computer shaped like a watch. This brings with it all the advantag…

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the trend. But one could argue that a computer is just a cheaper implementation of the yesteryears discrete electronics. Which was itself a cheaper implementation of old school mechanical gears, switches and timing wheels, etc. A locked down computer, could have been mechanical for all the user cares. Fixing a dishwasher a while my dad told me that back in the day, they operates w…

which should in theory make them more dependable but I've seen friends go through a few yet my 25 year old whirlpool has only ever had the door seal replaced and it works fine if loud as hell compared to modern ones.

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

#142

Post by EasyMark »

FiatLuxDave wrote: post #93
cyode wrote: post #68

Benjamin Franklin was so close. "Nothing is certain but death ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶a̶x̶e̶s̶.̶"̶, taxes, and ads."

I'm certain we need to start taxing ads.

ehhhh taxes always get passed along to customers.

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

#143

Post by EasyMark »

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.

i just pay the cheaper price and hook an apple tv device to it

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

#144

Post by themafia »

bigiain wrote: post #126
rhetocj23 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like the vision for this stuff was playing into made-up numbers inputted into a financial model on a spreadsheet.

Yeah, Amazon jumped too early. The real business model that's winning the "made-up numbers inputted into a financial model on a spreadsheet" is LLMs marketed as "Just about to turn into Artificial General Intelligence and turn the world into a post scarcity utopia" with the widely known but unacknowledged understanding that what they really mean is post scarcity for people who are already billionaires, not for the pe…

> just to win the extractive rentseeker race to own the entire economy's productive labour.

They're already there. Inflation nearly doubled prices for consumer goods while wages have remained static. People are clearly too paralyzed to effectively organize their labor pool against these monopolists.

> Amazon jumped too early.

I disagree. The platform is cheap to manufacture and efficient to operate. They kept the walls on the garden too high. There was never any push to bring third parties or developers onto the platform in a credible way and never on an even footing with Amazon's own offerings.

They clutched it too tightly. It was never going to pan out in the long term. It was a dazzling loss leader right up until Amazon brass realized it was unsustainable. Then the usual conversion into selling your own users data and cramming every spare inch with visual ads came as predictably as it always does.

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

#146

Post by exe34 »

RandomBacon wrote: post #14
exe34 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

turn off WiFi and transfer by usb.

Amazon no longer allows eBook downloads from their website.

the copy of the ebook you download doesn't have to be the one you paid for.

if buying isn't owning, copying isn't stealing.

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

#147

Post by exe34 »

patja wrote: post #52
RandomBacon wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon no longer allows eBook downloads from their website.

I switched to a Kobo device and have zero regrets other than that I didn't switch earlier

my next device will be a kobo, for sure! I just have two old Kindles that I keep alive because they're still useful. I ripped the drm on all ebooks I bought from Amazon because I don't trust rich people (and I was right), and now I only buy drm-free.

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

#149

Post by N_Lens »

dreamcompiler wrote: post #122

> the company is working to improve the ad experience on Alexa devices There is one and only one way to "improve the ad experience" and we all know what it is but for some strange reason the companies showing the ads never seem to figure it out.

The proctologist is working to improve the spiky dildo experience. Thanks for your patience.

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

#150

Post by baq »

EasyMark wrote: post #141
jopsen wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of the trend. But one could argue that a computer is just a cheaper implementation of the yesteryears discrete electronics. Which was itself a cheaper implementation of old school mechanical gears, switches and timing wheels, etc. A locked down computer, could have been mechanical for all the user cares. Fixing a dishwasher a while my dad told me that back in the day, they operates w…

which should in theory make them more dependable but I've seen friends go through a few yet my 25 year old whirlpool has only ever had the door seal replaced and it works fine if loud as hell compared to modern ones.

Over those 25 years manufacturers were able to optimize mttf of all components to ‘a few months over warranty’. Solution would be to legally increase minimum warranty as the market extracted all value and is now socially inefficient.
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