Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick • Hacker News Board

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#361

Post by seanmcdirmid » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:45 AM UTC

biztos wrote: post #360

femto wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check their tomato paste. It turns out that nearly every tomato paste in Australia comes from Xinjiang in China, including those marked as Australian or Italian. Simplot (Leggos), the big US company, was the worst offender, so it's possible that tomato paste in Costco's US stores has been produced in Xinjiang using slave labour, irrespective of what the label says. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/australian-to…

While it could of course be produced in Xinjiang without using "slave labor," the US government banned those tomatoes in 2021 because of that risk: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-issu... If Costco were circumventing the ban it'd be a pretty big deal. I couldn't google up any indications that they are, so on balance I'd say it's "possible" in the same way my winning the lottery is possible. Ca…

> TIL: Xinjiang tomatoes are something like 15% of the global market!

China consumes 37% of the world’s tomatoes. 80% of China’s processed tomatoes are from xinjiang. Fresh tomatoes are generally grown locally, but that is true around the world.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#362

Post by SecretDreams » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:49 AM UTC

8note wrote: post #281

miladyincontrol wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To play devil's advocate, when someone says "Chinese made" they're usually well aware of your point, and are more using it as a common way to describe product mills spitting out countless devices with dubious quality or configuration. Of course theres good products made in China, and plenty of entirely Chinese brands killing it doing their thing.

its pretty straight racism though. its US software companies that are the worst of the worst in terms of adware and malware being shipped under monopoly control

There's enough evil malware provider blame to go around.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#363

Post by SecretDreams » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:52 AM UTC

deepfriedbits wrote: post #136

ta988 wrote: post #127

A familly member had one of those (he had to pay a yearly subscription in addition to the stick). Network would be unusable as soon as it was on for anyone else, and it also tried to scan things on the local network. It was indeed connecting to all kind of services all over the world (and saturating some tables in the router doing so which blocked other clients). Definitely evil, definitely on purpose.

Reading this, I caught myself wondering how we distill what's in this excellent write up into something the average consumer understands, including the dangers from buying and using devices like this. Is it a graphic that's shared? Something else? I am sure we all know or have heard of people with these devices that promise free streaming.

You can't. This is a legitimate thing the government needs to step in and deal with on behalf of their people via legislation because their people cannot be reasonably taught to protect themselves.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#364

Post by nullhole » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 2:54 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #344

nullhole wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, not all of them? Mine's a fancy-pants Stihl battery mower, but it works quite well and has been doing so without problem since I bought it ~4 years ago. The other battery stuff from the same brand (trimmer, chainsaw, kombi-tool) have the same story.

Stihl is a commercial product (mostly). They design for people using them as a full time job. You pay the price for quality.

Yeah, mine are the AP ('professional') class ones.

What matters is the amortized cost per year, I think - more expensive up front but cheaper in the long run.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#365

Post by wil421 » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:03 AM UTC

dboreham wrote: post #187

simojo wrote: post #108

We purchased a Chinese-made projector from Amazon, which was surprisingly inexpensive (~40 USD). Upon connecting it to the internet, it placed a constantly running feed of ads on the corner of the screen, even while movies were playing. There was no way to disable it either. Even though it's not a stick, it's a similar principle.

Capitalism!

Chinese!

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#366

Post by DoctorOetker » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:08 AM UTC

jojobas wrote: post #284

dboreham wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Capitalism!

At least in capitalism you have the choice to look for a malware-free alternative. 100% USSR, had it survived to the IoT era, would penalize you for not having a state-mandated surveillance device on at all times.

I agree fully with your assessment of USSR but basically any nation state with the power does such things.

Show me a COTS smartphone where the end-user can burn the OTP fuses for his personal public key, so they can have it boot their own custom signed firmware, and control exactly what runs in TrustZone's SW Secure World?

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#367

Post by histriosum » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:12 AM UTC

SiempreViernes wrote: post #161

mikestew wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Upon connecting it to the internet… I hesitate to blame the victim here, but why on earth would you do that? “$40 Chinese-made” didn’t give you pause?

This is an age where even teacups demand internet connectivity to fetch firmware updates

Finally, a legitimate use case for HTTP 418…

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#368

Post by jojobas » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:13 AM UTC

CrimsonCape wrote: post #266

PufPufPuf wrote: post #169

My "streaming device" of choice, ThinkCentre Tiny with Linux, always feels validated with news like these. It fits behind a TV, you can get it second hand for around $40 and depending on model it can even act as a retro game console as well.

Is there a good TV UI OS that runs desktop youtube under the hood for ad blocking?

There is Kodi Youtube plugin that takes a developer token and is then ad-free.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#369

Post by thothless » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:13 AM UTC

roku is sniffing your farts. and reading your texts/emails.

https://docs.roku.com/published/userprivacypolicy

see: "olfactory", "content of"

or at least they're CYA while they're sniffing.

they definitely scan the entire local network.

Re: Read this before you buy that TV streaming stick

#370

Post by femto » Fri, Jul 31, 2026, 3:22 AM UTC

Nursie wrote: post #342

femto wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check their tomato paste. It turns out that nearly every tomato paste in Australia comes from Xinjiang in China, including those marked as Australian or Italian. Simplot (Leggos), the big US company, was the worst offender, so it's possible that tomato paste in Costco's US stores has been produced in Xinjiang using slave labour, irrespective of what the label says. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-27/australian-to…

> It turns out that nearly every tomato paste in Australia comes from Xinjiang in China I think that might be a bit of a strong assertion, from your article there - "It analysed 221 processed tomato products from 39 brands, including paste, passata and diced tomato. Twenty-two per cent of the products failed country-of-origin testing, while a further 6 per cent were flagged for further testing." So while 28 percent i…

A big chunk of that 72% are legitimately labeled "Made in China" or niche brands. The brands that failed, plus the products that are actually labeled "Made in China", dominate Australia's four supermarkets with the majority of the market share. I've just done my weekly shop, so trawled their web sites looking for alternatives.

Summarising the Australian situation, taking the 4corners results into account, the following non-Chinese tomato pastes are available:

Coles (29% market share): 1 x 140g premium product in a tube (expensive with reduced market share) out of about 20 products.

Woolworths (38% market share): 1 x 140g premium product (Mutti) in a tube (expensive with reduced market share) out of about 20 products.

Aldi (10% market share): None out of about 4 products

IGA (7% market share): 5 of 16 products, being the same premium brands that Coles and Woolworths sell.

Maybe qualify my comment with "by market share and availability". The effect is that if you stand in front of an Australian supermarket shelf, every product, bar one or two in the corner, come from China. China is a proxy for Xianjing, in that sources say 80%-90% of tomato paste from China comes from Xinjiang.

Hence the assertion I made.

Market share data: https://www.accc.gov.au/system/files/supermarkets-inquiry_1....

Xianjing percentages: https://tomatonews.com/countries/china/