Of course they would do this. They did this with their top of the line 4k tvs when they first came out. Everything was great, their OS and such worked wonderfully then they started to inject ads for gamefly into notifications and it went downhill from there. Ads in a 200 dollar tv I understand. Ads on a 5 thousand dollar tv? Absolutely unacceptable.
Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
281–290 of 535 posts
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#282Off-topic-ish: I've got a TCL Smart TV that, by default, runs Google TV (which, to my understanding, is a rebranded newer version of Android TV). The default launcher / interface, which contains ads and has only minimal customisation options, can only be changed by installing an alternative launcher disabling some permissions via adb.
Having followed the instructions to do it, it's much nicer having beautiful background images (rather than ads for crappy TV shows and movies) and a cleaner interface with at least one less click required to get to the apps I want (ie. a better UX).
TCL TVs are not a particularly premium product, so I'm not too annoyed about having to go this little bit of effort to make it nicer. However, a $3,500 fridge seems like a premium-ish price, and so to also have ads on that feels incredibly tacky to the point it cheapens the product and the brand overall.
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#283I've managed to mostly excise Samsung from my digital life (except for phones that family buys without my knowledge and that I have to troubleshoot), and I have been happier for it for many decades now. (This was after direct exposure to their Tizen engineering team back in the early 2000s) I stayed away from their phones, SmartTVs, everything.
What phones do you recommend? I have an S21 FE I got free from Metro PCS (I got laid off, had to return company S20 phone). Others in the family have Pixel / moto. I get the feeling the later galaxy phones are much worse than the S21?
Second hand Pixels which then get GrapheneOS installed on them (GrapheneOS doesn't support Google Wallet payments via NFC, which can be a deal-breaker for a lot of people).
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#284This guarantees I'll never buy a Samsung appliance. If they're this willing to screw with their customers today, they'll do it again tomorrow. Sadly, I'm including their TVs in this. I have one today, displaying the output of an Apple TV and not directly connected to the Internet because hah, no way, but I'll be shopping around when it comes time to replace it. Pity. They make nice stuff. Not nice enough that I'm wil…
> not directly connected to the Internet.
Hopefully you don't have a neighbor like me. I keep an open wifi channel. So far the only customer has been the neighbors samsung tv phoning home. I felt bad about that and blocked it. But wow are they aggressive trying to get that telemetry out.
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Currently I think we have LG TVs > no ads even on the TVs. Um, have you needed to change anything for your LG TVs to not display ads? Asking because modern LG TVs seem to display ads too. :( Saying that because I was recently looking for a TV, and considered LG, but many people seem to be having regrets now due to ads being shown.
LG TVs do have some settings related to ads, but my solution was to just not connect it to the internet in the first place.
This. Parents bought LG OLED TV. It is absolutely lovely, has super nice picture. (not an ad!:D) I insisted they never connect it to network. Probably it would be usable on network cut off from internet, but there is high probability of some mistake. I wasnt sure what happens if it got out for just a tiny bit so decision was clear. We've seen zero ads there (except the standard-ads-iterrupted-by-actual-programming).
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#286There's a $30,000 bounty set up for anyone who can patch the firmware to eliminate the ads. Please consider contributing additional donations against the matching funds. https://bounties.fulu.org/bounties/samsung-familyhub-refrige...
That website has never once paid out a bounty? hmm...
It looks to be a very new program.
While the fulu.org domain has been around for a long time, archive.org's oldest snapshot of bounties.fulu.org is from late last week.
This press release from Oct. 23rd agrees with archive.org's snapshot history: https://fulu-foundation.ghost.io/repair-bounty-program/>.
Given the complexity of the tasks on offer, I'm unsurprised that zero of them have been completed in three days. Give those boffins some time, yeah?
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crap crap and more crap. The quality control on GE fridges is absolutely the worst of all worst. It's possible because you are working with the economy of scale that you don't see the typical problems that individuals run into. But I went through 5 in a row and every single one had a problem. Switched to LG and never looked back
GE's appliances business was sold to Haier of China in 2016
Some of the old US-based GE appliance factories and engineering offices are still operating though, but iirc fridges were the first to go straight overseas.
I think washing machines and dryers, maybe dishwashers, are still designed and manufactured in the US.
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#288They also offer Jian Yang's "AI" fridge from the Silicon Valley comedy show:
https://www.samsung.com/us/home-appliances/refrigerators/bes...
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#289Finally, manufacturer's can be liberated from the opressive existence of a world without advertising revenue
Re: Samsung makes ads on smart fridges official with upcoming software update
#290There's a $30,000 bounty set up for anyone who can patch the firmware to eliminate the ads. Please consider contributing additional donations against the matching funds. https://bounties.fulu.org/bounties/samsung-familyhub-refrige...
I recall Louis saying that some (or all?) solutions to these bounties cannot be revealed to the public due to being liable under DMCA circumvention measures. IANAL.
Seems like they should release the fix on a Hong Kong server.