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Amazon Sidewalk

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Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#341

Post by josefresco »

Loughla wrote: post #264
g00gler wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just got a 65” UHD sceptre brand TV with no smart features at Walmart for $329. It’s pretty great that such a desirable feature is at the bottom of the barrel

100%. We just got a sceptre from walmart. Stupid big for the price, great picture, and did I mention the low price. Oh, and not one smart feature; just television with various inputs. I haven't TV shopped in literal decades. It astounded me that there was (a) a market for more advertising on your television via smart features, and (b) seemingly low-end models are the only ones that are available as 'dumb'. Other manu…

Low end TVs also skimp on HDMI ports. I didn't think of this, purchased a cheap LG (with only 2) and then had to buy an HDMI hub. Obviously still cheaper than paying $2-400 more on the TV itself, but next I'm I'll count the ports.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#342

Post by orangegreen »

Why does Amazon only seem to be able to invent dystopian products? This, Ring, those package delivering drones, Amazon partnering with landlords to put Echos in rental apartments, etc. Why?

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#343

Post by newsbinator »

orangegreen wrote: post #342

Why does Amazon only seem to be able to invent dystopian products? This, Ring, those package delivering drones, Amazon partnering with landlords to put Echos in rental apartments, etc. Why?

What would be a utopian product that would fit into their ecosystem and benefit from their moat?

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#344

Post by [deleted] »

danpalmer wrote: post #162
ulzeraj wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO. There should be a market for: - Dumb panels (not monitors). Perhaps stripped down recycled smart tvs. - Smart tvs but with user replaceable firmware. Think OpenWRT for TVs. Maybe the same guy who does the dumb panels could sell those but with a raspberry pi in place of the logic board. Of course a monitor solves these issues but these are normally smaller and more expensive.

"Dumb TVs" would cost more. It's hard to market something that costs more and has what most people would perceive to be fewer features. They would cost more because post-sale content sales and advertising generate revenue for TV manufacturers, which they use to subsidise the device sale price, because it's such a competitive, low-margin, market.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#345

Post by 310260 »

bijant wrote: post #20

This is a blatant attempt at using their market power to gain a dominant position in IoT connectivity by creating a parallel Network where Net Neutrality does not apply. If this succeeds, only Amazon approved devices will be allowed on this global Network connecting only to aws provided services thereby establishing a monopoly on non-cellular IoT connectivity. After Apples recent move in the same direction with their…

There won't be a monopoly on non-cellular IoT connectivity though. There are a ridiculous number of IoT networks out there whether it's Sigfox or some other LoRaWAN solution and more are being built by the day.

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#346

Post by ff317 »

ulzeraj wrote: post #147
squarefoot wrote: post #50

So, if I buy a so called Smart-TV (not because I like it but because traditional ones are getting harder to find) but don't set up it on my home network so it can't phone home, it could scan around anyway and find other open devices more than willing to participate in my personal data exfiltration? If the Amazon project succeeds, I would expect in a few months most home devices manufacturers, to partner to implement…

IMO. There should be a market for: - Dumb panels (not monitors). Perhaps stripped down recycled smart tvs. - Smart tvs but with user replaceable firmware. Think OpenWRT for TVs. Maybe the same guy who does the dumb panels could sell those but with a raspberry pi in place of the logic board. Of course a monitor solves these issues but these are normally smaller and more expensive.

I've been buying "Sceptre" -brand LCD TVs for use around the house the past several years. They're "dumb" with just a basic remote and basic settings firmware like TVs from a decade or two ago, and they tend to be reasonably priced, and of reasonable quality. Plug a streaming stick or your RPi in the back for your choice of $Streaming_TV service. They now also make units with Android TV built in, but so far they're still making non-smart models as well!

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#347

Post by tristanj »

tw04 wrote: post #291
danpalmer wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Dumb TVs" would cost more. It's hard to market something that costs more and has what most people would perceive to be fewer features. They would cost more because post-sale content sales and advertising generate revenue for TV manufacturers, which they use to subsidise the device sale price, because it's such a competitive, low-margin, market.

That seems extremely unlikely. The "smart" portion is hundreds of dollars in most TVs. A quick search proves that out: https://www.cdw.com/product/Samsung-40-Full-HD-Non-Smart-Hos... https://www.cdw.com/product/samsung-hg40nf690gf-nf690-series...

No, it's common industry practice that "Smart TVs" (i.e. ones with built in ad tracking) are sold at-or-below cost and companies make up the difference by showing ads.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18905408 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21781481

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#349

Post by katbyte »

Someone1234 wrote: post #279

It is interesting how stark the reaction to this Vs. Apple's "Find My" network is. Apple's version adds every iPhone to part of their network. It uses battery AND expensive mobile data even when the owner has no eligible devices, and that isn't considered controversial. But Amazon wants to use data on non-battery/non-pay per transfer lines and this is considered controversial (and an "abuse of their market position")…

One is just for finding devices with an encrypted protocol. Only you and your own air tags communicate.

The Amazon one is creating a network that “any and all devices can use to call home to their manufacturers without wifi”

Pretty stark difference

Re: Amazon Sidewalk

#350

Post by jk7tarYZAQNpTQa »

dismalpedigree wrote: post #235
Phurist wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then give it a network.. just no public internet access :)

I tried that on my LG tv. The result was a 60 second timeout before I could use the tv when turning it on. I ended up figuring out how to factory reset it and then never set up the wifi. No firmware update, but I don’t care since I only want a dumb monitor.

My advice: connect it to a restricted network, where it can successfully ping home and assert internet connectivity, but everything else (except maybe updates or whatever you want to allow) just fails.

A better, more useful approach is to have a DNS server on the home network (something like a pi hole), where all analytics go nowhere, Youtube isn't capable of downloading ads, etc., but you can still use the smart TV features you want. IIRC some TVs have internal DNS servers and only use those, so an ARP spoofing may be also needed.

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