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Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

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Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monitors generally don't have remote controls or speakers. The latter solved with soundbar but former is important use case.

Monitors also generally don't come in 60"+ sizes, or if they do, they don't have HDR or other modern video display technologies.

Possibly some hospitality TVs still come as dumb variants but that seems to be changing too.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#652

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average customer doesn't even know what spyware or telemetry is. I'd even argue that broadcast TV is dying making some form of video streaming service necessary which the smart TV accomplishes in a nice form factor.

Yes TV channels are being replaced by apps. I think smart TVs are great, the chips that they put in the €1000 models are good enough for 4k streaming now. No more cheap mediatek crap. The only remaining problem that needs to be solved is long term support.

Roku TVs have handled 4k for years with much lower price points. They also have the best track record for supporting their product lineup.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#653

This technology was used for good this time, but there's nothing stopping it from being used for evil next time. The fact that Samsung is even capable of doing this means you don't have control over your Samsung TV even if you do own it legally.

This is generally the purpose of the law. It's not like this is some life-or-death thing that can't be rectified. Samsung has no legal authority to disable a legally-purchased TV, and they would be sued to death if they used if for evil.

What happens when they get hacked and the hackers disable all of their TVs?

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#654
post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think any of these are examples of it. Smart cards in 1974 postdate smart bombs. "Smart casual" fashion is smart in the "Good-looking; well dressed; fine; fashionable" sense, while smart bomb/phone are being used in this sense: "(often in combination) Equipped with intelligent behaviour (digital/computer technology)." Smart bombs weren't called smart for being fashionably well dressed. The term was applied to…

"Smartass" was attested as early as 1960.

A smartass is a person, not a technological artifact.

I don't mean to be nitpicky. There are a lot of ways the word smart has been paired with other words. But "smart [object]", where object is some bit of technology that is suggested to have intelligence in it is really what I'm looking for. If somebody in the 1950s had marketed "smart headlights" that automatically turn on at night, that would be an example of what I'm looking for. But I haven't found anything like that prior to "smart bombs."

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#655
post #2

On the one hand this is understandable and sort of "evil genius", on the other hand, this will also affect grey market buyers who cannot produce a legitimate receipt. It's also problematic because this means they can alter your property at will.

> this will also affect grey market buyers who cannot produce a legitimate receipt.

That's the goal - maybe you'll buy your TV legitimately next time.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#656

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung's appliances have a pretty bad reputation in general, especially the refrigerators and side loading washing machines.

Front loading washing machines just seem like an all around more fragile design that is also less usable. I have an HE top loader. It uses just as little water, but it can wash a lot more clothes when needed. I can push a button and it stops being HE and can fill its tub up to wash blankets and comforters. Also front loaders just can't clean synthetic fabrics that water beads off of. I've seen fabrics come out of a f…

The spin cycle dries synthetics to near dry if the machine is lightly loaded. Works the same on top loaders.

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average customer doesn't even know what spyware or telemetry is. I'd even argue that broadcast TV is dying making some form of video streaming service necessary which the smart TV accomplishes in a nice form factor.

What do the smart ones in possession of a smart TV do? Because I constantly bleed time fine tuning pi-hole to limit telemetry and retain functionality…

Turn off the WIFI, unplug the ethernet, ban the MAC from DHCP, and then plug in an Apple TV 4K.

(I trust Apple more than Samsung. Except when it comes to remote control design.)

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Monitors generally don't have remote controls or speakers. The latter solved with soundbar but former is important use case.

I have a 4k 43 inch 144hz hdr “gaming” monitor (ROG Strix) and it has a remote. It’s becoming more common now.

And they will eventually have a network connection in a few years...

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#659

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The choice is shrinking, but there are still some available. Example: https://www.sceptre.com/TV/4K-UHD-TV/U750CV-UMRD-75-4K-UHD-T... Sadly unobtanium in the EU.

I just got this one myself (the 50-inch model, really), and am completely satisfied with the purchase.

If you have time, please could you check somewhere if there are traces of any manufacturer other than Sceptre? Although possible, I don't think they're made exclusively by or for Sceptre as the cost should be much higher due to the smaller market, so I believe there are chances they could exist somewhere else under a different brand, which hopefully would distribute in the EU. Thanks!

Re: Samsung remotely disables TVs looted from South African warehouse

#660
post #650

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Smartass" was attested as early as 1960.

A smartass is a person, not a technological artifact. I don't mean to be nitpicky. There are a lot of ways the word smart has been paired with other words. But "smart [object]", where object is some bit of technology that is suggested to have intelligence in it is really what I'm looking for. If somebody in the 1950s had marketed "smart headlights" that automatically turn on at night, that would be an example of what…

Being nitpicky is fine. You asked about the "linguistic construct". I went and did a little bit of research on terms that looked like they fit that pattern. It's worth supposing that the idea didn't appear from nowhere, and indeed there were "smart X" before smart bombs with a close but different meaning for "smart", and seemingly unrelated "smart Y" appearing around the same time having the same "intelligent technology" association. This looks like a linguistic trend to me.

I don't doubt that if I read more I'd find the thing you're looking for from before the first mention of "smart bombs" (first I found was US government documents from 1970) but I'm not going to spend any longer at it, so I wrote my findings and sources in the hope it would be helpful.

By the way, Google {Books, NGrams, Patent} were also useful. There have been various things called "smart cards" for a long time. Also the dates on Google Books (and hence NGrams?) are frequently wrong and you really have to look at the front matter to check.

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