“This is getting ridiculous and I’m about to just toss the whole thing and move back to Google,” one Redditor said of the “full-volume” ads for Alexa+ on their Echo Show.
Oh sweet summer child, Google is NOT going to be any better at this. That will just be changing one corporate evil for another.
This week Amazon starting pushing ads to customers paying extra for ad-free Prime Video.
Corporations are now so powerful they don’t have to abide by reasonable norms, contracts, or laws any longer. Any fines are just a cost of doing business and are a small fraction of the profits they generate.
What are customers going to do anyway? Go to other businesses that are doing the exact same things on different days?
People should give up streaming subscriptions. How long would it take to learn how to get movies another way, from a friend who is already doing it.
People dont even own their media anymore and it can be removed at any time. And they are paying for that. Lols.
I learned how to sail in 5 mins from a friend the other day. It’s stupidly easy.
This is clicking buttons on your device. How did people install Instagram and use that without a degree?
I think people are just afraid of it.
The shittiest apps come pre-installed.
Its for families mostly. I dont want my small children coming up to me all the time asking for a different show downloaded that they heard about from school, and Erica’s parents actually HAVE Disney+ and says anyone who cmdoesnt must be a loser omg etc etc.
I taught my brother how to do it years ago, and he got his shit virused so fast. I’m not sure if hes colossally stupid or just plain unlucky.
There are extremely idiot-proof solutions like Stremio.
Just get Real Debrid with Stremio/Kodi.
Kodi + Bingie theme = Everything available on torrents, instantly streamable.
I think you are severely underestimating how computer illiterate most people are. Many people I know struggle to use their Iphones. Not long ago a friend asked me to help him turn on subtitles on a streaming service on his smart TV.
What are customers going to do anyway?
Convince themselves that it’s necessary.
We’ll kick piracy into high gear.
Then they’ll make any ISPs suspecting people of piracy to be forcibly shut off.
The real question is what will we do then?
After your internet is shut, you’ll be forced to buy Google Prison Internet, where you’re surveiled 24/7 and you’re only allowed to download ads.
Can anyone recommend a similar type of device that’s not ad-supported? I don’t care about voice, but would like to have a desk clock with a synced calendar.
A Tablet.
I don’t really like the idea - I don’t have an old one to use for that, but even if I had, I wouldn’t leave it plugged in 24/7 with an aging battery inside of it. I’m looking for something that’s either meant to be plugged in constantly or something that can last a few weeks on a single charge.
Just a clock and a calendar? That’s not the limit of what these things do, but that’s easier to get that functionality without ads.
https://dakboard.com/site?ref=wheresyoured.at
More DIY
Cool, thanks. TRMNL looks good, with the only thing I dislike is that the ready made kits ship from the US (I’m in the EU). I see that there are EU resellers stocking DIY kits, so I might have a go at those.
LOL I knew that would happen the day they announced it.
The stupid part is how incredibly obvious this outcome was yet a bunch of clueless morons bought them anyway.
Oh sweet summer child, Google is NOT going to be any better at this. That will just be changing one corporate evil for another.
The track record for people using that condescending phrase while not understanding what’s happening continues…
The smart TVs operate on Android TV, made by Google.
Amazon uses their own version of Android, and that’s where all the shitty stuff comes from.
I’ve got a nice name brand android TV, the only ads are “this movie is on streaming” or “this show premieres in a week”.
I got a cheap Amazon TV in another room, in the same place for ads on the home screen, it has ads for random products
There is a marked difference. They are “better” at this. Obviously no one in 2025 thinks google is “good”
ALL the shitty stuff, exclusively from Amazon? Google is part of the game, the difference is in their business model.
No. As a user of both Amazon and Google devices (with screens/sticks), Amazon is far more aggressive in their advertising practices. As the other guy said, neither is ad-free out of the box, but Amazon devices will literally make your screensaver/lock screen a full screen ad (even on your TV). Google just has a home screen ad about something that’s going to play on streaming, usually.
If you want NO ads, set up DNS ad blocking or get an Apple TV and use that for streaming. But again, Amazon’s devices are FAR more aggressive about advertising as much as possible. My father has one of those Echo Show things that’s a speaker with a rotating screen attached to it. It’s playing ads almost all the time.
I do not have anything from these MFs that’s not jailbroken or hacked. They are partners, not competitors. But sure, as long as you get less ads for now, go with the other, I guess.
We’re talking about ads (and maybe privacy) on TV’s mate…
Okay, buddy. I think my comment is more about privacy than ads, but it covers both.
I think my comment is more about privacy than ads
I agree …
Everyone else was talking about one thing, and you acted like I was talking about a bunch of other things.
That’s why you’re confused, we were talking about ads, and you got upset we weren’t having another discussion.
Now why are antelopes the super ungulates?
See how little sense that makes?
The smart TVs operate on Android TV, made by Google.
I’ve been self hosting as much as I can for awhile. The one thing I don’t have a good replacement solution for is Google TV. At least with alternate launchers and being able to install APKs (for now) it mostly works as a decent experience.
Back in the day wed hook up old desktops straight to living room PCs. There was no apps so we’d just go to websites.
I’d be surprised if there isn’t some kind of raspberry pi mini PC with a good guinerap around Linux.
Some people will use a PlayStation/Xbox as well.
Kodi is the open source alternative and it is a terrible experience compared to the purpose made sticks. It is confusing to use, and worse, very unreliable (my install would regularly completely break and crash on startup).
Eh, I gave up and bought cheap used Apple TVs to replace all the Android / Google TVs and Rokus in the house.
Apple TV isn’t compatible with some of the services that I use so h That isn’t an option either.
Like what?
Never owned that Alexa shit.
Voice technology is niche and just dumb. People think it’s easier to have voice-everything. I’ve found that it is actually a pain in the ass. I’ve got some voice assistance in my vehicle, through Android Auto via Google. The fucking thing keeps saying “oops, there’s a problem” even though I have a network, I’m connected and everything. It sucks shit.
And everything that is voice-reliant, there’s always a few second delay and you’re chancing on the thing even properly hearing you. How is this technology anyway easier than if you just simply had buttons that can be pressed in seconds without having to be prompted?
Why anyone would want a corporate government surveillance wire tap that’s connected to the Internet and constantly listening for voice command is beyond me.
My friend used an Alexa and smart plugs to rewire all the lights in his house because it was cheaper to get the Wi-Fi connected lights and sockets rather than rewiring the whole house.
In order to keep the thing running, no one was allowed to touch any of the lights switches on the walls because it would break the system. It was fucking hilarious listening to him yell at his Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room and have it turn on the dining room instead.
He even had the screen on the base that would follow you around as you were walking in the house and this creepy screen would constantly be monitoring you while waiting for commands.
If anyone walked in it just looked like he was screaming at the top of his refrigerator about the lights in the house.
I assume that there’s a segment of the population that:
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Does vaguely like the idea of at least some home automation.
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Doesn’t have the technical expertise and/or time to wrangle with something like HomeAssistant. Wants something that works off-the-shelf.
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Doesn’t want to spend much money up front on a system, which creates pressure for an ad-supported model.
I will say that I’m still more than a little fuzzy on what substantial practical benefits people are actually getting from their deployed systems, though.
For at least some of this, like having a voice command to check the weather, a smartphone has to be pretty widely-deployed competition.
The convenience is being able to sit your fat ass on the couch and yell vaguely in the direction of a smart assistant to turn off the lights without having to get off the couch.
The idea that a smart refrigerator could tell you when you’re about out of milk or coming up on the expiration date instead of having to open your fridge and take a look is cool but the privacy and other implications outweigh the benefits.
It’s a mild convenience that supposedly frees up extra time to do something else. The sad part is that something else is usually staying glued to your phone, social media, or TV.
I want to believe that the accumulation of not walking and moving because of smart home devices is offset by a shorter life expectancy and health issues.
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People seem to never learn. Same behavior for decades now from these companies but people are shocked. :)
The low cost of these devices doesn’t help, and the constant “sales” they have throughout the year.
Yeah, ppl say ‘if it’s free, you’re the product.’ and that sentiment feels like it applies here.
Even if you pay for it, you are the product. Fuck me
But it’s so cheap.
Yeah and you get what you pay for
My pet pony keeps shitting on the floor.
I am very frustrated and did not expect it.
I should sell it off and buy a horse instead.
Ponies are supposed to shit. It’s more like if the pony came strapped with ill-fitting saddlebags that leak toxic chemicals.
Yeah, but it’s like you bought the ponies at Shit-R-Us
Yeah that was kinda my point :) A cloud controlled device from a tech giant is supposed to
shit on the floorstart doing ads and invade your privacy. It’s what they do. Like ponies pooping, you should expect it on purchase.No. It’s more as if you had to pay for the pony to get it, and then:
If you want to ride the pony, that’s $2. The saddle has a coin slot to pay. It also has spikes poking both you and the pony if you don’t pay. Any time you get off, the spikes relock, requiring another payment to unlock.
This is the exact same situation minus the animal cruelty part and with money being swapped with time.
This is a real “the scorpion stung the frog” situation.
There was never any other way for this to go. Is in the scorpions nature to cram ads and tracking into your devices. That was always the strategy even with their Fire lines of devices.
Ring will be next. It’s already giving them your address, neighbourhood, routine, device types, etc. That data gates correlate to census income data, network traffic, etc. to build a profile of who you are as a consumer.
I believe there was just a post the other day arguing that Ring was beginning to collect biometric data on anyone that passed in front of it.
[Edit] It was A Boring Dystopia post from 6 days ago https://lemmy.ml/post/37147235
Not just who you are as a consumer, who you are as a person.
Return them!
I’m about to just toss the whole thing and move back to google.
… Ah yes. Here we see that, while frustrated, the consumer remains largely undeterred from fitting into the boxes outlined by our fearless corpo overlords.
“I gave Amazon my money and I’m mad, so I’m going to give even more money to another billionaire corp.”
They’re a redditor and redditors aren’t exactly smart.
Hey! I resemble that remark.
Lemmy is structurally just super reddit. It just hasn’t been flooded by children yet so the discourse is still college level.
UI is too difficult for iPad babies but as the apps catch up the dumbass summer children will flood here too.
While certain large instances 👀 might resemble Reddit in terms of “quality” of discussions, not all of them do. Not at all.
I haven’t had this problem, yet
Wait until your smart TV starts playing adds every 10min no matter what your watching, or even if the TV is “turned off”
Ambient display ads.
Or use eye tracking to automatically pause the ad if you look away from it and hold up everything until you actually watch it
“Drink a verification can to continue”
The only ads I’m watching are the previews 💪
Kudos on the N64. What game is loaded? I bought me a Retro-Bit Tribute64 controller and got Rosalina’s mupen64 Emulator going on. Oh my sweet sweet Perfect Dark…
Its subscription is 4 dollars cheaper, though!
Morons buying moronic ‘smart’ devices, unable to understand that they’re the product, not the consumer and they have sold away the rights to their eyes and ears with their purchases.
My house contains no smart devices that can harvest data from me (my mum does use a samsung smart TV from 2016) and all devices have everything disabled and other things installed to block data collection and tracking… I can’t stop 100% of it, but what little trickle they do get is basically worthless.
My eyes and ears are not for sale, nor is my privacy.
If there is a trickle, you do not know what you’re doing.
This whole comment has a, “I am very badass” vibe to it.
You’re probably sending more data to the cloud than most because of the hubris.
Don’t understand your downvotes, but probably owners of such bugs :-)
People will go to great lengths to excuse and justify their own idiocy, rather than suffer the simple acceptance they they could have been wrong… and one of these idiots suggested it was me who had ‘hubris’ :)
Wow, you are soo cool and unique to realize that the consumer is not the customer, noone has ever figured out that before!
No one asked about the status of smart home devices in your home.
Seriously 😒
Amazon garbage is literal ewaste as soon it leaves the factory.
I made the mistake buying a Kindle Fire in 2015. A few months in, it was literal garbage. Everything lagged. Very few apps would work. Not much variety in the Amazon app store. Learned my lesson about Amazon products.
