So, if I bought this at Costco, and the fridge was 10 years old, I’d use their guarantee to return the motherfucker and make a
hugeepic fucking scene if they tried to refuse.edit: huge wasn’t enough, it would be epic.
Wait why the fuck would a fridge be connected to the internet?
Edit: where I come from we don’t have unlimited internet plans so this would just be taking up expensive bandwidth and monthly quota.
For no good reason whatsoever
The whole selling points was to track fridge contents via cameras so that not only could you ‚see’ inside without having to open the door - theoretically saving electricity, using AI it was supposed to be able to track expiry dates, and suggest shopping lists in order to have full recipes.
Additionally it had all the usual „smart home” integrations on top of that.
But let’s be honest, the whole point was just to put in yet another screen that vendors could sell advertisements on, as well as track/sell personal information.
I’m not defending this practice because it’s remarkably awful but I will note that I have a router that lets me monitor the traffic that individual devices use and most smart devices like this actually use incredibly small amounts of bandwidth. Our smart water tank uses ~10 MB a month which is smaller than most images.
And yes I do think a smart water tank is valid because it can do shit like tell me when it thinks it’s about to explode or leak or whatever and it can also like, be remote controlled, and it has a heat pump which is nice.
I suppose I’d want to know if my fridge was about to explode… /s
In seriousness, though, you’re right - the problem isn’t with the technology, it’s how the technology is used
I’m also not against automation or making machines “smart” it’s just that what companies are marketing nowadays is just mostly overpriced shit.
And by consuming bandwidth I didn’t mean for the indented usage I was mostly talking about the ads which will probably be filled with unnecessary metadata, trackers, unnecessarily large CSS files (if it was web based) and maybe high quality images. All of these things I find completely unnecessary.
Also coming from a computer engineering background if I was living in a “smart households” I would probably want to set up my own firewall. And like I said while I like the idea of home automation I don’t want a corporation to be able to control or access my appliances too.
Recently I read an article about smart devices uploading and downloading over 1GB per day. I tried to find the article again but all I can find is stores selling smart fridges etc. Search engines are broken. I asked chatgpt, which was able to find articles. How fucked is this. Boring dystopia. Anyway, here are some sources.
https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/your-washing-machine-could-be-sending-37-gb-of-data-a-day
https://www.reddit.com/r/smarthome/s/F5ETernz6f
https://www.reddit.com/r/SmartThings/s/HY2E0uOBiH
In the following article they talk about devices sending up to 19MB per week, but only text (so again insane amounts of data considering it’s only text).
https://www.consumerreports.org/electronics/privacy/smart-appliances-and-privacy-a1186358482/
The following is about researchers finding lots of thirst party domains when analyzing IoT traffic from Smart devices.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1909.09848
The following is an academic paper on how even encrypted data isn’t safe from Smart devices. Bit off topic, but still interesting.
I tried to find the article again but all I can find is stores selling smart fridges etc. Search engines are broken.
I was able to find some links using duckduckgo including the same article from “Tomshardware” so at least that still works.
Again I don’t know why a washing machine would need an internet connection it’s not like you can remotely load it.
I mean I do understand the appeal and usefulness of smart homes and some IoT devices but companies are pushing AI and internet connectivity like it’s some kind of magic that makes any product better. I mean it would be nice to have a centralised panel to view your usage patterns and consumption but even then you don’t need all this overpowered tech stuff.
There’s an option in the settings app that allows you to turn ads off.
Oh, how kind of Samsung. Pray they don’t alter the deal further.
For now
No thanks. I wonder if the damn thing will have a hidden barcode reader.
Imagine that. You not only paid for the refrigerator, but also the electricity and the internet access. And it uses all of that stuff to display ads to you. You’re literally paying for every ad it shows you.
You not only paid for the refrigerator, but also the electricity and the internet access.
That’s a good point actually. You can eliminate these ads by taking it off the Wi-Fi.
Why you’d connect it to the internet in the first place is a mystery to me
I have my washer and dryer connected to the internet. I set up an automation that flashes the lights upstairs when a load is done, and turns on the laundry room lights. I suspect there are some fun automation opportunities with this fridge, too. But my washer and dryer don’t have giant touch screens or ads. I’d never buy this fridge.
I mean, yeah. I’m with you 100%
If you paid me just 5 bucks a month I’d let them install that fridge in my house.
Yeah, I might accept that.
Actually, I could use a new fridge…
Ok, who wants to pay me a subscription fee to give me a fridge? Get in line, I’ll only be accepting applicants today!
Now who’s the patsie
That’s exactly the thing that turned me off cable. I’m not interested in paying for a service that’s going to pipe ads into my home. OTA TV, fine, I’m not paying for that. When I can pay for services that don’t show me ads, why would I pay for one that does?
When I can pay for services that don’t show me ads, why would I pay for one that does?
Don’t worry, they are gradually taking that option away too.
Then the answer becomes to get those things without paying someone to show you ads.
When the illegal choice becomes the objective best experience, you’re just a savvy consumer.
I arrgree
Joke’s on you: product placement in movies. The ads are already there.
Jokes on them, I don’t recognize half the car emblems they flash at me.
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So? If I’m paying for a thing, I’ll sooner pay for a thing that doesn’t have ads than one that does.
When that fails, there’s always the high seas.
You wouldn’t download a fridge, would you?
I love the DIY crowd, I don’t really need most of these sort of things myself (yet), but it’s important that they exist, and that people do these things, to prove it can be done and to develop and maintain the knowledge of how it can be done.
In an ideal world, we shouldn’t have to be independently reverse engineering and reinventing our own tools and appliances and all this would just have to be done once and then shared to become widespread human knowledge. But instead it is “intellectual property” and commercialized and value engineered into maliciously anti-human exploitation devices. Apparently the world we live in is pretty far from ideal.
I absolutely would! That’s pretty kickass
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Aggressively American
Appliance repair man here. You can turn the screen off from a cover you remove from the top of the fridge door. Do so. You don’t need a fucking android tablet on your fridge.
Also don’t buy these kinds of appliances. They’re terrible!
What the fuck do they even do? I thought they were supposed to scan the ingredients in your fridge, then tell you what’s about to expire and what recipes you can make. But apparently they can’t even do that, so what purpose do they serve that I can’t already accomplish by bringing my phone into the kitchen?
Can they at least monitor the temperature across different areas of the fridge, or connect to my power meter like my thermostat can and optimize power usage to be lower when electricity is more expensive? Or are they literally just an Android tablet glued to a fridge?
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Or are they literally just an Android tablet glued to a fridge?
Yes
Yeah man, I’ll take my 1990’s ass GE fridge I got for free over one of these any day.
It’s a significantly better fridge in every way a lot of my clients have a really hard time understanding or believing that.
But it doesn’t have stainless steel or French doors. I can’t even talk to Alexa on it. It’s just like, a fridge. Who wants that?
Are there any brands that are total shite these days? We are gonna have to replace our crappy Samsung fridge from 2013 soon.
If you’re in the states you’ve probably had the ice maker replaced in that fridge.
I wouldn’t expect it to last much longer definitely count on it breaking down at some point in the very near future.
I just bought this one a couple months ago. It goes on sale frequently for $2K from Lowe’s: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Frigidaire-Gallery-21-5-cu-ft-4-Door-Counter-depth-French-Door-Refrigerator-with-Ice-Maker-Smudge-proof-Stainless-Steel-ENERGY-STAR/5013313509
Pretty sure we got an RMA for the first unit as the door had a scratch and the compressor fan sounded high pitched. Got a next day replacement and no complaints on the second one. Was concerned about sqft as we were coming from a 25sqft but am surprisingly happy with this one.
I’ve heard that appliances in general and refrigerators specifically, from the last many years are crap. I don’t know what the cut off date is, but I hear that they’re generally made to break after a few years now and don’t have replacement parts for very long. @mechoman444@lemmy.world may have a more informed answer, but it seems to me that people are better off buying old fridges used from friends or relatives.
I’m of the opinion that manufactures should be required to supply parts for appliances and equipment for a minimum of 10 years.
Completely agree. Not only for appliances but computers and smartphones too, including security updates.
Bosch makes a few descent models.
Things to skip on all brands.
External water & ice dispensers, doesnt matter the brand. You’re cutting a fucking hole in the thermal envelope to put a faulty device that’s experiencing mechanical stress on parts every time you open/close the door. It’s not a matter of if it will fail, but when. Also, increased operational cost. Internal water dispensers and automatic ice makers are always the better option if you want those features.
Smart features. Why the fuck do you need smart features on a fridge? Even if it’s using AI vision to scan for inventory… Just no, fucking no. That’s more personal data on you to be bought, sold, data breached, and utilized to fuck you somehow.
Fridges that split the freezer and fridge on a vertically.
Fridges that split the freezer and fridge on a vertically.
THIS. they call them french doors. Stay away from this bullshit. You don’t need it.
No, French doors just means two doors that meet in the middle, usually just the fridge (which is up top) has it, and they’re ok usually. Split vertically is called side by side, and they suck, can’t even handle frozen pizza…
I remember helping my mom buy a fridge and the main thing was we wanted a good ice dispencer that wouldnt break, and the dude was like sorry dude doesnt exist they are all equally shitty, its always going to break, pick any
You can roll your own with Magic Mirror
What am I looking at?
Why does a fridge need a screen to begin with?
To justify the constant upcharges. Touchscreens still feel much more luxurious than they’re actually worth. Car manufacturers do the same to save money.
Could be I’m the minority here, but touchscreens stopped feeling like a value add years ago. Somehow I’ve wrapped back around to a good button or knob being the marker of quality. One of the reasons I chose my current vehicle was because they let the most common controls (climate, radio, etc) stay tactile.
You are far from alone. ACTUAL knobs, buttons, dials, switches, and levers are things I’m hearing more and more people saying they miss.
Yeah, I figured that’s almost assuredly the case on a forum like Lemmy (or Reddit prior to the Exodus) but I don’t know whether it can be extrapolated to the public at large. I’m practically a Luddite compared to many folks around here, but I’m possibly the most advanced computer user among my peers simply because I know a couple Win key shortcuts and I’ve used powershell before (with no comprehension of what I was doing, to be clear).
It seems like most folks are willing to put up with bad UX, whether due to ignorance or apathy.
It’s literally not an extrapolation. Multiple manufacturers are going back to buttons, Volkswagen and Honda being two of the first, now Cadillac is doing rnd for gm with a new row of premium feeling ones. And this is purely because of consumer backlash on touchscreens.
Edit: https://www.kbb.com/car-news/buttons-are-coming-back-to-cars-but-they-will-take-time/ Source link that’s not just my ass
One more but from 2020 https://www.carscoops.com/2020/03/honda-goes-back-to-dials-and-buttons-as-customers-grow-weary-of-touchscreens/
I saw a daily Home Depot special for “smart toilets” and my first thought was “you mean I can’t poop if AWS is down?!”.
Is it AI powered too?
Most likely. But even if it isn’t, it will soon be after the next firmware update.
I’m sorry Dave, I can’t dispense any more calories for you today.
“if you go for a 2 mile run, I’ll give you 2 carrots, you fat fuck. Take the watch!”
Oh how truly dystopian - maybe next year.
Ngl, that appearing on your fridge fits the show so well though. Points to Apple for abusing Samsung’s choice to put ads on a fucking fridge
i think eventually we’re gonna have to deal with the reality that audio/video advertising needs to be outlawed. keep it in print if necessary.
What about QVC tho
It could be moved onto a special “reservation” where it could continue to live in its own way, with its ancient customs and traditions.
So genocide?
Could go either way. We don’t always have to repeat history.
Could we though, just this once, just for old times’ sake?
Aww, go on. Just a teensy bit of genocide, as a treat.
I disagree. I think that’s far too extreme, there shouldn’t be blanket bans because big tech ruins it for everyone, it harms stuff like minor indie creators or small buisnesses, that being said it needs to be HEAVILY regulated, like fridges should never have ads nor any smart appliance
How about… we go a step further and just stop making appliances “smart”?
My toaster doesn’t need AI to tell the difference between a fucking bagel and a slice of bread. They already figured out solutions to this shit decades ago.
Lots of appliances doesn’t need to be smart, I agree, there are plenty borderline where I think there is some benifit, bulbs for example, I think things should be a lot more local, it’s a shame people use cloud solutions instead of home assistant or how much telemetry these smart appliances are allowed to get.
I don’t think a content provider should be allowed to have more than 5-10% of their content be advertisements.
Website screen space, newspapers, tv channels, etc
Instagram shouldn’t have more than 1-2 sponsored post for every 20 posts. At the moment it seems closer to 10.
An hour long TV slot shouldn’t have more than 3-6 minutes of advertisement. At the moment it’s closer to 20-30.
Eh, I would say just ban all paid advertisements like ones you’re describing. Want to advertise your product? Send it over to some state-run hub, which then randomly distributes it to professional reviewers. They then publish their findings, and if your product is good and people are looking for your product category, they will find you.
Get rid of stupid ads where the only reason they are shown to you is because someone is paid to stuff it in your face. Ads should be something you actively seek out, not something being shoved in your face.
Why does there still need to be advertisements though?
I’d completely ban marketing altogether. Their only purpose is to hack human brains in order to get them to buy stuff they otherwise wouldn’t. They are the reason we have overconsumption.
I think allowing print and physical media would enable using signs outside your building, use branding on your documents, etc. plus make it more valuable for the already dying media of print, and also pretty much make advertising an opt in situation since you can choose to engage in it, rather than having something like the fucking sphere blazed into your retina with the power of 15 suns in the middle of the night.
Start with the example of the city of São Paulo, the 4th largest city in the world, which banned all outdoor advertising many years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cidade_Limpa
How would you even do that? Marketing is tied up into every single purchasing decision we make. The colors and fonts on the packaging; the perceived value or luxury of the store you’re buying it from; the placement of the products within that store; the price of the product itself. All of these signal things about the perceived value of the product and influence what people purchase.
There are some things I want to know about that may or may not be considered advertising. Stuff like a band I like going on tour, or a video game I’m interested in releasing.
Maybe in your world those could just be like opt-in newsletters.
Banning “marketing” in general is impossible. In order for humans to survive, we need to acquire means of sustenance. With social division of labor, you cannot acquire all the means of sustenance you need by yourself or within your immediate community. As such, a market is necessary to exchange commodities, including means of sustenance and means of production, and the mere act of bringing a commodity to a market is, by definition, marketing.
Banning advertising in general is more possible, but probably a bad idea. Imagine you want to buy bread. How would you go about that? Look for a “bakery” sign? Whoops, that’s advertising, can’t have that. Your best bet then is, like, going into every single open door on the street until you find a bakery, which doesn’t sound good at all.
What we should do is regulate advertising down to its minimum necessary function, which is helping people find what they are already looking for, plus maybe PSA type of ads (e.g. reminding you to get vaccinated and stuff). So yeah, most modern ads should be banned, but some should be kept because there is some actual use in them.
There’s a pretty simple hack for this, actually…
The dystopia is already here ffs…
