“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.
Wait until your smart TV starts playing adds every 10min no matter what your watching, or even if the TV is “turned off”
“Drink a verification can to continue”
I’m now reading Helen Philips’ Hum and it feels so disturbing that the dystopian world depicted in the book is so real. Like all of those things actually exist already, we just don’t think about them too often.
It’s so predictable
Fucking ads, even on Netflix and at gas stations now. So offensive
Advertising…helps customers discover new content and products they may be interested in.
Someone needs to coin a word to describe this type of infuriating corporate statement. They make astonishingly piss-weak arguments in a patronising tone, as if to insist that reality must be whatever they say it is because they’re a successful company.
It’s the kind of statement that’s not technically a lie, but still seems dishonest for them to present as though it were a sane response, almost like an attempt at gaslighting.
I think the person who wrote that response should be forced to wear it around their neck so that everyone can see what sort of person they are.
“Bullshit” still works wonders.
That sounds right to me. Maybe “spin” if I want to be a bit more neutral, but it doesn’t look like they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Theyre putting a happy spin on some bullshit.
Corpospeak?
I guess? Someone also said “rhetoric”, and although it counts as both of these, I’m specifically thinking about these kinds of statements you get in press releases that obnoxiously try to paint the world the way that the company needs it to be in order to justify what they’re doing.
Things like “Customers don’t like regulations that stop us giving them the best service”, “Our users are clear that they want the freedom to choose what subscription models work for them”, you know? Those kind of weaselly shit on my pie and tell me it’s a blueberry statements, where they dishonestly attempt to pose as the good guys wanting to do best for the world. They clearly must know that nobody actually falls for it, but they say it anyway because they need it to be out there in order for their paid-off politicians and useful idiots to have something to support deregulation.
It’s not just companies. Amazon started pushing ads to subscribers who pay for ad-free Prime video content. Some idiot here on Lemmy actually insisted it wasn’t an ad at all, but a “promotion.”
Companies are getting their customers to make infuriating, ridiculous corporate statements for them.
Rhetoric?
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FWIW, I have had some Google (now Nest) Home Hubs for years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard ads on them.
I’m gradually de-googling my life though, so maybe I’ll just replace them with some DIY thing
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.
I have an Echo Show, it shows a bunch of ads. It’s typically out of my view and I never use the video features. It has options to disable things and I thought I disabled them all but maybe they show ads now regardless. Because I’m definitely seeing ads. I only got one because I think it was bundled with something else or it was a gift.
I have an echo show in my kitchen. It displays ads, but they’re super easy to ignore. They’re just basically text pictures on the screen when it’s not being used and on topics that I selected.
I’m pretty massively against ads, but the echo show’s don’t bother me in the least. If Alexa Plus starts giving me verbal ads or injecting them into things then it will quickly find its way into the trash can.
No, I don’t like mine and would probably literally cover the screen of it was in my eyesight. It’s unacceptable.
For me, there’s no level of advertisement that is permissible, no matter how seemingly inoffensive the ad may be. It’s still an ad.
In my own home on a device I paid for, it’s simply not happening.
My tolerance is zero, because I am not willing to accept this ad-saturated society that we have somehow been generationally conditioned into thinking is acceptable.
I still dont understand how people think its fine seeing ads everywhere they look. What is in their minds…
It makes the world ugly. Real ugly.
I have one of those echo ball looking things with a clock on it. I mostly just use it to play atmospheric noise and set alarms and as a clock. I do get ads sometimes. Sometimes I ask it to play something and it will ask me to subscribe to something. Sometimes it will notify me of a price drop on Amazon. I’ll probably get rid of it soon. My life has just been hectic lately, and I haven’t had the time to set something else up to replace it yet. Going to completely de-big-tech soon (I’m mostly there already); I don’t trust them, with them being so close to this fascist admin. I think it’s likely these will be used for state surveillance; some of big tech’s products and services already are.
People seem to never learn. Same behavior for decades now from these companies but people are shocked. :)
But it’s so cheap.
Yeah and you get what you pay for
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
This is a simple problem. Destroy it and end your Amazon prime subscription. Now, your Samsung fridge that shows ads is a different problem.
There is a special kind of person who buys a smart fridge. But even they must realise after a month that standing in front of a frige and looking at a screen isn’t really a thing anyone does.
Why the fuck anyone needs a smart fridge is beyond me. Just open the door and write down what you need. The only thing a good refrigerator needs to do is keep shit cold
I was falling down that hole about 2 years ago. I’ve always been a tech nerd, big scifi fan, etc so the tech advancements lately were really cool to me. Integration was such a cool concept. A fridge that could see inside itself, track what was in it, and suggest when it’s time to get more of something just seemed so futuristic. Screens everywhere with weather and useful info really played into my childhood dreams watching scifi movies and tv. I’ve since done a complete 180 and as of 2 months ago finally completely cut out all big tech, but there’s a big push for people like me to fall into the trap of “I don’t need it, but it’s so cool”.
Yeah that was my first thought. Better learn about corporate greed from a “smart display” then a >$1k appliance (but better not to buy them at all).
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?
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?
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 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.
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.
Just get Real Debrid with Stremio/Kodi.
Real Debrid + Kodi + Bingie theme = Everything available on torrents, instantly streamable in a netflix-like interface.
There are extremely idiot-proof solutions like Stremio.
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.
What are customers going to do anyway?
Convince themselves that it’s necessary.
Never saw this coming (said no one ever).
Well, you would be surprised, I bet at least 50% didn’t see that coming.
I didnt see it coming. I assumed that having a device always available to add shit to your shopping basket and listen to everything you say forever would be enough for them.
Honestly it should be more than enough.
But why would they take less if they can take more and you will keep buying it because it’s cheap? These devices are a race to the bottom
Exactly. These companies don’t know the concept of enough, only more.
Nah, nothing’s enough.
We’re in a sad state of affairs in this world.
I get that we should expect shit like this from Amazon but at the same time, they bought something and the maker completely changed how the device worked after they bought it.
I’d be pissed too. We have to hold these companies accountable.
Yeah, they totally deserve to be sued and pay a $5 fee as punishment.
That will teach them!
I’m kind of glad that I don’t mind flipping switches and pressing buttons. I’ve never felt the need for a smart home, so this stuff hasn’t affected me much personally.
Home assistant is the way to go, all run locally on a homePC, I have ZigBee lights and switches automated
An example is my front deck lights turn on at sundown, at 10% brightness, at 11;00 pm they drop to 1%.
If motion is detected they brighten up for a bit. On holidays they have appropriate RFB effects.
All of this is automated, none of it talks to the internet.
My current project is making a harry potter style “clock”, with hands for me, my wife, and kids. Can set up some geofencing. Run off some ESPhome and the HA app, which reports directly to my install, without releasing tracking info.
That’s awesome, but I don’t need it. :)
Oh, for sure, it’s just for fun
My entire design goal is making it invisible for my wife, so things just work. As an example, I took our doorbell, and made it smart… Not a smart doorbell, but I have an esphome between the doorbell and the chime, so I can turn the chime off, or I can have our phonea get notified.
Smart Home is really good for me bc I have trouble remembering things, but I’m for building my own and running it on my own server vs using corporate bullshit.
Good to see you get some good utility from it. 💪😎
… and all the actual tech nerds who told everyone they should avoid smart devices like the plague laugh and laugh…
And the pro tech nerds who told everyone to use local-only, non proprietary smart devices so they can still have a secure, ad-free smarthome laugh as we walk through the house without ever touching light switches.
Exactly. It’s not the smart part of a device that is the problem. That’s an extreme overreaction.
The problem with most smart devices today is that they are proprietary, non-fully libre and open source, for-profit, cloud-connected, corporate committee designed spyware, adware, and bloatware.
Devices that are fully FLOSS (firmware, hardware, software) and based on open and free standards and protocols are awesome, but they get easily forgotten.
The Internet and your technology can be so much better. Demand it.
Can you recommend some light switches like that?
There is plenty of information on [email protected] and [email protected] if you’re looking for more than the most basic motion- or remote-controlled light switches.
Z-wave or zigbee. They use an alternative to wifi.
User in tandem with a open source system like home assistant.
Yes but I have done zero maintenance on my light switches in over 30 years. No downtime either or updates.
I have done zero maintenance on my light switches in all my life, and I never had any smart home stuff, lol
To be fair I put in all my smart lights once 7 years ago haven’t touched them a single time in that entire span. Took an hour to set up.
And now my alarm turns on lights which helps me wake up :D
I literally don’t believe you. Wi-Fi? Zigbee? Z-Wave? Not a single reset or re-pair because you changed some password or bridge or the power went out and one of them needed a little encouragement?
My smart switches have zero downtime. If I attack my server with an hatchet I lose smart functionality but pressing the switch still works, just like yours.
It doesn’t take much to avoid the bullshit devices.
Oh, you own a house, I see, ok, that explains that.
I really don’t. I can find no joy about being right about the state of our world. Quite the opposite.
You think “actual tech nerds” don’t like smart devices? I don’t think you know what a “tech nerd” is.
Actual tech nerds love the tinkering to make it work again until the moment they are tired of it and just want something that works. I’m in the tinkering phase.
Installing spyware and wire taps in my home was never appealing to me.
AND not even being paid for doing so. But paying for instead. that’s the most bizarre part of it.
it doesn’t take much critical thinking to conclude that smart tvs are bullshit, but apparently too much for most people
Even worse than not-really-understanding-any-of-it is the wilful ignorance shown by some. “I have nothing to hide” is the epitome of obedient worker-ant stupidity.
“ok. tell me your account and routing numbers then”
What are you going to do, send them money? That information isn’t private, people have to give it up all the time to receive money…
ok. tell me your account and routing numbers
7826391786239 and 121000248
Ha! Try that with a german boomer. It’s one of the most well guarded secrets to them.
In the case of smart tv’s it’s obvious why it works. It’s way cheaper to buy a smart tv vs a dumb tv now, and It’s all companies make for consumer side, which only leaves business grade TV’s/advertisement boards which cost more. Even if this isn’t the case though, with how streaming oriented most people are, the general public won’t buy a dumb tv because they would still need to buy some sort of device to allow them to access their stuff. It’s just convenient to have it in the same device rather than buy a tv then spend another $25+ on a device that can allow access to streaming, when one device can do it all.
I upgraded to a “decent” Smart TV for my den (my previous one was an early stage Phillips smart TV that the store was basically deprecated on), and it converted 3 devices I had for my dumb tv, into that one device. It’s just convenient.
I personally think that people should be focusing more on not buying slop-ware, and working on implementing legislation of what companies are allowed to do to consumer purchased products before trying to revert back to dumb tv’s and spending 3x as much. The future is going to happen regardless, and people are going to take the easy way out, the easier way is going to be preventing the annoyances from being allowed in the first place.
you do you. enjoy your convenience. for my part, i will continue to spend $0.00 for the privilege of being the product.
all of these brands can take their smart devices and go fuck themselves with it. “convenient” GTFO
I’d far rather have a dumb TV/monitor and a cheap, easily upgradable smart device connected to it, but I’m on Lemmy so that shouldn’t come as a surprise.
I still have the first Google Home speaker I got for free via Spotify subscription years ago, and it’s as far as I went, wouldn’t have put money on this
