I am seriously considering creating a dropship company focused exclusively on buying and selling electronic components that are sold for parts and people can assemble them at home, Ikea-style.
I would start with selling 50" and 65" inch "dumb" TVs. Just the panel, a nice enclosure and a board with an IR receiver, TV tuner and HDMI outputs. BYO top box and Soundbar. I wonder how fast it would take to get 10000 orders.
The Framework folks hit an unexpected snag with a similar idea: turns out the US tax on a laptop assembled in Taiwan is much lower than on a box of parts made in Taiwan that you can assemble into a laptop yourself. (Why? Because.) Thus the strange not-really-DIY “DIY edition”.
What is a laptop anyway? Can somebody sell 60 2-in-1 convertible laptops where the top bit comes off and also has an HDMI in port? The computer could be a raspberry pi or something…
Probably. This is a thing with guns, too. In CA, for example, owning an AR15 with certain features is illegal. But separate the upper from the lower, and you no longer have an AR15; now you have parts, none of which are semiautomatic and center-fire on their own. That’s no longer illegal (though if they can prove intent everything changes, of course).
IANAL, but I always found that kind of loophole fascinating.
No, the lower is still legally considered a firearm. It can't fire anything, and it's not a gun in practical purposes, but for purposes of regulation it is still a firearm.
The reason it's probably still legal to have in California is that California bans a lot of largely cosmetic or non-functional items. For example, many states ban threaded barrels which by itself doesn't change any characteristics of the barrel other than the fact that it has a thread on the end of it.
Specifically in the case of ar-15 pattern firearms, having the lower be "the firearm" is hilarious. the lower is a low precision, low pressure part. it is actually one of the easiest parts of the firearm to make. and because the lower is the controlled part, every other part, the ones that are hard to make, are readily available.
It's particularly stupid when you realize a sufficiently motivated person can in fact just fire an upper. I have no idea where the bolt is going to wind up in this, but it will in fact shoot a bullet out the other end of the barrel
I believe California has some laws that specifically apply to semiautomatic firearms, which an AR15 lower is not. The lower is incapable of semiautomatic fire (as in the gas blowback/piston system is in the upper).
They sell single-shot .50 BMG uppers, non-semiautomatic AR15 uppers do exist.
I believe the majority of stuff California regulates attaches to the upper anyways, which isn’t a firearm under federal law (unsure if Cali is weird about that). Bump stocks and responsive triggers are the only things I can think of California might regulate that go on the lower, and last I heard the ATF was tracking those down as an NFA violation.
CA regulates magazines and pistol grips (in combination with other parts) which attach to the lower receiver. Not sure you are fully correct in saying the lower is not a semiautomatic firearm. While the lower by itself is clearly not a complete and functional firearm, and not capable of firing without an upper, the sear/disconnector, which determines semi/full auto is part of the lower.
The lower is the serialized part, and is regulated in isolation as a firearm in every instance I am aware of (but I am not familiar with California gun laws specifically).
Unless a CA-licensed attorney knowledgeable in California gun laws and ATF regulations specifically told you that a particular CA law applying to "semiautomatic firearms" does not apply to your AR-15 lower in isolation, do not listen to random internet comments about it especially when they begin with "I believe." Regardless of where you fall on the issue politically or ideologically, it's an objective fact that California's government is hostile toward its citizens possessing and bearing firearms, and being fuzzy on what is or is not a felony is a risky proposition.
If you're wrong, best case scenario you will lose all your guns, worst case you will end up in federal prison.
>it's an objective fact that California's government is hostile toward it's citizens possessing and bearing firearms
A state puts restrictions on semi-automatic weapons (one model which has been used to kill hundreds or thousands of people in random shootings) and here it's described as "being hostile to people possessing firearms". For most non-americans (which is my case) this will always sounds so strange
I am certainly not suggesting anyone rely on me for legal advice, to be clear.
But no, my understanding in CA is unlike the Feds, California does not have the concept of constructive possession as it applies to assault weapons. As such, separated parts cannot constitute a CA AW, unless the lower is already registered as such, or said lower is on the list of named CA AWs.
It is technically not an assault weapon in that configuration; however, depending on the DA, they may still come after you under PC 12280(a), stating that you are attempting to possess an assault weapon. The sticking point for them is showing intent, but they have convicted on possession and research of how to assemble an assault weapon.
They certainly could charge someone, and maybe even win; I’m not suggesting anyone rely on this as a defense, but that is what the law states. Short of any other aggravated reasons to charge you, it’s unlikely a DA would have any interest.
You mean import tax? Then the solution is simple: assemble a dummy device from the components, pay the lower import duties, and then disassemble it and sell the parts. This is called tariff engineering.
And they are invariably inferior to the latest models of higher end consumer TVs for movies and gaming. Older panels, poorer contrast ratio, if they even support HDR or VRR. For even partial feature parity they will be thousands more in cost. Outdoor and digital signage panels are great for their intended purpose only.
Show me the commercial equivalent to the LG G4.
And even these commercial TVs may be “dumber” but they still have firmware and it can still have some of the same nuisances. Meanwhile you can opt out of most shit on the smart TV and just not leave it connected.
SMART TV WITH MULTIPLE VOICE ASSISTANTS: This TV comes with your favorite voice assistants built-in and ready to help. Choose from Bixby, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant”
Also I doubt a 2 year old OLED is putting up performance numbers that are equivalent to current gen. It’s less expensive than a g4 because it’s is generations older than a g4 and is missing DoVi.
You have this backwards. The consumer "smart" units are subsidized by the monetization of the data they hoover up as you use it. This subsidized price has become accepted as normal price, but they clearly are discounted prices.
Yeah yeah, economy of scale on consumer vs prosumer+ units, but if you really believe that is the sole reason you are sorely mistaken
I wanted to find a reputable source to back up this claim but instead I found a link from the atlantic. I did not read it, its behind a paywall and its not peer reviewed. The general concensus is that smart = subsidized by adware
The link simply states that they make a lot of money from the malware on TVs, something I'm not disputing. I am disputing that if I would buy a TV burn it without ever turning it on they manufacturer would lose money. In essence: The ads are simply pure profit on top of the TV sale.
I recently picked up an 85” Sony TV from Costco on clearance for $1399 (this model originally retailed for $2500, its only a step or two down from their top-of-the-line). I connected it to a hardwired ethernet cable, let it do the software updates, then unplugged it. No need for it to be online if I’m just using it with an AppleTV box anyway. I’d suspect an 85” “business TV” would be at least 4-5x the price.
Funny thing was after the software updates, the next day the TV prompted me to install a firmware update on the remote. First time I’ve ever seen that one.
Because sometimes it's necessary to make sure basic features work correctly, I remember my LG Oled didn't work with 4K 120Hz sources until LG released a firmware update for it.
Most TV manufacturers still supply firmware updates as a separate download for installing from a USB drive. I just checked Sony's site for a model that sounds like yours, and they do offer this.
I would love to buy a TV with a great image quality, a bunch of ports, image tweaking and nothing else. No wifi, no cellular, no internet, no speakers.
Honestly? Doesn’t even need a remote provided CEC works fine with my Apple TV.
I think you'll find the price at that volume and without subsidy a bit higher than a lot of people want to pay.
It may be cheaper and even easier to just buy and somehow modify Onn/Hisense into dumb displays, though I've never explored the idea myself to know how feasible it even is.
Problem is: you’d still be stuck with a Hisense TV. They got planned obsolescence built in, most of their TVs power supplies go out after only 4 years or even less.
Just don't connect the "smart" Tv to the internet. It's still a "dumb display" if you don't give it internet access. Don't give it wifi access, don't plug in an ethernet cable.
Amazon set a precedent with Kindle 3G keyboard edition many years ago; it had free worldwide cellular access for buying books and had an experimental web browser good enough for webmail. I never thought it was free from the carriers, I assume the bill went to Amazon.
If Vizio can’t arrange that alone, they could pool together many manufacturers and devices, offer the phone companies a copy of the data, or wait until the cost drops low enough.
While its allowed by the standard, its not something that is often used. Certainly the AppleTV that I use does not even offer an option to share its network connection over Ethernet. And I’m not aware of any other box that does.
As a journalist once said to me, regarding a different topic (local politics in some city), something like: I wasn't surprised that bribes were happening; I was surprised that the bribes were so small.
Similar applies here: incredulous that, in various aspects of the tech industry, customers/users are often being sold out for such small amounts of money.
(Though manufacturing is easier to understand than a lot of software-only businesses, which aren't about cost engineering.)
It sort of makes sense. Like, I’m very bothered by this spyware-industrial system and put a high value on my privacy. But, objectively, I am extremely boring and seeing what I’m looking at is actually worth much less than $15.
It is actually really weird how popular this business model has become (I guess it is a thing because people don’t read the fine print). Invasion of privacy is, I think, extremely asymmetric, so the business model of spying on people is a huge destroyer of value.
A problem, as I understand it, is that if you let all the customers with high disposable income pay extra to avoid ads, you're left with a group of lower income customers who are less valuable to advertisers.
Manufacturers would rather get $15 for every TV than only $15 for some TVs. If they were to let you pay your way out, you'd have to pay significantly more in order to subsidize the people who won't pay.
Try buying the regular smart ones and disabling the spyware while keeping the rest of the subsidized price. It would be a legal battle about whether you can actually enforce some terms of use that would prohibit it. The rough part is having to cover the warranty when resold which will cost a lot. But probably still cheaper than the dropshipped dumb panels.
Industrial panels make horrible TVs. Even if you use an appropriate panel, there’s more than just designing a sheet metal case.
Based on people suggesting commercial large format displays, apparently some don’t understand this. The market for someone foolish enough to drop $3k on a large screen without Dolby Vision is very small though. People that are absolutely cost conscious will continue to buy the loss leader crap TVs.
Just order a standard, add infested one, and a basic chinese board for it. Sellers will flash them for your panel and all. It can't any more basic than that.
See the LG 48 CX OLED television versus the Gigabyte AORUS FO48U OLED monitor. The LG was a jump in quality and performance (4K 120Hz) and many people bought it to use as a computer monitor. But it's smart (cannot disable advertising itself over Bluetooth while on), cannot be woken up over HDMI (requires using the remote control to turn on each day) and it does not have displayport in.
The Aorus is the same panel but not a TV, functions as a monitor should, and I would have bought that instead had I known.
If a product finder like alternativeto.net existed, where you find non-shittified alternatives to a popular appliance, I would use it every time I shop.
The problem in that segment is that it's basically the same disposable, non-repairable tech that's destined to the dumpster in a couple of years. The company is selling the appearance of having a different design philosophy, and it works because the consumer has no way of telling.
So, if you want to do anything more profound in that space, it's going to be hard to compete.
That one you linked has actually quite a lot of features - the 12 presets, auto cooking mode, weight setting, the potentially confusing buttons like "express" and "micro power".
Microwaves that are just time and power setting, cooktops that are just four knobs, ovens that are just mode and heat, maybe a simple timer… I’d buy those too.
Look up "large format display". Its basically a TV sans any smart shit. Used in commercial display applications, dynamic menus in restaurants, info panels etc.
They are mad expensive because presumably they are not subsidised by the shitware that "smart" tvs ship with.
I'm sure the ad revenue is part of it, but the commercial ones are also built for 24/7 operation over the course of years. And I expect another part of the added expense is that they know commercial purchasers aren't as price sensitive.
The entire reason that smart TVs are cheap with ads is because consumers "prefer" that. If (most) people bought expensive TVs with no ads, companies would, you know, sell that.
Nah, that's upside down. Consumers buy what they can afford. Wages are low, but companies still want to sell TVs. Advertising to the rescue! And so, as ever, good ol' capitalism pushes quality down while telling the consumer "you've never had it so good!"
I’ll keep repeating this but I used to be a TPM for “advance analytics” for a major media agency and we used this data in our reporting for ad reach effectiveness.
From a previous comment of mine:
> … my Insignia TV (best buy store brand) with fire tv built in is basically unusable.
Echoing a previous comment I made too, about “smart tvs” and the “streaming sticks”:
Hey, have you ever thought of why even the $149 Black Friday loss-leader no-name-brand TVs all have Amazon Fire, Roku, or are now "Smart" in some way? Certainly isn't because they need to incentivise you to connect it to the internet so it acts as a Nielsen-esq measurement device of all media you view on the screen via digital fingerprints that exist in all commercial media and advertisements. [1][2]
Aargghh, a prompt similar to this is going to make me an extremist that'll wage j**d on IT companies!
Google Photos wants you to turn on backups so you blow through your 15GB quota and buy storage from them, so once in a while when I open the app it screams "Back up is not turned on! You risk losing your photos!" (ok maybe not that hysterically).
Then the "Back up photos" slider is active, and I just have to hit "Continue". I'd have to slide it to off, and the button changes to "Continue without backup" and I have to hit it.
It's freaking disgusting that software companies now change your settings (ok, thankfully it still asks for your confirmation) and nag you about it every few weeks.
BTW Google, I have a Google Pixel 1 phone that has lifetime unlimited photos backup, and I intend on abusing that functionality by using automated transfers between my daily phone -> my NAS -> Pixel 1 -> your servers until you fuck me over and delete my account.
Why the fuck would anyone buy a "smart monitor" that is hooked up to a computer? Are they too incompetent to directly watch Netflix/Prime/etc on the computer? What is LG's target audience here?
I'm guessing snwy_me got the monitor from someone else and forgot to factory reset it and disable WiFi.
I bought something like this from Samsung. Honestly, was an oversight that I only started regretting when I learned that the controls to change the input source suck in a major way (not possible to switch source via a provided remote, source-switching buttons are very inconveniently placed at the bottom of the monitor and sometimes enter full settings instead of the source-switch menu). Lesson learned the hard way. And yeah, I keep the wifi disabled on that thing, except when occasionally checking for updates in the hopes that they fixed that shit via a software update.
I have a similar monitor from LG. I pair it with a MacBook, and there are times when the MacBook isn’t connected, but I still want to watch Netflix. Or even when the MacBook is connected, if I’m not at my desk it’s easier to control with the remote. It actually sees more use as a standalone streaming device than as a monitor.
I think smart monitors are convenient multi-purpose displays and make a lot of sense for home use. Not so much for office use like in the source tweet.
It’s the only way to get a good hidpi panel in the 5K space without breaking the bank. They also have DEEP integration with the Samsung ecosystem like dex integration.
LG has been getting into this market; their target market appears to be folks that want to have a miniature tv at their desk in small (studio) apartments to watch Netflix, etc on without fiddling with a pc. Which makes sense: in Korea and a lot of other places now, 200sqft apartments are becoming more common and the affordable option without splitting with others.
Yeah, I'm trying to see what the problem is here. Seems like just a reason to gripe. What difference does any of this makes if the monitor itself is only fed a video signal (i.e. don't connect its wifi). Does the monitor fail to operate without its WiFi connection or something?
And if you gaze for long into an LG™ liquid-crystal display monitor, the LG™ liquid-crystal display monitor asks your permission to gaze also into you.
For what it’s worth, this is a Smart TV (ie, a streaming box) that happens to also be monitor sized. I have no idea why anyone would buy one of these for primary use as a computer monitor, and the marketing and messaging is clear and up-front that these are streaming devices running an Internet connected OS.
Why streaming devices need to be so ad-infested is a different interesting topic, but IMO this “my monitor has an EULA” thing is just engagement bait.
Agree - this twitterbait is purposely omitting relevant details that this is NOT a traditional external display in any sense of the word. I mean the category of displays on LG's website is labelled "Smart Monitors with webOS" - which should be a clue right there.
That Samsung/LG/etc. are sulfurous pits of spyware is a completely different and well understood problem (but coincidentally too pedestrian to garner the desired rage induced upvotes).
Hm. Will Linux drivers permit this thing to talk to the Internet? And if it can't reach the mothership, will it still work as a monitor?
This has exploit potential. If a properly crafted ad can successful take over a monitor, the attacker now owns a USB-C device with an Internet connection. From there, it can make the device pretend to be some other USB device, such as a keyboard, mouse, and USB storage. From that point, they can do almost anything.
A few manufacturers are now shipping monitors with the same OS as their smart TVs, so they can stream Netflix and stuff standalone. OP has an LG one, and I know Samsung are also doing it on some of their newer models. Thankfully there's still plenty of dumb monitors on the market for now, including most LGs and Samsungs.
Given how garbage the software quality is on hardware devices, why would I ever want them to be connected to the internet? Ad/privacy or security concerns aside, even companies who should know better have shown they cannot be trusted and will continue to load up irrelevant patches onto a device until it eventually crawls under the increased computational demands. Slowing a previously responsive system.
Why does my monitor need to do that? My OS, the Intel Management Engine, my application, the website I'm using, my internet provider, my modem's hardware stack, and the several networked microphones in my home are already doing it.
Consider the case where there's a quiet observer looking at the screen alongside you. The monitor also needs to identify them so that it can ensure that you're not an accessory to thoughtcrime by letting them look at your screen.
I don't think that really caught on that much. Film studios care about it, but TV manufacturers don't really.
This is for advertising plain and simple (and probably selling user data to some extent). That's direct income for the manufacturers so they care about it a lot.
But, why doesn't the ethernet just connect to the device directly? Have they really taken so many ports away from us that the only way to connect to ethernet is to daisy chain through a fucking smart monitor?
Single cable docking. You plug your laptop into the monitor via USBC and it charges your laptop, provides it a Ethernet connection and drives the monitor display.
Not defending the sickening concept of a “spy” monitor.
But my Dell P2423DE monitor has a USB-C “dock” built into it so that I plug a single cable into my laptop which connects it to 2x 1440p monitors, power, mouse, headset receiver, keyboard and a wired ethernet connection.
Quite frankly, it’s awesomely convenient.
It’s totally legitimate to have a network port on a monitor.
I've never heard of this. What specific devices, if you don't mind me asking?
I had no idea a Thunderbolt hub could serve as a parallel Ethernet hub, nor that there were devices that could or would want to take advantage of this.
AFAIK, while there is a standard for Ethernet-over-Thunderbolt, typical Thunderbolt docking stations simply expose the underlying Ethernet controller as a PCIe device, typically using a chipset with drivers that are widely available if not preinstalled on all major OSes.
In other words, they not hubs (or switches) in the Ethernet sense, just a different physical connection to an otherwise ordinary PCIe NIC.
I imagine non-Thunderbolt USB docks are similar, presenting as a USB hub with a garden-variety USB Ethernet controller attached to one of its ports.
With that said, I imagine a "smart monitor" with integrated dock would additionally include Ethernet switch-like functionality, to enable sharing of a single physical Ethernet port (or wireless connection) between the connected host and the smart TV subsystem, just as some servers allow sharing of a single Ethernet port between the installed OS and an onboard BMC.
The manufacturer could have added connectivity via mobile baseband and a SIM card, just for the privilege of harvesting your viewing habits and passwords.
If this is anything like an LG smart TV — and, as the UI is identical to my C4, I assume it is — none of the agreements are required to use the device as a monitor.
On LG TVs, at least, you can also completely disable the WebOS UI via a command sent through an onboard RS-232 interface, at which point the TV displays no overlays at all.
Actually, it's Sony's patent 8,246,454 which has that "interactive networked video game" feature (https://patents.google.com/patent/US8246454B2/en), and AFAIK there isn't a "drink verification can"-style patent yet.
Not sure if it's this one in question, or even from a real patent at all, but I think this is what GP was referencing; it made the rounds a few years back.
Unfortunately, DisplayPort and HDMI specifications are kept private unless you're a paying member. I've successfully implemented DisplayPort 1.2 in an FPGA from specification documents I found, but I could never find the specification for anything better.
My understanding is that display-port is quite open in that there is no per-device fee for implementing it, I suspect you still have to be a vesa "member" to get a legit copy of the spec.
Honestly at this point I consider VESA one of the good guys. At least compared to the alternative, spits, HDMI
How good will it be? Hopefully better than the OpenMoko Freerunner I once had - good idea, worst execution ever. Wouldn’t even work half decently as a phone, not to mention any other aspects of it…
I have started preparing myself mentally for a future where I give up on most of modern technology in the home and just go back to paper books/vinyls/etc.
I wonder what would happen if Amazon introduced a boycott feature. It could be a list of active boycotts next to the buy button on a product page. Customers can choose to join one of the boycotts instead of clicking the buy button, and then get redirected to a list of alternatives.
It won't ever happen obviously, but I wonder if it would solve these types of problems? Consumers collectively boycotting something is the most powerful way to fight things like this, but I can't think of a successful example of that in recent times. Even "viral" boycotts on social media platforms are likely to get limited reach due to algorithm fuckery. Or is it that nobody but us tech nerds actually cares about stuff like this, and even a blatant in-your-face boycott feature on Amazon wouldn't make a difference?
> I wonder what would happen if Amazon introduced a boycott feature. It could be a list of active boycotts next to the buy button on a product page
A feature that simultaneously discourages sales, encourages retailers to pull products from the platform, and heavily incentivizes abuse from competitors who would benefit from convincing customers to boycott their competitors products? For some reason I don’t imagine Amazon product managers are going to like this idea.
Boycotts are wishful thinking in the modern era of online shopping. The Venn diagram of people who would actively boycott a product like this and the people who would seek it out on Amazon has no overlap. These products are targeted at people who do purchasing for their office or who click the buy button without taking 1 minute to glance at reviews. The people who care enough to actively boycott have already read reviews of a product before they seek it out for purchase.
If Amazon were competing to win customers, they might do something like this to increase trust in the quality of the products on their store. Of course, that's not Amazon. The only significant threats to Amazon today are anti-trust regulators.
I don't think it's competitive, it's suicidal. No rational storefront would ever tell you all the terrible things about the products they stock, no matter how large or small they are. It's insulting to the suppliers and more importantly, stops people from impulse-buying big-ticket products.
You might argue that showing these "boycotts" would stop people from returning these products, but it would also curtail a whole lot of buyers that would consider it "good enough". Amazon deserves their fair shake by the FTC but if you think this is the reason then you've got pretty bizarre expectations.
Agreed, sadly comment OP is in dreamland about why an E-commerce company would ever even consider doing anything to stop people from buying things, regardless of quality or any other external factor.
This would be a fantastic chrome extension because Amazon would never do this. It would be great to vote on the reasons why to boycott, allowing the most egregious reasons at the very top.
I'm on the fence regarding a "likely boycott" for Ooni pizza ovens, specifically the Karu 16 dual fuel. There are many videos about defective or improperly installed thermocouples. Ooni has some really helpful FAQ guides for fixing it on your own, but I was amazed at how many videos exist about this problem for an $800 pizza oven.
Not buying alone sounds a pretty powerful boycott thing.
Unluckily, so many care less than nothing, buying whatever is the cheapest and loudest in praising itself with the biggest lies or misdirection. There is a huge and successful market for these kind of customers. Actually it overwhelms the small group of conscious costumers. So manufacturers are making less and less 'honest' products.
Amazon is part of the _problem_. What you're really looking for is called a "law", and it's something a government does to make people stop doing things that hurt other people. Laws are then enforced so the bad actors stop doing their harmful stuff.
We updated security policy at our company to prohibit use of monitors that aren’t specifically authorized.
One of our customers detected a risk in an audit - it hadn’t occurred to anyone. Now we log display connections and customer facing folks can be terminated for violating the rules.
I don't get how we have the most connected technology that ever existed, but we dont have proper tools to stick it to these terrible practices?
Obviously , en-masse we need to be buying these things, opening them, losing the manuals and packaging, and returning them explaining very clearly how there is unwanted shit in the firmware that was not made clear upfront before purchase.
Each of us doing it over and over at every store we have access to.
Related: my mac bugs the hell out of me to accept new cloud Eula junk after os upgrade ... it's constantly popping up every 5 mins or so and can interrupt shutdown. Out stubbornness I've ignored for 6months running.
My TV did this. The worst part was that it disappeared so quickly I didn't have time to get the remote and acknowledge it. There did not appear to be any way in the settings to go and handle it manually. I just had to wait and get lucky.
Nah, it can still connect through the smart TV of the neighbours.
They probably have cross-brand agreements in place to let any "offline" device access advertisement networks. Your data is a very profitable business for them.
Yeah this is something I feel like doesn't get talked about enough. I have a raspberry PI that acts as my streaming device connected to my Samsung "Smart" TV and since Samsung can't get on the WIFI it's effectively just a display terminal.
To those here who suggest buying a typical 'smart' TV and disconnecting it from the internet, there are a few issues. As some have pointed out, TV manufacturers will catch up with this and eventually make it harder. Embedded 5G, voiding warranty if you don't accept ads, etc.
Buying 'smart' TVs also sends a signal to the manufacturers that this is what people want (as some here have suggested). It perpetuates the delusion that ad-ridden TVs are acceptable. Vote with your wallet and buy something else.
It's also somewhat profligate to buy hardware and deliberately disable it (although I entirely understand the motivation and hacker ethos). That hardware represents sunk resources. Buying it to ignore it leaves a bad taste for me. Electronics manufacturers are ecological bad news, in general. I'd rather not contribute to unnecessary manufacturing if I can avoid it.
Regarding quality of image, I kinda suspect that the necessity for ultra-high def TV has been over-sold. Sure, for gaming, home cinema, etc it might be a real concern for some. For me, I've got a genuinely dumb TV and nobody has ever commented on the image quality for TV or movies or gaming (Switch). But maybe this is one area where the visual equivalent of audiophiles will never be dissuaded :)
I am outraged by the lack of outrage over this enshittified dystopia.
I would like to think myself better than that but things have really escalated to a point I really wish death and illness upon the advertiser leeches that started and continuously fueled the enshittification train till the point that we're at now.
New video game idea: In the 21st century, with increases in computational and networking power it is now inevitable that any device with a screen attached can be reconfigured to show ads. You fulfill this inevitability by hooking up your portable advertisement control computer to every car infotainment system, smartwatch, and Adafruit 16x16 RGB LED matrix in sight. Bonus points (your salary) for stealth interstitial insertion.
Player controls a character that runs around putting ads on every screen and empty surface, gameplay is periodically interrupted by satirical EULA updates.
A particularly annoying aspect of monitor makers blurring the distinction between monitors and TVs that I hit with my Samsung S9 5K is that my Samsung TV remote can turn the monitor on/off and the monitor remote can turn the TV on/off.
Did it not occur to Samsung that people might have their computer in the same room as their television?
I don't know, I am still processing the 'remote for a monitor' idea. Sounds like the 'remote for a car stereo' kind of thing. Is this for people with short arms perhaps?
The remote actually makes some sense. It has a button/joystick-thingy control on the back than can bring up a settings menu and navigate it but it is a pain to reach. Leaning forward enough to reach under to it brings my face too close.
Edge controls would be easier to reach. Side edge controls can be a problem because people often want to have things right beside their monitor, such as another monitor. Bottom edge might be reasonable.
For people with bigger monitors than mine (mine is 27") their arms might actually be too short to reach bottom edge buttons comfortably, assuming they sit farther back from the screen than I do from mine.
Anyway, the remote can be faster than buttons would be because it allows for voice commands. If I want to set the brightness to say 6 I just pick up the remote, hold down the mic button, and say "brightness 6". That's faster than navigating to the picture settings menu and adjusting the brightness there.
If only we had some mechanism to force companies to stop doing things like this, instead of trying to invent economic dead-ends like Lego-style monitor assembly kits or Amazon-flavored voting systems.
A lot of vehicles also show this on the nav screen every time you start the car, and many websites also display similar popups when you visit. It's a disgusting practice but it certainly isn't new.
BTW if you want a TV that doesn't have any of these smart features you can get one of those commercial displays used in malls, train stations, and such. They're expensive though.
I would love to create a simple, searchable directory of consumer appliances, software and services that list all the ways you are _objectively_ fucked over as a consumer (I.e. whether something sells your data, requires always-on internet connectivity, requires additional subscriptions to unlock full functionality, etc..)
Wow the Q&A's answers seem AI generated... Everything about these 'smart' monitors feels quite 'fabricated' to me. I feel next time I shop for a monitor I will skip LG.
Related: my mac bugs the hell out of me to accept new cloud Eula junk after os upgrade ... it's constantly popping up every 5 mins or so and can interrupt shutdown. Out stubbornness I've ignored for 6 months running.
Nice, I've got the same (default colorway)! Such a good keyboard! I built/bought many keyboards and finally got tired of the search and decided to finally try the fabled Topre... so good <3
I don’t know why everyone here thinks it is unconscionable for a hardware vendor to block user access to content with a pop up, when this is standard practice in the entire software industry.[1][2]
I’ve had Microsoft Teams interrupt my presentation to a CEO to force me to click through some stupid dialog that a self-important developer put in there at the direction of an an even more self-absorbed manager.
“STOP TALKING NOW! You are nothing! Only our imagined legal risks matter! Click here to accept. DO THIS NOW.”
It didn’t exactly say that, but it may as well have. That was the meaning.
The idea of TVs doing this smells of urban legend to me, but a friend bought a new car recently, and he can connect to it from his phone (obviously over the cloud), he was wondering how it works because he didn't have to subscribe to anyhing, but yeah it has cellular connectivity paid for by the car manufacturer...
Great, make sure you max out that bandwidth with random garbage (preferably to the same endpoints that the telemetry goes to) to prevent your owned devices from exfiltrating your life.
I wonder if they bought these on purpose, or if the monitors were provided by their employer. That looks like an office.
It's hard to sympathize with someone buying one of these in 2024 and then being outraged that it wants to do ad tracking. 'Smart' monitors are so easy to avoid right now, they are all clearly marketed as such and it's still the case that premium 'dumb' monitors are available in every category.
I would start with selling 50" and 65" inch "dumb" TVs. Just the panel, a nice enclosure and a board with an IR receiver, TV tuner and HDMI outputs. BYO top box and Soundbar. I wonder how fast it would take to get 10000 orders.
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