Submitted 15 hours ago by slaacaa@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f1353e32-0dd5-4712-885a-c3372a8ee502.jpeg
We need individual names and faces of executives, publicly linking them to their deeds.
“The corporation” didn’t do it.
They didn’t do it because “it’s their job”
They had a “screw humans over” button in front of them and knowingly pushed it when they themselves know they didn’t have to.
Corporations cannot act. People can, and they are the ones responsible.
Lol. As a software engineer, give me the non-smart version of every appliance, home feature, and television. It’s why I went with a projector over a TV.
smart tv: what is my purpose?
me: HDMI 1
How long until we have no real choice? The vast majority of TVs are smart TVs now
But at least, for now, they still require you to connect to a network to receive updates and ads. Once they connect with no user interaction, to non-home networks, then we will be fucked!
Which projector do you use?
Unfortunately lots of affordable projectors are also “smart” these days, running some kind of Android TV
Yeah, but affordable projectors sadly all are garbage in the first place, regardless of being smart or not
Car, computer, printer, stove etc…
Any idiot that bought one of these fridges deserves what they get.
Picture this; A stereotypical couple in their mid to late fifties. Their fridge just broke, and they need a new one ASAP before their food goes bad. They go to the closest appliance store and browse. The salesperson gets commission on sales and really tries to sell them on the most expensive fridge. This couple does not keep up with the latest consumer rights violations, same as most people. The salesman convinces one of them that the Smart fridge is exactly what they need. It keeps track of when their food will expire, gives reminders to use up ingredients, has timers for cooking, and comes with an app for recipes. The other person is not convinced but they agree to buy it anyway to make their partner happy.
They get it home and it’s okay at first. It does what it’s supposed to. Then one day, they get an ad for Apple+ which they canceled a few months ago. It mentions one of their names. How were they supposed to know this would happen? Did the salesman inform them of the advertising capabilities? Did it say it on the box? Realistically, this happens way more often than you would think. It’s punishing your friends and family to insult them for not knowing better. We should be pre-emptively teaching them about these practices, not bullying them. Bullying them will only reinforce their purchase because thats how human psychology works.
I’m never buying a “smart” appliance for my home if I can help it.
None of these need this shit. Give me basic ass buttons. I just need my fridge to be cold, make ice, and spit out water. That’s as smart as I want.
None of these things need a wifi connection.
This is the old man hill I will die on.
Do you not have a faucet?
I do, but the fridge has colder filtered water.
I didn’t buy this fridge, mind you.
But I used to just have a filtered jug in the fridge, the tap is fine but it’s nice to have very cold water when you want it.
Ice and water fun a fridge is a luxury, but a nice luxury, and requires zero computers to do it
I paid around $200 extra for a washer/dryer that did not have built in malware and internet access.
I’m all in favor of smart appliances… as long as they don’t connect to the Internet. Give me a local HomeAssistant integration. That way, I can check what’s in my refrigerator from my bed without worrying about it showing me ads.
If I really wanted something like that, I’d just buy a dumb fridge and rig up a camera inside of it.
I’m never buying a “smart” appliance for my home if I can help it.
None of these need this shit. Give me basic ass buttons. I just need my fridge to be cold, make ice, and spit out water. That’s as smart as I want.
Yeah, the same applies to wives. She just needs to cook, clean and swallow. That’s as smart as I want.
The crazy thing is that most people don’t care. They will calmly close all the popup ads, obediently sit through YT ads and happily click on sponsored links on reddit. I know one guy who will close and re-open YT app to skip an add. Sometimes he has to do it 10 times in a row before the ad skips but he still thinks it’s justifies using YT app. People are weird.
My parents bought an Echo Show that they pretty much just ignore nowadays, except to set a timer or tell them the weather every once in a while. All it does all day is sit there and show ads for random stuff. It makes a terrible clock because its too busy showing ads half the time to actually show you the time in a font you can read from across the room. I know you can ask it to tell you the time, but thats so much slower than just looking at a normal clock
Introducing… the Echo Watch. Never be without your echo devices. Ever. We will murder you if you try to leave us. Also prime costs more now and you need an additional subscription.
Amazon. Because fuck you~.
And then scroll shit loads of ads on insta
I feel incredibly split on ads.
On one hand the incessant need to market things can be actually positive, offsetting service expenses, allowing things to be cheaper. Streaming is a perfect example of this, as people don't seem to realise just how expensive it is to maintain the infrastructure for it compared to traditional cable infrastructure, not to mention keeping the apps maintained and bugfixed etc., and then we haven't even talked about things like content licencing fees, residuals, and so on. Residuals alone mean that a single user can stream enough in just one month to "spend" their whole annual subscription fee on a single actor's residuals (this is technically unlikely, as one would need to stream a singular TV show or movie 24/7 for 30 days, but still possible).
And obviously people want to pay less. The least possible, that is. Netflix at $5.99 was a steal. Disrupting cable, globally. But that price was also only possible because of various venture capitalists investing heavily in Netflix, which allowed them to pay for the service mostly from that money, and keep prices low to acquire more users. The recent hikes (all the way up to what, $20?) are the result of venture capital drying up, as Netflix went from a market-shaker startup to revenue generating machine. Which is the point of capitalism, isn't it? Take an ide and make profit/revenue off it.
So how do you offset these increases? By involving a third party who's willing to pay you, in return for inserting their service into yours, essentially providing your userbase to them. This would mostly be... Advertisers. Marketing.
The problem is that advertising is a cutthroat business, with intense (and incredibly dumb) KPIs to fulfill. For which they need targeting, for which they need data. And this constant crusade for absolutely pinpointed ads that result in the most sales is what's making it such a disgusting business. It's not enough to shove ads in your face, those ads HAVE to be perfectly tailored to you, and for that, every smidge of information will be utilised against you.
And this is where I'm torn. On one hand, taking these fuckers' money to make services we do want, more affordable, is great. On the other hand, them wanting to know literally everything about us, and weaponising it against us, is fucking disgusting.
They are not showing ads for fun. They are showing them to sell stuff. People save $5 on Netflix and then spend $1000 on stupid shit they saw in the ads. Paying more for content without ads lets you escape the consumerist mindset and save money long term. Of course majority of people don’t want that. They are hooked on quick dopamine from buying another toy on Amazon and ads help them find new shit to buy. Other people simply can’t afford to avoid ads and are constantly brainwashed by then into buying one brand over another. Yes, I guess they do get cheap content in exchange but I still find it sad. The entire industry could die tomorrow and we would loose nothing of value.
Streaming is a perfect example of this, as people don’t seem to realise just how expensive it is to maintain the infrastructure for it compared to traditional cable infrastructure
Much of the cost of streaming for platforms like Netflix, and especially YouTube, are due to the need to centralize it to allow for more data collection. The cost of streaming also gets overblown, by a lot. Companies like Google and Netflix are spending huge amounts of money trying to build out new features and offerings, like games, that make it look like maintaining the streaming service is far more expensive than it is
But that price was also only possible because of various venture capitalists investing heavily in Netflix
Netflix has never needed to rely on venture capital for their streaming platform. Netflix has made a gross profit every quarter since 2011 when this data starts. They have also had a net income all but one of those quarters, which is absolutely insane for a new tech company investing that much in R&D + licensing
The recent hikes (all the way up to what, $20?) are the result of venture capital drying up
No. They’re the result of perpetually increasing profit margins. They were very profitable before the price hikes. Their expenses have gone up far slower than their revenue. It’s simply extracting more wealth without providing additional value
as Netflix went from a market-shaker startup to revenue generating machine
It’s a bit pedantic, but Netflix wasn’t a startup when they got into streaming. They were an existing business that was profitable to fund their pivot to a technology platform
So how do you offset these increases?
Netflix has had an operating income (revenue - operating expenses) of $12.6B over the past 12 months. With ~300M subscribers, that’s about $3.50 per subscriber per month. Subscription prices are much lower in most countries than in the US. For the ~80M US subscribers, that is probably $6 in profit. The $5 cheaper ad tier is probably about what we’d expect their prices to be if they had simply continued to make a couple billion a year in profit. Also keep in mind they would probably get and retain more subscribers with a lower price, and their increased operating expenses includes them building out tons of stupid mobile games most people don’t want, and one-off necessary expenses like building out their original content capabilities
Note: This last bit is doing some napkin math and is subject to error. I didn’t feel like digging deep enough into their financials to get more exact numbers (such as the average subscription price for the rest of the world)
TL;DR – Much of the price increases and addition of ads can be attributed to increasing profit margins, not increased operating costs
I once asked why anybody would want a smart fridge. Most people didn’t seem to know. The most common answer was that it could act as a focal point for a busy family for keeping track of things like appointments.
So, like a blackboard/whiteboard, cork board, or even a normal fridge, some paper, and magnets.
I’m no Luddite. I’ve got smart lamps so i can change the lighting in my living room & bedroom without getting up. And I’m looking into heating so i can have my heating come on when i leave work, rather than at a specific time. That saves effort and money.
But i just see no reason whatsoever for anybody to have a smart fridge.
“Luddite” has been turned into a slur over time but it is actually a view point that humans should have a say on what technology does to them and for who. They were not technophobes. They were technodeterminists.
I would very much like a tablet on the wall, like a digital cork board.
Building it into the fridge with what I assume are zero options about the actual software involved ain’t it though.
Those already exist.
In my country they run ads for a “Smart” line of appliances and the guy is like “Adjusting my fridge temperature from my phone? Now that’s smart!”
Like mf how often do you need to adjust your fridge’s temperature??? I do it like once after buying groceries or maybe when the season changes and it’s like 1 press of the button at the door, tf?
In every fucking commercial for a washing machine someone is in their garden and turns on the machine by wifi. How does the dirty laundry get in?
The only interesting thing might be a notification when it’s done.
They have electrolytes.
The one smart feature I could see being nice is inventory tracking.
There’s some new regulation incoming in the EU where they’re doing QR codes on products with the price and also expiry date. A fridge that scans my milk carton as I put it in and then also knows the expiry date would be neat.
I don’t see this as something I could ever need, but for old people or people with various potential medical issues? Could have its use.
If I have to scan each item as I put it into the fridge, why not just scan it with my phone and keep a less expensive dumb fridge?
Pretty nice until the day inevitably comes where one of the RFID chips malfunctions and the fridge keeps insisting that you throw out something that isn’t there and you can’t reset the inventory without downloading an update from some company that doesn’t exist anymore using a profile that your ex has the password for.
Then you’ll wonder why you didn’t use to have these sorts of issues, and your kids will ask how you updated the fridge in your childhood. As an adult you are expected to know this stuff. With your authority being undermined like that they’ll stop listening to anything you say and start smoking crack after school. Now you have a malfunctioning fridge and junkie children. Thanks a lot, dad.
no I hate, and I mean hate smart speakers and all generative ai.
I would 100% be up for a fridge that keeps track of its contents’ expiry dates via qr and could display warnings when things are going off. I hate wasting food, especially animal products (I already feel guilty enough) so if my fridge said the smoked salmon had 3 days left I’d be into that. now, it retaining my data and sharing it with anyone would be a complete dealbreaker so
Do you leave work at different times each day and week that you don’t know about until you are at work?
Unless you do, a regular programmable thermostat would be fine.
This might surprise you, but some people work jobs with alternating schedules.
I’d imagine it’s pretty annoying to reprogram the thermostat every other week or w/e.
Dave , Daaaave . You’ve had too much ice cream tonight Dave. Eat some vegetables Dave, they are good for you
Eat some vegetables
I’m afraid I can’t do that 🍰
Why would you need a smart fridge ?
Throughout history mankind has suffered the burden of stupid fridges. We need to celebrate this momentous breakthrough.
As always, it’s because some people have too much money.
Fridge is not mine, source: reddit.com/…/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads…
“Start watching”, like anyone would wanna watch a series on their fridge, lol
Right? That’s what my Samsung smartwatch is for
Kill it with fire
A fridge lifespan is measured in tens of years? That tablet on the door is deprecated in something like 5. Make it make sense (and I don’t mean the capitalist sense of see ads and buy a new fridge everytime the tablet is done for)
Modern fridges last less than 7 years.
I like smart devices and IoT but I hate that for normal people this has been diluted down to cameras and screens on everything with no consideration about privacy or boundaries.
Yes screens on fridges are stupid but… The display will definitely last more than 5 years. I’d even go so far as to say that it will last longer than the compressor of the fridge. Where do people get the idea that displays fail very easily?
It’s not that the display will fail, it’s that the tablet that powers it will be hopelessly outdated in 5 years and likely not even receive security updates anymore, so your “smart” fridge will probably end up getting a virus while browsing the Internet or something like that.
Well, you kinda deserve it when you buy such a thing and also live in a country that allows customer-abuse to the fullest extent of the law. AKA “land of the free (corpos)”.
Ads on a fridge lol. I haven’t seen an ad in my home for 30yrs.
Gotta appreciate the choice of ad, though.
As long as you’re not Carol and taking antipsychotics
As someone who takes antipsychotics, I hope Carol is taking hers.
I have a theory; each person in this show is a neuron.
I didn’t think these existed in 2000. I thought they were only around recently.
I have a Samsung smart TV and apart from suggesting I watch stuff on their own Samsung channel thing I don’t think it shows me any adverts. Maybe it’s because I’m not in the US?
Yeah I have a smart LG tv and I turned that crap off even. I got sick of ads for shows on various apps showing up when it’s waiting for an input. Now it just shows me the apps I have installed and my various hdmi inputs, it’s nice.
Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 51 minutes ago
And I’m just here using a fridge that’s been going since before the fall of Yugoslavia…