Mastodawn

Juhis Aug 11, 2024

When the company calls their home appliances "smart", what I hear is:

- they spent money on features I don't care about
- those features will be worse than standalone devices but will drive them out of market (looking at you TVs)
- the appliance is more likely to break
- my data is likely being sold to advertisers
- when the company loses interest in it and cut support, I will need to buy a new device

So no, I don't want "smart" home appliances.

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Juhis Aug 11, 2024

If I buy a TV, I want a TV that shows channels and to which I can plug other devices to watch the other stuff.

If I buy speakers, I want to connect whatever I have to them and not risk remote bricking of devices by manufacturer.

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Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE Aug 11, 2024

@hamatti Other people have other use cases. I *don't* want a TV that "shows channels" as that would be no use to me as I don't have a TV licence. I want a TV that plays DVDs (and yes, I accept that that's via another device) and shows stuff from the internet (and I don't see why that should need another device, it's only software and the telly already has a computer in it).

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Juhis Aug 11, 2024

@TimWardCam Yeah, we all like different things.

TV manufacturers won't support their streaming apps for as long as the tv functions. So when they stop updating, your smart tv won't show Youtube or Disney+ or whatever service anymore. Then you need to replace your tv even though the display device would be good for years.

And worse, when some of them stop working, it may make the entire smart tv software stop working or get annoying to use.

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Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE Aug 11, 2024

@hamatti Yeah, I know. Or ... one could keep the TV and buy an external device to replace the dead services.

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Ylönën

@TimWardCam @hamatti I have recently read about smart TVs even being bricked (in the sense that you can't really use it for anything anymore) if you don't accept some updated EULA or if some "upgrade" goes wrong. It does not become "dumb" either. You lose access to a device you have paid for.