The good, the bad, and the ugly behind the push for more smart displays
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This whole product category seems like it can be summed up as computers where functionality has been crippled while ad-delivery options have been magnified. As far as I am concerned, there is no justification for any of these products to exist. Maybe there is a niche for a product that is essentially a wall-mounted tablet, but if it's just an ad-delivery device I don't want it.
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I want dumb displays only, TYVM. Although I think Apple should really really consider putting this tech into its next iteration of Apple TV. Seems like an obvious match: single inexpensive box that can display to a TV or monitor, can stream video, and can control your home automation -- now with a handsfree option for control via voice (that's better than current Siri).
That's what we want. The fact that Apple is shoving it into an iPad screen makes me question their motivations.
That's what we want. The fact that Apple is shoving it into an iPad screen makes me question their motivations.
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I ended up buying some Samsung monitors without realizing they're smart... Found out after installing them that there's no way to turn off sleep. So, if I let my computer go to sleep, the monitors shut off, and when I wake my computer, it completely screws my desktops. So it turns out, I just have to either turn off my computer, or stop it from sleeping at all times. Thanks Samsung, your smart monitors really are neat.
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In slightly more words: the only "smart" displays should be phones, tablets, or laptops, where a full-fledged computing platform happens to have the screen built-in for portability reasons. Otherwise, displays should be very good at accepting as inputs, and rendering faithfully as outputs, whatever I give them, without a network connection in sight. Everything else is inherent obsolescence, a massive compounding of failure modes and reduction in repairability/modularity, and an invitation for tomfoolery by the entities choosing to insert themselves between you and your content.
[h]If I were king of the world, products like this would be subject to Butlerian levels of banning, for people's own good.[/h]
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Maybe I am dumb. But what do these do that the phone already in my pocket doesn't do?
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So far as net connected devices of any kind are concerned, mine has been a forced evolution from "way cool" to "no way." Network privacy is a public health concern, targeted propaganda being the disease. I will no more allow my behavior to be analyzed than I will refuse to wear a mask in during a respiratory plague. Neither will I be subjected to advertising and risk being infected by it. In particular, I won't pay for anything that uses me to create more effective propaganda or subjects me to it unless I'm confident I can subvert it.
No sane society would permit this sort of exploitation, but we don't live in such a society. Given corporate control of legislatures, we're unlikely to ever see one. The best we can do is absolute personal refusal to participate, and to encourage others to forcefully decline as well.
There is no ad that doesn't seek to cover the world in garbage, reducing our existence to that of mindless conduits from pointless factory to deadly landfill. Teleologically speaking, the function of the entire exercise is to destroy human habitats. Advertising/propaganda is pernicious. The invasion of personal privacy is wrong. To see an ad is to be harmed. To be used to create one is to do harm. The answer is no, and no.
No sane society would permit this sort of exploitation, but we don't live in such a society. Given corporate control of legislatures, we're unlikely to ever see one. The best we can do is absolute personal refusal to participate, and to encourage others to forcefully decline as well.
There is no ad that doesn't seek to cover the world in garbage, reducing our existence to that of mindless conduits from pointless factory to deadly landfill. Teleologically speaking, the function of the entire exercise is to destroy human habitats. Advertising/propaganda is pernicious. The invasion of personal privacy is wrong. To see an ad is to be harmed. To be used to create one is to do harm. The answer is no, and no.
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I struggle to understand this product category. What purpose does a smart display serve that can't be done better by a tablet?
Anyways, the only one I'd ever consider is a DakBoard. But again, why?
Anyways, the only one I'd ever consider is a DakBoard. But again, why?
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Worked on one of these products at a concept stage years ago. As presented, there were lots of user interactions to choose to disarm cameras or consciously turn the device off, but those affordances disappeared in development to leave basically a surveillance device.
One of the only projects that in retrospect I'm ashamed to have worked on.
Political commentary aside, all of these machines substitute visibility or vague acquaintance for a true sense of presence or communication. I hate the things.
One of the only projects that in retrospect I'm ashamed to have worked on.
Political commentary aside, all of these machines substitute visibility or vague acquaintance for a true sense of presence or communication. I hate the things.
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The amount of brain power now dedicated to making things (real and virtual) whose only function is either to gather information on people, or push ads towards them, is absolutely astounding.
Added to the amount of brain power and resources used to make money out of manipulating financial "objects", We could solve so many real actual problems if we weren't so fucking greedy selfish, and manipulative.
Added to the amount of brain power and resources used to make money out of manipulating financial "objects", We could solve so many real actual problems if we weren't so fucking greedy selfish, and manipulative.
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Sit on the kitchen counter…or mounted to the wall near the thermostat. Providing information and control for the household. I can control the lights from my phone now. Neat, but I wouldn’t surrender my wall switches.
Edit to clarify: I do control my lights from the phone. I also like having that control on the wall.
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In all fairness, I have that same problem with a dumb Samsung monitor. To fix it, I have the monitor plugged into a hub, and the hub plugged into my computer. When it acts up, I just have to reset the hub to get things back to normal; the computer figures out how to restore the desktop.
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I bought two Amazon Echo Shows in 2020. They will be the last I ever purchase. Amazon recently infected them with advertisements that you cannot opt out of in any way. I had to permanently set one to nighttime mode since it's my bedside clock and the other was configured like it's located in Canada to kill add on it.
If Apple releases smart displays, I'm inclined to trust them. They have a better privacy record than most and don't push ads like Microsoft or Amazon or Google.
If Apple releases smart displays, I'm inclined to trust them. They have a better privacy record than most and don't push ads like Microsoft or Amazon or Google.
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I keep meaning to buy a used iPad mini and mount it flush in the entry hallway showing a custom view in home assistant or the home app with a feed from the doorbell camera as well as a number of soft controls that would be useful to have there like lock statuses around the house, etc.
Part of me kinda wants to see what apple will do for this, the other part of me wants to just do it and I can always buy the new hotness later if they get it right.
Part of me kinda wants to see what apple will do for this, the other part of me wants to just do it and I can always buy the new hotness later if they get it right.
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Spies. That's what you call an entity that comes into your environment, learns all about you, lies to you, and manipulates you for its own benefit to your detriment.
Sure, the implementation is vast and complex and discussing it requires jargon, but at its core it couldn't be simpler. These devices exist to observe and manipulate the many in the interests of the few. It's simple. Spies. They're all dirty little spies and should be hung by the neck until dead, dead, dead. The production of them should be illegal, but corporate control of legislatures makes that impossible. The best we can do is a guerrilla war.
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At least Viruses just want to make babies, not sell their victims(') stuff.
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Smart Displays are popular for the very reasons folks are shooting them down here, and Apple also does not cater to these markets for the same reasons.
They are popular in a niche amount of users, and unpopular outside of it.
They are popular in a niche amount of users, and unpopular outside of it.
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Honestly, they are convenience devices. It's nice to just tell my lights to turn on and off, ask for a weather report as I am getting dressed, tell my TVs to turn on and off, play music, etc.
The problem is, as the rest of the thread notes, everything else.
Amazon's privacy record makes Echo a complete no go.
Google Nest/Hub was okay enough, but with nearly as many privacy concerns. Couple that with stupid shit like removing the ability to do things as simple as run a stop watch, and WTH?
Apple will most likely respect privacy, but their record of interoperability with non-Apple devices is poor.
So, shit. I'm back to a dumb home and probably will be for a while yet.
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I don't have any smart monitors and based on the evidence I probably won't go looking for one. I do have several smart TVs, ranging from 5 years old to almost 15. What do they have in common? They all collect info and I had to go into each one and select the appropriate check boxes in a bad UI to stop them from collecting and sending my viewing info. It's painful at best and a deception at worst.
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chaos215bar2
Ars Tribunus Militum
Apple actually seems pretty serious about supporting Matter and Thread. They may well wind up with one of the more interoperable smart home solutions out there that doesn't require administering your own Home Assistant server or similar.
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These devices should be called Telescreens (with acknowledgment to George Orwell)
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OrangeCream
Ars Legatus Legionis
Why not? It’s a HomePod with a display. Or maybe an AppleTV with a display.
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OrangeCream
Ars Legatus Legionis
Stay online and connected to your home even when you’re out and about?
Think about how today a HomePod or Apple TV can route and control your cameras, lights, and security system. Your iPhone can’t do that when you’ve left the house, because your iPhone needs an endpoint to connect to in the first place. That’s what this smart display would do. It’s essentially an Apple TV with a built in screen.
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Has there been a movement yet to hack your own TV and replace it with either FOSS or just to brick most of the non-actual-TV functionality?
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Cheaper. Lower power. Geared more for home control and music and maybe enhanced Siri and much cheaper.
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OrangeCream
Ars Legatus Legionis
That’s not what I would call a HomePod or AppleTV. This is just a HomePod or AppleTV with a display.
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Ours is a glorified alarm clock. It’s too underpowered to use its UI for anything effective, and voice control with 3rd party devices (e.g., Sonos, Hue) has it’s challenging moments.
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iPads are pretty low power, and 10th gen iPads with 11" screens are $250. I'm skeptical this will be cheaper.
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Mine is a kitchen timer. I replaced the one in my bedroom with a HomePod because Alexa would turn on the fan in another room when I told her to turn on the fan but if I had my bedroom fan on and told her to turn it off it would turn off the correct one.
The echo show also frequently shows a red x in place of buttons on the screen.
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It's amazing to me that Microsoft never really solved the problem they created with auto-detecting monitors. HDMI is over twenty years old, yet to this day Windows will still completely screw up your desktop if a monitor is completely turned off. Even if all of your monitors are turned off/disconnected; what is even the point of rearranging the icons that by definition no one can even see? How have they not figured that one out yet?
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I couldn't agree with you more. I have watched the wonders of microprocessor based tech evolve since 1983 and have never been more deponent with the direction it has taken over the past decade.
At this point, all products/services advertised using any medium are simply added to my boycott list. If you advertise it, I will never buy it. Nothing personal about what you are offering, I simply refuse to support the advertising industry and its insidious infiltration of every aspect of living.
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