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An ad giant wants to control your next TV’s OS
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Solution: get a dumb tv
Getting increasingly hard.
I finally learned why those 50" tvs are so cheap, like $200. Buy a dumb TV that's the same size is easily 5x the price.
Then again, nobody needs a TV and I only bought one during the pandemic, then connected it to my pi hole.
unfortunately,
on some markets they are gone.
"Smart" TVs have squeezed them out.
You can find them. Look for digital signage. And then start crying at the cost.
If you manage to have access to AliExpress, you can have it shipped.
When that is not an option, a big computer screen and a tv card.
Aliexprees is great for low buget electronics,
but I'm skeptical about anything larger.
Plus with EU's hike on tarifs and delivery services quality it's like playing worst type of gambling.
A TV card(and PC obviously) with screen could be for me,
but there is no way my parents would agree to such setup.
Amazon ships the exact same fare of electronics. If it serves of any consolation...
If you have a laptop, there are small USB tv tunners available. If not, a smarphone can access a good deal of content. And depending on what country you are, you might have access to your national channels (open signal ones) over the net.
For the rest: Aaaaarrrr, me ladies! May the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster fill our sails and set our course for rich waters!
Is there a reason to go for a dumb TV as opposed to just not connecting your smart TV to wifi?
People smarter than me have already had that discussion in the thread and after some heated arguments the consensus is that smart TVs have been caught actively searching for same manufacturer hardware and open wi-fi networks to access the web and call home.
So...
So don't connect anything from the same manufacturer to wifi and check if any of your neighbour has an open WiFi network, then? I've checked my neighborhood and hasn't seen any open networks just yet, so I'm lucky.
Lucky of you, then. If not, what could you do? Go door to door asking your neighbours to close their wi-fi?
That might not actually be a bad idea. Telling them their open WiFi is easily connected to from outside might finally push them to put in some form of network security. Shouldn't be too hard unless you have a bad relationship with them.
If that opportunity arises, please try and come back to tell us how it went.
LMAO, that would be an interesting story to tell. Unfortunately, for now, all of my neighbours are at least technologically proficient enough to put in a WiFi password, or at least not stupid enough to not let the ISP technician add it during installation.
Fortunately, I'd risk. Let's be happy for the smallest of things.
What sort of evil is this? ISPs here just connect the router, call back to their operations center to set it up and go. The router has a very long and hard to memorize password to access the wi-fi and often comes hidden by default.
You're right, it's a good thing in general, but bad for story telling purposes.
Do you mean the technicians don't setup the WiFi SSID and password for the user and that the router setup are done through the operation centre instead of on-site?
Routers only have to be connected and signed to the ISP network. They provide the equipments.
From the moment the device is authorized, it's connected to the web and you can connect your devices to it using the default wifi password assigned by the manufacturer (25 digits long); wired connections don't require passwords.
Oh, then thats the same thing. I thought you meant the routers can be accessed remotely by ISPs for the first time setups. In my case, the technician is just more involved while they perform the router setup by asking the users what the SSID and password will be. I suppose it makes it easier for non-technical users who'd probably never change their WiFi password after the first setup. The account password is still left as the default one shown under the router, though.
I think that is router management and not router authorization.
Good luck with that