Wow I have never felt the urge to strangle a refrigerator. I am feeling new emotions everyday thanks to innovations in ad targeting
It’s our fault for buying these pieces of shit.
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?
Ice and water fun a fridge is a luxury, but a nice luxury, and requires zero computers to do it
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.
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’d be worried about either compromising the insulation or having to charge my fridge camera. Remember, this is me going to great lengths to be lazy.
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 be hot, make dinners and swallow rather than spitting out. That’s as smart as I want.
What the fuck
fuck
That too.
this is some edgelord cringe
I’m sitting at home in my tracksuit watching my Andrew Dice Clay tapes and an ad comes on but I’m so deep into a quart of Red, White, and Blue that I can’t find the fast forward button on the remote. Better post on lemmy
Call the nurse, smells like grandpa needs to be changed again.
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.
Classic!
smart tv: what is my purpose?
me: HDMI 1
Which projector do you use?
I use an Epson and just hook up Roku for streaming or use a nearby PC. It has Android TV, but I never use it.
Wait, so you got a projector to avoid the smart features of a tv, but the projector has the smart features anyways, you just don’t use them?
What was the point of getting a projector over a tv?
For the size/space, and portability. Plus I’m an Android Developer, so I can play around with the Android stuff and disable a lot of stuff if needed. And I use it to test some of my apps. But never for anything else. But it is far better than the garbage that is Samsung by miles. It’s streets ahead.
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
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!
One of these companies is gonna do a cost analysis on how much they could be making in additional ad revenue and how much it would cost to equip all their TVs with 5g antennas and pay for the data.
Car, computer, printer, stove, TV etc…
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.
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 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.
Oh I fully agree with you. Marketing in general is one of the most evil business segments - only a notch above phone scammers, really. All of it is edged out not to actually market a product but to sell it to you no matter what. Doesn’t matter if you need it, or if you can afford it, or if what they say about the product is true or not, the goal is to sell sell sell. Nothing else matters but taking your money.
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/calendar/photo frame etc
Building it into the fridge with what I assume are zero options about the actual software involved ain’t it though.
Those already exist and they don’t show ads
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 disabilities? Could have its use.
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 thanks. I’ve got 99 problems, but a fridge ain’t one.
It’s a QR code and not rfid.
I’m not saying this is for everyone, I’m saying that’s a feature that could be handy for certain use cases where people need such assistance in their life.
Fridge probably stop operating if it can’t show you ads. And if the company goes belly up they send a code that kills your fridge. Just like another companies have done.
Are you okay? I don’t either want to experience this but… Just checking.
I’m fine, thank you for your concern.
It is by all means a humourous shitpost. The last line in my post is a pun on the rap song 99 problems, which should be the give away.
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
If it’s dead, it’s dead. Whether you eat it or not, it won’t change anything. The purchase kills the animal, not the consumption.
It only makes an ecological difference if you convert the generated calories into energy.
Sure, but let’s assume you want to eat x grams of animal products a week. You could either buy them and eat them, or buy them, have them expire, and then you have to re-buy them. The second one clearly sucks more.
Sure, that would indeed be a shame. But nobody is dependent on animal products unless there’s a medical reason.
“Have you heard of our lord and savior, veganism?”
Yes, leave me alone.
Fair point, and I am not going to argue that. I am just pointing out that eating animal products you have already bought is the less bad option compared to not eating them.
i think most people would disagree
Nobody is obligated to inject vegan philosophy into every unrelated discussion unless they have a mental disorder.
As a non-vegan, what the fuck, mate? There are ways to disagree without essentially calling people insane.
People like you are the reason everyone hates vegans.
hm. Id see it differently. kill animal -> eat animal 👌
kill animal -> let its body rot in the refrigerator while my hungover ass orders thai food is the closest I get to calling something a sin. its a crime against ecology imo.
I get what youre saying though, I just definitely see it through a different lens
The purchase kills the animal, not the consumption.
the animal is usually dead before someone walks into the grocery store
That’s the main use case I’ve heard as well. But, 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?
The LG concept one I saw that had this, just had enough cameras where there was no way you could put something in without it seeing the QR and scanning it automatically.
In my country they run ads for a “Smart” line of appliances and there’s a part the guy is like “Adjusting thr fridge’s temperature from my phone? Now that’s smart!”
Like mf how often do you need to adjust the temp??? I do it 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.
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.
And it isn’t annoying to have to log into your thermostat every day?
goal post moving …
Either way you need to interact with your thermostat to change it, why add a vulnerability to it that the company may break it at some point?
Log in every day? Many, if not most, smart thermostat apps have location based features to automatically handle the use case OP had mentioned. You can set it up one time and pretty much never need to interact with it again.
The smart thermostat that came with my house has that “feature” and I hate it. If I don’t walk past the thermostat for a few hours, it assumes I’m not home and then lets the house turn into an icebox.
So your thermostat is tracking your location by GPS to know when to turn on?
I mean, I guess at least I can see how someone might benefit from it I suppose. I certainly don’t want that though.
Nobody was asking what you want.
Nobody here is trying to sell you on one of these, you just jumped in to tell us how you cant fathom why someone would want one and were offered a reasonably common use case as an answer.
Wait until they find out about how cars are tracking your every movement
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.
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 🍰
And I’m just here using a fridge that’s been going since before the fall of Yugoslavia…
Why would you need a smart fridge ?
Throughout history mankind has suffered the burden of stupid fridges. We need to celebrate this momentous breakthrough.
Amen
As always, it’s because some people have too much money.
Fridge is not mine, source: https://www.reddit.com/r/assholedesign/comments/1ow6cpu/apparently_my_samsung_fridge_has_ads_now/?sort=top
“Start watching”, like anyone would wanna watch a series on their fridge, lol
Right? That’s what my Samsung smartwatch is for
