There should be a law that any change of T&C after the purchase of a product gives the customer the option to refuse the terms and get a full refund of that product, no matter how old it is.
I have a smart light switch I can’t use anymore because they updated the app to force you to make an account to use it and I refused since it worked fine for the last 3 years without them needing to sell my data.
If the firmware on the switch hasn’t been updated to not function with old versions of the app why not just snag an old APK and use the old app version?
At least as long as you own the thing, worth a shot
Easier to replace the light switch at that point
I do believe it was. It was a TP Link smart switch and it routinely needed updates or else it wouldn’t work. The app was finicky as hell before and I don’t really care anymore for it since it’s main use was to turn on the bedroom lights automatically. But now I work 2nd shift so the sun is up anyway when I wake up. It works as a normal switch now.
Especially for physical goods.
Not a lawyer, but 99.9999% sure this violates the CFAA. Correct me if I’m wrong? Would t even matter if they included it in EULA or something, ‘no reasonable person…’
This has class action lawsuit written all over it.
There will certainly be many lawsuits about it, no doubt. They e shot themselves in the foot for no reason here. What a dumb move.
Well, my next tv won’t have a Roku in it. I was just about to buy one, and if anyone here has any advice on a dumb TV with no built-in smart features, I would really appreciate some suggestions. They’re surprisingly difficult to find nowadays. I’m looking for some thing 43 inches or smaller, 4K or 1080, and nothing special. Preferably very cheap.(I’m poor)
Maybe just buy a monitor, particularly if you only need streaming.
This may be the best advice, esp since I only need small and dumb.
Smart TVs are usually sold at a loss because they expect to make the money back through ads, so if you never connect one to the internet in the first place, you get a cheap decent TV and you cost these cockroaches money
My setup is a Samsung that doesn’t have WiFi setup. It supports HDMI CEC, as does my game console and streaming box, so I basically never touch the TV remote. It’s effectively a dumb monitor.
I mostly stream via my Xbox and AppleTV since they’re performant systems.
It’s effectively a dumb monitor.
I may be old-fashioned but that’s the only thing a TV is supposed to be. You choose how to use it by its periphery.
I know smart TVs get a lot of shit here, but I get the desire to have one remote, no need to configure a universal remote, and no need to manage inputs.
Personally, I think HDMI CEC is the best way to simplify remotes and input management, but I can understand why my folks would not even want to think about external devices and would want to buy one rectangle that has all the things in it already, including an app for their cable channels.
It’s an appealing user experience proposition, but it’s often executed poorly, and creates more e-waste.
Most LGs can be set up without internet at all.
My fucking Samsung Refrigerator refused to cool until I paired it to a mobile app. It wasn’t even one of those fancy tablet screen ones. It beeped at me for hours until I had the time to figure out wtf was wrong with it.
That’s insane. I know it’s a ball ache to move them but I’d have taken that thing right back and gotten a refund.
Yeah, I would have to if I had chosen it, but it was probably the cheapest stainless steel they carried in that size. Landlord replacement when the last fridge crapped out
Scepter seems to be the well recommended budget option
How are they with longevity? Like, if they only last 2-3 years, is there a reliable date I can know they’ll die on? That’s good to know.
Like, a lot of TCLs have a hard 3-year life. It’s good to know what you’re buying.
Rtings is a good site for tv reviews across a wide range of price levels. I’ve used several their reviews to make purchases and have been satisfied thus far.
Wonder what their top dumb TV is besides their top budget models:
Hmm, even their monitor TVs seem to all be smart whether $300 or $1000.
Any TV is dumb, if you don’t connect it to the net
Unfortunately I’ve seen a few recent TVs that constantly pester you to connect it to the internet. TV makers are trying to crush that.
I tried to find one without Smart TV features and they do exist, just not at the mid tier and above and not from any mainline brands. Good news is, at the low tier you might have some luck. I’m personally getting an LG, but I heard WebOS is easy to root so I won’t have those Roku problems.
Commercial display TVs. They are dumb TVs with modern displays.
Shit happened to me yesterday. Pissed me off. Bought this TV years ago and suddenly I can’t use it until I accept their new arbitration shit. I’m building a stream box and disabling the internet on this thing. I’m sick of ads anyway.
Do it, its worth the effort
My kid consented. I think. Can she make binding contracts that she doesn’t tell me about because she’s looking for Blues Clues, or am I responsible for every OK she checks when I’m not present?
I let my cat step on the remote. Fucker doesn’t pull his weight, so if the lawyers come after him he’s on his own.
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
“Am I legally liable or is logic to be applied here”
Oh c’mon, apply some logic, you know logic won’t be applied, money will.
When are the users taking them to court. These guys aren’t Nintendo so I expect them to have to fuck themselves.
I expect them to have to fuck themselves
Damn I love that for some reason. Thanks for a giggle
So legally speaking, what happens if it was my 8 year old son, who clicks buttons with no regard for human life, that agreed to this BS TOS? How is that legally binding?
It isn’t, an 8 year old can’t be held to a contract like this. IANAL.
Yeah, this is really dumb. There’s no way they can prove the owner clicked on it and they can’t hold anyone else to the terms.
Yeah our special needs child didn’t have much to say about the new terms. He probably didn’t read the whole thing though
did you ASK him if he read the entire thing?
NO- you just assumed he didn’t. He’s probably up in his bedroom thinking about them terms right now
You know what. Pirate everything.
With jod as my witness, I will download a tv.
My in-laws have all Roku tvs. I had to go over and “fix” the TV’s for them cause they didn’t understand what the hell this was. I straight up just gave them my modded Nvidia shields and bought myself some more. Fuck that shit. We need a better open source tv like interface. I’ve used plasma big screen but it’s not ready for normal people with not Linux but fixing experience.
Enshittification continues. I used to evangelize roku bc I want a dumb TV. I guess that’s no longer valid.
Dude it’s a terms of service update, it’s not like watching ads on a subscription you already pay for.
The terms of service update made you sign away your rights to sue the company if they refused to honour the warranty, that’s what people are upset about
I know, I read it, and those words mean absolutely nothing. You and I will never be affected by it. It’s like a random passerby waving sage at you and telling you they’ve disturbed your aura.
I promise you practically every TOS you’ve ever blindly clicked through said something very similar.
You are downvoted, but you are right that at least some do this
ToS are generally not binding as it’s not expected for the average person to actually read through the dense language. There is precedent for this
Between this and Amazon’s recent nonsense with Firetv I think next time I’ll just buy a generic Android box or something, maybe even a mini PC.
I spend the last couple weeks looking Into modded boxes and anti ad options and I came to the conclusion that a mini pc with wireless keyboard and mouse is the way to go. No special nonsense required. It’s super easy to just find whatever I wanna watch online for free anyways and I don’t need any special program or knowledge.
Now my next issue is between finding a dumb TV or a solid affordable projector. I mostly use the TV for movie nights anyways, I game on my pc and watch most stuff on my pc too.
Yeah I’m leaning that direction but I’m also quite attracted to whatever the newest raspberry pi can do.
Mini PC might be easier but yeah I think either way a sbc will be my choice whether it’s a Ryzen sbc or something else like a raspberry pi I’m honestly not sure.
Can state for a fact it won’t be any amazon or roku device but that’s about all.
The main problem with a mini PC is a lot of streaming services won’t serve you 4k content. Not an issue if you get your content from other sources though.
😎😉
Glad I never connected mine to the internet, I find the interface too laggy and clunky to use the built in streaming apps anyway. It shall remain offline until it dies which is hopefully a long way off.
Is there a FOSS option to turn something like a pi zero into streaming device? My assumption is a flavor of Android is required?
Edit: referring to streaming services such as Netflix. I’m aware of that home plex and jellyfin servers exist
do you want to pir8 stuff or watch streaming apps (Netflix, Hulu, HBO max?)
streaming apps
I’ve been looking for a couple of days. It looks like Kodi is probably the way to go.
You can use any of a number of remote controls, or even a modern cell phone.
Unless your media server is up to the full task of transcoding it needs to have a little bit of horsepower to do transcoding on the client.
i literally only use my roku tv to open hdmi1 which has a fire stick on it (which i only use for jellyfin)
Well that is terrible.
