I'd love to know what examples are bucking the trend. I'd love a high-end dumb TV. But I'm willing to let the shite slide as I only ever intend to use my pc to run the streaming, instead of the...
I'd love to know what examples are bucking the trend.
I'd love a high-end dumb TV. But I'm willing to let the shite slide as I only ever intend to use my pc to run the streaming, instead of the native apps.
One of the few things that remains steadfast is wikipedia, in my view, at least. I hope it continues not changing.
I was also donating last years, but I stopped, simply because I don't know how much money they have and if they need more + my local chapter is very biased and selective in what they approve to be...
I was also donating last years, but I stopped, simply because I don't know how much money they have and if they need more + my local chapter is very biased and selective in what they approve to be added to Wikipedia so I don't feel very enthusiastic about it.
Since you mentioned TV, Apple TV (the box). It's remained effectively the same device for at least the last 8 years. I can't even tell which Apple TV I'm using if they hadn't updated the remotes....
Since you mentioned TV, Apple TV (the box).
It's remained effectively the same device for at least the last 8 years. I can't even tell which Apple TV I'm using if they hadn't updated the remotes.
It's fast, the UI is simple, and Apple isn't pushing ads nor selling your usage data.
It has apps for every major streamer, but if that's not your flavor, it's also got easy access to the TV store (formerly iTunes) where you can still purchase or rent movies at fair prices.
However, most people I know get a Fire Stick, Roku, or just use the built-in OS, which do sell your usage data and show ads. The market has spoken and it chose the enshittified services.
Yeah, one of Apple's great flaws is their deprecation strategy. They get praise for their OS support counting from when they first started selling it, but those congratulating them often forget to...
Yeah, one of Apple's great flaws is their deprecation strategy. They get praise for their OS support counting from when they first started selling it, but those congratulating them often forget to acknowledge that Apple sells hardware for many years after release. That third gen Apple TV was released in 2012, but last sale date was in 2016. The last update for it was 2020. So 8 years of support or 4 years depending on how you count it. Honestly, 8 is kind of low too..
On the other hand the generation after that was released in 2015 so we'll hit 10 years soon on that one. It's a crapshoot with Apple.
That’s hardly enshittification though. Streaming boxes are glorified smartphones - or shunted smartphones, depending on your view. Smartphones need support and have limited lifespans. The device...
That’s hardly enshittification though. Streaming boxes are glorified smartphones - or shunted smartphones, depending on your view. Smartphones need support and have limited lifespans. The device the article mentions is so old that it doesn’t even support outputting 1080i. It’s over a decade old and it doesn’t even seem to have a way to update the Netflix app given that it doesn’t have an App Store.
Yes. Completely unironically yes. The hearts of these devices are made by companies who refuse to publish details on how they work so it’s a huge hurdle to reverse engineer, to the point where...
Yes. Completely unironically yes. The hearts of these devices are made by companies who refuse to publish details on how they work so it’s a huge hurdle to reverse engineer, to the point where some parts (I.e. the graphics accelerators) will effectively never have real support for them again.
But realistically speaking, that doesn’t really matter. People buy those for the experience they offer, and that is the proprietary software on the device. It doesn’t matter if you can install Kodi on your AppleTV because it’s not what people buy one for. It’s unreasonable to expect anyone to continually offer the labor and expense of development and improvements without payment, and in the case of devices that means replacing them. While that sucks, we also need to acknowledge that any networked device is going to be subject to change and needing replacement eventually. I have bought routers, WiFi APs, IP phones, etc, all of which eventually needed to be replaced.
It’s the way the world is. Life is considerably better if you just accept that the sky is blue rather than yelling at it for not being green every day.
It’s the way the world is. Life is considerably better if you just accept that the sky is blue rather than yelling at it for not being green every day.
Agreed on many fronts, but being a supporter of products, manufacturers and companies whose ethics march your own is also important. I'll exclusively file share popular music, buy concert tickets...
Agreed on many fronts, but being a supporter of products, manufacturers and companies whose ethics march your own is also important.
I'll exclusively file share popular music, buy concert tickets and support the little guy on Bandcamp because I believe in file 'ownership' and not lining the pockets of billion dollar companies with extortionate marketplace policies.
...And the nice thing about keeping with the niche is that there are companies making MP3 players who are there to fill the gap.
I'm sure that you weren't only making an argument for accepting the reality of our current landscape, but I figured I'd weigh in anyhow.
Everybody picks their little battles and draws their little red lines, and frankly, I wish people would dig in a little more.
I really want to get an Apple TV but I've been waiting patiently for Apple to release the next model. MacRumors is currently suggesting that it will release around the end of the year.
I really want to get an Apple TV but I've been waiting patiently for Apple to release the next model.
MacRumors is currently suggesting that it will release around the end of the year.
Honestly I would say just buy it now. The last hardware drought for the Apple TV lasted 4 years, and there hasn’t really been a substantial update since 2017 with 4k support. The only thing that...
Honestly I would say just buy it now. The last hardware drought for the Apple TV lasted 4 years, and there hasn’t really been a substantial update since 2017 with 4k support. The only thing that has really changed since the HD 2015 model is the remote, and you can buy the new remote to use with the old hardware. The only noticeable hardware difference is the performance, and all of them have better performance than any smart TV, and better than all the Roku/fire stick devices I have tried.
Besides, if you really need the new one immediately, you can just sell the olds one when they release a new one. Apple devices keep their resale value, so you can probably resell for around 80% of purchase price.
Linux is still great (at least for my purposes, Internet, Programming, Gaming, and general desktop PC usage). I use OpenSuse Tumbleweed and have basically zero problems with it. UBlock Origin on...
I'd love to know what examples are bucking the trend.
Linux is still great (at least for my purposes, Internet, Programming, Gaming, and general desktop PC usage). I use OpenSuse Tumbleweed and have basically zero problems with it.
UBlock Origin on Firefox is a fantastic adblocker that keeps working just fine. The only reason why I survive the Internet without ulcers. And Firefox itself works pretty ok for me, too, despite all the controversies. So far it was always possible to disable the annoyances with a user.js entry, so I'm glad it's still around.
I'm also very happy with Steam as a platform. (And yes - I'm aware of the gambling sites, I know that Valve played a large role in bringing DRM into gaming (and fuck them for that)), but for me personally Steam works great (especially with Proton on Linux) and it keeps getting more features. Gaming could be so much worse without Valve, so I'm pretty happy that they are still a private company and so far haven't been enshittified like the rest.
And - not yet relevant - I'm very much looking forward to the Ladybird browser. I'm not even sure whether I will switch to it from Firefox, but it is great to know that someone somewhat 'idealistic' is actually working on a new, modern browser that might be a real alternative to all the other browser enshittification woes.
DuckDuckGo and smaller search engines like Marginalia Search are also still ok.
Wow, 1994! Early days! 🙂 I switched around 2015 to Linux, before then I was still ok with Windows 7. Only Windows 10 was too intrusive for my taste. Now I wouldn't go back if Microsoft paid me to....
Wow, 1994! Early days! 🙂
I switched around 2015 to Linux, before then I was still ok with Windows 7. Only Windows 10 was too intrusive for my taste. Now I wouldn't go back if Microsoft paid me to.
There's also a newsletter available for Ladybird (at the bottom of their website); nice to get a quick written overview.
Oh man, this brings back some memories! I've just flashed back about 25 years, sitting trying to install SuSE on the family computer, rifling through the stack of manuals I'd somehow had the...
Oh man, this brings back some memories! I've just flashed back about 25 years, sitting trying to install SuSE on the family computer, rifling through the stack of manuals I'd somehow had the foresight to print out and trying to figure out how the hell to fix a broken bootloader with just the info I had in front of me, because there was no way in hell I'd be getting any more help without getting my dial up access back again. Good times indeed!
I don't think I ever did get the Windows sound drivers working reliably after whatever ham-fisted partition hackery I ended up doing to get both OSes usable again, come to think of it...
If by Linux, you mean “the overall idea of Linux”, sure. But both Red Hat and Ubuntu have been getting worse for end users for years. Granted, not to the same extent as the overall computing...
If by Linux, you mean “the overall idea of Linux”, sure. But both Red Hat and Ubuntu have been getting worse for end users for years. Granted, not to the same extent as the overall computing industry, but still.
Dare I even mention something like Kagi? It's mentioned so often as a fantastic product, it almost feels like a meme (or makes me feel like a marketing shill). They just get better and better....
Dare I even mention something like Kagi? It's mentioned so often as a fantastic product, it almost feels like a meme (or makes me feel like a marketing shill). They just get better and better. Each month, my value for money with them increases as they crank out user-centric features.
I'd throw in "high-end" UK supermarkets as something that are, in my experience, bucking the enshittification trend. I regularly shop at Marks and Spencers and Waitrose. I started because I moved house, and they ended up being the nearest shops to me. I love them. For the longest time I believed they were shops only the truly affluent could afford to shop in regularly, but it turns out that's nonsense. For basics like fruits and vegetables (which are relatively cheap in the UK as a whole), or own-brand staples, they are rarely more expensive than any other shop. They don't necessarily have a 'value' range, so you won't get rock bottom prices, and they definitely cater for people looking for the more exorbitant side of the spectrum. But the shops are clean and spacious, the produce is notably higher quality for a similar price, you rarely find parking or general traffic issues, and it's just a much nicer experience. Where I see shrinkflation in branded products, I find consistency and often greater quality in their own brand products.
Supermarkets in the UK are actually pretty great in general when compared on a world stage, at least in my own experience. We have a fiercly competitive market with no dominant company as of yet. Tesco is the largest my a fair margin, but only represent 28% market cap. See for yourself. I'm not sure how long it will last as there have been several attempted mergers and buyouts, fortunately stopped due to monopoly rules, but with Asda and Morrisons both struggling (the former due to being effectively purchased and stripped of assets...), we may see a shift for the worse in the coming years.
I've definitely noticed that Waitrose is way better for quality and size of vegetables and other fresh produce. They still absolutely take the piss by putting higher prices on differently labelled...
I've definitely noticed that Waitrose is way better for quality and size of vegetables and other fresh produce. They still absolutely take the piss by putting higher prices on differently labelled same product stuff though, so we use some combination of Tesco and Waitrose. I also saw that Waitrose has recently capitulated to the rubbish 'special members club price' trend that they had resisted for so long too. Another point of note is that Waitrose staff usually seem way happier than staff in other supermarkets, potentially because of their cooperative organisational structure.
The employee ownership makes a real difference, from what I’ve seen. A couple of my family members have worked there over the years and while it’s not perfect, it’s a lot closer to what business...
The employee ownership makes a real difference, from what I’ve seen. A couple of my family members have worked there over the years and while it’s not perfect, it’s a lot closer to what business owners like to pretend capitalism is about: people need groceries, the workers make that possible and convenient, and the money from doing so pays their wages - everyone wins! Irony of ironies that so many “socialist boogeyman” social media posts are photos of current failures of capitalism, while the free market dream is being lived by a workers cooperative…
Anyway, yeah, that whole ethos being built right into the structure does actually affect the day to day. Everyone’s broadly in the same boat: do a decent job, treat each other like colleagues, provide a service people actually need, and go home with money to pay the bills. You’re still going to have the occasional rude member of the public, or annoying manager, or whatever - even a Star Trek utopia would have that - but at the core you’re part of a company there to do a job that needs doing, rather than an inconvenient line item on the balance sheet that the shareholders would really prefer to eliminate if it were at all possible.
Dumb tv is dead. What you should probably look out for is large scale monitors, but prepare to pay an arm and a leg because those are largely ment for the digital signage market. I will say that...
Dumb tv is dead. What you should probably look out for is large scale monitors, but prepare to pay an arm and a leg because those are largely ment for the digital signage market.
I will say that my high end Sony tv at least keeps the smart stuff out of the way and has yet to show any unprompted ads.
That's what I did too. Got a ridiculous deal on a samsung TV on Black Friday something like: Buy this phone and get a free 50 inch TV. I then sold the phone and basically paid 100-150 Euro for a...
That's what I did too. Got a ridiculous deal on a samsung TV on Black Friday something like: Buy this phone and get a free 50 inch TV. I then sold the phone and basically paid 100-150 Euro for a pretty nice TV. Just used it with a fireTV. I don't need smart features on a TV if I can have them on a dedicated device
Yeah, the only things l've connected to my tv are hdmi and power cables. Afaik there's no wifi with password anywhere close, even if it were it would only say hdmi source 1, hdmi source 2, etc. At...
Yeah, the only things l've connected to my tv are hdmi and power cables. Afaik there's no wifi with password anywhere close, even if it were it would only say hdmi source 1, hdmi source 2, etc. At least I don't think they are using video or image analyzing to determine my content (yet).
The researchers looked at TVs made by two leading manufacturers, Samsung and LG. ...
They found that the smart TVs captured snapshots of audio or video as often as every 10 milliseconds, batched them and used an algorithm to generate a “fingerprint” representing all the content over a time interval, such as the past minute. This fingerprint was sent to a company server and matched against a database of all the content available through the TV service.
Of course, but iirc (some of) these devices save up a history, and then if an unsecured wifi pops up they will connect and upload the data. Could be your neighbours, could be someone you know...
Of course, but iirc (some of) these devices save up a history, and then if an unsecured wifi pops up they will connect and upload the data. Could be your neighbours, could be someone you know sharing from their phone because they don't want to inconvenience you with asking for your wifi password when they want to use their laptop.
Note that this is true if you give consent. You have to enable it yourself. This says nothing about them doing it anyway, you need to fully disconnect to be sure, but I'm not too worried LG is...
Note that this is true if you give consent. You have to enable it yourself. This says nothing about them doing it anyway, you need to fully disconnect to be sure, but I'm not too worried LG is tempting fate with EU watchdogs.
The modern trend of governments having dedicated digital teams and consolidating government websites into a cohesive, consistent whole. Essentially kickstarted by the UK GDS with the Gov.uk...
The modern trend of governments having dedicated digital teams and consolidating government websites into a cohesive, consistent whole. Essentially kickstarted by the UK GDS with the Gov.uk website. Fantastic examples in how to lay out a lot of information into an accessible form. Their design system is open on Github and used as a basis by other governments.
If you've seen US websites that have that "An official website of the United States government" banner, that site was built on the USWDS. Singapore has something similar with the SGDS.
And for all the complaints around them, the Australian taxation and banking systems are still steadily improving as a whole. The New Payments Platform is a set of tech built by SWIFT with the Reserve Bank that enables a nationwide real-time 24/7 payments clearinghouse and widely supported by local banks. So concepts like T+2 settlement or NET 30 or "we can't pay you on a weekend" are entirely a bottleneck of company processes now, not due to the underlying platform.
Want instant payments on a weekend, with emojis in the description? Sure why not, just use your regular bank app. No Venmo, no Apple Cash. That's on top of the already existing tech like contactless payments, merchant identification, customizable notifications like when you get paid, a system that lets account owners securely give time-limited read-only access to data to say budget apps (and revoke them at any time), REST APIs and being able to sign up for a new bank account or credit card completely online in a few minutes (and cancel the previous one) without ever talking to a human.
On the tax side, Single Touch Payroll streamlines backend systems by linking company payroll directly to government taxation systems and retirement funds, and invoked during payroll runs. Reporting and payment happens in the same run when people get paid, no more waiting for end of fiscal year and such for the company to crunch the numbers so you can file your own returns. Come tax time, the tax return form (also completely online, not a PDF form) is already heavily prefilled and for simple setups you just have to confirm the numbers shown before filing it. You can actually see your income and withheld tax being reported incrementally throughout the year if you check it every month or so.
And speaking of Australian tax, the government portal to access federal services like taxation and universal healthcare (myGov) supports passkeys and lets you completely disable password logins.
Some great mentions here so I'll add one I havent seen. VideoLAN makers of VLC have refused to enshittify. They have refused countless offers to buy them from VCs because they know it would...
Some great mentions here so I'll add one I havent seen. VideoLAN makers of VLC have refused to enshittify. They have refused countless offers to buy them from VCs because they know it would eventually destroy the product.
They're headed that way though. Sure the "quests" aka ads are hideable for now, but eventually they'll remove that option "accidentally", walk it back after backlash, and then eventually bake the...
They're headed that way though. Sure the "quests" aka ads are hideable for now, but eventually they'll remove that option "accidentally", walk it back after backlash, and then eventually bake the ads in some other way.
Is that "enshittification" or just adjusting their services to what they can maintain without doing the enshittifying? Honestly the word doesn't mean anything to me anymore besides "things the...
Is that "enshittification" or just adjusting their services to what they can maintain without doing the enshittifying?
Honestly the word doesn't mean anything to me anymore besides "things the person using it doesn't like."
pdf is a strange choice to include there. The objective of pdf is perfect layout preservation, not perfect text flow preservation, and it's extremely good at it. There are lots of applications...
pdf is a strange choice to include there. The objective of pdf is perfect layout preservation, not perfect text flow preservation, and it's extremely good at it. There are lots of applications (including but not limited to printing) where layout matters. Virtually all pdfs render exactly the same - all the while glyphs and diagrams are stored vectorially and can be zoomed to any size - in any good reader implementation; it's almost a miracle of interoperability. These include web libraries everyone can use like mozilla's pdf.js, and web applications like google's suite, or a number of desktop freeware readers. New documents can be created with free applications like Libreoffice or LaTeX, or simply virtual printer drivers. No one has had to use Adobe anything to deal with the majority of pds for many years if they don't want to.
I'll allow that pdf documents shouldn't be used for displaying information on the web, if that's the point they're trying to make. But it's an unreasonable demand to want all user manuals and other designed documents to be converted to webpages.
Sadly there are a lot of real world examples where PDF means Adobe. Especially for those weird use cases where Adobe somehow managed to shoehorn PDF into, like 3D models.
Sadly there are a lot of real world examples where PDF means Adobe. Especially for those weird use cases where Adobe somehow managed to shoehorn PDF into, like 3D models.
How about Steam? It started out as a universally hated DRM scheme. Now it is the most popular digital game storefront. It’s DRM is optional (for the devs), and it’s one of the most consumer...
How about Steam? It started out as a universally hated DRM scheme. Now it is the most popular digital game storefront. It’s DRM is optional (for the devs), and it’s one of the most consumer friendly DRM schemes I have seen (as far as any DRM can be consumer friendly). They ported the vast majority of windows games to Linux, and that work is open source. They built one of the best gaming handhelds you can buy, and are about to release the only serious competitor against windows for a manufacturer preinstalled operating system.
Personally I use it despite avoiding other DRM using services where I can but I am not sure I would actually call it all that good for the customer rather than a best possible version of the worst...
Personally I use it despite avoiding other DRM using services where I can but I am not sure I would actually call it all that good for the customer rather than a best possible version of the worst kind of game store platform.
It is still possible to see various friction points(forced game updates for example). Steam is simply very good at smoothing them over for the majority of use cases and providing added value
Less bad(even significantly) than alternatives is not very high bar to clear nowadays in some areas.
Ugh, this absolutely screwed me over in the past, though I'll admit it's more of an edge case. I lived without home internet for about a year. I lived somewhere rural enough that major ISPs would...
forced game updates for example
Ugh, this absolutely screwed me over in the past, though I'll admit it's more of an edge case.
I lived without home internet for about a year. I lived somewhere rural enough that major ISPs would flat out refuse to go through the trouble of running cable. I didn't want to bother with satellite, and this was prior to the cellular internet plans offered now.
Before moving, I downloaded a ton of Steam games locally. Intending to play them offline. And it worked, until...
The one time I needed to do something online with my PC, I used my phone as a cellular hotspot. I didn't realize I had steam running in the background. Now that Steam became aware of updates available for probably 100 of my games, when I disconnected I wasn't able to play them anymore.
I've heard this has been fixed since, but that was brutal.
(Sidenote: a local ISP ended up providing gigabit fiber. Verizon ran the fiber to the edge of the neighborhood but abandoned it, so the local ISP bought it and finished the job.)
I’d be happy with a list of stuff that just remained the same over many years. Stuff that does one thing well, that managed to avoid the temptation of new features or UI redesigns.
I’d be happy with a list of stuff that just remained the same over many years. Stuff that does one thing well, that managed to avoid the temptation of new features or UI redesigns.
These can basically all be traced to the imbalance of power between consumer and the companies making these products. And also to the sheer indifference of the average person towards the means...
These can basically all be traced to the imbalance of power between consumer and the companies making these products. And also to the sheer indifference of the average person towards the means they use daily in their lives and to the consequences that are indirect and not in plain sight, but painfully obvious under any kind of critical scrutiny.
Windows - I am not even sure what they would have to do to make more people move to(realistically) Linux. They effectivelly stopped making the os for the actual end user with 10 and the effect on their market share is close to zero.
Web discourse - when users on reddit tried to voice some dissatisfaction over the course of the platform the common response from others was - who cares, moderators suck, it doesn't matter and the the inability to let go for a few days.
Dumb tvs are almost impossible to actually buy despite smart tvs adding ever more anti features and most advice comes in the form of non letting them go on the Internet. At best that is delaying action until it is more widely acceptable to force always online on them.
Search was atrocious for a decade now and only lately am I personally noticing more widespread concern over it.
Have you heard of Telly? It’s a smart TV you can get for free! With Telly, you get a TV that comes with an entire second screen for smart functionality! Except that smart functionality is ads. And...
Have you heard of Telly? It’s a smart TV you can get for free! With Telly, you get a TV that comes with an entire second screen for smart functionality!
Except that smart functionality is ads. And it also has a camera so the TV can watch you. Which it does constantly. Also accepting the deal means they have the legal right to damages if you…
block the camera
attempt to disable or interfere with the networking equipment
use ad blocking a la pihole
attempt to plug in an unauthorized device
I swear the entire concept was someone reading Fahrenheit 451 and coming away with “I want that.*
At the risk of beating a dead horse, what instantly came to my mind instead was 1984's telescreen. You know, the device that everyone has but you're not allowed to turn off, and acts as both a...
I swear the entire concept was someone reading Fahrenheit 451 and coming away with "I want that."
At the risk of beating a dead horse, what instantly came to my mind instead was 1984's telescreen. You know, the device that everyone has but you're not allowed to turn off, and acts as both a television set (which since this is 1984, means broadcasting propaganda) and a surveillance camera.
It's unsettling how prescient that post was. I've seen it referenced more and more lately which is striking, since that original post is over a decade old.
It's unsettling how prescient that post was. I've seen it referenced more and more lately which is striking, since that original post is over a decade old.
That's odd, because everything I can find says that it is closed unless you open it for a video call with Zoom. And the second screen isn't just an ad screen, it's a screen beneath the TV that has...
Also accepting the deal means they have the legal right to damages if you…
• block the camera
That's odd, because everything I can find says that it is closed unless you open it for a video call with Zoom. And the second screen isn't just an ad screen, it's a screen beneath the TV that has widgets, stock tickers, etc, as well as ads that display no matter what you're using the TV for. And all data is anonymized. Sounds awful, but not as awful as you're saying.
Is there a physical shutter for the camera? Is it open source so we can tell when the camera is being used? One of the thing that has been written about it is that it has "a sensor that can tell...
Is there a physical shutter for the camera? Is it open source so we can tell when the camera is being used? One of the thing that has been written about it is that it has "a sensor that can tell how many people are watching". Isn't that the camera? And if they are collecting that data, it would mean that the camera is on at all times. Data being anonymized is not the same as data not being collected, and you're putting a great deal of trust in them to believe that the data cannot be traced back to you.
I'd also say that just because the second screen can display widgets and such doesn't really matter much because literally the entire reason it exists is to display ads at all times.
They literally include the ability to fine you up to $1000 in their terms and conditions if you don't follow their very specific series of requirements -- violations include plugging in any...
They literally include the ability to fine you up to $1000 in their terms and conditions if you don't follow their very specific series of requirements -- violations include plugging in any hardware that they have not specifically approved or merely not using it as your primary family television. The device includes a sensor that keeps track of how many people are in front of it at all times (regardless of whether the camera is on).
I'd love to know what examples are bucking the trend.
I'd love a high-end dumb TV. But I'm willing to let the shite slide as I only ever intend to use my pc to run the streaming, instead of the native apps.
One of the few things that remains steadfast is wikipedia, in my view, at least. I hope it continues not changing.
Hard agree here. That’s actually why I finally started donating monthly a year or two ago. It’s legitimately a serious accomplishment of humanity.
I was also donating last years, but I stopped, simply because I don't know how much money they have and if they need more + my local chapter is very biased and selective in what they approve to be added to Wikipedia so I don't feel very enthusiastic about it.
Since you mentioned TV, Apple TV (the box).
However, most people I know get a Fire Stick, Roku, or just use the built-in OS, which do sell your usage data and show ads. The market has spoken and it chose the enshittified services.
Yeah, one of Apple's great flaws is their deprecation strategy. They get praise for their OS support counting from when they first started selling it, but those congratulating them often forget to acknowledge that Apple sells hardware for many years after release. That third gen Apple TV was released in 2012, but last sale date was in 2016. The last update for it was 2020. So 8 years of support or 4 years depending on how you count it. Honestly, 8 is kind of low too..
On the other hand the generation after that was released in 2015 so we'll hit 10 years soon on that one. It's a crapshoot with Apple.
That’s hardly enshittification though. Streaming boxes are glorified smartphones - or shunted smartphones, depending on your view. Smartphones need support and have limited lifespans. The device the article mentions is so old that it doesn’t even support outputting 1080i. It’s over a decade old and it doesn’t even seem to have a way to update the Netflix app given that it doesn’t have an App Store.
Yes. Completely unironically yes. The hearts of these devices are made by companies who refuse to publish details on how they work so it’s a huge hurdle to reverse engineer, to the point where some parts (I.e. the graphics accelerators) will effectively never have real support for them again.
But realistically speaking, that doesn’t really matter. People buy those for the experience they offer, and that is the proprietary software on the device. It doesn’t matter if you can install Kodi on your AppleTV because it’s not what people buy one for. It’s unreasonable to expect anyone to continually offer the labor and expense of development and improvements without payment, and in the case of devices that means replacing them. While that sucks, we also need to acknowledge that any networked device is going to be subject to change and needing replacement eventually. I have bought routers, WiFi APs, IP phones, etc, all of which eventually needed to be replaced.
It’s the way the world is. Life is considerably better if you just accept that the sky is blue rather than yelling at it for not being green every day.
Agreed on many fronts, but being a supporter of products, manufacturers and companies whose ethics march your own is also important.
I'll exclusively file share popular music, buy concert tickets and support the little guy on Bandcamp because I believe in file 'ownership' and not lining the pockets of billion dollar companies with extortionate marketplace policies.
...And the nice thing about keeping with the niche is that there are companies making MP3 players who are there to fill the gap.
I'm sure that you weren't only making an argument for accepting the reality of our current landscape, but I figured I'd weigh in anyhow.
Everybody picks their little battles and draws their little red lines, and frankly, I wish people would dig in a little more.
I really want to get an Apple TV but I've been waiting patiently for Apple to release the next model.
MacRumors is currently suggesting that it will release around the end of the year.
Honestly I would say just buy it now. The last hardware drought for the Apple TV lasted 4 years, and there hasn’t really been a substantial update since 2017 with 4k support. The only thing that has really changed since the HD 2015 model is the remote, and you can buy the new remote to use with the old hardware. The only noticeable hardware difference is the performance, and all of them have better performance than any smart TV, and better than all the Roku/fire stick devices I have tried.
Besides, if you really need the new one immediately, you can just sell the olds one when they release a new one. Apple devices keep their resale value, so you can probably resell for around 80% of purchase price.
Linux is still great (at least for my purposes, Internet, Programming, Gaming, and general desktop PC usage). I use OpenSuse Tumbleweed and have basically zero problems with it.
UBlock Origin on Firefox is a fantastic adblocker that keeps working just fine. The only reason why I survive the Internet without ulcers. And Firefox itself works pretty ok for me, too, despite all the controversies. So far it was always possible to disable the annoyances with a user.js entry, so I'm glad it's still around.
I'm also very happy with Steam as a platform. (And yes - I'm aware of the gambling sites, I know that Valve played a large role in bringing DRM into gaming (and fuck them for that)), but for me personally Steam works great (especially with Proton on Linux) and it keeps getting more features. Gaming could be so much worse without Valve, so I'm pretty happy that they are still a private company and so far haven't been enshittified like the rest.
And - not yet relevant - I'm very much looking forward to the Ladybird browser. I'm not even sure whether I will switch to it from Firefox, but it is great to know that someone somewhat 'idealistic' is actually working on a new, modern browser that might be a real alternative to all the other browser enshittification woes.
DuckDuckGo and smaller search engines like Marginalia Search are also still ok.
Wow, 1994! Early days! 🙂
I switched around 2015 to Linux, before then I was still ok with Windows 7. Only Windows 10 was too intrusive for my taste. Now I wouldn't go back if Microsoft paid me to.
There's also a newsletter available for Ladybird (at the bottom of their website); nice to get a quick written overview.
Oh man, this brings back some memories! I've just flashed back about 25 years, sitting trying to install SuSE on the family computer, rifling through the stack of manuals I'd somehow had the foresight to print out and trying to figure out how the hell to fix a broken bootloader with just the info I had in front of me, because there was no way in hell I'd be getting any more help without getting my dial up access back again. Good times indeed!
I don't think I ever did get the Windows sound drivers working reliably after whatever ham-fisted partition hackery I ended up doing to get both OSes usable again, come to think of it...
If by Linux, you mean “the overall idea of Linux”, sure. But both Red Hat and Ubuntu have been getting worse for end users for years. Granted, not to the same extent as the overall computing industry, but still.
Dare I even mention something like Kagi? It's mentioned so often as a fantastic product, it almost feels like a meme (or makes me feel like a marketing shill). They just get better and better. Each month, my value for money with them increases as they crank out user-centric features.
I'd throw in "high-end" UK supermarkets as something that are, in my experience, bucking the enshittification trend. I regularly shop at Marks and Spencers and Waitrose. I started because I moved house, and they ended up being the nearest shops to me. I love them. For the longest time I believed they were shops only the truly affluent could afford to shop in regularly, but it turns out that's nonsense. For basics like fruits and vegetables (which are relatively cheap in the UK as a whole), or own-brand staples, they are rarely more expensive than any other shop. They don't necessarily have a 'value' range, so you won't get rock bottom prices, and they definitely cater for people looking for the more exorbitant side of the spectrum. But the shops are clean and spacious, the produce is notably higher quality for a similar price, you rarely find parking or general traffic issues, and it's just a much nicer experience. Where I see shrinkflation in branded products, I find consistency and often greater quality in their own brand products.
Supermarkets in the UK are actually pretty great in general when compared on a world stage, at least in my own experience. We have a fiercly competitive market with no dominant company as of yet. Tesco is the largest my a fair margin, but only represent 28% market cap. See for yourself. I'm not sure how long it will last as there have been several attempted mergers and buyouts, fortunately stopped due to monopoly rules, but with Asda and Morrisons both struggling (the former due to being effectively purchased and stripped of assets...), we may see a shift for the worse in the coming years.
I've definitely noticed that Waitrose is way better for quality and size of vegetables and other fresh produce. They still absolutely take the piss by putting higher prices on differently labelled same product stuff though, so we use some combination of Tesco and Waitrose. I also saw that Waitrose has recently capitulated to the rubbish 'special members club price' trend that they had resisted for so long too. Another point of note is that Waitrose staff usually seem way happier than staff in other supermarkets, potentially because of their cooperative organisational structure.
The employee ownership makes a real difference, from what I’ve seen. A couple of my family members have worked there over the years and while it’s not perfect, it’s a lot closer to what business owners like to pretend capitalism is about: people need groceries, the workers make that possible and convenient, and the money from doing so pays their wages - everyone wins! Irony of ironies that so many “socialist boogeyman” social media posts are photos of current failures of capitalism, while the free market dream is being lived by a workers cooperative…
Anyway, yeah, that whole ethos being built right into the structure does actually affect the day to day. Everyone’s broadly in the same boat: do a decent job, treat each other like colleagues, provide a service people actually need, and go home with money to pay the bills. You’re still going to have the occasional rude member of the public, or annoying manager, or whatever - even a Star Trek utopia would have that - but at the core you’re part of a company there to do a job that needs doing, rather than an inconvenient line item on the balance sheet that the shareholders would really prefer to eliminate if it were at all possible.
Dumb tv is dead. What you should probably look out for is large scale monitors, but prepare to pay an arm and a leg because those are largely ment for the digital signage market.
I will say that my high end Sony tv at least keeps the smart stuff out of the way and has yet to show any unprompted ads.
That's what I did too. Got a ridiculous deal on a samsung TV on Black Friday something like: Buy this phone and get a free 50 inch TV. I then sold the phone and basically paid 100-150 Euro for a pretty nice TV. Just used it with a fireTV. I don't need smart features on a TV if I can have them on a dedicated device
Yeah, the only things l've connected to my tv are hdmi and power cables. Afaik there's no wifi with password anywhere close, even if it were it would only say hdmi source 1, hdmi source 2, etc. At least I don't think they are using video or image analyzing to determine my content (yet).
Depends on your TV, but some do.
Of course, but iirc (some of) these devices save up a history, and then if an unsecured wifi pops up they will connect and upload the data. Could be your neighbours, could be someone you know sharing from their phone because they don't want to inconvenience you with asking for your wifi password when they want to use their laptop.
Well, I'll be damned, the future is now!
Note that this is true if you give consent. You have to enable it yourself. This says nothing about them doing it anyway, you need to fully disconnect to be sure, but I'm not too worried LG is tempting fate with EU watchdogs.
The modern trend of governments having dedicated digital teams and consolidating government websites into a cohesive, consistent whole. Essentially kickstarted by the UK GDS with the Gov.uk website. Fantastic examples in how to lay out a lot of information into an accessible form. Their design system is open on Github and used as a basis by other governments.
If you've seen US websites that have that "An official website of the United States government" banner, that site was built on the USWDS. Singapore has something similar with the SGDS.
And for all the complaints around them, the Australian taxation and banking systems are still steadily improving as a whole. The New Payments Platform is a set of tech built by SWIFT with the Reserve Bank that enables a nationwide real-time 24/7 payments clearinghouse and widely supported by local banks. So concepts like T+2 settlement or NET 30 or "we can't pay you on a weekend" are entirely a bottleneck of company processes now, not due to the underlying platform.
Want instant payments on a weekend, with emojis in the description? Sure why not, just use your regular bank app. No Venmo, no Apple Cash. That's on top of the already existing tech like contactless payments, merchant identification, customizable notifications like when you get paid, a system that lets account owners securely give time-limited read-only access to data to say budget apps (and revoke them at any time), REST APIs and being able to sign up for a new bank account or credit card completely online in a few minutes (and cancel the previous one) without ever talking to a human.
On the tax side, Single Touch Payroll streamlines backend systems by linking company payroll directly to government taxation systems and retirement funds, and invoked during payroll runs. Reporting and payment happens in the same run when people get paid, no more waiting for end of fiscal year and such for the company to crunch the numbers so you can file your own returns. Come tax time, the tax return form (also completely online, not a PDF form) is already heavily prefilled and for simple setups you just have to confirm the numbers shown before filing it. You can actually see your income and withheld tax being reported incrementally throughout the year if you check it every month or so.
And speaking of Australian tax, the government portal to access federal services like taxation and universal healthcare (myGov) supports passkeys and lets you completely disable password logins.
Some great mentions here so I'll add one I havent seen. VideoLAN makers of VLC have refused to enshittify. They have refused countless offers to buy them from VCs because they know it would eventually destroy the product.
Craigslist and archive.org just keep on chuggin', same as they ever was.
i think you can get hospitality tvs that don’t have anything smart. like this
Does anybody still use KODI? I personally love it.
I think Discord has largely avoided enshittification, while still managing to start turning a profit a couple of years ago.
They're headed that way though. Sure the "quests" aka ads are hideable for now, but eventually they'll remove that option "accidentally", walk it back after backlash, and then eventually bake the ads in some other way.
Didn’t they already just announce that they’re lowering attachment sizes back to 10MB from 25MB unless you’re a nitro sub?
Is that "enshittification" or just adjusting their services to what they can maintain without doing the enshittifying?
Honestly the word doesn't mean anything to me anymore besides "things the person using it doesn't like."
pdf is a strange choice to include there. The objective of pdf is perfect layout preservation, not perfect text flow preservation, and it's extremely good at it. There are lots of applications (including but not limited to printing) where layout matters. Virtually all pdfs render exactly the same - all the while glyphs and diagrams are stored vectorially and can be zoomed to any size - in any good reader implementation; it's almost a miracle of interoperability. These include web libraries everyone can use like mozilla's pdf.js, and web applications like google's suite, or a number of desktop freeware readers. New documents can be created with free applications like Libreoffice or LaTeX, or simply virtual printer drivers. No one has had to use Adobe anything to deal with the majority of pds for many years if they don't want to.
I'll allow that pdf documents shouldn't be used for displaying information on the web, if that's the point they're trying to make. But it's an unreasonable demand to want all user manuals and other designed documents to be converted to webpages.
Sadly there are a lot of real world examples where PDF means Adobe. Especially for those weird use cases where Adobe somehow managed to shoehorn PDF into, like 3D models.
It would be closer to the truth if the article would crucify Adobe instead of poor PDF
I guess I see what you mean...
Anybody got any comparable articles on internet topics where deshitification has happened?
How about Steam? It started out as a universally hated DRM scheme. Now it is the most popular digital game storefront. It’s DRM is optional (for the devs), and it’s one of the most consumer friendly DRM schemes I have seen (as far as any DRM can be consumer friendly). They ported the vast majority of windows games to Linux, and that work is open source. They built one of the best gaming handhelds you can buy, and are about to release the only serious competitor against windows for a manufacturer preinstalled operating system.
Personally I use it despite avoiding other DRM using services where I can but I am not sure I would actually call it all that good for the customer rather than a best possible version of the worst kind of game store platform.
It is still possible to see various friction points(forced game updates for example). Steam is simply very good at smoothing them over for the majority of use cases and providing added value
Less bad(even significantly) than alternatives is not very high bar to clear nowadays in some areas.
Ugh, this absolutely screwed me over in the past, though I'll admit it's more of an edge case.
I lived without home internet for about a year. I lived somewhere rural enough that major ISPs would flat out refuse to go through the trouble of running cable. I didn't want to bother with satellite, and this was prior to the cellular internet plans offered now.
Before moving, I downloaded a ton of Steam games locally. Intending to play them offline. And it worked, until...
The one time I needed to do something online with my PC, I used my phone as a cellular hotspot. I didn't realize I had steam running in the background. Now that Steam became aware of updates available for probably 100 of my games, when I disconnected I wasn't able to play them anymore.
I've heard this has been fixed since, but that was brutal.
(Sidenote: a local ISP ended up providing gigabit fiber. Verizon ran the fiber to the edge of the neighborhood but abandoned it, so the local ISP bought it and finished the job.)
I’d be happy with a list of stuff that just remained the same over many years. Stuff that does one thing well, that managed to avoid the temptation of new features or UI redesigns.
Especially with websites I can only mention Wikipedia.
These can basically all be traced to the imbalance of power between consumer and the companies making these products. And also to the sheer indifference of the average person towards the means they use daily in their lives and to the consequences that are indirect and not in plain sight, but painfully obvious under any kind of critical scrutiny.
Windows - I am not even sure what they would have to do to make more people move to(realistically) Linux. They effectivelly stopped making the os for the actual end user with 10 and the effect on their market share is close to zero.
Web discourse - when users on reddit tried to voice some dissatisfaction over the course of the platform the common response from others was - who cares, moderators suck, it doesn't matter and the the inability to let go for a few days.
Dumb tvs are almost impossible to actually buy despite smart tvs adding ever more anti features and most advice comes in the form of non letting them go on the Internet. At best that is delaying action until it is more widely acceptable to force always online on them.
Search was atrocious for a decade now and only lately am I personally noticing more widespread concern over it.
Have you heard of Telly? It’s a smart TV you can get for free! With Telly, you get a TV that comes with an entire second screen for smart functionality!
Except that smart functionality is ads. And it also has a camera so the TV can watch you. Which it does constantly. Also accepting the deal means they have the legal right to damages if you…
I swear the entire concept was someone reading Fahrenheit 451 and coming away with “I want that.*
At the risk of beating a dead horse, what instantly came to my mind instead was 1984's telescreen. You know, the device that everyone has but you're not allowed to turn off, and acts as both a television set (which since this is 1984, means broadcasting propaganda) and a surveillance camera.
Drink verification can to continue.
It's unsettling how prescient that post was. I've seen it referenced more and more lately which is striking, since that original post is over a decade old.
That's odd, because everything I can find says that it is closed unless you open it for a video call with Zoom. And the second screen isn't just an ad screen, it's a screen beneath the TV that has widgets, stock tickers, etc, as well as ads that display no matter what you're using the TV for. And all data is anonymized. Sounds awful, but not as awful as you're saying.
Is there a physical shutter for the camera? Is it open source so we can tell when the camera is being used? One of the thing that has been written about it is that it has "a sensor that can tell how many people are watching". Isn't that the camera? And if they are collecting that data, it would mean that the camera is on at all times. Data being anonymized is not the same as data not being collected, and you're putting a great deal of trust in them to believe that the data cannot be traced back to you.
I'd also say that just because the second screen can display widgets and such doesn't really matter much because literally the entire reason it exists is to display ads at all times.
So yeah, it's awful.
Yes, there is a physical shutter that the user controls. You can Google this very easily.
They literally include the ability to fine you up to $1000 in their terms and conditions if you don't follow their very specific series of requirements -- violations include plugging in any hardware that they have not specifically approved or merely not using it as your primary family television. The device includes a sensor that keeps track of how many people are in front of it at all times (regardless of whether the camera is on).