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9 votes
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Smart TVs collect data for political-advertising use
16 votes -
How do you turn a smart TV into a dumb TV?
I've been lamenting the death of the dumb TV for years now, but I'm finally in the market for a new set and trying to plan my next purchase carefully. I've come to grips with the fact that any...
I've been lamenting the death of the dumb TV for years now, but I'm finally in the market for a new set and trying to plan my next purchase carefully.
I've come to grips with the fact that any late-model TV I buy is going to feature some or all of the following:
- Internet connectivity
- Slow, janky menu screens with awful UIs
- Pre-installed apps (all of which I consider bloatware)
- Ads incorporated into the built-in menus or overlaid on my content
- Alexa / Google Home integration
- Automatic content recognition and/or other data collection techniques
- Microphones or cameras, purportedly for voice/gesture control
My goal is to take a stock smart TV and completely neuter all of the above, resulting in an otherwise fully functional dumb TV. All of my content will be delivered over HDMI from external devices.
As I understand it, basically all modern TVs are running one of five operating systems: Android TV, webOS, Tizen, Roku TV, or SmartCast. Not knowing anything about these platforms, where should I begin? Which are most susceptible to rooting? Are there any good custom ROMs I could install that would achieve what I'm looking for? Surely others have asked these same questions before me, but I can't find the answers online.
Yes, this is a companion post to my other home theater question earlier today.
37 votes -
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is being criticized after calling Jamal Khashoggi's murder "a mistake" and comparing it to the death of a pedestrian struck by one of the company's autonomous vehicles
9 votes -
Give Firefox a chance for a faster, calmer and distraction-free internet
27 votes -
The palm-size PrinCube can print on materials your desktop printer doesn't even dream of
3 votes -
Subscription affliction - Everything is $10/month
11 votes -
Viacom sues YouTube for a billion dollars | YouTube Geographic
6 votes -
Netflix CEO defends decision to pull Patriot Act episode in Saudi Arabia, says company isn’t in ‘truth to power business’
17 votes -
A new funding model for open source software
19 votes -
The new dot com bubble is here: it’s called online advertising
37 votes -
How to find AV hardware for specific requirements?
Apologies if this belongs in ~tech, that group is more on topic than ~talk but I think it’s for news and links more than open questions. (Edit: Looks like it's been moved to ~comp, I guess that...
Apologies if this belongs in ~tech, that group is more on topic than ~talk but I think it’s for news and links more than open questions. (Edit: Looks like it's been moved to ~comp, I guess that works too.)
I’m looking for an HDMI switch. It needs to support at least 4K resolution and have at least 10 input ports. It also needs to have Toslink audio out. Remote control support is a “nice to have” but physical buttons are fine too.
I’m having trouble locating a product like this online. Not sure if I’m just using the wrong terms or if it doesn’t actually exist. Can any Tildes gearheads give me a pointer here?
8 votes -
What do we really know about the effectiveness of digital advertising?
8 votes -
A deeper look into the life of an impressionist (Deepfakes)
10 votes -
DEV (dev.to) raises an $11.5 million Series A
6 votes -
Dogolachan and the ghost of massacres past
5 votes -
Facebook's former Head of Global Elections Integrity Ops on how Facebook's policies towards political advertising are harming democracy
6 votes -
Airbnb to verify all listings, CEO Brian Chesky says
7 votes -
Almost 7000 pages of leaked Facebook documents show how they leveraged user data to fight rivals and help friends
15 votes -
The fantasy of opting out
16 votes -
Two former Twitter employees charged with spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia
9 votes -
Airbnb pledges to improve platform safety, including verifying 100% of hosts and listings by the end of next year
8 votes -
Steve Guttenberg: ”Apple AirPods Pro, it's $249, but sounds like a cheap, throwaway headphone“
19 votes -
Holy shit, Contra said a thing! Well, guess I better singlehandedly solve BreadTube
10 votes -
Tell me about your smartphone!
Currently I have the Moto G5 Plus that I purchased a little over two years ago for $200. For the most part, it has been a good phone as the gestures to turn the flash light on, turn the camera on,...
Currently I have the Moto G5 Plus that I purchased a little over two years ago for $200. For the most part, it has been a good phone as the gestures to turn the flash light on, turn the camera on, and use the finger print sensor as a swipeable button, has had me pretty satisfied. This was a lower middle range phone when I purchased it so it has lately started chugging even doing basic tasks like internet browsing. Couple that with the battery dying pretty quickly, and battery saver making the phone even slower, and now I am in the market to buy a new phone. Right now I am looking at the OnePlus 7t but the price looks pretty hefty to me at $599. I could make payments but in general I don't like going into debt for small purchases. I'm curious if anyone went from low-tier phone to mid-tier or higher and if you felt the purchase was worth it?
Some other general questions:
- What is your phone?
- Did you finance it?
- Are you looking to upgrade?
- What features are the most important to you?
29 votes -
After three months offline, 8chan returns as 8kun
24 votes -
Few-shot Video-to-Video Synthesis
7 votes -
The Project Jengo saga: How Cloudflare stood up to a patent troll – and won
6 votes -
I accidentally uncovered a nationwide scam on Airbnb
36 votes -
ISPs lied to Congress to spread confusion about encrypted DNS, Mozilla says
15 votes -
Hackers can use lasers to ‘speak’ to your Amazon Echo or Google Home
10 votes -
Chinese professor sues wildlife park after it introduces facial recognition entry system
6 votes -
Australia's idiotic war on porn returns, this time using facial recognition
16 votes -
Firefox to hide notification popups by default starting next year
22 votes -
The debate over Facebook's political ads ignores 90% of its global users
12 votes -
Five things you didn’t know GPS could do
13 votes -
Why is dark mode such a big deal?
Dark mode being added to an app can make headlines on several tech sites. Why do people feel so strongly about dark mode?
12 votes -
How my dumb mobile game got 400k downloads
10 votes -
Think you’re anonymous online? A third of popular websites are ‘fingerprinting’ you.
18 votes -
Tutorial on how to enable RCS on any carrier/device with Android Messages
7 votes -
How to stay safe online and prevent phishing with FIDO2, WebAuthn and security keys
5 votes -
NH lawmaker blocks device repair bill, tells constituents to just buy new $1k phones
7 votes -
EU passes “Right to repair” Law to make large appliances easier to repair starting from 2021
31 votes -
The story of the team behind the 6502
4 votes -
Reddit’s automoderator is the future of the internet, and deeply imperfect | The good: AutoMod saves time and prevents potential mental health issues. The bad: Humans still have to clean up after it.
21 votes -
A novel example of namespace clashing in competition between bots
Discuss: namespace clashes expose and ensure instabilities in user-side solutions to interface problems. Case in point -- the RemindMeBot, which will send a timed reminder message to anyone who...
Discuss: namespace clashes expose and ensure instabilities in user-side solutions to interface problems.
Case in point -- the RemindMeBot, which will send a timed reminder message to anyone who calls it in a reddit comment with the phrase "RemindMe!", has been cloned and iterated upon by another bot, Kzreminderbot, which responds to the exact same trigger phrase. Both bots reply to the comment threads where they are summoned. Kzreminderbot has slightly more diverse features, including email/text notification, but the interesting thing here (I think) is the impotence of the response from the creator of RemindMeBot, who has added a link in their comment replies to send annoyed feedback to the second bot.
We talk occasionally about the scramble for usernames on new services, but this is an slightly novel example of the cascading hierarchies of website design. A feature which reddit lacked is added by a bot, but that bot is too provisional to cover the hole which it was meant to fill.
8 votes -
NSO exploited WhatsApp to hack at least 1400 phones and spy on top government officials at US allies
16 votes -
Facebook and Instagram ban usage of "commonly sexual emojis" along with solicitations for nude images or sex
10 votes -
Twitter announces that they are stopping all political advertising globally
42 votes -
After the release of "Notepad++ v7.8.1 : Free Uyghur" Notepad++'s GitHub issues page is being flooded by trolls
Developing topic, don't see any news sources on it yet. Lots of pro-CCP troll issues being opened, as well as people starting to open issues going against the original trolls. (e.g. pro-HK...
Developing topic, don't see any news sources on it yet. Lots of pro-CCP troll issues being opened, as well as people starting to open issues going against the original trolls. (e.g. pro-HK protester messages)
24 votes