SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
According to Doug Lynch at xda-developers.com:
Android TV owners recently received an update across multiple platforms that have started to display sponsored content with a "Promotional Channels' title in the launcher of the Android TV software. We're currently seeing reports that it has shown up in Sony smart TVs, the Mi Box 3 from Xiaomi, NVIDIA Shield TV, and others. This has been an incredibly off-putting change for a lot of Android TV users. What makes matters worse is people were unable to disable the ads at first, but Reddit user Felisens seems to have figured out how to disable them.
[...] Update: Google's response
A Google spokesperson gave us the following statement:
Android TV is committed to optimizing and personalizing the entertainment experience at home. As we explore new opportunities to engage the user community, we're running a pilot program to surface sponsored content on the Android TV home screen.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Friday April 05 2019, @01:27PM (9 children)
Hahahahahaha. You though those boxes you "bought" actually belonged to you? You thought that it would not eventually turn on you and rape you bloody?
Welcome to the future! Where YOU are the product!
Google. "Fuck you, we're advertising"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by TheGratefulNet on Friday April 05 2019, @01:53PM (8 children)
NEVER take an update from android if you are happy with how your android works.
for years, I have a decent enough phone. I never took updates.
for some reason, I decided to try. it was a one-way trip and now I have shit on my home screen (we're talking ancient phone from cyanogen era, the orig google phone, no less) and no way to get back.
I re-learned my lesson and never will take updates.
the whole 'phone' (now tv) system is broken beyond fixing. and by design, too.
what a clusterfuck. phones could have been real pocket computers that we own. instead, they are tracking devices that we don't actually own, yet pay for.
it amazes me that few learn the lesson about 'refuse all updates'.
(have to do that with MS, too since their updates have been toxic for a few years now; since the demise of win7)
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Friday April 05 2019, @02:22PM (5 children)
Derrr, but if you don't update, you might get maaaalware!... Oh, wait. :P
On another forum I visit there is a member that always gets their panties in a wad and starts scolding people left and right whenever they talk about turning off updates. He says he works in the security industry.
What he won't acknowledge is that vendors these days almost always abuse updates. If running updates only fixed real bugs and security problems, with perhaps occasional critical minor non-intrusive new features, then almost nobody would object to running updates!
But as it is, when someone runs an "update" these days, they can be absolutely sure that some feature they need will disappear, some tool they use will break, some abusive new garbage will appear, user interfaces will change for the hell of it, old printed documentation will become invalid, and they very well might not even be able to use the device for they purpose they bought it for any more.
The point is, anyone who is concerned about "security" must acknowledge that mis-using updates like this is detrimental to security! There literally needs to be laws against vendors making unwanted changes in mandatory updates.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday April 05 2019, @02:59PM (2 children)
I take my computer to the SS. Philip and James Catholic Church, ask priest to bless my computer, and to perform an exorcism on it. That's how I got Microsoft out!
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @03:33PM
I took my computer to Jack Lalanne to be exorcised.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @12:17AM
It was the dunking underwater for 2min part of the exorcism which really got the M$ out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @04:17PM
Except one user's security vulnerability is another user's godsend for allowing them root on their own device. IOW, good luck defining "unwanted" in a clear and legally binding manner that isn't itself a horrible twisting of the language.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @09:04PM
Well you know what they say... one person's malware is another person's freedom protector.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @03:11PM
Younger people still laugh at me when I say this.
There's always some chic Indian guy who has parents that are lawyers or are in IT that updates everything and has no idea how it really works. usually he leads the pack of laughing at simpletons like me that is clinging to something that still works when he's got two or three phones he can't decide between because they all have things he doesnt like but continues to buy high end marketing devices anyway because its cool or something.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Friday April 05 2019, @05:37PM
Actually, doing updates (or even changing distributions) and rolling them back is really easy.
Just do NanDROID backups [gadgethacks.com] of the device before applying updates/new distribution and if you don't like it, you can roll it back to the backup image.
I suppose this could work on Android TVs too, but I don't have one so I have no idea.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr