"I'm about to just toss the whole thing...":
Amazon Echo Show owners are reporting an uptick in advertisements on their smart displays.
The company's Echo Show smart displays have previously shown ads through the company's Shopping Lists feature, as well as advertising for Alexa skills. Additionally, Echo Shows may play audio ads when users listen to Amazon Music on Alexa.
However, reports on Reddit (examples here, here, and here) and from The Verge's Jennifer Pattison Tuohy, who owns more than one Echo Show, suggest that Amazon has increased the amount of ads it shows on its smart displays' home screens. The Echo Show's apparent increase in ads is pushing people to stop using or even return their Echo Shows.
The smart displays have also started showing ads for Alexa+, the new generative AI version of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. Ads for the subscription-based Alexa+ are reportedly taking over Echo Show screens, even though the service is still in Early Access.
"This is getting ridiculous and I'm about to just toss the whole thing and move back to Google," one Redditor said of the "full-volume" ads for Alexa+ on their Echo Show.
[...] Amazon's Devices business famously doesn't make money, so it's not too surprising to see the company's smart displays resort to ads, something Amazon is making money on.
Expanding on its ads program for Alexa devices, which launched in 2023, Amazon ramped up efforts to sell customers' Echo Show screen space to advertisers in July when it launched a program for showing home screen ads on devices using Alexa+. Amazon recently said it may also put ads into Alexa+ conversations.
[...] After Amazon's devices launch last month, we noted that Alexa's survival hinges on users' tolerance for pricier Amazon devices. It seems people's tolerance for ads will also play a role.
(Score: 5, Touché) by anubi on Saturday October 25, @06:37AM
Unfortunately, the advertisers have found a way to avoid the torrents of rotten vegetables and overripe fruit that used to be used to register one's dissatisfaction with a substandard performance.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25, @06:49AM (3 children)
I mean it's pretty damned obvious these things are junk before they are even unboxed, but has anyone disassembled these to see if there are any usable subassemblies in these Amazon products?
Or is it's main use to throw at stray cats, so you don't have to recover your shoe in the morning?
I still remember seeing a brand new alexa in the trash, and I just left it there. I should have taken it apart to see if there was anything of any use at all in it.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Unixnut on Saturday October 25, @09:43AM (1 child)
Funnily enough at a start up I once worked, both Google and Amazon were showering the management cadre with free "smart speakers" (I think it was when upper management were trying to pick a cloud provider to partner with). Probably the the most interesting thing is that in a company full of computer/electronics nerds, not one of us were interested in having the things.
We had a look at disassembling one of them, but found it was not worth the effort (there was no easy way we could see, and it was suspected they had glued the thing together). As such some were resold on e-bay while most went unboxed into the trash.
Unfortunately most electronics are now designed specifically to prevent disassembly and reuse of components, the idea of "repair" and "reuse" of things (along with "privacy") are now very much dirty words as far as our overlords are concerned.
I remember lamenting on the sheer waste of resources the above marketing ploy represented. From the design, to the mining of the material, to being refined, shipped across the world, manufactured into components, assembled, packed, shipped again and delivered, only to go straight to the bin, from where more energy was consumed in shredding it all up again (assuming it didn't just end up rotting in a dump).
It made me realise how much of modern production consists of corporations (sometimes with government subsidised/pressure) spending an ungodly amount of energy and resources on making things that people don't want, and then shoving it in our faces. I am not sure when, but at some point "listening to the customer" and "meeting customer demands" went out the window, its as if we have some twisted command-type economy now.
TFA is a case in point, I am sure if you asked potential customers "would you like all your appliances to bombard you with ads in every crevice of your home?" you would get close to 100% rejection, yet here we are, Amazon "smart displays" are not the only ones, we already have Samsung from earlier on, and no doubt more companies will try this because "ad revenue" and opportunities for spying to sell the data on (most likely everything running Android already is spying on you).
I can think of multiple areas where newer products are less desirable than older ones, not because of Ludditism or some nostalgia, but because newer stuff is not made for the customer any more, but as a way to control and squeeze the "consumer" out of as much recurring revenue as they can get. This has resulted in a large and active second hand market, but I wonder what will happen when supply of the older desirable goods to the second hand market dries up.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by anubi on Saturday October 25, @11:13AM
My observation is major appliances.
For now, they still make a decent refrigerator...the only decent one I found was the bottom-of-the-line at Home Depot. I didn't want ANY of the fancy stuff.
As long as froze water in ice trays, kept the Ice cream solid, and had a light and thermostat, finally found one that wasn't so damm smart it needed a PhD to operate it. This was one the guy down the street had the tools to fix. ( It used to be common to have several shade-tree fix it guys in every neighborhood when I was a kid...but the cities started cracking down on ordinances about "running businesses" out of our homes. No one was paying tax, buying licenses, or submitting to some authority that a dollar changed hands. How does one tax "being neighborly", sharing beer, and helping each other?
The old stuff fails for rust, or plastics get old and brittle. The new fails because of its finicky design. ( Especially toasters and Ice makers ). Or, it gets dirty and no way to disassemble for a proper cleaning.
I have one cooktop right now I am going to replace its controller with an Arduino, as I am so displeased with its design. It's way to easy to turn on.
What is it about all this IoT crap? I see it as yet another enabler for enforcing a subscription model.
As far as modern electronics goes, hitting it carefully with a hammer, will usually crack the case open where I can get to the circuit board. I might find some SMPS inductors, filter capacitors, switches, maybe diodes, and LED which can be repurposed. Forget those custom ASICS. You will never find spec sheets.
The cases are often glued, so I can't even keep the screws! usually a big screen smart TV has a lot of useful SMPS components. Good for tinkering to see if some concept is viable. ( I am tinkering around with some Class-E amplifiers , SMPS , and mag-amps ).
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Saturday October 25, @03:19PM
Without looking at one I'm going to say it contains a low power ARM board with a locked bootloader. So not very useful at all. You're better off buying any random ARM or RISC-V board.
(Score: 4, Touché) by turgid on Saturday October 25, @08:24AM (9 children)
Number of. Please, people, it sounds silly. Amazon increased the number of ads. Should of went to skool, innit?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25, @08:52AM (7 children)
I thought it is fitting: number is for countable things, amount for uncountable things.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Saturday October 25, @09:32AM (6 children)
Ads are countable. One ad, two ads, three ads....
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25, @10:32AM (1 child)
However, "advertising" is not. If they increased the length of ads, for example.
There are good hills to die on ("maths") but this is not one of them ;-D
(Score: 3, Funny) by turgid on Saturday October 25, @10:57AM
I shall die on each and every hill I encounter if I like! So there.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday October 25, @02:23PM
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Saturday October 25, @04:43PM
You sure about that? In a possible multiverse of a real number of other universes, we can assume there's advertising in all of them. That would make it uncountable.
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Sunday October 26, @06:05AM
(Thunderstorm roll). "Ah-Ah-Ah!"
(Score: 3, Funny) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday October 27, @03:50AM
SQUIRREL!!!
Wait, where was I ...
One ad, two ads, three ads....
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 25, @12:51PM
IT! IT is confusing. Say your goddamned pronouns! [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Touché) by jelizondo on Saturday October 25, @02:42PM (3 children)
Over a year ago I canceled by Prime subscription. I thought it would be hard but actually has been pretty easy. And I don't miss having to pay to watch ads.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by FuzzyTheBear on Saturday October 25, @02:51PM
Cancelled Amazon along with the Washington Post when Bezos prevented the Washington Post from making an editiorial Presidential choice. It was clear Bezos wanted to silence the Post and a lot of their best journalists and political commentators left.
(Score: 2) by aafcac on Sunday October 26, @04:27PM
Cancelling is one thing, remaining thing is quite another. Amazon uses a bunch of dark patterns and excessive offers to join to trick people into signing up again. I don't personally have that problem as I don't shop with them. I think I do so like a couple times a year tops and only if nobody else has whatever it is and I can't do without. Which is like 3 or fewer times a year.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday October 27, @07:39PM
I just paid the extra to not view advertisements. At some point I may dump them, but my wife likes having the option. If it was just me, I'd probably have ditched for sure well before now.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Insightful) by FuzzyTheBear on Saturday October 25, @02:58PM (2 children)
Branded devices like these spell trouble from the get go. They offer little but a way to throw at you more ads. It's silly. I don't like ads. Never did , never will. Necessary evil of our time ? Television went out first , then radio. Just couldn't stand 10 minutes of programming and 5 of advertisement. Enough was enough. I live , well , i got several monitors , i watch series . movies , i listen to music 8 hours a day easily , no ads. I live fine without the noise , the constant screaming , i grew accustomed to living with peace around me. I'd never get back to what some call " the normal world of tv and radio " Never the hell ever. My inner peace is too valuable to be wasted by those screaming idiots. Ill never buy these devices , nor " smart " tv's . Monitors , speakers , a good computer / av system behind and distribution through the house is all that ever will be in my home.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday October 25, @05:04PM
I set up a media player and watch movies and tv programs on it without ads (except for the old radio programs with cigarette ads on them; they're fun. And Goodies parody ads). And music.
I rarely watch 'real' tv with ads.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday October 28, @03:07AM
Watch out! They are zeroing in on refrigerators these days!
https://www.howtogeek.com/your-samsung-fridges-new-update-gives-you-ads-while-tracking-your-food/ [howtogeek.com]
Ad-watching enforcement problem: They simply turned the TV off and trashed the Alexa.
Ok, they wanna play the game that way? Fine! If they want a cold beer they better tolerate our billboard in their kitchen.
Ut-oh, word is getting out not to buy a luxury refrigerator either!
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Gaaark on Saturday October 25, @04:23PM
The only Amazon products i have are the Firestick. And it sucks compared to Rokus.
Bought one, then bought a Roku and never bought another Firestick.
Haven't even looked at other Amazon products because of the Firesticks suckiness.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. I have always been here. ---Gaaark 2.0 --
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Mojibake Tengu on Saturday October 25, @05:05PM
Let's get serious for now.
Amazon devices Echo Hub smart home control panel, Echo Show 5 (3rd Gen) smart home display and Echo Spot smart speaker all run Linux 5.16 kernel. That's confirmed.
The proprietary distro is called VegaOS internally though to me that's still unconfirmed rumor. May be true. Previous contraptions were Android.
So, dissatisfied users should now probaly use a legal attack on Amazon to disclose and publish source code. Hardware itself is probably some stock OEM, as usual. With adequate source to rebuild, reflashing a normal system into device should be easy.
Linux Foundation and Electronic Frontier Foundation are your friends. At least in Legal Paradigm.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.