Internet of Shit @suppo.fi Bezier @suppo.fi 3mo ago

Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

arstechnica.com Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

Smart display will soon default to showing ads after three hours.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/21524474

Smart display will soon default to showing ads after three hours.

17 comments

Fuck Amazon, but also fuck journalists who abuse words: bricking is not a synonym for "removing"
- Right? Bricking is literally making (its only usage) a brick out of it. You would think journalists are good with using words...
  
  Well, we decided that we don't want to pay for journalism anymore and would much rather just have everything be funded by ad views because "information should be free". So no, journalists aren't good with words anymore because nobody wants to pay for it
Wait, they were charging $2 a month to unlock the ability to turn your device into a smart picture frame when idle? Something that doesn't even require to be online and that you could easily convert an old tablet to do for free?

If you were stupid enough to give your money away for a subscription fee for that, then the "service" being discontinued is the best thing that could have happened to you.

Also this sort of practice should be made illegal.
- Why illegal? Makes more sense than to buy an extra device, not just ecologically. Hardly anyone is able to convert a tablet, most people are simply too dumb, to put it simply
  
  I meant illegal to force a subscription fee to use something that doesn't require any external service to function. Also illegal to turn something that someone had already bought to display pictures in his house into an advertising billboard without their consent.
  
  This is why you don't buy shit that is will not work unless it is unnecessarily connected to the internet.
It would be a shame if people hacked their devices and loaded whatever they wanted on them.
- No!
  
  That means people are still buying and using the device. This is a case for returning the product to Amazon/the store you brought it from citing the product is no longer fit for purpose because of changes made by the seller/manufacturer. If you live in a sensible country (sorry US) this should work.
  
  This only stops if there is a clear and attributable loss of sales/increase in returns.
  
  The class action suit against Sony for removing Linux from the PS3 really showed them.
  
  What was the payout, $5 per owner?
  
  Yeah I mean I wouldn't buy one and I would encourage others not to. But if you already have it and can't return it, make it your device, not theirs.
I don't understand why people buy this crap in the first place

17 comments