Roku says unpopular autoplay ads are just a test
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You're reading too much into that comment and taking it as some slight against you as an Apple user.
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So what are the options now? Apple TV and that's it, barring a homemade setup with PC/Mac attached?
I currently use a Fire Stick 4k Max with the TV itself having no internet access (LG OLED from a few years ago) and was fairly content with the functionality, but I find myself wanting to move away from Amazon's increasingly bullshit/evil Alexa/listening crap... If my remote batteries start needing frequent replacement I'll know why..
I had considered Roku but now...
I currently use a Fire Stick 4k Max with the TV itself having no internet access (LG OLED from a few years ago) and was fairly content with the functionality, but I find myself wanting to move away from Amazon's increasingly bullshit/evil Alexa/listening crap... If my remote batteries start needing frequent replacement I'll know why..
I had considered Roku but now...
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I just got the live ad on my Roku Ultra when hitting the home screen. It was very annoying because I had to hit CLOSE to be able to do anything on the HOME screen or watch the entire ad (Moana 2). I was preparing to buy a new Roku device but now I am going to pause. If they get any more obnoxious I am going to switch to an Apple TV streamer. I did not mind the small static ads but this is a bridge too far. I do not want to have to click CLOSE before I can interact on the HOME screen. ROKU are you listening? you will drive customers away.
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The biggest offender on my Pi-Hole charts by far in my house has always been Roku. I finally just put it into store mode, disconnected it from the network, and let my AppleTV do all the media streaming.
I'm on the hunt now for a dumb TV... but looks like I'll be stuck playing network cop on any consumer panel I decide to go with today.
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Ugh. I've been a Roku fan for years, and always appreciated their light touch when it comes to onscreen ads. A while ago I bought a Google TV stick to see how the other half lives, and I was shocked - they bury your links below large obnoxious ads (and I run a whole house adblocker), which only increased my loyalty to Roku. I guess enshitification comes for us all.
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In my case, because the Roku has less enshittification at the time than the smart TV did.
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It feels like forever a go but I recall how Roku was the platform for streaming. Back then all sorts of unique and cool streaming apps existed. Over the past 10 years now most of those have long left it.
The interface hasn't changed much in all this time, either. It's like they never actually bothered to improve the product once it was oit there. They just left it to stagnate. What ever happened with their gaming initiatives?
Now throwing videos ads on even before you reach the, dated, main screen? Bleh sounds like the enshittification is now complete. Glad I dumped my Roku TV a while back and deleted my account with them and moved on.
The interface hasn't changed much in all this time, either. It's like they never actually bothered to improve the product once it was oit there. They just left it to stagnate. What ever happened with their gaming initiatives?
Now throwing videos ads on even before you reach the, dated, main screen? Bleh sounds like the enshittification is now complete. Glad I dumped my Roku TV a while back and deleted my account with them and moved on.
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I kinda like the interface. At least on my Roku TV.
I'm not a fan of the changes, but it looks like Roku is following Hulu for example - started nice but then got bought and is going downhill from there.
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Show me an option better than the three Apple TVs we have and I'll buy it. I disconnected the WebOS LG TV in my man cave from the Internet, and it's just fine. I never see the user interface except when I want to.
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The worst Roku becomes, the more grateful I am my 55" Sanyo is only hooked up to my PC. Once in a while I think of getting a bigger TV - it will NOT be a Samsung but any other TV available in my price range will probably have Roku anyway.
What I am worried about most is my phone. Sooner or later the Roku type of bullshit is going to be inflicted on phones too. If I have to watch an ad before I can read or send a text I'll throw the damned phone at a wall.
All in all, TV manufacturers and video/TV content providers are giving me more and more incentive to read books and ebooks and re-watch my old DVD collection.
What I am worried about most is my phone. Sooner or later the Roku type of bullshit is going to be inflicted on phones too. If I have to watch an ad before I can read or send a text I'll throw the damned phone at a wall.
All in all, TV manufacturers and video/TV content providers are giving me more and more incentive to read books and ebooks and re-watch my old DVD collection.
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At that point, I'll intentionally start looking for a "dumb phone" to downgrade to. I barely use any of the "smart" features on my own phone as it is.
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Did you miss a /s tag?
Of all the things AI will be used to do, precisely none of them will be to benefit the general person. I'll bet you right now, AI will be used way more to INFLICT ads on people and ensure they can't avoid them, than to eliminate them.
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This wasn't obvious 6+ years ago when we bought a few Rokus. Definitely no new ones, and may forcibly retire the existing ones if they start acting up.
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It's why I'm eyeing a giant size computer monitor rather than a standard TV as my... TV. I'll do that until the industry decides computer monitors need to be filled with LLM AI and other such nonsense.
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That would be very clutch. Do you find though that many devices are using DoH yet? I've encounted hardcoded DNS servers but I don't know that I've seen devices that force DoH yet (maybe phones?)
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Apple TV. Supposedly a new one is coming out this year but even a few year old Apple TV 4K supports Dolby Vision and Atmos. The touch remote kinda sucks tho so I'd try and avoid those models.
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They are both grammatically fine, albeit visually cluttered and cumbersome. The comma in the subheader, however, is not used correctly. A colon (preferred), semi-colon, or em-dash would prevent what is currently presented as a run-on sentence.
Dude, if you're going to haul out a red pencil, wield it thoughtfully.
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Phones have been using it (especially Android), and Chrome seems to like to randomly turn it back on during updates. Most people don't likely notice, unless you are running ad-block at the DNS level, or are injecting or overriding IP addresses to named entries on your local DNS. I haven't yet seen too many other devices use it yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if a bunch of super-cheap IoT things started doing that.
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Gee, and I thought wiping and resetting my Echo with a paper clip before taking it to the household waste center the other day was a satisfying way to express my displeasure...
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Reminds me that I don't really understand the point of "smart speakers" at all. At least I somewhat "get" the point of smart TVs.
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Ditched mine after I read their new TOS. The only thing they didn't mention approving was a colonoscopy of the user.
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For a user? Audio calibration and equalization for the space in use across multiple speakers in the same setup in the palm of your hand (aka via a phone or tablet app) without the system having to phone home. It should be source agnostic and capable of industry-standard audio formats.
Anything else is a gratuitous subscription ploy by the manufacturer. I picked up two bookshelf speakers from an early Sonos generation, and in two minutes they were balanced and operated seamlessly as a stereo pair in a room where I had no ready way to stash an amp. Sadly, Sonos' subsequent efforts to develop a case study of enshitification for future business school students have been well-documented.
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Not really- because all it means is the smart TV never phones home for those people. But, in answer, the "dumb" displays are now all TV monitors, and there are now some truly gigantic ones with some great features that'll do just fine as TVs.
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