Smart TVs are all well and good, but when ad-focused update lobotomized my new-ish Android TV, we hit a problem.

  • @MrJameGumb
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    109 hours ago

    I was only using Roku for a long time. It has ads but they’re not particularly intrusive and I honestly don’t notice them half the time. I recently got a new Amazon Fire TV for free through my jobs reward program and that thing is just a big ad delivery machine lol. The OS is so slow it’s like it was almost an afterthought when someone realized they actually needed a way to show all these freaking ads… Its so slow and buggy it drives me nuts! I’m seriously considering just plugging a Roku box in the back and just using the TV like a monitor

    • @[email protected]
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      fedilink
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      149 hours ago

      Roku is honestly as bad or worse. Someone is getting promoted in their marketing team for finding new rectangular places on the various home screens to place ads. It started small with Roku and they built up a lot of good will. But they’re cashing it in, and it’s already deep down the enshittification curve.

    • @fishpen0
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      99 hours ago

      If you want actually zero ads, the Apple TV does exactly what it says on the box and nothing more. I know hating on apple is big. I’m not saying to go all in on the ecosystem. They just genuinely have the best product in this space right now.

      • @accideath
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        23 hours ago

        Absolutely. 4 or 5 years ago I got myself the current firetv stick 4K because my tv had an absolutely terrible smart tv platform (slow, almost no recognizable apps). After a month or so, I sold it to a friend, bought an AppleTV and never looked back.

      • @glimse
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        68 hours ago

        I am not an Apple guy but AppleTV is the best “out of the box” streaming device on the market and it’s not even close. Really the only thing I have against it is that Apple changed IP control to require HomeKit.

        For us nerds, an HTPC is hard to beat…but for everyone else, I recommend an AppleTV.

      • @MrJameGumb
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        69 hours ago

        The only downside is that they aren’t giving away Apple TVs for free at my job lol I guess I got what I paid for 🤷‍♂️

        • @athairmor
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          47 hours ago

          You are the product. I wouldn’t be surprised if your company got paid to give them out. They almost certainly got them for free at least. If they didn’t, they’re fools.

          They’re free to you because Amazon is getting paid for the ads you see. You’re also working for Amazon, now.