This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I wish we would stop using smart to describe surveillance technology. Smart sounds nicez but there's nothing smart about it...
Does anyone make dumb TVs anymore? Seems like there's a sizable market for it. I haven't had a TV in 6 years and want one for local channels, but I really don't want a smart TV.
I just never gave my smart TV network info. It’s at the factory settings and can’t connect to anything. If there isn’t a console connected to it then it is useless. Just like the good ole days.
They still have ways to connect, though they're lower bandwidth and less reliable.
There is, its called industrial tv "iiyama" for example is a brand of those
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I just never gave my smart tv network info.
I’ve had a “smart” TV for about 4 years. It keeps asking to update the firmware.
No. Effin’. Way.
It’s just going to install more and more spyware, bloatware, and find a way to charge me for something I didn’t have to pay for before.
And thus vulnerabilities are introduced. Either by not updating the FW, or by updating the FW.
Lol, "monitor" app, because it monitors users.
Im sorry. Im drunk.
This is because as soon as a monitor is connected to a Windows computer, it automatically installs both the LG Monitor App Installer and McAfee Scam Detector without ever asking the user for permission.
Is this not a felony under U.S. law? Computer hacking has HUGE criminal liability.
Another win for Linux
The more I learn about windows the more I wish I would've ditched it a long time ago instead of last month...
Name something you do as a corporation to avoid any laws or accountability with the current administration
BRIBE THE DOJ
let's see if that answer's on the board..survey says...!
DING
It's actually windows doing it
My wife and I bought a TV on the internet. What brand? I have no idea but it's the type they have in waiting rooms and restaurants. Zero internet. Zero apps. You push the button and it turns on. It's the best fucking purchase we've made in the last five years.
I recently purchased a current year TCL, I don't remember the model number but it's the one right under their flagship.
It's 75" and is the most beautiful tv I've owned. Fast, almost OLED levels of dimming, I'm in awe when watching the right content.
I'd pay an extra $500 for a version with no smart capabilities. Let me turn it on and boot into my android box, or console, or whatever.
I have an LG TV that has never been exposed to the internet and it's amazing.
This is it. Skip all the setup screens and just use it
Same! I jailbroke mine and can watch YouTube and Twitch ad-free, and it's got Jellyfin on the homebrew channel, so I can access my server off my TV :)
Omg you can jailbreak smart TVs now? HELL yeah
EDIT: I am especially interested in LG webOS because I was a Palm Prē enjoyer back in the day and I rooted the fuck out of that phone (still have it somewhere)
Check out rootmy.tv to jailbreak your LG smart TV. Depending on the model and firmware, there could be additional steps you need to take, but in my case, since I still had the stock firmware installed, it was just a single slide of a button on the TV's web browser.
That phone was the coolest thing, it's such a shame how it died. I've still got mine lol, I can get it to boot and play that one flight sim game you could buy on the app store.
I've used an LG monitor for about 5 years, and never install the manufacturer's software unless it looks genuinely useful. When I saw the Gamers Nexus video I went to check my installed apps, and sure enough there was LG's monitor app, installed silently without my knowledge. I used Bulk Crap Uninstaller to get rid of it.
To prevent this kind of thing in future, run gpedit.msc and enable “Prevent automatic download of applications associated with device metadata” under Computer Configuration → Administrative Templates → System → Device Installation.
Or you could just change to an os that doesnt piss on its users constantly
Great; what OS has the equivalent of Group Policy and Active Directory besides windows?
This is the one thing holding open source back, and the thing Linux users keep pissing on without understanding it.
The CTOs inept nephew can manage your fleet of windows machines and you get all the checkbox security you need for compliance (and some real security):
That same feature set on Linux will cost you a ton of money in skilled staff if you want to check the same compliance checkboxes. (As for real security, who cares, no one is doing that anyway)
Kind regards: someone who has managed Linux fleets.
The funny thing is, the people who care about Group Policy and Active Directory are the same people who aren't happy about their network potentially being compromised because someone hooked up their work laptop up to a monitor at their home.
Indeed. I use Linux most of the time, and MacOS a bit of the time, but the old Windows desktop is still there for the infrequent times when I need it to work on old music projects. I have it too dual-booting into Linux, so even it spends most of its time in a more sane OS.
Not only that but my old LG smart TV (47LM8600, I think manufactured in 2012) has literal suicide timers in its built in apps. Mine has never been connected to any network and yet it mysteriously informed me after approximately three years of ownership that all of its player apps such as Youtube, Hulu, Netflix, etc. would stop working because they were "no longer supported," all of them within the time frame of the same couple of weeks. It knew this somehow, apparently via magic, or quantum fluctuations, or psychic brain waves. Without internet connectivity.
Obviously I don't use any of those features so I didn't give a rat's ass and I still don't. But I still find that deeply suspicious.
The only technical explanation that’s not malice would be that some certificate store on the device had expiring certificates and would need an update to continue to function (or rather connect to remote servers).
There was some controversy a while ago about Samsung TVs finding and connecting to open WiFi networks autonomously if they weren't connected to a network explicitly
Bought a LG TV and a Monitor three years ago. Last time I will do that. Really happy about my decision not to let the TV have access to the internet.
