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After luring customers with low prices, Amazon stuffs Fire TVs with ads
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Nov 2023
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They're not late. I've been using Fire Sticks for years and Amazon has been working hard the whole time to shove more and more ads all over the UI. The main row of apps gets smaller with every update and more and more ads are plastered around and between them to try to sell you more shit you don't want or already have.
I managed to jailbreak mine before they locked them down and install a custom launcher so they're actually usable, but the stock UI is god-awful. I'll be replacing them once the next round of Apple TVs come out.
The Nvidia Shield Pro is quite capable. Sideload a different launcher and install Aerial Views and you're good to go!
How did they lock them down?
Pushed a software update that disabled third party launchers and disallowed disabling future software updates.
Oh, shit!
My Xiaomi Mi Box S 4K doesn't auto-update because there's not enough storage space left.
No idea if Xiaomi have pushed any Amazon-level evil updates since last update though.
All I know is, 3rd-party launchers changed my life for the better, and I don't want it to change anytime soon.
My favorite 3rd party launchers
AndroidTV
Android