Are those things hackable? Even if it means a full wipe?

I have an Echo Show, it shows a bunch of ads. It's typically out of my view and I never use the video features. It has options to disable things and I thought I disabled them all but maybe they show ads now regardless. Because I'm definitely seeing ads. I only got one because I think it was bundled with something else or it was a gift.

Isn't there a saying about this? "Leopards ate my face" or something like that?

It's like TVs... Google TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Fire TV... it's all ads, all the way down. Apple TV though? Just a grid of apps. Certain apps on the dock (the top shelf as it's called) could display ads because they're allowed to display content in the top half, but I haven't seen it done. Video apps typically just show what's up next in your queue and maybe something suggested. But you can control what goes on the dock.

Can't block ads on it and YouTube is fundamentally broken for it (despite there being no ad blocker between the app and the service). I'm looking into getting a gently used M1 Mac Mini for my TV, and wiring one of those Bluetooth keyboard/mouse things up to it. That way I can just run Firefox with uBlock Origin and call it a day.

Fuck all these "smart" devices. Can't win with any of them. Meanwhile you can get a Raspberry Pi and be running Linux on your TV. That might introduce some challenges, but hey, you got Plex (/Jellyfin/whatever) anyway.

Wouldn't this be a better fit for leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world ?

I have the end of life’d JBL smart speaker. It still works with Google. But doesn’t have the bells and whistles. But it’s the best system I have ever come across. I have one Google screen and I don’t see the difference between the two. And the JBL has amazing sound.

Morons buying moronic 'smart' devices, unable to understand that they're the product, not the consumer and they have sold away the rights to their eyes and ears with their purchases.

My house contains no smart devices that can harvest data from me (my mum does use a samsung smart TV from 2016) and all devices have everything disabled and other things installed to block data collection and tracking... I can't stop 100% of it, but what little trickle they do get is basically worthless.

My eyes and ears are not for sale, nor is my privacy.