Enshittification intensifies.
I mean. Amazon. It never was about quality media. It’s always been about money.
Surely those broadcasters will pull their streams (it's not like they're not already hurting), FireTV will get a reputation of having restricted access to broadcast TV, some people will live with it and some will buy a smart TV and not worry about Amazon any more..
Pretty much. I currently use fire sticks with Kodi side loaded for TV because it's a pretty cheap decent android TV device. If it became restricted in this way such that apps I do want to use go away, I'd just buy a generic Android TV device (or side load them).
This is just another of the long line of bad ideas big business seem to be having to try to get every last cent out of a product or service they can. It's too far and we can easily avoid it.
Get a $20 onn android box from Walmart. Miles better than the firestick
I have the same setup with a rpi 4 and I've been impressed with it. Amazon may just feed the rpi shortage... Damn.
Amazon must be forcibly split up.
Same for meta
Same for alphabet
Same for Microsoft
Same for a number of large airlines
Same for all mega corps
What's going on in the tech sector is there a global EMP comming that only top ceo's know about so they're all pumping and dumping their products in one last cash grab? :D
The free money faucet that came with 0% interest rates has been turned off. Venture capital are now actually demanding returns, thus the big tech companies are sucking the good will and future of their businesses dry in order to turn a profit.
I want to have this level of belief. After Netflix benefitting from their enshittification, I believe this will just become the new norm and I'll just be pushed further from societal norms because I'm not willing to shell out for all of this bullshit, while the vast majority of society is. I want to believe these companies will fail in their ventures to treat their customers like shit, but if I've learned anything it's that society will do anything for their shit.
Large companies will survive. Small ones will fail. A few medium ones with fail too. Amazon doesn’t have to make prime video successful as long as they prop it up with prime shipping.
And the logical conclusion is the further consolidation of power in a handful of massive companies like in dystopian scifi
Yup, and the solution to the problem already exists. Break them up, or better yet, don't let them buy each other up in the first place.
They're all being asked to actually start turning a profit.
The peasants won't know what hit them.
i guess my jellyfin app will have to share 30% of nothing with Amazon
Do you want to kill FireTV? Cause, that's how you kill FireTV.
FireTV was ever alive?
I got one years ago and it was borderline unusable even from day one. They've always been these cheap, nasty, HDMI sticks that freeze and lag at the slightest hint of you wanting to actually use them to watch anything.
The home application is TERRIBLE on Fire TV. It took three generations of the Fire TV stick before one of them was powerful enough to load that bloated nonsense they call an interface.
Edit: I meant interface, not internet.
firetv only exist to be cracked. although i suspect there is a captive audience of less tecgy people. as they sell their junk for 10 bucks and massive tvs for 💯 bucks
That's some gall for a niche product. Most tvs now ship with their own OS, so Fire Stick has no leverage.
It's the other way round:
Most TVs now ship with unbelievably crappy OSes, so most people plug some kind of smart device(s) in front of them, sooner or later. Fire sticks, chromecasts, Netflix boxes on Android, etc.pp.
Mmm not really so, at least in my case. The tvOS is usually only supported for a few years and once the updates stop, apps stop their support as well. We have a tv in our living room that stopped being supported after six years; it can’t download Disney+ or certain other apps natively because of it. A Fire stick is much cheaper than having to buy a new tv every so many years.
Yeah, I still have my plasma TV from 2011 (hey, the thing refuses to die, OK!). When I bought it, it was a "smart tv". Now, there's no apps for the thing. But I use a fire TV stick with side-loaded extra apps and it's like having a modern smart TV.
I don't think I'd buy a TV for its smart features ever. Far better to get a TV for the picture quality and what actually matters in a TV and use devices to fill in the rest. Sure if they're there and working I'd use them perhaps. But, I know they will become obsolete too soon.
But most people just buy a Chromecast in that situation.
eh no, most people buy whatever is sold to them. on amazon (which is quite popular) they sell you a fire tv stick
google does an absolutely terrible job of selling androidtv/chromecasts so people don't really even know what it is.
Funny, I was going to reply that I barely even knew what Chromecast is, so you’re absolutely correct.
I'm sure google will never pull the same stunt as Amazon. They're the good guys!
But they can't afford to pay their writers and actors what they are asking for?
Capitalism eating itself, only if it was not harming innocents while it finished itself
Lol imagine a new product demanding this.
Lol now imagine an incredibly shitty existing product that is already replaced by superior products and internalized software in even the cheapest tvs demanding this.
The Amazon stream stick doesn't even offer anything of value as it is.
Is enshittification just extortion at this point?
How would they even know what the ad revenue is?
I remember reading last year that all the assistant services like Alexa and Siri and Google are costing these companies a fortune with almost zero return. It's not surprising they're looking for additional revenue streams.
It's really just Alexa that is having a problem. They sold a shit load of Echos at a loss, assuming people would use Alexa to buy stuff. Turns out people wanted Alexa to tell them the weather, play music and answer simple questions, not pitch them product recommendations...
Amazon’s product recommendations are ad placements anyway. Almost never is is right.
Large companies going for an abusive cash grab? you don't say
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