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I disabled WiFi on my Samsung TV after they were injecting ads into the home screen. Spend $800 to get ads served in their shitty/slow UI.

by throw03172019 7y ago

lrem 7y ago
An acquaintance attempted that with Kindle, by keeping it in flight mode. After some days it popped up a message kindly asking to give it some network access. After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Edit: I've checked with my wife who has an ad supported Kindle for over a year and keeps it in flight mode for months at a time. It never did that to her. So either Amazon changed that a long time ago, or I've believed a lie.
- cameronbrown 7y ago
  > After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Worrying. "Flight" mode exists for a reason and should not be overridden.
  - arcticbull 7y ago
    Flight mode exists because the FAA applies unsafe-until-proven-safe methodology to everything flight related (as they should). If flight mode mattered at all planes would be falling out of the sky on the regular, many people just leave their phones on the whole trip. The only reason I turn my phone off is because it wastes a lot of battery as it tries to manage tower hopping the whole time. Planes are getting blasted by RF in the cellular bands continuously from the ground, too, so this is taken into consideration in the design process. Don't get me wrong the Kindle shouldn't do what it's doing but it's by no means a safety issue.
    - jacquesm 7y ago
      > Planes are getting blasted by RF in the cellular bands continuously from the ground, too, so this is taken into consideration in the design process. It's a totally different affair if you are receiving a signal by a 100 Watt transmitter at 10 Km or a signal from a 1 Watt transmitter at 5 meters distance. The 1 Watt transmitter will overpower anything in its band with great ease and any dirt on the spectral output will have the same effect in other bands. Note that most cellphones will crank up their output if they can't connect to a base station that they can receive. Of course plane designers will still do what they can to reduce this nuisance but leaving our phone on makes it harder than it should be. Please turn your phone off or to airplane mode and consider it a very small price to pay for flying an airplane. Yes, flight mode does matter, no it probably won't crash a plane but does it have to before you would consider following a very simple rule?
    - derefr 7y ago
      IIRC there isn't a problem for most of the flight; but right as you're ascending/descending your phone can end up getting a very weak line-of-sight connection to a whole bunch of cell towers at once, which causes a few different problems, but all of which come down to "it makes both your phone, and all the towers, shout really loudly at one-another to try to achieve a circuit." Which, sure, means that there might be EM interference (on bands ATC doesn't even use, but which the pilots might like to switch to in event of emergency.) But, more importantly, it puts your phone's radio through an unusual high-power-draw situation that the phone's manufacturer may not have bothered testing for, which can make phone batteries explode that might not have otherwise ever exploded. Oh, and also, a plane-load of people whose phones are all ranging hogs circuits on a bunch of towers at once (for no productive purpose, since the phones don't have high-enough SNR to actually communicate anything useful with any of the towers they can "see"), so the cellular service providers have politely asked the FAA to get people to not do that.
      - seehafer 7y ago
        Thanks for this clear explanation of why this rule exists. Never understood it until now.
        diminoten 7y ago
        I would take his explanation with a hefty grain of salt...
        arcticbull 7y ago
        Indeed, the reality is that people will leave their phones on intentionally or unintentionally so engineering within aerospace has to, and does, take this into consideration. There's reasons the rule exists, but it doesn't put you at increased risk.
      - shkkmo 7y ago
        I have never seen the claim that cell service providers played an active role in this. Do you have a source for this info? I am curious to learn more.
  - PeterStuer 7y ago
    The reasons being (1) you are moving faster than the network hand over protocol is designed for and (2) even if it worked you could be impinging on the juicy margings of in-flight service offers. If airplanes could be brought down by turning on a cellphone you would never have been allowed to travel with one in the first place.
- 0xffff2 7y ago
  Do you have a real source for this? That’s a pretty serious accusation.
  - russdill 7y ago
    I'm guessing it's an ad supported kindle. The user paid less on the agreement that they would see ads. My non-ad supported kindle has never done anything like this.
    - 0xffff2 7y ago
      That’s fine, but until the FAA changes their policy, devices need to actually turn off their radios while in airplane mode. It’s not okay to lie to the user about things like that.
  - lrem 7y ago
    Even if I went through the trouble of finding where he described it, you would get a pseudonymous guy on the Internet saying a thing, instead of a pseudonymous guy on the Internet mentioning an anonymous guy told him something. So, well, apply your pinch of salt. But I remember it pretty cleanly, as it did shock me a bit. As others suggested: it was an app-supported Kindle indeed. So it's not like Amazon went crazy unprovoked evil or something. Edit: I've checked with my wife who has an ad supported Kindle for over a year and keeps it in flight mode for months at a time. It never did that to her. So either Amazon changed that a long time ago, or I've believed a lie.
    - 0xffff2 7y ago
      It’s not the evil of displaying ads, but the evil of connecting while in airplane mode that bothers me. I don’t personally believe that it’s actually going to crash a plane, but until the FAA agrees with me devices shouldn’t be connecting while claiming to be in airplane mode. I’ll have to dig into it a bit, but I expect that doing so is a violation of FAA or more likely FCC regulations.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  > ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. What's the worst that could happen? It's not like a plane's gonna fall out of the sky - Exhibit A.
- carterehsmith 7y ago
  >> After some days it popped up a message kindly asking to give it some network access. After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Yeah that's gross. Btw, Amazon does sell some cheaper ebook readers on the understanding that they will show ads. Was that the case here?
  - pkaye 7y ago
    Yes they do sell some ad supported ebook readers. And the price difference is not a lot. $20 savings for months of ads is not worth it.
    - fake-name 7y ago
      I have a relatively old ad-supported kindle. It was fairly straightforward to replace the ad images. Now it shows me cat pictures when turned off.
    - scarejunba 7y ago
      Honestly, I wish I could switch my non-ad-supported Kindle Oasis to a mode where the lock screen would cycle book recommendations. The normal cover is a bit boring.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- LynxInLA 7y ago
  That is surprising. I've had my Kindles on airplane mode for up to a year and haven't received any notices like that.
  - cortesoft 7y ago
    Do you have the ad supported version?
    - reificator 7y ago
      I have the ad supported version and leave airplane mode on at all times. I don't believe it has ever exited airplane mode without my consent. Kindle Voyage 1st generation, if that's relevant.
    - pacman128 7y ago
      My ad supported Kindle Paperwhite has never turned off airplane mode either. I only turn off airplane mode when I have a new book to download to it and turn it back on afterward.
    - LynxInLA 7y ago
      Yes. It shows cached ads for about a week after turning airplane mode and then just stays on a default Kindle ad screen indefinitely.
- driverdan 7y ago
  I had the same thing happen. I rooted my Kindle and kept it in flight mode to avoid tracking and updates. After not using it for months I recharged it and when I turned it on it had auto updated to the latest version, killing root. So not only did mine exit flight mode it somehow re-enabled updates and updated itself.
  - saagarjha 7y ago
    It's possible that it may have cleared its settings after being away from power for that long.
    - driverdan 7y ago
      It shouldn't since settings aren't stored in volatile memory.
  - bradstewart 7y ago
    Not sure about Kindles, but with the super cheap Fire Tablets, Amazon basically tells you "this device is subsidized by ads". You can pay a small fee ($15 IIRC) to remove them permanently.
    - Crespyl 7y ago
      Unless you do pay the fee, and then somehow the device still keeps resetting itself to the advertisement mode. I just use a Kobo now.
- paggle 7y ago
  Change your WiFi password on the little bugger.
- andreilys 7y ago
  You can also ask Amazon support to turn off those ads, that's what I did and don't have to deal with ads on my Kindles screen anymore.
- packet_nerd 7y ago
  My Kindle's never been connected to the network (always in flight mode) since I got it and I haven't had issues. I use Calibri and a USB cable to load ebooks. Not sure, would it be possible for it to call home through the USB cable?
  - lscotte 7y ago
    Same for me, mine has been in flight mode for over a year, it's definitely not connecting to sync collections.
- ajxs 7y ago
  That's honestly outrageous to the point of scandal. Aside from the point that these are expensive devices, these are devices that you own. You, the owner, should be able to control them to a complete degree.
  - turc1656 7y ago
    I'd agree with you but the user agreement that you sign when turning on the device the first time states they can do shit like this. EULAs are an entirely separate problem, though.
  - thirdsun 7y ago
    While I agree with you it's my understanding that this was an ad-supported Kindle. Amazon offers them with a discount, which means the buyer explicitely accepted ads for a slightly lower purchase price. I'm not saying it's ok to ignore flight mode options, but neither is the expectation to completely avoid ads when buying this very version of the Kindle.
- myaccount80 7y ago
  If you want to get rid of the ads without hacks, just contact amazon with the web chat and ask if they can remove them. They did it for me for free. (I’m serious)
  - mrpopo 7y ago
    It makes sense. Not enough people care about it enough to go through the ordeal. By offering an option for concerned people, they can avoid bad publicity about what they do.
- ctack 7y ago
  Nothing I've purchased matches the level of outright disgust I feel for the Kindle and it's ads.
  - travisp 7y ago
    Given that you can pay just a little bit of money to have it be ad free, it seems that your level of outright disgust isn’t that high.
- dsenkus 7y ago
  just do factory reset and immediately put it into flight mode. It can't update if it has no wifi password. If you want to update, just do it via cable. I have couple kindle paperwhites of different generations, and none of them did any unexpected update for years.
- Cthulhu_ 7y ago
  Well that is pretty much what you paid for - a low cost device with the caveat being that it's ad supported. You get what you (don't) pay for. Of course, it used to be that Kindles were relatively low cost because you could easily buy books from Amazon directly from it. I guess they didn't earn enough money from that - piracy maybe?
- Kneecaps07 7y ago
  I leave my Kindle in airplane mode for weeks at a time and have never experienced this. I've had Kindles for 6 or 7 years now.
  - october_sky 7y ago
    Same. My ~2017 Kindle stays on airplane mode for weeks/months at a time. It's the only device I read on, so I leave it in airplane mode to save battery. I've never had it re-enable wifi.
takeda 7y ago
Things like this are why I never will buy a so-called smart tv, the only exception being is that it is better/cheaper than alternative and in that case will keep connectivity disabled like you did.
- meesles 7y ago
  Good luck in 5 years, there will likely only be an option or two left and they will be as shitty as today's flip-phones. A few years ago I was in the market for a TV and was flabbergasted as to why I couldn't get a nice, big, 'dumb' TV.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - macNchz 7y ago
    Yeah I intentionally bought a dumb TV instead of a smart TV five years ago... recently started thinking about whether it might be interesting to upgrade to a 4k and/or OLED model before discovering that they’re ALL smart.
    - profquail 7y ago
      You can get dumb TV’s, they’re just called “digital signage”. For example: https://www.lg.com/us/business/digital-signage/lg-60UL3E https://www.lg.com/us/business/digital-signage/lg-60UL3E
    - RandomBacon 7y ago
      Amazon sells dumb 4K TVs.
      - Crespyl 7y ago
        I've looked in the past and could never seem to find one. Do you happen to have a link on hand? I'd be very interested, especially if it also supports HDR.
mrbonner 7y ago
My Samsung SmartTV randomly turns on itself. Sometimes, we can't turn it on and I have to remove the batteris from the remote, plug them back then it works. The UI is sooo sluggish. I just wish they make a dump TV with superior image quality and let the other streaming devices handling the "smart" features. I will not buy another Samsung electronic product.
- partialrecall 7y ago
  > "I just wish they make a dump TV with superior image quality and let the other streaming devices handling the "smart" features." They do, but from what I understand you'll pay more for such panels. As I understand it they're intended for commercial use.
  - 29083011397778 7y ago
    So a commercial display at a commercial price, but with a commercial warranty and support. That actually sounds like the dream.
    - mac01021 7y ago
      Even if the commercial price is an order of magnitude greater?
  - bscphil 7y ago
    Really? Can you get a commercial display with the image quality (4k OLED) and feature support (Dolby Vision HDR) of the LG C8?
- ryacko 7y ago
  You can get a large format displays. The prices are reasonable for forty inch displays with 1080p resolution. Plan on getting one with a stick PC.
- cpeterso 7y ago
  I have the exact same problems with my Samsung Smart TV. I joke that I am "rebooting the remote" when I pop out the remote batteries about once a week. The UI seems to gotten much more sluggish over the last year or two. I have a 500 Mbps internet connection, but speed tests in the TV's browser measure only 40 Mbps (on Wi-Fi or Ethernet). The TV's apps load images and data as if I'm on a 2G connection. The Amazon and YouTube apps hang if I turn the TV off and try to resume playback later. I have to switch to two other apps and then back to Amazon to force the app to crash. Then I can launch it again. And sometimes the only way to exit the Netflix app is to power cycle the TV.
petee 7y ago
I ditched Samsung years ago after they stopped releasing updates and bug fixes for my TV, a year after it was purchased. There are a bunch of TVs out there running Java without updates. In general, my last like, 5 Samsung products have been disappointing, mostly due to software, or lack there of.
dvdbloc 7y ago
Pro tip for other people with 2019 and 2018 Samsung Smart TVs, if you back out of the network config and never set it up during the initial config or after a factory reset the TV will never show any ads and will never have the annoying icons for its own apps in the menus. If you attempt to use these features the TV will kindly remind you that you are not connected to the internet/have no accepted the user agreement. I have done this on all of my Samsung TVs and the result is a much cleaner UI.
- mistrial9 7y ago
  any idea if simply using HDMI only on a 2016 model stops "phone home" behaviors? The wifi is setup on the device, almost certainly, but never on the TV mode
- markovbot 7y ago
  Alternatively, don't buy samsung TVs on principal.
  - nyolfen 7y ago
    i have read repeatedly on this site that it is effectively impossible to buy a new dumb tv unless you get the kind of commercial ones meant for installation on walls in commercial buildings etc
    - RandomBacon 7y ago
      You can find them on Amazon pretty easily. That's how I bought my 4k dumb TV.
      - mr_toad 7y ago
        Just beware that some models don’t have speakers.
        jsjw7sbw 7y ago
        Even better. Can we go any dumber?
AlphaWeaver 7y ago
I started blocking the ad servers at the network level, and now my home screen on my Roku TV is very clean!
pacala 7y ago
Five years from now, 5G will be widely deployed, with a connection density of 1M/sqkm, 1000 times larger than 4G. The TV will connect directly to the 5G network without asking for permission. For your convenience [TM].
- dreamcompiler 7y ago
  At which point I hope there will be websites describing how to take the TV apart and disable the 5G modem. Or somebody will invent a small short-range backhaul-less 5G spoof microcell you can put next to the TV that will confuse the TV's modem into connecting to nothing. Or just wrap the TV in a Faraday cage. But keeping the screen visible might make that tricky.
  - pacala 7y ago
    1% of us will take the troubles to protect themselves. We'll even marginally succeed, as long as we don't go out in public or visit a friend's house. Too expensive to circumvent protections if the other 99% have no [time to develop an] understanding of what they are exposed to.
    - danmg 7y ago
      Smart TVs will start including bluetooth sniffing so they'll know how many people are watching and who.
      - pacala 7y ago
        We'll install 5G connected, AI powered cameras and far-field microphones in your TV, to measure the emotional impact of our ads. To offer you a better service [TM]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen
  - onion2k 7y ago
    At which point I hope there will be websites describing how to take the TV apart and disable the 5G modem. There's always been rumours that some Intel vPro CPUs have modems (and entire secondary CPUs..) built in to the chip itself. Atom x3/x5/x7 processors have a modem in the CPU package. I imagine disabling the modem without breaking the TV would be impossible.
Marsymars 7y ago
If a TV manufacturer added ads to my TV after purchase, I'd feel ethically obligated to return the purchase as defective.
mangix 7y ago
Use adblock on your router.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
dghughes 7y ago
I can't watch more than 5 minutes of any YouTube video on my Samsung smart TV before an advertisement interrupts the video. Often several times for short videos. The ads are the same ones over and over too at the moment it's the J-Lo Hustler movie. If not that it's an ad from my local tourist board advertising my own home town. It's getting to the point where it's not even watchable. I click back to exit and maybe go back later but I have hundreds of partially watched videos I've forgotten about.
- chiefalchemist 7y ago
  > ". If not that it's an ad from my local tourist board advertising my own home town." And they're paying for that. Well, more like, and YOU'RE paying for that.
- technofiend 7y ago
  Shelby Church explains how much she makes from YouTube ads and mentions that doubling the ads per video dramatically increased her revenue. https://youtu.be/do1VLjNg6AE https://youtu.be/do1VLjNg6AE YouTube has YouTube Red so you can kill ads. Seems like either way you're going to pay.
petepete 7y ago
I wrote a guide on blocking them via DNS, but installing a Pi-Hole is a good alternative that will save your whole network. https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4bcef1e52 https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4b...
leokennis 7y ago
I hear all these complaints about ads and it is very strange to me. I have a 2018 Samsung Smart TV (with buyilt in Netflix, Apple TV etc. apps), connected to the internet (no VPN, pihole etc.). I live in The Netherlands. On setup I agreed to all kinds of stuff, except the voice stuff (so I cannot speak to my TV). I have never seen a single ad or anything remotely like it. The only thing is the remote has dedicated buttons for Amazon something and Rakuten (both not available in my country) and Netflix.

I disabled WiFi on my Samsung TV after they were injecting ads into the home screen. Spend $800 to get ads served in their shitty/slow UI.

lrem 7y ago

An acquaintance attempted that with Kindle, by keeping it in flight mode. After some days it popped up a message kindly asking to give it some network access. After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Edit: I've checked with my wife who has an ad supported Kindle for over a year and keeps it in flight mode for months at a time. It never did that to her. So either Amazon changed that a long time ago, or I've believed a lie.

cameronbrown 7y ago
> After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Worrying. "Flight" mode exists for a reason and should not be overridden.
- arcticbull 7y ago
  Flight mode exists because the FAA applies unsafe-until-proven-safe methodology to everything flight related (as they should). If flight mode mattered at all planes would be falling out of the sky on the regular, many people just leave their phones on the whole trip. The only reason I turn my phone off is because it wastes a lot of battery as it tries to manage tower hopping the whole time. Planes are getting blasted by RF in the cellular bands continuously from the ground, too, so this is taken into consideration in the design process. Don't get me wrong the Kindle shouldn't do what it's doing but it's by no means a safety issue.
  - jacquesm 7y ago
    > Planes are getting blasted by RF in the cellular bands continuously from the ground, too, so this is taken into consideration in the design process. It's a totally different affair if you are receiving a signal by a 100 Watt transmitter at 10 Km or a signal from a 1 Watt transmitter at 5 meters distance. The 1 Watt transmitter will overpower anything in its band with great ease and any dirt on the spectral output will have the same effect in other bands. Note that most cellphones will crank up their output if they can't connect to a base station that they can receive. Of course plane designers will still do what they can to reduce this nuisance but leaving our phone on makes it harder than it should be. Please turn your phone off or to airplane mode and consider it a very small price to pay for flying an airplane. Yes, flight mode does matter, no it probably won't crash a plane but does it have to before you would consider following a very simple rule?
  - derefr 7y ago
    IIRC there isn't a problem for most of the flight; but right as you're ascending/descending your phone can end up getting a very weak line-of-sight connection to a whole bunch of cell towers at once, which causes a few different problems, but all of which come down to "it makes both your phone, and all the towers, shout really loudly at one-another to try to achieve a circuit." Which, sure, means that there might be EM interference (on bands ATC doesn't even use, but which the pilots might like to switch to in event of emergency.) But, more importantly, it puts your phone's radio through an unusual high-power-draw situation that the phone's manufacturer may not have bothered testing for, which can make phone batteries explode that might not have otherwise ever exploded. Oh, and also, a plane-load of people whose phones are all ranging hogs circuits on a bunch of towers at once (for no productive purpose, since the phones don't have high-enough SNR to actually communicate anything useful with any of the towers they can "see"), so the cellular service providers have politely asked the FAA to get people to not do that.
    - seehafer 7y ago
      Thanks for this clear explanation of why this rule exists. Never understood it until now.
      - diminoten 7y ago
        I would take his explanation with a hefty grain of salt...
        arcticbull 7y ago
        Indeed, the reality is that people will leave their phones on intentionally or unintentionally so engineering within aerospace has to, and does, take this into consideration. There's reasons the rule exists, but it doesn't put you at increased risk.
    - shkkmo 7y ago
      I have never seen the claim that cell service providers played an active role in this. Do you have a source for this info? I am curious to learn more.
- PeterStuer 7y ago
  The reasons being (1) you are moving faster than the network hand over protocol is designed for and (2) even if it worked you could be impinging on the juicy margings of in-flight service offers. If airplanes could be brought down by turning on a cellphone you would never have been allowed to travel with one in the first place.
0xffff2 7y ago
Do you have a real source for this? That’s a pretty serious accusation.
- russdill 7y ago
  I'm guessing it's an ad supported kindle. The user paid less on the agreement that they would see ads. My non-ad supported kindle has never done anything like this.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    That’s fine, but until the FAA changes their policy, devices need to actually turn off their radios while in airplane mode. It’s not okay to lie to the user about things like that.
- lrem 7y ago
  Even if I went through the trouble of finding where he described it, you would get a pseudonymous guy on the Internet saying a thing, instead of a pseudonymous guy on the Internet mentioning an anonymous guy told him something. So, well, apply your pinch of salt. But I remember it pretty cleanly, as it did shock me a bit. As others suggested: it was an app-supported Kindle indeed. So it's not like Amazon went crazy unprovoked evil or something. Edit: I've checked with my wife who has an ad supported Kindle for over a year and keeps it in flight mode for months at a time. It never did that to her. So either Amazon changed that a long time ago, or I've believed a lie.
  - 0xffff2 7y ago
    It’s not the evil of displaying ads, but the evil of connecting while in airplane mode that bothers me. I don’t personally believe that it’s actually going to crash a plane, but until the FAA agrees with me devices shouldn’t be connecting while claiming to be in airplane mode. I’ll have to dig into it a bit, but I expect that doing so is a violation of FAA or more likely FCC regulations.
WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
> ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. What's the worst that could happen? It's not like a plane's gonna fall out of the sky - Exhibit A.
carterehsmith 7y ago
>> After some days it popped up a message kindly asking to give it some network access. After a few more days it simply ignored the flight mode and connected to get fresh ads. Yeah that's gross. Btw, Amazon does sell some cheaper ebook readers on the understanding that they will show ads. Was that the case here?
- pkaye 7y ago
  Yes they do sell some ad supported ebook readers. And the price difference is not a lot. $20 savings for months of ads is not worth it.
  - fake-name 7y ago
    I have a relatively old ad-supported kindle. It was fairly straightforward to replace the ad images. Now it shows me cat pictures when turned off.
  - scarejunba 7y ago
    Honestly, I wish I could switch my non-ad-supported Kindle Oasis to a mode where the lock screen would cycle book recommendations. The normal cover is a bit boring.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
LynxInLA 7y ago
That is surprising. I've had my Kindles on airplane mode for up to a year and haven't received any notices like that.
- cortesoft 7y ago
  Do you have the ad supported version?
  - reificator 7y ago
    I have the ad supported version and leave airplane mode on at all times. I don't believe it has ever exited airplane mode without my consent. Kindle Voyage 1st generation, if that's relevant.
  - pacman128 7y ago
    My ad supported Kindle Paperwhite has never turned off airplane mode either. I only turn off airplane mode when I have a new book to download to it and turn it back on afterward.
  - LynxInLA 7y ago
    Yes. It shows cached ads for about a week after turning airplane mode and then just stays on a default Kindle ad screen indefinitely.
driverdan 7y ago
I had the same thing happen. I rooted my Kindle and kept it in flight mode to avoid tracking and updates. After not using it for months I recharged it and when I turned it on it had auto updated to the latest version, killing root. So not only did mine exit flight mode it somehow re-enabled updates and updated itself.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  It's possible that it may have cleared its settings after being away from power for that long.
  - driverdan 7y ago
    It shouldn't since settings aren't stored in volatile memory.
- bradstewart 7y ago
  Not sure about Kindles, but with the super cheap Fire Tablets, Amazon basically tells you "this device is subsidized by ads". You can pay a small fee ($15 IIRC) to remove them permanently.
  - Crespyl 7y ago
    Unless you do pay the fee, and then somehow the device still keeps resetting itself to the advertisement mode. I just use a Kobo now.
paggle 7y ago
Change your WiFi password on the little bugger.
andreilys 7y ago
You can also ask Amazon support to turn off those ads, that's what I did and don't have to deal with ads on my Kindles screen anymore.
packet_nerd 7y ago
My Kindle's never been connected to the network (always in flight mode) since I got it and I haven't had issues. I use Calibri and a USB cable to load ebooks. Not sure, would it be possible for it to call home through the USB cable?
- lscotte 7y ago
  Same for me, mine has been in flight mode for over a year, it's definitely not connecting to sync collections.
ajxs 7y ago
That's honestly outrageous to the point of scandal. Aside from the point that these are expensive devices, these are devices that you own. You, the owner, should be able to control them to a complete degree.
- turc1656 7y ago
  I'd agree with you but the user agreement that you sign when turning on the device the first time states they can do shit like this. EULAs are an entirely separate problem, though.
- thirdsun 7y ago
  While I agree with you it's my understanding that this was an ad-supported Kindle. Amazon offers them with a discount, which means the buyer explicitely accepted ads for a slightly lower purchase price. I'm not saying it's ok to ignore flight mode options, but neither is the expectation to completely avoid ads when buying this very version of the Kindle.
myaccount80 7y ago
If you want to get rid of the ads without hacks, just contact amazon with the web chat and ask if they can remove them. They did it for me for free. (I’m serious)
- mrpopo 7y ago
  It makes sense. Not enough people care about it enough to go through the ordeal. By offering an option for concerned people, they can avoid bad publicity about what they do.
ctack 7y ago
Nothing I've purchased matches the level of outright disgust I feel for the Kindle and it's ads.
- travisp 7y ago
  Given that you can pay just a little bit of money to have it be ad free, it seems that your level of outright disgust isn’t that high.
dsenkus 7y ago
just do factory reset and immediately put it into flight mode. It can't update if it has no wifi password. If you want to update, just do it via cable. I have couple kindle paperwhites of different generations, and none of them did any unexpected update for years.
Cthulhu_ 7y ago
Well that is pretty much what you paid for - a low cost device with the caveat being that it's ad supported. You get what you (don't) pay for. Of course, it used to be that Kindles were relatively low cost because you could easily buy books from Amazon directly from it. I guess they didn't earn enough money from that - piracy maybe?
Kneecaps07 7y ago
I leave my Kindle in airplane mode for weeks at a time and have never experienced this. I've had Kindles for 6 or 7 years now.
- october_sky 7y ago
  Same. My ~2017 Kindle stays on airplane mode for weeks/months at a time. It's the only device I read on, so I leave it in airplane mode to save battery. I've never had it re-enable wifi.

takeda 7y ago

Things like this are why I never will buy a so-called smart tv, the only exception being is that it is better/cheaper than alternative and in that case will keep connectivity disabled like you did.

meesles 7y ago
Good luck in 5 years, there will likely only be an option or two left and they will be as shitty as today's flip-phones. A few years ago I was in the market for a TV and was flabbergasted as to why I couldn't get a nice, big, 'dumb' TV.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- macNchz 7y ago
  Yeah I intentionally bought a dumb TV instead of a smart TV five years ago... recently started thinking about whether it might be interesting to upgrade to a 4k and/or OLED model before discovering that they’re ALL smart.
  - profquail 7y ago
    You can get dumb TV’s, they’re just called “digital signage”. For example: https://www.lg.com/us/business/digital-signage/lg-60UL3E https://www.lg.com/us/business/digital-signage/lg-60UL3E
  - RandomBacon 7y ago
    Amazon sells dumb 4K TVs.
    - Crespyl 7y ago
      I've looked in the past and could never seem to find one. Do you happen to have a link on hand? I'd be very interested, especially if it also supports HDR.

mrbonner 7y ago

My Samsung SmartTV randomly turns on itself. Sometimes, we can't turn it on and I have to remove the batteris from the remote, plug them back then it works. The UI is sooo sluggish. I just wish they make a dump TV with superior image quality and let the other streaming devices handling the "smart" features. I will not buy another Samsung electronic product.

partialrecall 7y ago
> "I just wish they make a dump TV with superior image quality and let the other streaming devices handling the "smart" features." They do, but from what I understand you'll pay more for such panels. As I understand it they're intended for commercial use.
- 29083011397778 7y ago
  So a commercial display at a commercial price, but with a commercial warranty and support. That actually sounds like the dream.
  - mac01021 7y ago
    Even if the commercial price is an order of magnitude greater?
- bscphil 7y ago
  Really? Can you get a commercial display with the image quality (4k OLED) and feature support (Dolby Vision HDR) of the LG C8?
ryacko 7y ago
You can get a large format displays. The prices are reasonable for forty inch displays with 1080p resolution. Plan on getting one with a stick PC.
cpeterso 7y ago
I have the exact same problems with my Samsung Smart TV. I joke that I am "rebooting the remote" when I pop out the remote batteries about once a week. The UI seems to gotten much more sluggish over the last year or two. I have a 500 Mbps internet connection, but speed tests in the TV's browser measure only 40 Mbps (on Wi-Fi or Ethernet). The TV's apps load images and data as if I'm on a 2G connection. The Amazon and YouTube apps hang if I turn the TV off and try to resume playback later. I have to switch to two other apps and then back to Amazon to force the app to crash. Then I can launch it again. And sometimes the only way to exit the Netflix app is to power cycle the TV.

petee 7y ago

I ditched Samsung years ago after they stopped releasing updates and bug fixes for my TV, a year after it was purchased. There are a bunch of TVs out there running Java without updates. In general, my last like, 5 Samsung products have been disappointing, mostly due to software, or lack there of.

dvdbloc 7y ago

Pro tip for other people with 2019 and 2018 Samsung Smart TVs, if you back out of the network config and never set it up during the initial config or after a factory reset the TV will never show any ads and will never have the annoying icons for its own apps in the menus. If you attempt to use these features the TV will kindly remind you that you are not connected to the internet/have no accepted the user agreement. I have done this on all of my Samsung TVs and the result is a much cleaner UI.

mistrial9 7y ago
any idea if simply using HDMI only on a 2016 model stops "phone home" behaviors? The wifi is setup on the device, almost certainly, but never on the TV mode
markovbot 7y ago
Alternatively, don't buy samsung TVs on principal.
- nyolfen 7y ago
  i have read repeatedly on this site that it is effectively impossible to buy a new dumb tv unless you get the kind of commercial ones meant for installation on walls in commercial buildings etc
  - RandomBacon 7y ago
    You can find them on Amazon pretty easily. That's how I bought my 4k dumb TV.
    - mr_toad 7y ago
      Just beware that some models don’t have speakers.
      - jsjw7sbw 7y ago
        Even better. Can we go any dumber?

AlphaWeaver 7y ago

I started blocking the ad servers at the network level, and now my home screen on my Roku TV is very clean!

pacala 7y ago

Five years from now, 5G will be widely deployed, with a connection density of 1M/sqkm, 1000 times larger than 4G. The TV will connect directly to the 5G network without asking for permission. For your convenience [TM].

dreamcompiler 7y ago
At which point I hope there will be websites describing how to take the TV apart and disable the 5G modem. Or somebody will invent a small short-range backhaul-less 5G spoof microcell you can put next to the TV that will confuse the TV's modem into connecting to nothing. Or just wrap the TV in a Faraday cage. But keeping the screen visible might make that tricky.
- pacala 7y ago
  1% of us will take the troubles to protect themselves. We'll even marginally succeed, as long as we don't go out in public or visit a friend's house. Too expensive to circumvent protections if the other 99% have no [time to develop an] understanding of what they are exposed to.
  - danmg 7y ago
    Smart TVs will start including bluetooth sniffing so they'll know how many people are watching and who.
    - pacala 7y ago
      We'll install 5G connected, AI powered cameras and far-field microphones in your TV, to measure the emotional impact of our ads. To offer you a better service [TM]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen
- onion2k 7y ago
  At which point I hope there will be websites describing how to take the TV apart and disable the 5G modem. There's always been rumours that some Intel vPro CPUs have modems (and entire secondary CPUs..) built in to the chip itself. Atom x3/x5/x7 processors have a modem in the CPU package. I imagine disabling the modem without breaking the TV would be impossible.

Marsymars 7y ago

If a TV manufacturer added ads to my TV after purchase, I'd feel ethically obligated to return the purchase as defective.

mangix 7y ago

Use adblock on your router.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

dghughes 7y ago

I can't watch more than 5 minutes of any YouTube video on my Samsung smart TV before an advertisement interrupts the video. Often several times for short videos. The ads are the same ones over and over too at the moment it's the J-Lo Hustler movie. If not that it's an ad from my local tourist board advertising my own home town. It's getting to the point where it's not even watchable. I click back to exit and maybe go back later but I have hundreds of partially watched videos I've forgotten about.

chiefalchemist 7y ago
> ". If not that it's an ad from my local tourist board advertising my own home town." And they're paying for that. Well, more like, and YOU'RE paying for that.
technofiend 7y ago
Shelby Church explains how much she makes from YouTube ads and mentions that doubling the ads per video dramatically increased her revenue. https://youtu.be/do1VLjNg6AE https://youtu.be/do1VLjNg6AE YouTube has YouTube Red so you can kill ads. Seems like either way you're going to pay.

petepete 7y ago

I wrote a guide on blocking them via DNS, but installing a Pi-Hole is a good alternative that will save your whole network. https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4bcef1e52 https://gist.github.com/peteryates/b44b70d19ccd52f62d66cdd4b...

leokennis 7y ago

I hear all these complaints about ads and it is very strange to me. I have a 2018 Samsung Smart TV (with buyilt in Netflix, Apple TV etc. apps), connected to the internet (no VPN, pihole etc.). I live in The Netherlands. On setup I agreed to all kinds of stuff, except the voice stuff (so I cannot speak to my TV). I have never seen a single ad or anything remotely like it. The only thing is the remote has dedicated buttons for Amazon something and Rakuten (both not available in my country) and Netflix.