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Interesting, I wonder if we'll ultimately see legislation pass at some point that breaks these older TVs or non-supported devices.

userbinator 6y ago
I hope right-to-repair passes first. Only the tech industry is so brazenly authoritarian about breaking things that used to work.
- IntelMiner 6y ago
  I don't think that saying technology is an evolving problem is an "authoritarian" stance Software is written by human beings, human beings make mistakes. The fact these devices can't be updated by the vendor is an implicitly economic problem Right-to-repair likely wouldn't "solve" these problems for 99% of people, unfortunately. Netflix would never have its customer service people advocating to download custom firmware for smart TV's from "some Russian website" for instance The real change it would cause is allowing "tech savvy" people to carve out a niche repairing and reselling used, but functional devices. Which even if it's only a 1% decline in sales is an unacceptable proposition for companies. Selling millions of something every year somehow isn't worth it if even a single PENNY is left on the table, or "spent" in the wrong place instead of lining their pockets
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    The authoritarianism is that companies should be aware that technology progresses and still lock users out from their hardware so they can’t fix it when the world inevitably changes.
  - selfhoster11 6y ago
    > Netflix would never have its customer service people advocating to download custom firmware for smart TV's from "some Russian website" for instance They wouldn't tell that to people directly, but they could tell you to go to a repair man. Who then, would proceed to download that same firmware from the Russian website and apply it, and the TV now works. Netflix gets to keep their reputation, and the customer is happy with the TV.
mtgx 6y ago
"Smart" devices should get software support (in a timely manner, like 3-6 months after a bug is reported) for as long as 20%+ of the buyers continue to use those devices. If that's 15 years, then they should get support for 15 years. If 10 million people get a certain Samsung Smart TV model, and 15 years later, 3 million of those buyers continue to use that model, then Samsung should continue to support it until it's fewer than 2 million, at least. Then these OEMs can decide if throwing some much garbage onto these devices is actually worth it to them in the long term.

userbinator 6y ago

I hope right-to-repair passes first. Only the tech industry is so brazenly authoritarian about breaking things that used to work.

IntelMiner 6y ago
I don't think that saying technology is an evolving problem is an "authoritarian" stance Software is written by human beings, human beings make mistakes. The fact these devices can't be updated by the vendor is an implicitly economic problem Right-to-repair likely wouldn't "solve" these problems for 99% of people, unfortunately. Netflix would never have its customer service people advocating to download custom firmware for smart TV's from "some Russian website" for instance The real change it would cause is allowing "tech savvy" people to carve out a niche repairing and reselling used, but functional devices. Which even if it's only a 1% decline in sales is an unacceptable proposition for companies. Selling millions of something every year somehow isn't worth it if even a single PENNY is left on the table, or "spent" in the wrong place instead of lining their pockets
- saagarjha 6y ago
  The authoritarianism is that companies should be aware that technology progresses and still lock users out from their hardware so they can’t fix it when the world inevitably changes.
- selfhoster11 6y ago
  > Netflix would never have its customer service people advocating to download custom firmware for smart TV's from "some Russian website" for instance They wouldn't tell that to people directly, but they could tell you to go to a repair man. Who then, would proceed to download that same firmware from the Russian website and apply it, and the TV now works. Netflix gets to keep their reputation, and the customer is happy with the TV.

mtgx 6y ago

"Smart" devices should get software support (in a timely manner, like 3-6 months after a bug is reported) for as long as 20%+ of the buyers continue to use those devices. If that's 15 years, then they should get support for 15 years. If 10 million people get a certain Samsung Smart TV model, and 15 years later, 3 million of those buyers continue to use that model, then Samsung should continue to support it until it's fewer than 2 million, at least. Then these OEMs can decide if throwing some much garbage onto these devices is actually worth it to them in the long term.