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Beaming ads onto mobile or mobile-like devices is an inevitable trend we're going to see over the next decade. For example, most TV watchers actually attend to

Beaming ads onto mobile or mobile-like devices is an inevitable trend we're going to see over the next decade. For example, most TV watchers actually attend to their phone over the TV. How long will it be before Galaxy phones start beaming Samsung TV ads to your device? And Apple TVs? If they (TV manufacturers) all align on this, there's no real escape. Cars are just a canary, I think. And a dangerous one at that thanks to driver distraction. But longer term, as we get better autonomous driving systems, expect the interior of "your" vehicle to get plastered with advertisement. Welcome to the future!

alanbernstein 5y ago
There is an escape, for now: stop connecting things to the internet when they don't need to be. Of course, there is nothing stopping the industry from replacing HDMI with a standard that must include an internet connection...
- pdimitar 5y ago
  They already did, I know that HDMI 2.0 includes Ethernet and if the host (computer or TV stick) has internet it will transparently share it with the TV which can then happily install updates and show you ads.
  - mywittyname 5y ago
    Do they make HDMI prophylactics yet?
    - pdimitar 5y ago
      No clue but I'd pay for an HDMI device that ignores/kills Ethernet traffic.
      - smoldesu 5y ago
        Most HDMI cables don't even have the pins required to wire Ethernet over them.
  - detaro 5y ago
    Can you name any combination of devices that actually does this? I've never seen an implementation of it, in over a decade of this being an optional part of HDMI.
  - smoldesu 5y ago
    > I know that HDMI 2.0 includes Ethernet and if the host (computer or TV stick) has internet it will transparently share it with the TV Technically, you can encode whatever the hell you want over an HDMI cable. Whether or not the terminating end is able to receive/interpret it is a different story, however. The cost of implementing end-to-end-Ethernet-over-HDMI is so high that it would almost certainly be prohibitive to modern production, much less the production capabilities of 2013, when the spec for HDMI 2.0 was released.
    - pdimitar 5y ago
      https://www.amazon.com/2-Pack-Syntech-18Gbps-Ethernet-Compatible/dp/B08JLSXTXB https://www.amazon.com/2-Pack-Syntech-18Gbps-Ethernet-Compat... 2x such 6ft cables for $8.50. Sure, it's prohibitive, yeah. ;)
- r00fus 5y ago
  Amazon Sidewalk is well positioned to remove your pesky connectivity preferences.
  - asdff 5y ago
    time to line my home in lead
- MrMember 5y ago
  At some point the price will be worth it to put cell modems in almost everything. A permanent internet connection for all of your devices/appliances that can't be disabled without putting it in a Faraday cage or physically destroying the modem.
ElFitz 5y ago
> And Apple TVs? Well, that’s at least one company from which I, although perhaps mistakenly, wouldn’t expect that. And being proven wrong would probably make me reconsider my purchase habits.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  I mean, Apple TV still gives you recommended stuff on your dashboard. That's just a stones throw away from the FireTV default of playing a preview of whatever is recommended to you on your dashboard, and that's basically a stones throw away to just showing you ads. You can't delineate whether something is an ad or not just based on where it's being shown. Apple already sells higher ranking search results in the app store (Suggested Apps), so it's not a radically different change from what we have now. Really it just involves Apple combining autoplay and context-aware suggestions.
  - ElFitz 5y ago
    True. But the key difference, for now, is that I, again, perhaps mistakenly, believe that their interest still is to make something that serves my purpose well enough for me to want to buy more of their products later. That, in some way, their way of selling me stuff is to align their interests with mine (as long as I subscribe to their closed way of doing things). Which isn’t something I can say I believe of Facebook, Google, LG or Samsung (I believe they once even made their TVs connect to public open WiFis when you didn’t set them up. Makes me want to tear out that antenna). Even though it’s perhaps only marketing posturing; the App Store ads are starting to blur that line. And I could see how well targeted ads could be construed to yield the same effect.

alanbernstein 5y ago

There is an escape, for now: stop connecting things to the internet when they don't need to be. Of course, there is nothing stopping the industry from replacing HDMI with a standard that must include an internet connection...

pdimitar 5y ago
They already did, I know that HDMI 2.0 includes Ethernet and if the host (computer or TV stick) has internet it will transparently share it with the TV which can then happily install updates and show you ads.
- mywittyname 5y ago
  Do they make HDMI prophylactics yet?
  - pdimitar 5y ago
    No clue but I'd pay for an HDMI device that ignores/kills Ethernet traffic.
    - smoldesu 5y ago
      Most HDMI cables don't even have the pins required to wire Ethernet over them.
- detaro 5y ago
  Can you name any combination of devices that actually does this? I've never seen an implementation of it, in over a decade of this being an optional part of HDMI.
- smoldesu 5y ago
  > I know that HDMI 2.0 includes Ethernet and if the host (computer or TV stick) has internet it will transparently share it with the TV Technically, you can encode whatever the hell you want over an HDMI cable. Whether or not the terminating end is able to receive/interpret it is a different story, however. The cost of implementing end-to-end-Ethernet-over-HDMI is so high that it would almost certainly be prohibitive to modern production, much less the production capabilities of 2013, when the spec for HDMI 2.0 was released.
  - pdimitar 5y ago
    https://www.amazon.com/2-Pack-Syntech-18Gbps-Ethernet-Compatible/dp/B08JLSXTXB https://www.amazon.com/2-Pack-Syntech-18Gbps-Ethernet-Compat... 2x such 6ft cables for $8.50. Sure, it's prohibitive, yeah. ;)
r00fus 5y ago
Amazon Sidewalk is well positioned to remove your pesky connectivity preferences.
- asdff 5y ago
  time to line my home in lead
MrMember 5y ago
At some point the price will be worth it to put cell modems in almost everything. A permanent internet connection for all of your devices/appliances that can't be disabled without putting it in a Faraday cage or physically destroying the modem.

ElFitz 5y ago

> And Apple TVs? Well, that’s at least one company from which I, although perhaps mistakenly, wouldn’t expect that. And being proven wrong would probably make me reconsider my purchase habits.

smoldesu 5y ago
I mean, Apple TV still gives you recommended stuff on your dashboard. That's just a stones throw away from the FireTV default of playing a preview of whatever is recommended to you on your dashboard, and that's basically a stones throw away to just showing you ads. You can't delineate whether something is an ad or not just based on where it's being shown. Apple already sells higher ranking search results in the app store (Suggested Apps), so it's not a radically different change from what we have now. Really it just involves Apple combining autoplay and context-aware suggestions.
- ElFitz 5y ago
  True. But the key difference, for now, is that I, again, perhaps mistakenly, believe that their interest still is to make something that serves my purpose well enough for me to want to buy more of their products later. That, in some way, their way of selling me stuff is to align their interests with mine (as long as I subscribe to their closed way of doing things). Which isn’t something I can say I believe of Facebook, Google, LG or Samsung (I believe they once even made their TVs connect to public open WiFis when you didn’t set them up. Makes me want to tear out that antenna). Even though it’s perhaps only marketing posturing; the App Store ads are starting to blur that line. And I could see how well targeted ads could be construed to yield the same effect.