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I've had the Shield for years and set them up for a few family members. I still believe it's the best device of its kind on the market and I've recommended it e

I've had the Shield for years and set them up for a few family members. I still believe it's the best device of its kind on the market and I've recommended it every chance so I have a lot of friends with them as well. In the most recent update, the until-now ad-free homepage was defaced with an ad banner that takes up half the screen and can't be removed. This wasn't a change made by Nvidia but by Google to the Android TV Launcher. To add to this, some of the ads have been deemed inappropriate or offensive to certain users adding to the frustration of ads being introduced to this long-standing ad-free experience. I, like many Shield owners, am considering installing a third party launcher. This can be done pretty easily by watching an instruction video on Youtube and most users will go this route without consideration of security - potentially opening large numbers of the devices up to vulnerabilities.

notyourwork 5y ago
+1 I’m beyond furious about this and it’s a small drop in the bucket of Googles increased ability to shove ads down your throat everywhere. Something needs to change.
Alacart 5y ago
I'm absolutely pissed about it. I couldn't believe it when I saw it and I spent 20 minutes trying to find the setting that I thought must be there somewhere. It's such a seemingly small thing but in. lot of ways it's the equivalent of waking up in the morning and finding that someone came into your house in the night and stuck a flyer to your fridge.
avel 5y ago
It's not the Android TV Launcher per se. If you revert that app to the factory-installed one, the "recommendations" banner will still show up within an old version of the launcher. So this comes from Play Services. It appears the launcher has an exclusive hook for Play Services to show content in, and is being used for this purpose. I am still reverted to the original Android TV Launcher because it takes less clicks to reach some functionality and is simpler, but the recommendation banner ruins it somewhat.
mhuffman 5y ago
It was fucking absurd how big the ad was and that it was advertising for shit I have never and will never use! > This wasn't a change made by Nvidia but by Google to the Android TV Launcher. My understanding is that Google big-dicks companies that want to run android on their device and have Play Store. So in this case, my understanding is that if they remove the Android TV Launcher, they must remove all the Google-branded items, including Play Store, which basically cripples Android for normal users.

notyourwork 5y ago

+1 I’m beyond furious about this and it’s a small drop in the bucket of Googles increased ability to shove ads down your throat everywhere. Something needs to change.

Alacart 5y ago

I'm absolutely pissed about it. I couldn't believe it when I saw it and I spent 20 minutes trying to find the setting that I thought must be there somewhere. It's such a seemingly small thing but in. lot of ways it's the equivalent of waking up in the morning and finding that someone came into your house in the night and stuck a flyer to your fridge.

avel 5y ago

It's not the Android TV Launcher per se. If you revert that app to the factory-installed one, the "recommendations" banner will still show up within an old version of the launcher. So this comes from Play Services. It appears the launcher has an exclusive hook for Play Services to show content in, and is being used for this purpose. I am still reverted to the original Android TV Launcher because it takes less clicks to reach some functionality and is simpler, but the recommendation banner ruins it somewhat.

mhuffman 5y ago

It was fucking absurd how big the ad was and that it was advertising for shit I have never and will never use! > This wasn't a change made by Nvidia but by Google to the Android TV Launcher. My understanding is that Google big-dicks companies that want to run android on their device and have Play Store. So in this case, my understanding is that if they remove the Android TV Launcher, they must remove all the Google-branded items, including Play Store, which basically cripples Android for normal users.