The problem is that we are running out of alternatives. How long until there are no refrigerators, TVs, cars, whatever that will not work without some amount of baked in advertising?
I dunno, my family started buying LG stuff for our appliances and otherwise, and none of the stuff has forceful ads on them, at least yet. Currently I think we have LG TVs, fridge, dish washer, drier, washing machine and something else I can't remember, all of them working well, has nice and fast at-home support when needed and no ads even on the TVs.
We purchased a low-end LG OLED TV in 2022. A few months ago it started inserting LG text ads with a little bullseye at the bottom of the screen while watching OTA programs or using streaming apps. It wasn't clear how to remove them without stopping the programming or accidentally triggering some other ad display, which I didn't want to do. So the text ads sat there for 15 or 20 seconds before fading away.
LG tvs have ads now. In fact, there are no TVs that are ad free at all anymore. At least keeping them unplugged from the internet usually prevents the ads… for now. True dystopia.
My LG TV got an update which started pushing ads. I had to take it off the internet and use a Chromecast instead. But I fear it's not long before products straight up refuse to function without an internet connection, or they have their own way to access the internet you can't disable.
This. Parents bought LG OLED TV. It is absolutely lovely, has super nice picture. (not an ad!:D) I insisted they never connect it to network. Probably it would be usable on network cut off from internet, but there is high probability of some mistake. I wasnt sure what happens if it got out for just a tiny bit so decision was clear. We've seen zero ads there (except the standard-ads-iterrupted-by-actual-programming).
Depends on what consumers stand for. If enough complain. If enough get bad reviews. If enough get returned. If enough buy something else is the big one. If there are other uses where they can't (some TVs are used a safety message boards in factories - if the ads ever show in this context and someone is hurt there will be a lawsuit - so there will be some demand at any price for something without ads)
Also, people don't realize that sometimes it doesn't even matter
Enough people don't care, don't notice, or in the worst case, even when they do, if the companies band together and don't give people a choice, eventually they will cave and thats what i predict will happen here
In the future i suspect most people's homes will have ads, except for nerds who will have rooted their devices. and hopefully their moms.
> The problem is that we are running out of alternatives.
But why is that? HN told me that ads were just reserved for people who refused to “pay for the product”. By inference we must conclude that for-pay products shall not have ads on sheer principle. Where’s that smug scolding at now?
