Technology

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.spocky.projengmenu&pcampaignid=web_share is an easy install

God damn it Google.

When I turn on the TV, it's fine if the masthead is a banner advertising a new show. I'm literally using the product to find things to watch.

But fast food? That can fuck right off.

Fucking uber have ads, my bank app have ads, everything have ads now. It's a Fucking nightmare.

Google and Roku primarily make money from ads.

Apple does some stuff that isn’t great, but the Apple TV doesn’t have ads like their competitors. Apps can advertise what’s inside of them when they’re selected, but that’s it on the Home Screen.

I almost completely stopped going to the movies once the pre-roll stuff was ads for cars, food, etc instead of just movie trailers.

The more inconvenient Google makes avoiding ads on their platforms and services, the less of Googles platforms and services I will use.

For now I have a third party launcher setup on my CCwGTV in my living room, but the Apple TV 4k I have in my bedroom sure is looking nice these days with how well it performs and how much less trouble it is to setup and reset should I need/want to do that.

Going the HTPC route is less desirable to me since services like Amazon and Netflix go out of their way to restrict resolutions offered to things like a Debian box running Firefox. I could use Windows and Edge, but that would mean hitching myself to another company that seems more interested in selling me to advertisers than selling things to me.

pats his Apple TV good boy

If you have a CCwGTV, you should be using Apps Only mode. Sucks that Google hides this, because I've found that this is the best streaming device for my needs, but they just keep pushing ads like this. Makes me want to do a homebrew chromecast device.

But switching to Apps Only mode is a decent workaround... for now. https://support.google.com/googletv/answer/10070784?hl=en

Google is, and always has been, an advertising company. Thats their bread and butter

Has there been a company that has experienced such a fast fall from grace as Google?

Mere years ago they were viewed as the bastion of intellectuals in tech. They worked on stuff that was deemed "not evil", people that worked there were deemed the best and brightest, and their culture was celebrated so highly that literal movies have been made about working there.

Obviously, the reality is different from the vision, but in a short amount of time they've implemented URA, have had multiple mass layoffs where people were locked out overnight with no more than a sentence in an email after a decade of work, have doubled-down on enshitification of their services, and have alienated a significant chunk of their workers through RTO and cost cutting.

If you have a pi-hole or other way to block access to your network, I've found these useful to block:

androidtvwatsonfe-pa.googleapis.com

androidtvchannels-pa.googleapis.com

androidtvlauncherxfe-pa.googleapis.com

This is ridiculous. I would understand if this is subsidized devices where you pay less in exchange for having ads. You already bought the device and suddenly it got shittier. Might as well get a free, big brotherly tv with ads from Telly.

I guess it needs to be said again: “smart TVs” are cheap because of post-purchase monetization. That is: they gather your viewing and UI interaction behaviors (and, in some cases, ambient sound) for analysis and sale by the manufacturer.

The TV is a product, sure, but so are you when you use a “smart TV” like that without mitigating its connectivity by not letting it on your network and just using a discrete streaming peripheral of some sort instead.

I hope Flauncher or other alternatives are here to stay..