[HN Gopher] Samsung Family Hub for 2025 Update Elevates the Smar...
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Samsung Family Hub for 2025 Update Elevates the Smart Home
Ecosystem
Author : janandonly
Score : 284 points
Date : 2025-11-09 15:18 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.samsung.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.samsung.com)
| roscas wrote:
| "Samsung Family Hub(tm) for 2025 Update Elevates the Smart Home
| Ecosystem The software update includes a more unified user
| experience across connected devices, enhancements to AI Vision
| Inside(tm), expanded Knox Security and more"
|
| In plain English now, Samgung will put advertising on your face
| but mostly important is that they will know and sell the data
| about what you buy.
|
| They call it Smart Home. Yeah, "smart". They are the smart ones,
| not those who buy this **.
| medbrane wrote:
| But hey, your fridge is now more secure because blockchain (I'm
| not kidding, it's in the press release)
| tormeh wrote:
| I'm not fact-checking that because that's horrifying. Beyond
| parody. But I guess that's a trend currently.
|
| Edit: I checked because one shouldn't be outraged without
| fact checking. It's true.
| lostlogin wrote:
| It's not a million miles from the Silicon Valley smart
| fridge plot, as long as someone hacks them all.
| bradly wrote:
| It appears to also use a peer-to-peer solution to preventing
| botnets. So a botnet to prevent botnets.
| j45 wrote:
| I wonder if the botnets attend conferences.
| heresie-dabord wrote:
| > Update Elevates the Smart Home Ecosystem
|
| If you are not _elevating_ the privacy of me and my family,
| CORPORATRON can suck it.
|
| I will spend my money to _elevate_ the sales of a company that
| respects privacy instead.
| qmr wrote:
| > I will spend my money to elevate the sales of a company
| that respects privacy instead.
|
| Is there such a thing?
| TheNewsIsHere wrote:
| Sometimes it matters that the original business isn't
| getting the sale. Probably not in this particular case
| though.
|
| Someone my spouse knows recently bought one of the $3500
| models that's getting this, and said person was in the
| "test" group for the rollout. Their response to the
| situation has been that they won't buy Samsung appliances
| ever again.
|
| So if enough of us do that. Maybe.
| celeritascelery wrote:
| I don't see where it says they are adding advertising. Is
| something there corporate speak for ads?
| estimator7292 wrote:
| "Elevating" is being used as a euphemism for "constantly
| advertising"
| oakesm9 wrote:
| It's buried in the "new widgets" section:
|
| > As part of the Family Hub(tm) software update, we are
| piloting a new widget for select Cover screens themes of
| Family Hub(tm) refrigerators. The widget will display useful
| day-to-day information such as news, calendar and weather
| forecasts, along with curated advertisements
| jbreckmckye wrote:
| Buried half way down, As part of the Family
| Hub(tm) software update, we are piloting a
| new widget for select Cover screens themes of
| Family Hub(tm) refrigerators. The widget
| will display useful day-to-day information
| such as news, calendar and weather
| forecasts, along with curated
| advertisements.[11]
|
| Wow!! Elevating!!!
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| If by that they mean owners will elevate their fridge to
| the highest window in their building and throw it out, then
| yeah, they're right.
| p_j_w wrote:
| At least the ads are curated?
| mrandish wrote:
| Yes, selling to the highest bidders is a form of
| curation.
| OtherShrezzing wrote:
| The curation process is an automated auction
| fainpul wrote:
| Only the best ads for you!
| fourneau wrote:
| If you look closely, there's an ad in the picture where the
| fridge's clock says 12:30.
|
| "Shop Samsung Water Filters - Subscribe and Save 40%"
| qmr wrote:
| Thanks, I hate it.
| batrat wrote:
| It is in the notes, in the article, there is no tracking:
|
| "[11] Ads on Family Hub Cover screens will serve contextual or
| non-personal ads. Family Hub devices are not collectiong
| personal information or tracking consumers."
| autoexec wrote:
| I don't believe them, but if even they aren't lying to your
| face today they'll be pushing an update to add tracking
| tomorrow. Samsung is absolute trash and not to be trusted.
| They've demonstrated this so many times and in so many ways
| that anyone investing in "Samsung Family Hub" deserves what
| they get.
| robin_reala wrote:
| It's really quite impressive how much this press release turns me
| off from every buying any white goods from Samsung at any point
| in the future. It's a vortex of "no".
| zrobotics wrote:
| Just putting this out there: 4 months ago a friend's Samsung
| fridge (6 months old at the time, 2500USD price) failed due to
| a refrigerant leak. They had to spend 20 hours total on online
| chat and phone calls to get their warranty claim, and it took
| several weeks.
|
| So you absolutely don't want any Samsung appliances, even the
| non 'smart' ones.
| foobarian wrote:
| Every single Samsung appliance we had failed in sad ways.
| Stove knobs cracked and fell off. Fridge condensation
| mitigation failed leading to flooding. Fridge icemaker doesnt
| defrost properly and gets stuck. The worst thing is, these
| are not primary functions of the appliance - but as a result
| the whole thing gets tossed when replaced. (We inherited them
| from previous owners, was not by choice).
| TheNewsIsHere wrote:
| As someone who has now owned multiple Samsung fridges, I
| commiserate.
|
| In my market Samsung has driven away all the service techs.
| We managed to find one, and he said he only works on
| Samsung because it's a captive market now. He complained
| that Samsung micromanages field services to a degree that
| they're killing the service ecosystem for their appliances.
|
| We had him try to fix an issue with a dryer. On his way out
| he looked at the fridge and said "has the ice maker stopped
| working yet?" It actually had stopped working a year
| earlier. We didn't get it fixed then because Samsung didn't
| have anyone to send, and there were no third parties we
| could find (even unauthorized).
|
| We've been replacing all our appliances with other brands.
|
| Edit: PS - depending on the model of fridge, the ice maker
| infrastructure (typically near the filter) eventually start
| pooling water and might freeze in inconvenient places.
| Watch out for that. YMMV.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| This is what amazes me. I swore off Samsung because of their
| unreliability: smartphones, TVs, refrigerators are terrible
| despite demanding a premium price over other cheaper players
| that offer better quality. Instead of investing time and
| effort in making their products better they're doing the
| exact opposite. No one has ever said "the fridge is going to
| show me ads now? Better throw away my old one and get this
| bad boy on launch day". Just make your products better
| people.
| lobito25 wrote:
| They learned with apple
| darth_avocado wrote:
| I've never had apple hardware have unreliability though
| grogenaut wrote:
| My m2 max flew too close to the sun with its design. It's
| a amazing laptop. Drives 4 monitors with ease. Rarely
| turns on the fan. But the USB ports keep frying if they
| take power because this thing is a beast. The right one
| goes first. Then the front left then the back left
| eventually. Problem is I just can't always power it from
| that back left one depending on which dock I plug into. I
| try and run off the maglock. Been in for depot replace of
| board 2x now. After second repair right USB died in 2
| hours after it was pulling power off of that port and not
| the dock or mag.
|
| Still a great computer but $7500 for something that kills
| itself 3 times in 3.5 years sucks. Luckily it's a company
| computer and they're giving me a m4 max
| jdiff wrote:
| Apple's had a few bad streaks with their butterfly
| keyboards in terms of unreliability, and they're
| certainly not built for repairability, but that's a far
| cry from Samsung's appliances that are always looking for
| an excuse to detonate.
| whatevaa wrote:
| Samsungs smartphones are unreliable?
| gus_massa wrote:
| Last month, my old phone decided to die, and I bought a
| Samsung. Hardware is fine so far, but software ...
|
| Recent rant in a similar thread:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45740274
|
| New rant:
|
| As I said, the phone restarted itself to upgrade and
| disabled the notifications until I loged in again. I
| could have missed some important stuff, but I notice it
| before it caused a problem.
|
| So I went to the configuration and disable automatic
| upgrades.
|
| Now I get a notification that ask me to restart to
| upgrade, and say that if I accept it will be restarted
| automatically next time. (And it's very easy to press
| that button by mistake.)
|
| And there is an annoying that each week tells me if I
| used the phone 5 minuthe more than the previous week, and
| is magical and impossible to turn off.
| pimeys wrote:
| That is an expensive fridge too. We just bought a new Miele
| fridge. Very high quality materials, an awesome fridge in
| every way. It was an expensive one, 1400 euros.
|
| So in US you pay a thousand more for a fridge that shows
| advertisement?
|
| We had a Samsung dishwasher before. It was about 500 euros
| and started leaking water after five years. Now we have an
| expensive Miele which was about thousand euros. Seems that
| they don't share the same issue.
| vintermann wrote:
| It's really to the point that I don't trust any electronics
| store which takes in this fridge and tries to foist it on its
| customers.
| NetMageSCW wrote:
| Sadly they have the best OLED TV this year, at a time when I am
| looking to buy.
| delusional wrote:
| How much is "technically the best" worth compared to
| "convenient, secure, and good"?
| stackskipton wrote:
| To most, all they care about is picture quality and being
| able to watch the content they want.
|
| Also, I assume you can still do what I did for my current
| LG TV, skip the wifi setup, plug in AppleTV and use it
| purely as dumb TV.
| lotsofpulp wrote:
| I imagine it won't be long before the TVs come with eSIMs
| to connect directly to Tmobile/Verizon/ATT, and maybe add
| some cameras in the borders to track eye movement.
|
| Then the advertisers could buy more accurate information
| to improve product placement in movies/tv shows.
|
| The sci-fi version could be a TV that can recognize what
| kind of things are in the room or clues for the viewer's
| socioeconomic status and emotional state to bring up
| content (or even change it in real time) to maximize
| resonance with the viewer.
| ls612 wrote:
| People on HN have been saying this for years and TVs
| still aren't shipping sims.
| 15155 wrote:
| The cheaper play (which could be implemented today,
| likely with few HW changes) would be to just use BLE or
| another 2.4GHz proprietary protocol to broadcast your
| usage data (maybe encrypted with a vendor key - let's be
| generous) to another TV or refrigerator in your area that
| is _already_ internet-connected.
| graemep wrote:
| Is that not pretty similar to what Amazon already do with
| Ring devices?
| stackskipton wrote:
| The cost is probably still too do prohibitive to do so.
|
| I worked with IoT devices, generally the cost per GB of
| data is around dollar per GB. I doubt you would make that
| back in advertisements.
|
| Also, there is cost per SIM so you wouldn't want
| situation where SIM is active if you don't need it which
| is why alot of IoT devices have you setup with a phone
| because they turn SIM on when you sign up for their plan.
| If consumer never puts TV on Wi-Fi network or cooperates
| with the phone, then you would have keep each SIM active
| and turn it off when it checks in via Wi-Fi. My guess is
| cost is not worth it if you get 98% cooperation. Write
| off 2% and call it a day.
| delusional wrote:
| > all they care about is picture quality
|
| I get that, but at some point you're installing it in
| your house with non-color corrected lighting and viewing
| it during the daytime with your terrible human eyes. I
| get why 200-300 lumens of peak brightness can make a
| difference, but does 2-3% of color correctness really
| matter to people as they watch their low bitrate netflix
| stream?
|
| Maybe we'd all be better off if we calmed down a bit on
| chasing the specs, and focused on something else for a
| while.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| Are there any streaming services that offer video quality
| on par with a high-end blu-ray?
| dublinben wrote:
| Sony Pictures Core and Kaleidescape are as close as it
| gets, and both require expensive proprietary hardware.
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| That's really disappointing; I have zero interest in
| allowing a device like that on my network, or in spending
| that much on hardware for a single proprietary service
| that could go away or change its terms, or in having a
| service that only works with one device rather than many
| services that all work on the _same_ device (e.g. Android
| TV).
|
| Sigh. Where's the video equivalent of music stores for
| "just let me buy a high-quality DRM-free download I
| actually own" already?
| sroussey wrote:
| You absolutely do not want these smart tvs connected to the
| internet. Do it once maybe to update firmware. Then use them
| as a dumb tv and put an apple TV in front of it.
|
| All tvs from all manufacturers have microphones and they do
| listen an sell info.
|
| Everyone things Facebook is listening but it really is your
| tv.
| jsheard wrote:
| > You absolutely do not want these smart tvs connected to
| the internet.
|
| You can refuse to give them a direct WiFi connection, but
| just wait until they start using IOT mesh networks like
| Amazon Sidewalk as a fallback channel (assuming some aren't
| quietly doing that already).
| therobots927 wrote:
| What a living nightmare. It's getting to the point where
| it might be time to pressure companies like Best Buy to
| stop carrying them.
| reppap wrote:
| Not in Europe if that's the case. I've monitored what my LG
| does and it's basically nothing.
| jordand wrote:
| I've got an LG C2 and you can't disable the Bluetooth, so
| anyone can try to connect to it. No service menu options
| too. I've not yet found out if cutting the WiFi/Bluetooth
| antennas is the only option.
| foobarian wrote:
| I hope their OLED is better than their QLED because the
| latter has white splotches all over the screen from backlight
| bleeding through. I would throw it in the bin if I felt more
| strongly about it.
| lobito25 wrote:
| But not the best OS for sure.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| Sony and LG have comparable video quality.
| ryandrake wrote:
| This doesn't make the overall product better, though. People
| get so tunnel visioned on one narrow feature being the best
| and use that to justify purchasing a product that is overall
| hostile to them. This is why these practices never die.
|
| In 2030, it will be "Well, the TV sends a 24/7 video of my
| living room to Samsung, plays a 5 minute ad every 10 minutes
| of content, displays in 480i unless I pay a $100/mo
| subscription, and it will kill my pets, but hey, it has the
| best display in the world, so I'm thinking about buying it."
| p1esk wrote:
| I thought LG G5 is the best OLED TV in 2025
| kivle wrote:
| Bought one, and I have regrets... Every time I turn it on and
| start watching something, after about 10 minutes a nag screen
| modal pops up for me to activate AI voice features. At first
| I entered the wizard and hit cancel. But that's not good
| enough, It will just keep showing up until you hit accept and
| activate it. I have since then deleted the Bixby account.
| We'll see how long it takes until it starts nagging me again.
|
| Also random features require you to be logged in to a Samsung
| account on the TV. Like picture-in-picture for instance.
|
| I'm considering refunding it, but it has absolutely brilliant
| picture quality though.
| clickety_clack wrote:
| Samsung products in general I think. I was looking at computer
| monitors yesterday and found I have a vague feeling of distrust
| towards Samsung now.
| estimator7292 wrote:
| Samsung is forever dead to me. A couple years ago I was working
| with a customer, showing them something on my phone. In the
| middle of the interaction, actively using my phone, Samsung
| forced it to reboot for an update I never agreed to.
|
| ..and fucking bricked my phone. Right there on the spot in the
| middle of a sale.
|
| Plus the whole Tizen situation on the Gear watches was
| incredibly disappointing. I paid all kinds of money for a nice
| watch that had zero utility outside of Samsung's tiny, tiny
| walled garden and their very few, very broken apps. I'll never
| not be mad about it.
| wiseowise wrote:
| Are you me? Around 4-5 years ago I had a very important
| doctor appointment, my Samsung phone just decided to die on a
| way there.
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| "Smart" hardware means "smart" for the manufacturer --- very
| "dumb" for the user/purchaser.
| baggy_trough wrote:
| I'd be elevating this fridge right over the edge of a dumpster.
| rectang wrote:
| Can you hack into "smart" fridges like this one to see when they
| are going unused, implying when the residents are away and the
| home is a good target for burglary?
| gruez wrote:
| Unless you're someone that's specifically worth targeting (eg.
| crypto billionaire), no burglar is going through the effort for
| this. Moreover even without smart fridges, you'd have to
| contend with similar threats from other internet connected
| devices (eg. laptops or routers), which can also infer whether
| the home is occupied or not.
| iso1631 wrote:
| I think the plot of Home Alone leaves a lot to answer for
| dns_snek wrote:
| I think the concern is that hacking an IOT platform would
| give you names, physical addresses, and household occupancy
| for all of their customers. Once you cross-reference that
| with another database you have a list of wealthiest
| households in a given zip code whose owners are on vacation,
| with live access to cameras inside their home.
| gruez wrote:
| >I think the concern is that hacking an IOT platform would
| give you names, physical addresses, and household occupancy
| for all of their customers.
|
| The problem is that even if you can amass such an IOT
| botnet, you still need people on the ground to conduct such
| burglaries, and that scales poorly. Even if you tried to
| operate on a SaaS model, you're going to find that your
| clients (ie. drug users who want their next fix) are fickle
| and are very eager to snitch on you to the police, making
| it very likely that your botnet gets dismantled. On the
| other hand running a DDoS or "residential proxy" botnet
| comes with none of these hassles.
| rectang wrote:
| I'm thinking more about a systemic approach rather than a
| one-off -- in other words, surveying _all_ units to identify
| potential targets rather than evaluating the risk for a
| single target. Recently we have seen a rise in criminal
| organizations who target high-profile targets known to be
| away (e.g. sports figures and entertainers whose schedules
| are known), and it seems like such a tool could be of use to
| such orgs as an additional signal -- and to broaden their
| target base to non-celebrities.
|
| Also, while "smart" Samsung fridges are the topic of this
| article, the concept generalizes to any internet connected
| devices within "smart" homes which exhibit a combination of
| "hackable" and revealing-of-occupancy. Samsung refrigerators
| are unlikely to be the most attractive vector when there are
| e.g. "smart" light bulbs out there which are vulnerable and
| never going to be patched because the manufacturer went out
| of business.
|
| FWIW, I'm not a pen tester or security specialist -- just a
| security-conscious generalist software developer. I see
| evidence left behind of scanning attacks in web logs, but
| haven't actually crafted such mass attacks myself.
| Striggor6 wrote:
| Junkies looking to hit a house for some jewellery and a
| Playstation aren't spending months developing Ocean's Eleven
| style schemes
| beezlewax wrote:
| This stuff is so disgusting.
| disambiguation wrote:
| https://app.opencve.io/cve/?vendor=samsung
| throwuxiytayq wrote:
| Gotta love these complete fucking morons in charge. I could put
| together an LLM that would make better long-term product
| decisions than these VC-brained monkeys, and I'd only need
| single-digit B of parameters to beat their single-digit IQ.
| Congratulations on transitioning your brand from toxic to
| radioactive.
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| Normies buy this stuff. You misjudge how much normies do not
| care.
| foobarian wrote:
| I would happily buy this fridge and just disable the
| screen/cameras/smart stuff IF: all the essential functions
| actually worked properly.
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| > Please connect the Samsung^R Family^tm H.U.B.^TM^R to the
| internet to start the refrigeration cycle.
|
| > Please connect the Samsung^R Family^tm H.U.B.^TM^R to the
| internet to continue the refrigeration cycle. You
| refrigeration cycle will end in 28 hours unless reconnected
| to the Samsung^TM KNOX^R Server System for your security
|
| > Please reposition the Samsung^R Family^tm H.U.B.^TM^R so
| that 6G Connectivity can be established to start the
| refrigeration cycle.
|
| > Please unblock all visual obstructions the Samsung^R
| Family^tm H.U.B.^TM^R Camera and reauthorize usage to
| continue the refrigeration cycle.
|
| > Please unblock all visual obstructions the Samsung^R
| Family^tm H.U.B.^TM^R Camera and Reauthorize using your
| government ID, fingerprint, iris scan and cryptographically
| singed anus print to continue usage. Failure to comply will
| cost you 25 Social Credits. You have 27 hours left.
| bloomingeek wrote:
| They don't care because they don't understand the
| possibilities of the tech. I've tried to give my extended
| family members some quick info on what not to do online and
| how to safely use their gizmos. Most of the time I get a
| blank stare.
|
| Caution, incoming naive comment(s): Companies should put
| their customer's well being before profits, because we all
| know most people don't understand what's going on with their
| digital devises. (Yes, customers should care more, but
| companies shouldn't be allowed to take advantage of those who
| can't grasp the techiness of the products.) Techiness, I just
| made that up. :)
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| > Caution, incoming naive statement: Companies should put
| their customer's well being before profits, because we all
| know most people don't understand what's going on with
| their digital devises.
|
| This might be illegal for publicly traded companies.
| Shareholder maximization forces them to deceive their
| customers.
| throwuxiytayq wrote:
| Public companies aren't disallowed from making long term
| investments such as building brand loyalty. You are
| excusing the braindead executives for their choice to
| burn their brand in exchange for some imaginary ad
| paycheck. Like I'm going to buy a branded pack of eggs
| based on an ad on my fucking fridge (and somehow that's
| going to make them a ton of dough). I can't get over how
| simple-minded and gullible the people running these
| companies are.
|
| If you wanna skip some chapters and see where all of this
| ends up, go check out how Unity is doing after John
| Riccitiello fucked them.
| IlikeKitties wrote:
| You sir are misjudging me and the effort I put into not
| only protecting myself but also other from this overreach
| and intrusion into the life and privacy of myself and
| others.
|
| But the comment above me argued "Companies should put
| their customer's well being before profits" which as a
| general statement may VERY well fall under my argument.
|
| The reality is that i believe shareholder value
| optimization and unregulated capitalism is the problem.
| qmr wrote:
| Dodge v Ford
| pier25 wrote:
| Just like smart TVs, I'm pretty sure smart fridges will end up
| analyzing your buying/consumption habits and selling that data.
| Ylpertnodi wrote:
| There's many things you could put in a fridge to confuse the
| analysis. Maybe.
| bloomingeek wrote:
| Excellent idea! But beware, your sense of humor or protest-
| like product placement in your spy fridge could have
| consequences. This crazy world we live in is always looking
| to hurt/blame/expose/burn somebody.
| NetMageSCW wrote:
| "adds"
| DANmode wrote:
| No, "ads".
| cess11 wrote:
| The people who developed the software for this ought to become
| outcasts from the profession, refused invitations to conferences,
| excluded from unions and so on.
| delusional wrote:
| LOL. We're on hackernews. This sort of stuff is basically the
| bread and butter of this venture capital funded website.
| soared wrote:
| Not far off
|
| https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/tovala
|
| A SMART-OVEN-PAIRED SUBSCRIPTION MEAL SERVICE.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Yea, one thing I've learned--if you ever even suggest that
| software engineers should be held responsible for writing
| harmful software or working on unethical projects, you're
| going to get downvoted so fast your head will spin. HN
| commenters will happily build the Torment Nexus as long as
| the JIRA ticket is filled out correctly and they have clear
| requirements.
| wiseowise wrote:
| Just ten more tickets and I can retire safely, it's
| supposed to be "the next guy's problem." So long, suckers!
| cess11 wrote:
| Sounds like the right place to voice this suggestion.
|
| If I only did it where everyone agrees with me it'd be a
| waste of time, of which none of us have very much.
| add-sub-mul-div wrote:
| Buddy, you're on the wrong web site!
|
| I was guilty of it myself at times during my career, but
| luckily I was able to retire just before things started to get
| unavoidably shitty.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| The important question is what happens if I don't connect it to
| Wi-Fi? Does the compressor motor refuse to work??
| gdulli wrote:
| That is important because as a buyer, I need to be able to tell
| the difference between the legitimate unacceptable extant user
| experiences vs. the FUD about things that are trivially
| avoidable but still get forwarded and reposted with
| exaggeration and hysteria.
|
| I can't always avoid the latter category on principle.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| I assume the "smart features" will refuse to work.
|
| We need a law that requires IoT devices have a method of
| shutting off connectivity entirely, and requiring that core
| functionality remains intact.
| eep_social wrote:
| let's start with cars. I've accepted that I'll never buy a
| new car again which is a real shame as EVs have a ton of
| potential. I'd be so happy to be wrong but the trend seems to
| be inescapable right now.
| unethical_ban wrote:
| Yep, if I bought a car today I would want to check that it
| has no onboard GPS and no functional modem.
| gdulli wrote:
| I just got an S25 and having a Samsung account at all is
| optional. I never had one on my previous Galaxy phones either. I
| couldn't even accidentally use their AI or other intrusive crap
| with a misclick because I'd be taken to a screen where I have to
| sign up and agree to their privacy policy etc. Which obviously I
| don't.
|
| I wouldn't consider buying a smart/Samsung refrigerator at all
| but I'm curious, is having blockchain, AI, and a Samsung account
| mandatory here? Or do they allow for discerning users who don't
| want that stuff? Is that market segment important to them?
| Arainach wrote:
| >Is that market segment important to them?
|
| No, it is not. Cheaper fridges with ads sell more and make
| more.
| bobsmooth wrote:
| Make sure you install Good Lock, fixes many of the frustrations
| of OneUI.
| conradfr wrote:
| Besides the ads I barely understood what any of those features
| do, let alone why I would want them.
| clickety_clack wrote:
| None of the features even touch on ideas related to keeping
| food cold.
|
| They're so deep in advertising that the only feature they can
| think their customers are interested in are related to seeing
| ads.
| baq wrote:
| When I was furnishing my home a decade ago I went out of my way
| to not buy anything Samsung. Sad to see it only got worse.
| game_the0ry wrote:
| > "Elevates the Smart Home Ecosystem"
|
| The type of corpo-speak that gives an mba a rock hard erection.
|
| Vulgar jokes aside, I want to know who is buying ads on fridges
| and what the roas on a fridge ad is.
| busyant wrote:
| > I want to know who is buying ads on fridges and what the roas
| on a fridge ad is.
|
| Who knows, really? But maybe the same people who put ads on the
| gas station pumps that I use?
|
| Those things blare at max volume and I still have no idea what
| they're selling.
|
| Amusing anecdote: About 60 years ago, my grandfather (immigrant
| who was not well versed in mass-production) wrote a letter to
| the local newspaper asking that they omit the advertisements
| when they built his copy of the paper. "I never read them" he
| said.
|
| My mother had to explain to him how his copy was gonna be just
| like everyone else's.
| harvey9 wrote:
| Any chance he was just trolling them? Mass production of
| printed pages started a few centuries before he was born so I
| doubt he honestly thought his paper was custom-made.
| busyant wrote:
| I guess I'll never know. It happened before I was born, but
| my mother thought it was funny.
| ryandrake wrote:
| It'll be like those disgusting bottom-of-the-barrel YouTube
| ads, but contextual: "Need to clean out your stuck poop
| (video brown liquid)? Eat more fiber, because what's in this
| fridge....."
| gosub100 wrote:
| Probably slimy politicians, desperate to tell you how horrible
| the other tribe is while selling you their tribe's promises
| that will never happen. I'm sure campaign ads have taken a huge
| hit over previous decades when people actually watched TV or
| listened to radio.
| Oras wrote:
| If I am the product, can I have the fridge for free then?
|
| This is so annoying, Amazon did it with Kindle, now Samsung with
| fridges?!
| IncreasePosts wrote:
| I would never buy a fridge with a monitor built in, but I did buy
| a house that came with one. I'll have to make sure I keep
| clicking don't agree to the new ToS
| ksajadi wrote:
| My Samsung TV keeps blocking around 20% of the display at random
| times to tell me their terms and conditions have changed. Of
| course I have the option of checking it by reading the whole
| thing on my TV and then running a diff to see what's changed but
| I don't have an option to opt out of the terms.
|
| It's way too frequent and runs at random times in the middle of a
| movie so I always choose Accept.
|
| Give me a dumb TV any time of the day now
| malfist wrote:
| Disconnect it from the internet and use an appletv. It can't
| update then.
|
| This works until apple enshitifies
| cyanydeez wrote:
| "Give some other monopoly rulr over your attention"
| celeritascelery wrote:
| Apple TV is much better about this. I have never had it pop
| up or interrupt me. When it is idle it just goes to a
| pleasant screen saver and then powers off after a while. It
| doesn't try and promote content or display ads for shows.
| Granted, that could change at any time, but right now I
| think it is better than all the alternatives.
| Shadowmist wrote:
| Ads are coming to Apple Maps so it's probably only a
| matter of time before the rest of the ecosystem is
| infected.
| M4v3R wrote:
| It is better, but I hated how some time ago they started
| showing trailers at the start of a show, with no option
| to turn this off. It's a small thing but it's super
| annoying, if I want to check out what's new I will do it
| myself, thank you very much.
| coke12 wrote:
| Ultimately the choice of platform is about trust rather
| than capability. Apple has been a much better citizen
| historically than any of the smart TV companies.
| benoau wrote:
| Those other smart TV companies write shit software that
| performs terribly on bad hardware and may have ads - YMMV
| but that's not really "worse" than Apple's anti-steering
| clauses concealing massive fees on ATV apps like Plex or
| ESPN and causing half the western world to revise their
| competition laws to outlaw many of their practices. It's
| just bad for different reasons.
| lynndotpy wrote:
| I'm not an Apple fan, but if someone wants a 'smart TV'
| (access to streaming services, etc) and doesn't want to go
| the Linux-box-connected-to-Jellyfin route, then Apple
| really is just the best option.
|
| In my experience, they've been fine for a few years so far.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| That's where I ended up; I was running a linux box with
| Kodi for a while, but that was a subpar experience for
| connecting to commercial streaming services (I never was
| able to figure out how to get Kodi to launch firefox on
| the site's URL, which would have been Just Fine for us).
| mystraline wrote:
| Damn good point.
|
| Unless you have root and can do anything the hardware is
| capable of, it's not your device. And you shouldn't let any
| sort of non-owned devices on your network.
|
| Why? Cause devices controlled by other orgs are a foothold
| situation. And we've had countless attacks of footholds being
| used as internal points of attack, DDoS, and other attacks.
|
| That also means that all your "cloud devices" should be able
| to work 100% offline. If not, return them as defective.
| noir_lord wrote:
| I have a Samsung smart TV it's never seen the internet, I
| just didn't let it connect - it's a display for a box
| running Fedora, that is its entire job to be _dumb_ and
| display whatever is sent down the wire.
|
| Devices that do need to be on the internet but I can
| foresee no reason they ever need to talk to anything else
| on the network go on their own VLAN (down to the level of
| my VR headset since it had a Meta logo on the box...).
|
| My boys gaming PC can't even see my desktop (since there
| isn't a scenario where it needs to).
|
| Other than the "smart" TV I own nothing "Smart" because I
| don't _want anything smart_.
| mystraline wrote:
| I'm not adverse to smart hardware.
|
| I am adverse to being trapped with rental hardware
| masquerading as as 'sale'. Almost all corporate cloudshit
| is that.
|
| As a counter example, I have 2 of these opengarage for my
| garage doors. They work superbly and integrate seamlessly
| with HomeAssistant.
|
| https://opengarage.io/
|
| And yes, I control them completely. FLOSS and all. And
| they just work.
| OhMeadhbh wrote:
| Hunh. This reminds me... I have a copy of ghidra and a
| bunch of JTAG adaptors. I bet I could suck the firmware out
| of my old model Visio TV. I already unsoldered the
| microphone from the motherboard.
| TheNewsIsHere wrote:
| This is ultimately what we did in my house for every Samsung
| TV.
|
| Their smart TV stuff used to be marginally interesting. When
| Samsung TV Plus launched it was fantastic. They weren't yet
| sure of how to handle ads so even the ad space was still
| nice, and marginally useful.
|
| As they figured out the ad strategy, apps started
| disappearing and new ones appeared that couldn't be
| uninstalled.
|
| Then the OS updates started cratering performance. I have a
| Samsung smart TV from after 2020 that takes about 4 seconds
| to register a single remote control command in the smart TV
| GUI.
| NoiseBert69 wrote:
| I'd never give a Samsung device unfiltered internet access.
| edoceo wrote:
| I just avoid all Samsung CE.
| procaryote wrote:
| I'd never buy another samsung device
| jbreckmckye wrote:
| At the risk of a smart-ass reply, I think you could say the
| same for almost any consumer electronics
|
| Even if you don't suspect malfeasance / advertising /
| surveillance, a lot of these devices and their software are
| sloppily developed and highly insecure
| OhMeadhbh wrote:
| A couple years ago I thought my fridge was appropriately
| blocked from the intarwebs. But a router update flipped the
| bit on activating the default guest network (which I normally
| keep turned off.) So for about 6 months my fridge was getting
| out to the net via the guest network. I found out about it
| when I got a call from my ISP asking what the heck was going
| on. Apparently a bot net had found my fridge and was doing
| all manner of bad things.
|
| Moral of the story is... always double check your router
| settings to make sure enshittified iot devices aren't making
| you look like a newb.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Sounds weird, why would you give your fridge your wifi
| password in the first place?
|
| Well the real question is why would you buy a connected
| fridge in the first place. Not that I visit fridges alleys
| in stores on a regular basis but I have never actually seen
| one.
| GreenVulpine wrote:
| Their TVs will connect to open networks without asking
| you. Perhaps the fridges do the same.
| prmoustache wrote:
| Are there evidence it is really happening? Which open
| wifi network are left in residencial neighborhood? My
| neighbors aren't tech savy yet they use the wifi
| configured provided with the router which has a
| passphrase. I believe even in McDonalds you get the wifi
| password only upon purchase in the receipt. Most open
| networks I still encounter are in big stores such as IKEA
| or airports and you still have to register to connect. I
| doubt the signal woukd reach even the closest houses
| anyway.
| pseudalopex wrote:
| > Are there evidence it is really happening?
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45867034
|
| > Which open wifi network are left in residencial
| neighborhood?
|
| Some neighborhoods are mixed use. Some residences are in
| dense buildings. Some people configured guest networks
| with no password. Some ISPs made their home gateways
| captive portal access points.
| travisgriggs wrote:
| > Well the real question is why would you buy a connected
| fridge in the first place.
|
| It's getting so you don't have a real choice. You can buy
| a fridge (or any appliance pretty much) that is basic and
| doesn't do the connected thing. But often you want the
| upscaled models because of real hardware features that
| are desirable. And these are always bundled with the
| "connectivity" options. It used to be you just ignored
| these bits. But they're getting more and more invasive.
| delaminator wrote:
| what hardware features in a fridge can you not live
| without apart from "keeps inside cold & light comes on
| when I open the door" ?
| fragmede wrote:
| I don't know about "live without", but automatic
| defroster, crisper drawer, ice maker, water dispenser,
| alarm when the door isn't closed. being divided such that
| my food choices fit easily into the fridge (some people
| want to put a large wide pizza box directly into their
| fridge), power consumption.I dunno if you'd call looks a
| hardware feature, but it has to match the rest of the
| kitchen decor. The TV in the door isn't something I want
| at all though.
| xorcist wrote:
| I may an idiot and haven't been in the market for new
| appliances for a while, but between an ice maker and a
| door alarm, how could you possibly require Internet
| acccess? Does it offer an app on your phone to operate
| the ice maker when you're not home?
| pseudalopex wrote:
| travisgriggs said refrigerator manufacturers limited
| desired hardware features to models which had undesired
| network features. This was the last comment which
| mentioned network features.
|
| delaminator asked what hardware features could not be
| lived without.
|
| fragmede listed desired hardware features.
| exe34 wrote:
| probably the ice maker or something. I bought new
| appliances a few months ago, and I made sure none of them
| had WiFi. I even paid PS50 more for the washing machine
| that didn't have an app.
| ethbr1 wrote:
| Ref Silicon Valley:
| https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HcXu4_K1tMQ&t=45s
| fainpul wrote:
| Louis Rossmann has one. He loves it!
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQTIuX84ids
|
| It has a large Android tablet in the front door, so it
| can show you ads - coming soon.
| emeril wrote:
| omg - why let your router update? :)
|
| most updates are downgrades in my experience unless it
| addresses something very specific
| wongarsu wrote:
| Not updating the router just sounds like another security
| incident waiting to happen. The botnet will just be on
| your router instead of your fridge
| qwertox wrote:
| "unfiltered internet access"? How would you even know what to
| filter?
|
| Block it entirely, and hope it that doesn't connect to your
| Samsung phone via Bluetooth or WiFi and use it as a proxy.
| margalabargala wrote:
| Some devices refuse to to operate if they can't make DNS
| queries.
| the8472 wrote:
| Then they can exfiltrate data over DNS.
| margalabargala wrote:
| I mean, only if the DNS server is one run by the company
| in question.
|
| I own nonzero such devices that hit 8.8.8.8 as an
| internet access sanity check so I have to keep just that
| IP allowed for them and block all other traffic.
| kaoD wrote:
| DNS is a hierarchical protocol. You can exfiltrate data
| as long as the DNS server is resolving recursively.
| margalabargala wrote:
| Good to know. I didn't know that.
|
| For my devices in question I can see the size and
| frequency of the requests in OpenWRT and doubt it's
| actually doing so.
| delaminator wrote:
| Then give it a DNS server to look up.
| margalabargala wrote:
| Yes exactly.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| I mean, at some point, victim-blaming _does_ sound like
| the correct response here.
|
| If the answer to your question involved giving money to
| Samsung, then you asked the wrong question, and you need
| to do better next time.
| margalabargala wrote:
| All I meant was that sometimes if you fully block a
| device it refuses to work, and you may need to
| selectively unblock just 8.8.8.8 for that device.
|
| Obviously buying such a device is bad, but sometimes you
| get one for free or close to it and it's worth the hassle
| to not pay hundreds for a better one.
| beAbU wrote:
| Such devices should be retuned for a full refund. Vote
| with your wallet.
| gpm wrote:
| What I've done for the small handful of wifi connected
| devices I have is to have them connect to "internet
| sharing" from my laptop's wifi.
|
| Naturally when my laptop is using its wifi to create a
| hotspot it isn't actually connected to the internet, so
| they never actually get access to the internet.
|
| (Doesn't work if you actually want the internet, and not
| just wifi, related features of course)
| gregncheese wrote:
| Give them access to a segregated home network.
| jm4 wrote:
| Services like ControlD and NextDNS have built in blocklists
| for IoT telemetry and bullshit. I'm sure it's easy to do it
| with PiHole as well.
|
| I use ControlD and it's blocking 38% of all DNS requests in
| my household. 8% of that is IoT telemetry. It's
| unbelievable how much of this bullshit is built into the
| products we use.
| pndy wrote:
| IIRC there were some Pihole blocking lists for Samsung,
| Apple and Microsoft etc.
| prmoustache wrote:
| How long until they ship with embedded 5G modem? Would you
| wrap your Samsung devices with alu foil?
| taikahessu wrote:
| Soldering your TV in 2026 sounds like real fun ...
| pndy wrote:
| I think they may go the easier way first: with online only
| OOBE where you cannot access all tv features until you
| acknowledge and accept the "legal" stuff first.
|
| You know, bit like Microsoft forces you to create online
| account after installation is done
| miki123211 wrote:
| There's always going to be enough of a "dumb TV" market
| among the elderly / linear-only / no internet crowd to
| make that an extremely bad idea.
|
| Sure, some (high-end) TVs might do this, but definitely
| not all of them.
| josephg wrote:
| Dumb tvs exist today; they just sell for a premium to
| make up for the lost adtech sales revenue.
|
| I suspect this will continue. Ads and no privacy for poor
| people. The wealthy & well educated will have tvs that
| don't spy on them.
| qwertox wrote:
| Or connects to the Samsung TV of your neighbor, who
| definitely granted all access to the internet.
| zzyzxd wrote:
| This idea has been around since at least a decade ago. The
| truth is, only a fraction of customers care about ads or
| privacy, and only a fraction of technical people in that
| group are capable of doing network filtering (VLAN, MITM,
| DNS blocklist, whatever). The absolute numbers are so
| small, as long as manufacturers can extract enough value
| from the remaining 99% of customers, they just don't care.
|
| I have had a lot of friends amazed by the fact that when
| they connect to my home Wi-Fi they stop seeing ads. Zero of
| them interested in implementing something similar in their
| home.
| KerrAvon wrote:
| the other thing is that it would not be as effective as
| presumed because 5G cell service in residential areas in
| the US is spottier than people realize. A lot of us are
| relying on WiFi calling.
| j1elo wrote:
| How do you do it particularly? Pi-Hole or something else
| like NextDNS with adblock? (or Mullvad adblock DNS)
| rjzzleep wrote:
| Samsung is truly the worst of all big tech companies. All
| their first party apps contain ads. They kill hard fuses if
| you want to change things, and meanwhile bundle the devices
| of a large segment of the costumer base with first party
| Israeli spyware with full system and background install
| access.
|
| I bought a Samsung watch once, had to reverse it to enable
| functionality that was advertised a year before but never
| delivered. It died because the watch decided to suck in water
| during a reboot while swimming, they quoted me almost the
| full price to repair it, even though it was clearly a
| software bug that caused another advertised feature (namely
| it's ipx rating) to fail.
|
| And while I also wouldn't give Xiaomi iot devices on the
| network full internet access, at least I can use those things
| normally.
| jm4 wrote:
| Besides the fact that Xiaomi devices are completely
| untrustworthy, they are usually great pieces of hardware. I
| bought a Xiaomi vacuum years ago. Everything was in Chinese
| and I had to watch a youtube video to figure out how to set
| it up. Besides that, the whole unboxing and setup
| experience felt like an Apple product. That vacuum was
| light years ahead of the iRobot it replaced. Incredible
| product and cheaper than just about everything else
| available at the time. That's when I realized American tech
| was toast.
|
| I agree with you 100% about Samsung. They make nice
| hardware, but the software experience is among the worst in
| the industry. I don't know how they can be considered a
| premium product. I would never use one of their phones
| again. Straight up adware. I'm surprised they don't inject
| ads into the photos you take. They have ads everywhere else
| - even in the phone dialing app. Their TV's are still good
| as long as you don't connect them to the internet. Once
| they start putting LTE radios in them to download ads
| without wifi, I will be done with those too.
| torginus wrote:
| Out of the cheap phones I bought over the years, Xiaomi
| was the only manufacturer that didn't load up their
| phones with crapware backdoors. Samsung and Oppo was
| shiped with one of those crapware backdoors that
| installed apps beyond your back.
|
| Eventually I got fed up, and started using hand-me-down
| iPhones for second phones.
| gambiting wrote:
| We literally got an email at work telling us not to watch
| anything work related on any Samsung TVs because by default
| they will take screenshots of your content and send them
| back to Samsung for analysis unless you opt out. Absolutely
| bonkers.
| brianzelip wrote:
| How do you limit it's Internet access besides not plugging
| it in?
| ainiriand wrote:
| Muy samsung odyssey g9 monitor connected for the first time
| through my phone, also Samsung.
| beAbU wrote:
| I'd never give a Samsung device ~~unfiltered~~ internet
| access.
|
| FTFY
| reeredfdfdf wrote:
| I'm still using my Samsung dumb TV from circa 2008. paired with
| ancient Chromecast. No way I'm going to buy a smart TV as long
| as this combination keeps working. No ads, and things mostly
| just work, and it cost me next to nothing.
| randallsquared wrote:
| Even a smart TV is dumb enough if you use it as HDMI out for
| your actual streaming device (Chromecast, Roku, Apple TV,
| whatever) and never connect it to the internet. There were
| rumors about smart TVs connecting to unsecured wifi networks
| a few years ago, but I don't remember any verified cases or
| TVs.
| ethbr1 wrote:
| This is the way. Allowing appliances to connect to the
| internet, when it's not necessary, is insecure.
|
| At least with a single-purpose device, you know you're not
| at the mercy of some minimally-funded, likely-outsourced
| software team inside a hardware manufacturer.
| rubyfan wrote:
| I never agreed to the original terms and won't let my Samsung
| TV on wifi for this reason.
| scosman wrote:
| I let my TV on wifi, but block internet access at the router.
| Things like Airplay and Chromecast still work great, but no
| ads/tracking/etc.
| dexterdog wrote:
| Is that tied to the port or the MAC because the device can
| just change addresses and you won't know.
| margalabargala wrote:
| You would know if your device starts updating. And if it
| changes mac to get around the block then it goes in the
| trash.
| ta988 wrote:
| OpenWrt, make a wifi network only for those nasty spying
| devices, printers, tvs etc
| buildbot wrote:
| Same!!! I do every so often connect it to update it if a
| newer firmware is actually worth it... The extra upside to
| not accepting the terms is that none of the samsung bloatware
| apps even start - the TV runs much faster than just with the
| wifi disconnected.
| everyone wrote:
| It doesnt matter if you do or dont, those things are
| worthless in court in any reasonable country. They frequently
| want their users to agree to illegal things.
| qmr wrote:
| Why did you connect it to the internet in the first place?
| nerdponx wrote:
| > It's way too frequent and runs at random times in the middle
| of a movie so I always choose Accept.
|
| This is deliberate
| DenisM wrote:
| You may be looking for a "commercial LCD display".
| sspiff wrote:
| How about just not connecting your TV to the Internet? Then
| it's just a dumb display?
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| When I was shopping for a TV years ago, Samsung had all the
| features I wanted (for gaming).
|
| But Samsung's ad behavior led me to buy a Vizio TV instead.
| c420 wrote:
| I've got some bad news for you, Walmart acquired Vizio two
| years ago:
|
| "This acquisition is not merely about expanding Walmart's
| product lineup but rather part of a sophisticated commercial
| strategy to integrate its retail operations, owned media
| channels and TV hardware into a cohesive ecosystem. This
| ecosystem is designed to generate and share data, influence
| shopping behavior and, ultimately, drive sales through an
| innovative approach to advertising..." "...By owning a
| television manufacturer, Walmart can now directly serve and,
| crucially, measure the impact of ads on consumer behavior.
| This capability significantly enhances Walmart's potential to
| convert advertisements into retail purchases."
|
| https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinessdevelopmentcou.
| ..
| AceJohnny2 wrote:
| bleh.
|
| Only saving grace I have is that I bought my P659-G1 in
| 2019. While it doesn't prevent bad updates, it's a little
| less likely they pushed deep changes to old models.
|
| And I can't believe it's been over 6 years since I had
| already eliminated Samsung for their ad behavior, and not
| only have they not changed, they've doubled-down.
| barrotes wrote:
| The best Smart TV is the one that is just 24/24 HDMI connected
| to your old Linux laptop with a GUI tweaked to act as a Smart
| TV with an air mouse as remote.
| CivBase wrote:
| When I upgraded my desktop, I only needed to pickup a case
| and a few extra parts to have enough for a functional home
| theater PC. Running standard Fedora Workstation, controlled
| with Logitech K400+.
|
| I stubbornly refuse to ever connect my TV to the internet.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| K400 and a raspberry pi is keeping my Samsung tv offline.
| Little bit under powered but gets the job done. Movies are
| fine, YouTube 90%
| godelski wrote:
| I use my TV as a monitor and this still happens. When you don't
| accept it just gets more aggressive. I'm pretty sure there's a
| "bug"[0] that ends up slowing the TV down because it keeps that
| process going.
|
| I'm pretty confident you can't agree to a contract if you can't
| opt out. I don't want new features and I'm fine if everything
| stays the same. And no, please do not adjust the image settings
| again... I didn't want the AI frame interpolation then and I
| don't want it now
|
| [0] with Samsung engineers I don't believe they've tested
| anything and just assumed the user would accept it instead of
| deny it 20 times. It'll also get less buggy when I do a reboot,
| so I'm pretty sure it's a memory leak
|
| We are talking about a company where if I press the exit button
| there's a 50% chance I get the menu or not. It's literally a
| random result. If I'm in, say, Netflix, press exit, I'll turn
| to my computer screen and half the time the Samsung menu will
| open and half the time it won't.
|
| Also starting the TV will flash my desktop and then go "ops, no
| signal" and I have to just keep restarting the TV and switching
| inputs (not touching the hdmi cable btw) until it works. And
| no, my desktop doesn't sleep and yes this issue is the reason
| why.
|
| So I am 100% sure it's not conspiratorial, I'm 100% sure they
| just suck at their job. I'm sure the fridge will be great...
| koksik202 wrote:
| I just use my smart tv as tv and use PS5 as media box avoids
| all this hassle. There is nothing on cable/satellite tv other
| than ads anyway
| apexalpha wrote:
| >Give me a dumb TV any time of the day now
|
| Just disconnect your current one from the internet.
| PaulRobinson wrote:
| It will sell very well because it a) will be cheaper than non-
| advertising laden fridges, b) will make more money meaning they
| can spend more on marketing and c) it has an air of "living in
| the future" about it.
|
| Most of us here see it for what it is, because we know what
| happens to the data.
|
| I think the future is going to have more of this.
|
| But, I can also imagine people paying more for almost everything
| that is ad-supported today to get non-ad supported versions in
| the future, not because of the data concerns, but because of the
| opportunity for status signalling - ad-supported devices like
| this will be seen as something "only poor people have" within two
| decades. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.
| Jolter wrote:
| Within two years they will launch a monthly ad-free
| subscription tier.
| PaulRobinson wrote:
| That might force them into providing better warranty support:
| if my fridge isn't working any more, I'm going to stop paying
| them money. Obviously subscription-free becomes another tier
| of status, but if by paying a monthly fee I get 24 hour
| maintenance support for fear of losing my sub revenue,
| well...
|
| There's already parallels around this to an extent. I pay
| Apple money every month for storage, ad-free TV, music and
| games, confident my data is my data. As a result, they might
| have a customer for life, because the alternatives are awful
| in comparison even if I pay less per month or overall for
| them.
| Jolter wrote:
| I have very good experience of Samsung's warranty support
| for a washing machine, actually.
|
| The thing that makes corporations give better warranty
| support is not more money. Giving them more money does not
| incentivize them to suddenly give better service or make
| higher quality goods. The thing is consumer protection
| laws. In the EU, consumer goods have a minimum two-year
| warranty period. This incentivizes higher quality
| manufacturing.
| eep_social wrote:
| > confident my data is my data
|
| this attitude strikes me as remarkably naive in 2025. apple
| is well on its way down the slippery slope.
| Mo3 wrote:
| Paired with "priority support" and "cheaper" repairs for the
| much more frequent breakdowns
| jbreckmckye wrote:
| > It will sell very well because it a) will be cheaper than
| non-advertising laden fridges,
|
| Will it? Investors would prefer full price fridges with full
| price ads.
|
| Most consumers won't even know they've installed adware until
| the appliance is turned on, and what are they gonna do? go to
| all the effort of returning and buying another fridge?
|
| Captive audience
| PaulRobinson wrote:
| Dark patterns like that will die out soon enough and they'll
| harm the share price: Samsung are going to tell customers
| what they're getting.
|
| And while investors would _prefer_ full price fridges with
| full price ads, the ad economy only makes sense once you have
| decent reach, so it makes sense to lower the cost of
| acquisition of the device, take the hit as a customer
| acquisition cost and then sell the larger reach to
| advertisers.
|
| This is the model for every ad-supported device and service
| to date, I'm not sure they're going to reinvent those
| economics for a fridge.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| All that smart tech can't be offset by the small amount of ad
| revenue they generate.
|
| It's still much cheaper to buy a normal fridge without all of
| this.
| iammjm wrote:
| I still struggle to imagine why would I ever need a smart fridge.
| seydor wrote:
| When buying a fridge with a smartphone in it what do you expect,
| more fridge or more phone?
| dangoodmanUT wrote:
| I like my subzero
|
| No screens except a little lcd at the top when you open it to see
| the temps
|
| No WiFi, no Bluetooth, just a cold fucking box
| darknavi wrote:
| Totally agree. The house we bought in 2019 has a Subzero and
| it's the best fridge I've had. No frills (other than an ice
| maker), it just works. I dread the day I have to repair or
| replace it ($$) but it's been rock solid in the 5-6 years we've
| lived here so far.
| lambdaone wrote:
| This really is a Black-Mirror-esque hellscape, and the fact that
| this is marketed as something to be desired is absolutely
| astonishing.
| iamcalledrob wrote:
| Just watched the Black Mirror "Common People" episode which is
| on this subject.
|
| It's one of the creepiest because of just how close to the
| present day it is.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_People_(Black_Mirror)
| atmosx wrote:
| Smart devices are a bad idea. And while I won't mess with my
| Mercedes, I prefer dummy TV + media server/appleTV or chromecast.
| daneel_w wrote:
| Infuriating.
| clickety_clack wrote:
| What is the "best" fridge to get now? Like, say a standard
| American fridge with a stainless steel door with a freezer
| compartment, just for food (no tech, screens, ice making or water
| dispensing nonsense).
| 0xC0ncord wrote:
| There are plenty of fridges that don't incorporate "smart"
| features. There's nothing really complicated about a giant box
| that you put food in to keep cold and maybe an integrated water
| dispenser.
|
| I've been shopping for a new fridge lately, and from what I
| gather most "smart" fridges are still extremely expensive and
| that makes "non-smart" fridges still very desirable. In other
| words, "smart" features may not be new, but they aren't
| standard on a typical fridge... yet.
| jedimastert wrote:
| Samsung still makes regular fridges too, although I'm confused
| by the fact that you put water-dispensing/ice-making and
| screens together.
|
| I have a Samsung Bespoke, for example, and you can 100% turn
| the ice-making off and just use that part of the freezer for
| more freezer space. No screen, the from it blank because all
| the water dispensing stuff is on the inside and I think (?) you
| can get one without it
| clickety_clack wrote:
| The water dispensing/ice making stuff just seem like a
| needless complication to me, with extra parts that probably
| decrease the life of the machine.
|
| I just want a high quality, decent-looking box that stops
| food from going off.
| jedimastert wrote:
| That's a fair point
| seany wrote:
| Really any option that has true dual compressors is going to be
| fairly solid. We just got a Bosch 800 and have been quiet happy
| with it
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| I have been happy enough with my GE fridge. However I got fancy
| and went for the one that puts the freezer on the bottom
| instead of the top.
|
| I will say, when I went to my local appliance store (NOT
| bestbuy) they had literally zero options on the floor with a
| touch screen.
| userbinator wrote:
| A used one. For every person who hates this "smart" stuff,
| there's probably a dozen other sheeple gladly "upgrading" and
| getting rid of a fridge that's been working just fine for a
| very long time and will likely continue doing so.
| zb3 wrote:
| Hmm, do Samsung executives/developers actually use this stuff at
| home? Does the author who wrote this BS piece actually leave
| those ads enabled?
| jcalvinowens wrote:
| > Family Hub(tm) refrigerators[4] with AI Vision Inside
| technology will receive upgrades to enable recognition of
| frequently used packaged foods and even more fresh fruits and
| vegetables to help families reduce food waste and save money.
|
| This has to be one of the silliest solutions in search of a
| problem I've ever seen. The fridge costs $3000, by the way.
| squigz wrote:
| I think there's some potential here, with regards to keeping
| track of when things were added/might go bad. At least for me,
| who easily forgets things until it's too late.
| dboreham wrote:
| A thing that can read the expiry dates on food packages that
| take me 20 minutes to find because they're printed in light
| gray on gray background would be useful.
| jdiff wrote:
| It would be. That was the original promise of the Family
| Hub+ fridges with AI Vision Inside(tm) technology.
|
| But you won't find that here, and it's not going to be
| coming in an update. This fridge can't properly identify
| fruits and veggies, let alone anything in any sort of
| packaging.
|
| As I demo the thing, it keeps taking snapshots of the back
| of my head and insists that the fridge is just packed full
| of kiwis.
| squigz wrote:
| Aye, the original version of my comment had "If it's
| reliable enough" as a qualifier.
| j45 wrote:
| Folks seem to use tools like grocy.
|
| If a Fridge had a barcode scanner built into it, that might
| be a start.
| scuff3d wrote:
| Put a magnetic whiteboard on the fridge. Write what you got
| when shopping and when you got it. 2 dollar solution, no
| invasive AI bullshit.
| aunty_helen wrote:
| You don't even need a whiteboard, just write directly on
| the fridge.
| squigz wrote:
| That would require I remember to do that, too ;)
|
| I was only commenting on the usefulness of such features,
| not on whether companies would also abuse that access for
| more data; that is an issue, but a separate one.
| the_snooze wrote:
| It's a lot of complexity and engineering just to avoid giving
| food the ol' sniff test. Tech bros need to stop inventing
| problems for which we already have time-tested solutions.
| squigz wrote:
| By then it's already too late. Not a very useful test to
| reduce food waste!
| qmr wrote:
| Strawberries are as low as $1 a pound at Felipe's.
| jdiff wrote:
| I'm working part time at an appliance showroom, it's exactly as
| silly as it sounds. We don't sell fruits and veggies, but we
| did have some pumpkins around. Put one in, it's confident I
| just fed it either an apple, an orange, or an onion. Some
| bottled drinks? Clearly a mango. Maybe an eggplant.
|
| And it can't register anything placed in the flex drawer,
| freezer, or fridge doors. In order to actually take advantage
| of its fridge inventory system, you still have to manually
| enter in or correct every single item you place into your
| fridge.
|
| It's inconvenient for looking up recipes, since fridges are not
| placed for visibility from your countertop. It can be used for
| music but the speakers aren't worth the extra money. Videos and
| movies? The screen's the wrong aspect ratio for anything but
| big screen TikTok. And again, fridges are not positioned to
| gather around.
|
| And that last bit is the crux of the issue. I've talked to our
| Samsung reps and they keep talking about fridges like they're
| gathering points. Like people congregate around their fridges.
| That was the guiding principle behind this fridge, and it's so
| disconnected from reality that the appliance itself can't help
| but be irredeemably pointless.
| xorcist wrote:
| How does it work in practice? Do you have to scan an item
| when you put it in or take it of the fridge?
|
| Because in practice, fridges look nothing like in the
| commercials. Very few people would put a whole apple and a
| carton of milk on a shelf and nothing more. That would be
| highly uneconomical, because there's far too much air that
| will escape when you open and close the door.
|
| It is normal to have lots and lots of small boxes and other
| stuff stacked on each other which would make it hard if not
| impossble to operate a camera inside.
| jdiff wrote:
| I've never used one other than demoing the features, but
| not well. The camera can't actually see what's inside the
| fridge. The camera sits between the two doors on the top
| bevel, pointing down.
|
| As you cross the threshold of the fridge with your item,
| you have to pause to show the camera what you're putting in
| or taking out. If you don't pause, or if it just
| nondeterministically decides you weren't holding anything,
| it won't work. It has no idea _where_ items are in the
| fridge, as soon as the threshold is crossed it loses sight
| of them.
|
| There is one exception, and that's the fridge doors. The
| camera can't see that far up and out, but it takes multiple
| snapshots of the doors as you're closing them and bringing
| them within its field of view. The results are heavily
| distorted, incredibly low fidelity, and most likely very
| motion blurry. Too low quality for the fridge to even
| attempt to discern what's inside the door, it'll just show
| you the snapshot it took and let you figure it out by
| navigating Home > AI Vision Inside > Left Door/Right Door
| to see the low quality reconstruction of your door... or
| you could take that time instead to just open the door.
| magicalhippo wrote:
| > Like people congregate around their fridges
|
| In my experience they do. At least at parties, cause that's
| where the beer is kept.
|
| A smart fridge tracking the contents and doing facial
| recognition on who's opening it sounds awesome.
|
| Then it can alert everyone Tom just stole Bob's IPA sounds
| very useful, to avoid those awkward "who stole my beer"
| moments.
| jdiff wrote:
| That would be great. That's not what's being sold nowadays.
| There's no tracking of who did what, the camera points
| pretty much straight down and it only even works if you
| pause and explicitly show to it the object that you are
| putting in/taking out.
|
| I put fliers for our store warranty inside, and just hid
| them under my wrist while taking them out so they show up
| in the AI Vision Inside app without actually taking up
| space in the fridge. The only time it ever saw me is when I
| leaned too far in and it took a picture of the back of my
| head. Got classified as a kiwi.
| more_corn wrote:
| I have already started my permanent and total Samsung boycott.
| curioussquirrel wrote:
| Although I loathe ads, I think that for new products where the
| presence of ads is disclosed clearly upfront, this is acceptable.
| Especially if this comes with a discount. We have Kindles with
| and without ads and people are generally fine with it.
|
| But the fact that this gets retrofitted to fridges that people
| already bought, without any way of opting out or other
| mitigation, is criminal. Is this a lawsuit in the making? Am I
| naive?
| jdiff wrote:
| Those Kindles, which I am also (mostly) okay with, are also
| $100 devices whose price is subsidized by those ads.
|
| These fridges are $3500 typically, and theoretically an MSRP of
| $4700. They're at the high end of consumer appliances.
|
| I don't believe it's a lawsuit in the making, this is (at least
| partially) America, land of freedom from consumer protections,
| but it is horrid.
| j45 wrote:
| Kindles didn't always have ads at the same price.
| j45 wrote:
| The fridges originally didn't have ads.
| gosub100 wrote:
| I dont like them either, but if the fridge were cheaper (this
| one isn't) or had other features I wanted, I'd consider buying
| it and just covering up the ad screen.
|
| Another concern is energy consumption. In this age of energy
| star and touting how efficient appliances are, it doesn't make
| sense to have a screen that is always-on.
|
| The real killer feature Samsung needs is an automatic warranty.
| I would never buy Samsung again, unless they started a new
| trend where all repairs are covered for 10 years (not sold as
| an add-on during checkout).
| Pooge wrote:
| > this is acceptable
|
| This is not. An appliance--which should never be connected to
| the Internet in the first place--that costs 4 digits in USD
| should _never_ show you ads in any way. You obviously don 't
| "loathe" ads if you're even capable of reasoning about that
| kind of behavior. Stop trying to shove ads 24/7 in every
| millimeter of available space.
|
| On the upside, it will be very easy to find more reliable _and_
| cheaper fridges than that.
| neilv wrote:
| To technologists with societal awarenesses, this whole direction
| of Samsung is concerning.
|
| But a personally funny thing about this particular episode, to
| me, is that when I left a very nice CS PhD program, to switch
| schools, to work on AI+HCI for software agents (before the
| enabling AI tech was ready)... the most common soundbite that the
| PI gave to prospective corporate sponsors who visited most days,
| was something like... "You could have a 'digital butler', who
| knows what you have in your fridge, and orders milk when you're
| running out."
|
| (Aside: The students working on agents and wearable computing at
| the time were actually disproportionately ones also interested in
| privacy, at the university. Maybe because we were Internet-savvy
| from shortly before the dotcom gold rush (default Internet person
| sentiment was pro-privacy, pro-altruism, etc.), or maybe because
| we tended to be technical and thinking forward about emerging
| networked applications, and could guess where this was going.)
|
| On HN, we always see a bunch of loud voices about various facets
| of IoT dystopia, but that doesn't reflect the broad population,
| yet. And as more people start to become aware, they tend to get
| sold diversionary snake oil solutions by influencers (e.g., "keep
| buying and deploying these devices, just set up a PiHole, and
| you'll totally be OK; like and subscribe"), while dystopian
| product movements march onward.
| ctxc wrote:
| "Knox...advanced security solution built on private blockchain
| technology"
|
| Hmm. What would you need consensus and immutability for?
|
| Nonsensical.
| j45 wrote:
| Placing all home automation gear on a dedicated guest or IOT SSID
| is critical.
|
| Best to treat them all like hostile devices and limit what they
| can do to what you bought them to do.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Or don't buy them in the first place. Since nobody here likes
| regulation, why don't we start at least trying (hopelessly) to
| vote with our wallets?
| j45 wrote:
| That's a good choice - buying things that behave is much more
| preferable, but often like tvs and other gear, ads can come
| in, or the "free" cloud they depend on disappears.
| therobots927 wrote:
| I had to disconnect my Samsung smart TV from the internet because
| every time I turned it on it would immediately go to the live TV
| app and play a minimum of one minute of some random show from the
| 90s. Now I use Apple TV. This is the kind of thing that needs
| heavy regulation.
| httgp wrote:
| I'm struggling with this too, and I cannot disable or remove
| the live TV app. If I get an Apple TV, can I have the TV always
| default to it on startup?
| therobots927 wrote:
| Yes but only if you disconnect the TV from the internet. I
| think I was able to do it in the settings of the TV but you
| could also change your WiFi password.
| blibble wrote:
| did Samsung not realise that HBO's "Silicon Valley" was supposed
| to be satire?
|
| guess they tuned out before the fridges inevitably get rooted and
| ended up as part of a botnet
| jesse_dot_id wrote:
| I don't buy insta-botnets and I never will.
| anjel wrote:
| Up next: those 1 inch OLED displays that are all the rage
| zvmaz wrote:
| I don't buy _any_ appliance that has "smart" in it. Yeah, no,
| thanks.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| So, let me see: I can pay $1200 for a really nice fridge that
| keeps my food cold. Or I can pay $3000 for a fridge that keeps my
| food cold, and also shows me ads. Is being shown ads worth $1800
| to me?
|
| Hmm... decisions...
| sathackr wrote:
| [11] Ads on Family Hub Cover screens will serve contextual or
| non-personal ads. Family Hub devices are not collectiong[sic]
| personal information or tracking consumers.
|
| How are they serving "contextual" ads without collecting/tracking
| anything?
| harvey9 wrote:
| Probably lifestyle and food/kitchenware ads. They know you can
| afford a smart fridge even if they know nothing else about you.
| throwacct wrote:
| I mean, if you buy a "smart" appliance at this point, you want
| the ads and everything else that would come after.
| brewtide wrote:
| I'm shopping for a new range, because mine just died a few weeks
| before good ole "T-day". This is one of the primary reasons a
| Samsung range isn't crossing my list at all.
| hexbin010 wrote:
| Honestly, there have been plenty of warning signs that Samsung
| appliances are trash for well over a decade if not more. If you
| own one, sell it some other idiot
| RajT88 wrote:
| Anyone figured out how to get lineageos on their Smart Fridge
| yet?
| knorker wrote:
| Across the spectrum of all Samsung consumer hardware, phones,
| fridges, smart watches, earbuds, TVs, etc., they are probably the
| most consumer hostile company in existence.
|
| I would NEVER buy one of their devices again. I've learned that
| they will punch you in the face every time, with deliberate
| choices made just out of spite (like pulse meter on smart
| watches, IIRC, only being available if you have a Samsung phone.
| Pixel phone is a no).
|
| Connecting one of their TVs or fridges to the internet? Lol, not
| today, Satan. Not in this lifetime.
| dwighttk wrote:
| ads?
| butz wrote:
| We need that guy that made smart vacuum cleaner work fully
| offline to purchase one of "elevated" fridges :).
| steve-atx-7600 wrote:
| Would be nice if they could make a fridge that was simply
| reliable. I bought one of their fridge's and couple years later
| had to do a ridiculous number of mods to the ice maker and fridge
| that were in the Samsung official service bulletin at the time of
| purchase. It's reliable now, but will never buy anything from
| them again. Many similar models from 2010s had similar issues.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| [dupe]
|
| Two weeks old news OP?
|
| Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45737338
|
| and Previous outrages:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45291107
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45262808
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45292666
| gnarlouse wrote:
| The reason this type of shit keeps happening is because theres no
| MAD in classwarfare. Think about that.
| wiseowise wrote:
| Lower class has no weapons at all. Choice is illusion when all
| alternatives are the same.
| gnarlouse wrote:
| Weapons available to the lower class:
|
| - corporate economic boycotting
|
| - voting for independents
|
| - disconnecting from social media platforms
|
| - disconnecting from ai platforms
|
| Regular people still have a chance to demand a stake in the
| future. They're just not even trying because they're all
| psychologically demolished and partitioned.
| hirako2000 wrote:
| The fact that I cannot tell with absolute certainty that the
| title of this thread has a typo makes my head hurt.
|
| Edit: in fact after reading the article, I can. The title is
| meant to read "Ads".
| busymom0 wrote:
| They should add a monthly subscription to open the fridge door
| next.
| tempodox wrote:
| That's some funny typo for "ads" in the post title.
| crest wrote:
| "unified user experience" == the ads are synced across devices
| zatkin wrote:
| My wife and I are in the market for a new refrigerator and we
| have never heard anything good about Samsung. I was at least
| expecting different "tiers" to have different reputations, but
| no, it's the entire _brand_ that is bad. Parts getting defective
| within the first few years, low quality materials, and now this?
| No thanks.
| anymouse123456 wrote:
| Samsung consistently treats their customers with contempt.
|
| Never buy a second thing from a company that treats you with
| contempt.
| adverbly wrote:
| I swear somebody should come in with an appliance brand which
| literally just builds things like they did 40 years ago before
| planned obsolescence and smart technology.
|
| They would clean up.
|
| I think the only thing that's actually improved is energy
| efficiency. But honestly my favorite appliances are my super old
| washer and dryer. I don't care that they are less energy
| efficient. Easy to use, nothing breaks and they have lasted
| forever.
| userbinator wrote:
| It seems that they're all focused extremely precisely on tiny
| efficiency gains in standardised tests and stuffing in unwanted
| hostile "smartness" at the expense of longevity and simplicity.
| At least the former is mostly due to regulations; and there
| have been some good changes recently in that area, although
| it's hard to tell whether they'll have any effect:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43065757
| ifh-hn wrote:
| I don't care if this is down voted, or flagged: fuck Samsung!
| daft_pink wrote:
| Never buying a samsung device ever again.
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