Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Targets Cord Cutters With First-Ever Integrated Fire TV Sets (variety.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon is going to start shipping TV sets powered by the company's own smart TV operating system soon: The company began listing Element's Fire TV Edition TV sets for pre-order Tuesday, and is expected to start shipping them next month, when the devices will also reach other retailers. Amazon and Element as well as Element's sister company Westinghouse first announced Fire TV-based TV sets at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year. Now, the companies shared a number of additional details, including pricing. Element's 43-inch Fire TV Edition will retail for $449. A 50-inch model and a 55-inch model will cost $549 and $649, respectively, and a $65-inch model will retail for $899. Each of these devices support 4K video, and pack a quad-core processor, 4GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage for apps -- beefed-up specs that won't just guarantee smooth app performance and streaming, according to Amazon's VP of Smart TVs Sandeep Gupta, but are also meant to future-proof the device. "It will have a longer life cycle than a regular smart TV," he told Variety during a recent interview. The interface of the TV is virtually identical to that of a Fire TV box or stick, save for a few differences. There are extra tiles that let users switch their input devices to access game consoles, Blu-ray players and cable boxes.
Curved, 3D, and Smart
Fortunately the the first two (which were only to justify keeping prices high) are already doomed on their own merits.
"Smart" though, is a cancer that's harder to get rid of, because manufacturers will even lower prices to sneak in the trojan horse that promises to track and force feed ads on you.
As a side note, does anybody have any Android TV (e.g. from Sony), Tizen TV (Samsung) or similar? I would like to know if you still use the Smart TV functions.
The problem with Amazon tech products is that their primary purpose is not to make your life better, but to advertise products to you. Products that you don't need or want. And if you do need or want them, you can go directly to Amazon and search for them and probably find them.
I remember watching the presentation of the Fire Phone. I think that is what it was called. An Amazon phone a few years ago. I was thinking the tech looked good, but then it dawned on me. Every single thing they were touting was about some way to get the phone to try to sell you something. Newsflash: I buy a smartphone to improve my life, not to be an advertising platform for you.
Even evil Google is realizing that the Chrome browser in Android needs an ad blocker. Google gives me an overall superior internet experience in exchange for seeing some ads I might be interested in. But I don't have to see ads merely because I bought a smart phone.
Now why would I even want to consider a Fire Stick, let alone one built into a TV. No TV should be a "smart TV". The TV should be a dumb "monitor". That expensive TV will outlast several generations of "smart TV" boxes that will come and go over the life of the TV. It seems best to me that the "smart" part is a separate box I can discard or unplug when I wish. I'll take a dumb TV thank you, with multiple HDMI inputs.
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Integrating televisions with other technologies never seems to work out. TV with VCR combo... TV with DVD combo... TV with Fire Stick Combo... Just buy the TV you want and fork out the $40 for the Fire Stick.
I prefer dumb TVs with separate media player boxes (I have a Roku) but some people like one unit.
Perhaps that is so, but in the end it is about what you will be able to buy, which most likely will be only 'smart' TVs. To anybody with a little bit of knowledge, it is clear that there is no advantage to the consumer in buying a TV with a built-in computer, over which you have little to no influence in terms of what OS and applications you get; you can get the same functionality through any PC without the tie-in, and with the liberty to use your generic computer for whatever you like - and to replace or upgrade it when you wish.
It is a strategy many businesses have pursued quite deliberately for years - hasn't everybody had the experience of looking in the supermarket for some favourite product, only to find that it is no long available, because "There is no demand" - and as it turns out, there is no demand because they have decided to take it off the shelves; instead they want you to buy something else where they make a bigger profit and you get a poorer product. The same happens with all other products - consumers are usually not really interested in meaningless novelty features, but the producers want to ensure they have a rapid turn-over, and they want to tie you into buying their line of products to ensure a steady stream of inflated profits.