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Amazon and Best Buy Team Up To Sell Smart TVs (cnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the all-fair-in-business dept.

Amazon and Best Buy want to sell you your next smart TV. From a report: The companies, which are two of the biggest electronics retailers in the US, on Wednesday revealed a new multiyear partnership to sell the next generation of TVs running Amazon's Fire TV operating system to customers in the US and Canada. Best Buy will be the exclusive seller for more than 10 4K and HD Fire TV Edition models made by Toshiba and Best Buy's Insignia brand starting this summer. Pricing on the sets has not yet been announced. These smart TVs will be available only in Best Buy stores, on BestBuy.com and, for the first time, from Best Buy as a seller on Amazon.com.

15 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, but you won't ever catch me! by aglider · · Score: 2

    I won't ever punch a security hole in my privacy!

    --
    Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
    1. Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me! by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      It's not even going to be a good smart TV. You would be much better off with Android TV, which supports everything rather than being locked in to Amazon's walled garden.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me! by sycodon · · Score: 2

      The only smarts I want my TV to have is automagically figuring out what device is sending the picture to it.

      Dumb TV > Smart TV

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    3. Re:Yes, but you won't ever catch me! by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      The only smarts I want my TV to have is automagically figuring out what device is sending the picture to it.

      There is actually a standard for this, called CEC, which is implemented on some TV-connected devices. Unfortunately, TV receivers uniformly suck at implementing it. You won’t find a TV tech who even knows what CEC is.

  2. Do Not Want by thebryce · · Score: 2

    No smart tv's in my house, no echo or google home either.

  3. Does anyone still sell a "dumb" TV? by guacamole · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All I want is a screen, with HDMI ports.

  4. Why do we need "smart" TV's? by XxtraLarGe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's nearly impossible anymore to find a regular TV. When I went to Best Buy last year, they had exactly one 32" TV model (Westinghouse) that wasn't "smart". That's the one I bought. Most people these days have a console, or can get a Chrome Cast, Roku or Fire Stick for cheap enough to make their TV smart if they want. A "smart" TV is just one more point of failure for your TV, especially for the off brands. Does anyone really think Netflix, Hulu, etc. are going to be pushing updates for the HiSense you bought 3 years from now?

    --
    Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
    1. Re:Why do we need "smart" TV's? by fred6666 · · Score: 2

      It's nearly impossible anymore to find a regular TV.

      Just buy any TV and do not connect it to the Internet.

  5. the real question here. by nimbius · · Score: 2

    and the question we're not supposed to ask is, does this thing run Kodi? because if it doesnt, I'll just stick to buying a used 4k TV and a Raspberry pi. https://kodi.wiki/view/FireTV_...

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    Good people go to bed earlier.
  6. smart TVs are too bundly by FudRucker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    i dont want an arm processor computer with android bundled in to my TV, like the other poster said, sell dumb TVs with 2 or 3 or 4 HDMI ports, maybe those rca jacks for audio & video too, i can always hook up various arm or x86 computers to my TV if i want to do that, and besides, what if the computer inside my TV gets a little old, what then? throw out the whole TV because the computer in it is obsolete???

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    Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
    1. Re:smart TVs are too bundly by tomhath · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The TV is not the product; you are the product. The "smart" features are there to ensure you see all the advertisements.

  7. What about dumb displays? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What I want is a big dumb display, like a computer monitor. I don't want anything smart, I don't even want a tuner. Give me something simple with lots of inputs such as composite, S-video, components, DVI and multiple HDMI. I don't even want a remote.

    Is that too much to ask?

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    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:What about dumb displays? by Highdude702 · · Score: 2

      I agree with all but the lack of remote.. Some tv's and monitors are s pain in the ass to change input on without a remote. I have a small ASUS monitor with one of those touch sense button panels on the bottom. If carbon paper, even receipts gets near it it senses input and fucks off.. Remote please with all those inputs. And don't for get DP, it is the future of connections just needs time like HDMI.

  8. Re:Needs to be stopped by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 4, Funny

    The type of vertical integration being pushed on us by Amazon needs to be stopped.

    Time to break up Amazon.

    I know! I wish we had the option to just not buy one of these.

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    Do you have ESP?
  9. Create a meme for the average person by jenningsthecat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's time to start seriously promoting the truth among the non-tech-savvy that 'smart TV's are a dumb idea'. Folks still have the Facebook debacle in the backs of their minds - maybe it's time to bring it back into the foreground and make clear the relationship between Facebook spying on people via their computers, and TV makers / sellers spying on them via their TV sets.

    I have lots of hope, (but very little optimism), that it's possible to wake Joe and Jane average from their shiny-induced stupor.

    --
    'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.