Samsung is rolling out an update to its refrigerators with displays that will enable them to show advertisements.
I used to work at a popular electrical retailer in the UK, and Samsung had come to our offices with some of their latest appliances, including a fridge freezer with a screen like this. They were trying to demonstrate the feature where you could look inside your fridge so you didn’t need to open the door, amongst other things, but it was of course a horrible laggy mess. I told the rep that nobody is going to use this after the first time and it’s just easier to open the door and look inside. You could tell he thought it was shit too but couldn’t come out and say it, but his smirk said it all.
knowing samsung they prolly force retailers to have at least one of these things on display if u wanna sell samsung products
In classic fashion they’re doing it in a way where you can choose to not have them by not using particular display options, so that they can say with a straight face that they’re not forcing ads on you. Then once this bullshit is normalized and into everyone’s homes, making it non-optional on all screens is a much smaller leap in comparison.
Well fine. No smart refrigerator then.
Btw, you could also just slap a tablet on any fridge.
Why would your refrigerator have a screen?
Why would you buy such a refrigerator?
I recall the hype was to keep track of groceries or some such gimmick. I feel it to be unnecessary tech. How convenient that it shows ads. In any case, do not buy a Samsung appliance. They are total shite and will break down on you. Fridges, washing machines, dishwashers. All garbage. The televisions are fine.
Agreed. Bought a washer/dryer set and the washer literally shit out in a year, with repairs costing as much as the purchase. Fuck them.
I’m not a huge fan of my Samsun monitor either actually. There’s a lot of stuff in there that I don’t want or use, and most of what is in there feels pretty half-assed. Will definitely be trying another brand when it comes to replace it.
To keep track of groceries? Just I don’t know, LOOK inside the fridge. Oh the cabinets and drawers don’t have screens, just slap a few of them on there to keep track of that shit too! Why stop at the fridge?
I’m not against my refrigerator having a screen that I can control
But why have a screen at all?
Shopping list, digital post it notes, etc.
People have been sticking important things into fridge doors since there are fridges.
Tablet is more flexible.
You carry a phone that supports these features in your pocket. Fridges don’t need screens imho
But then you need to use cloud services to sync with your family/roommates/etc. Not everyone lives alone.
So how are you gonna access the shopping list on the fridge when you are in the store (without using cloud services)? Taking a screenshot of sticky notes on the fridge works as good as taking a screenshot of the fridge screen. So in both cloud connected and not clod connected scenarios, the fridge screen is not needed and functions as a gimmick.
I would love a monitor on my fridge (it’d be better than most of the dusty old shit on mine right now. ) But I would want to have complete control of the hardware attached to that screen
I hope a DIY mod community springs up to help people take back the machines they own.
Enshittification, in my kitchen?!
You have to be pretty naive to not have seen this one coming from a mile off. But hey, at least people can see what’s in their fridge without having to open the door, what a luxury.
When I used to work at Home Depot, selling appliances, I would absolutely refuse to sell anyone anything from Samsung.
They make absolutely terrible and extremely expensive overpriced appliances which are guaranteed to break within three years.
For anyone who knows how, please add it to the consumer rights wiki.
https://consumerrights.wiki/Category:Samsung
Fuck Samsung.
the galaxy fold looks awesome but these refrigerator ads ain’t it
Sammobile apparently has 1660 “partners”, the fuck?
Who could have possibly seen this coming…
This it’s why there is nothing “smart” in my house.
I do have a smart tv that’s not allowed access to the internet, and that’s because they’re all like that now.
Gross, my fridge got hit with ransomware again and now all the food inside is encrypted. Time to see if my canned backups are any good.
…Where did I put those backups?
Wait a second… you’re into something here. What if a fridge could lock and unlock sections by Face ID? It could make sure my kids aren’t drinking my beer! Or eating my lunch for tomorrow. Or half a birthday cake. What if I could require my kids to grab an apple with a soda?
That would be kinda neat if I had money I couldn’t think of a better use for.
Someone hacked my fridge and gave it a virus. I ate the food and got gastroenteritis.
The food encryption was unnecessary, I already got DDOS’d when my wife and kids got there first and ate all the cake Before I got home from work.
The FBI called to help, maybe they can sort things out for you too. Thought they’d be busy with other stuff right now but I guess they need these Apple gift cards to upgrade my security…
To enhance our service and offer additional content to our users, advertisements will be displayed on the Cover Screen for the Weather, Color, and Daily Board themes.
I really hope that Steam games don’t head down this path over time. Internet-connected refrigerators I’m willing to avoid, but that’s not the only vector for this sort of thing.
EDIT: And as has been pointed out on here before, some Internet-connected cars are starting to have updates to show ads on their UIs pushed out. Any time you’ve already spent the money and are kind of locked in and the manufacturer has Internet connectivity to the device and can update the thing subsequent to purchase, you’re kind of in a bad position regarding leverage.
Valve, fortunately, has already codified a ban on advertisement in games sold and on the steam platform itself (The store page is curated by an algorithm fetching popular games or game genres desired by the player rather than advertisers) https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/advertising
Edit: There’s an exception for cross promotions and in-world/in-universe assets (giving logos on a race car in a racing game as an example)
Ah, thanks! Well, that’s one lone ray of light.
kagis
It sounds like that was a joke from some years back.
Skyrim: Special Edition Announced For Samsung Smart Refrigerators And Alexa
If that headline has confused you then let’s be very clear, this is a joke by Bethesda…
Oh god don’t tell them about ATMs.
They do have a screen and Internet connectivity, but I don’t think that ATMs are actually a great route (unless they force people to stop and wait to get their money, which I don’t think will fly and will cut into capacity). There isn’t much eyeball time on them. The reason a car or a refrigerator works is because you’re likely to be around it a lot.
I will say that the rise of gas pumps at gas stations that play back advertisements is pretty obnoxious, though.
I was recently at a gas station that scanned my license plate and then started showing me ads telling me to upgrade to a newer model of my car, while showing me ads for those ewer models from a used car website. It felt incredibly invasive and I haven’t been back to that gas station.
I’m still grouchy about a sandwich place that I liked that recently changed ownership putting in kiosks that apparently do facial recognition, as once I walked up, they suggested items that I’d purchased last time. That started me looking, and I’ve been noticing that a lot of the ordering kiosks that places have been installing around where I am have cameras (though none have been actively making suggestions). I can only imagine that that gets hooked into the tracking and advertising system at some point too, though.
Between increasing use of facial recognition and ALPRs, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to avoid targeted ads. I don’t have a fix for that. I mean, it’s illegal to block use of ALPRs. A lot of places also have anti-masking laws, though I suspect that in practice, they aren’t enforced much, and someone could theoretically put something on their face. I don’t especially want to run around wearing stuff on my face, though.
Those morph suits from A Scanner Darkly are looking less and less unhinged lately
unless they force people to stop and wait to get their money
Do you really feel like inconveniencing us is unlikely?
A few years ago before I moved away, PNC bank had a few branches with new ATMs that made me tap through ads for loans and special checking accounts.
But there are fewer people needing to use ATMs with all the card/tap/digital money transfer. The only time anyone is using an ATM is because they have to. And a high proportion of those people who have to use ATMs are going to be poor.
“Make ‘em wait through an ad, what are they gonna do?”
Samsung make shit appliances that are particularly non-repairable anyway.
Yeah, there’s no way I’m buying an internet connected fridge with a giant screen.
Show me an ad in my own kitchen and that screen is going to be broken.
I moved to Germany. It’s been an experience because the tech status dialed back about 15 years. One area I don’t miss is the ever pervasive drive to have screens with ads on every surface.
Hahaha. Who would pay so much for a smart fridge. In the words of Gilfoyle, all it needs to do is keep my fucking beer cold.
Well, with ads it will likely become cheaper than dumb fridges, which will lock in more and more customers until the sudden subscription service hits and everyone have to agree and pay up or buy a new fridge altogether. This isn’t the first, second nor third time this has happened.
Honestly, it doesn’t cost much more than fridge without a screen. I was trying to buy an LG with the window that you can knock on to see inside (not screen) but it was out of stock… and ended up with one of these fridges. The software is stupid though, I use it to play music sometimes when I’m cooking. It has some menu options for controlling the fridge too. I would love to load up custom ROM though… What annoys me the most is lack of RTC battery, because the time resets whenever there’s a power outage.
I would love to load up custom ROM though… What annoys me the most is lack of RTC battery, because the time resets whenever there’s a power outage.
They made an Internet-connected fridge and didn’t put an NTP client on it?
The Internet is for their convenience, not yours.
