3 wk. ago • 98%

Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

arstechnica.com Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

Smart display will soon default to showing ads after three hours.

28 comments

Why in the world are people paying for this? You can get displays like this for digital photos that don't even require an internet connection, much less a subscription. Is this how far people have gone in their unwillingness to learn to use technology that isn't some cloud/app based bullshit? Just put some pictures on an sd card and be done with it.

49
- Great suggestion, but then when I want to send new photos to Grandma I have to drive all the way across the country to pop in a new SD card because last time we tried letting her do it she jammed the card in backwards and broke the card and reader.
  
  15
- It's quite convenient, at least on the Google home. I could just share an album with my mom and MIL, set up the album to automatically populate with pictures we take of our kids and they get to see the latest pictures we've taken right away without ever having to touch the device or really do anything other than take the picture.
  
  It worked really well when my MIL lived in a different state. They got to share in the memories that were happening 1000 miles away in almost real time without having to beg for pictures every day.
  
  8
- My wife bought internet connected frames for family. We set the frames up on a visit and the pictures are delivered automatically to the non technical relatives as we upload new ones.
  
  That said, I'd never use an echo for this, that's super invasive.
  
  5
  
  I'm going to be honest. Outside of elderly relatives on the cognitive decline, the "inability" to transfer files to a SD card is nothing other than laziness. Any functioning person that's capable of making themselves a PB&J sandwich is more than capable of it. They choose to all of a sudden be stupid the moment a computer enters the discussion. It's a choice made purely out of laziness.
  
  2
- money, baby
  
  1
In September of 2023, Amazon announced the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition. It looked just like the regular Echo Show 8 smart display/speaker but cost $10 more. Why? Because of its ability to show photos on the home screen for as long as you want—if you signed up for a $2 monthly subscription to Amazon's PhotosPlus. Now, about a year after releasing the Echo Show 8 Photos Edition, Amazon is announcing that it's discontinuing PhotosPlus. That means Echo Show 8 Photos Edition users will be forced to see ads instead of their beloved pics.

31
- Choose to live only in a cloud, require everything to be "smart", and you're inviting this shit upon yourself. There's absolutely zero serious reason to buy internet connected frame beyond tech illiteracy, mindless consumerism, or sheer laziness.
  
  12
Oof we have thousands of these at my work. I would happily light them on fire but for the whole needing a job thing and staying out of jail thing

9
- what use do these things have in the work place? unless amazon sent them for free because guaranteed captive audience for ads?
  
  5
  
  Sorry... The company I work for has a contract with that company named after a giant river. We are wzrehousing, packaging, shipping, all that shit. Not sure why any of this is happening.
  
  6
- Permanently Deleted
  
  3
doesn't most of amazon's revenue come from AWS? why do they even keep trying with these stupid home surveillance/advertisement gadgets that no one asked for?

8
- Owning that space in peoples homes is the point, I bought them just for controlling my lights via voice, but the screen started as a clock and weather report and now shows adverts almost constantly.
  
  I’m looking at HomeAssistant as a replacement but you have to realise that unless you are tech savvy, you probably don’t even know HomeAssistant exists let alone know how to set it up for your requirements.
  
  10
  
  Not only that but it requires constant maintenance.
  
  3
  
  Even with home assistant set up, I still have Google assistant handling the voice control aspect. I might be wrong but I don't think home assistant comes with any voice controls. You still need something else if you want to control it with voice.
  
  Edit: it looks like there is something built into HA called Assist. I tried it a bit and while the basics work, I find it harder to use than google assistant.
  
  2
  
  you might want to read that book "the circle". so scandalous it got banned somehweherehre. (actually it's very tame)
  
  2
- Capitalists love ONE thing in the world.
  
  It's not good products.
  
  4
- It used to. Now it's more evenly distributed between the various entities.
  
  1

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