Is Apple’s TV Box Now Mostly Pointless?

Actually, that is not the “privacy” I was thinking about. I do not care about that kind of privacy, either.

I care about big data tracking networks and techniques that track me across devices and the internet and across services and that build and sell profiles about anything. What I am watching is only part of the bigger picture: at what times am I doing what? Why? What is on my mind? Illnesses? Financial issues? And so on.

And Apple is making that harder for apps running within its ecosystem.

For the majority of users: agreed. For me: yes, those features are enough for me to justify the price, hence the 3 AppleTVs sitting in my house… :wink:

Disclaimer: We have less alternatives in Germany in comparison to the U.S. A popular one in the states, Roku, will only start later this year over here. And I am not a big fan of ChromeCast or Amazon’s stuff.

And with regards to the AirPlay and presentation capabilities: a 75 inch whiteboard that can display anything from any device (HiSense 75 inch, iPad Air, Apple Pencil, AppleTV) at about 1,500 Euro is a bargain. I have to admit that this use case is not the normal use case of an AppleTV.

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Exactly. Streaming video providers have to know how I use their services, but they’re also incentivized (currently and mostly) to keep that information to themselves. Samsung/LG/crapware-stick-provider is incentivized to monitor what I do and sell that information. And that doesn’t even start to address the security issues.

Smart TVs/sticks conveniently package all the privacy of an online ad network with the security of an unpatched Android device. They’re “wonderful” like that :slight_smile:

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That’s true of a lot of companies including Apple and Google. Both know a lot about their users but they don’t share that with outsiders, its too valuable. Apple uses it to market their stuff to Apple users and Google uses it to sell targeted ads and present them to Google users.

I can afford to use quality products that don’t track me, so I pay extra.
And yes, every single app tracks me, but I can’t opt out of that, and they give me recommendations in return.

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