Samsung is rolling out an update to its refrigerators with displays that will enable them to show advertisements.
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.
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…
Not gonna lie. That doesn’t look like Tizen, either. It almost looks like they are running Windows Phone or Windows 8 on that Fridge lol.
Then again Windows 8 was considered bleeding edge when Skyrim came out. Samsung was still in their bubbly TouchWiz / Smart Hub era then. Things hadn’t turned into industrial style rectangles.
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.
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?”
gas pumps at gas stations that play back advertisements
You have to approach almost parallel to the machine, not to scare them. As soon as you’re close enough, be ready to jump in front of it and skip the ad. This way you can successfully hunt down a tedious ad.
Please view this series of ads to retrieve your funds. Alternatively, you can retrieve your funds now for a $4.95 fee.
*this fee fluctuates based on several factors including but not limited to: the time of day, the number of detected people in line behind you, your estimated pulse, if you have overdrawn your account in the past [DECADE], if you are a cheap motherfucker on our lowest-fee plan, if the system detects that you are a pushover little bitch, if your credit score is less than 800, the amount of advertisements we detect you block from our servers, and more. Resistance is futile.
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.
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
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.
On the plus side, considering the average lifespan of Samsung appliances, you probably won’t have to put up with it for very long.
It’s like none of you ever have seen a small TV on the counter 🤣.
Jesus christ the elitist nerd schick is high in here. So many angry nerds about wanting to and a calendar in the kitchen.
You’re so smart, I hope you enjoy your ads.
No ads here!
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?
Oh it has internet time sync. But the problem is… connecting to wifi with invalid time is problematic. There are internet check endpoints with certificates that can’t be verified. On the off chance that it does connect, I get a zillion certificate errors from different background processes.
The Internet is for their convenience, not yours.
But, can it play Doom?
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.
Samsung Washers haven’t had a great reputation. A lot of people I know still recommend purchasing something like a Kenmore or Maytag, or Speed Queen. I have an LG Washer which has been pretty solid, but, yeah… repair costs if you go through a company versus doing it yourself can be insane.
My 10 year old LG Washer, to repair recently, would’ve cost around $550-$600 for Diagnostic, Repair, and parts if I went through a service center. That is the cost of a new machine. What I needed were new suspension springs (10 years of wear & tear), and a new Sump pump as the motor housing started to leak. About $100 in parts and a half hour of time. Through the repair company, the labor would’ve been half the cost. The parts? The other half.
Yeah, the suspension is what went out on mine, their part, has to be ordered through them. The repair guy was nice and literally told me that 3/4s the cost was literally the parts because they could only do manufacturer. What’s infuriating to me is the fact that older washers didn’t have auto balance or suspension. Everything was welded to the frame. Yeah sure it would bounce around a lot but you could easily just stop the washer and rebalance it. My parents washer and dryer were handed down from their parents and lasted 30 years with no issues.
Got my MILs ancient range/washer/dryer,all obviously from the 80s. Never gonna sell them; never gonna toss them. Parts are cheap and a YouTube video can show you how to install them. They’re old enough that all the anti right-to-repair garbage hadn’t really reached it’s peak yet.
Gotcha. Yeah, my longest lasting Washing Machine was a Maytag or GE that ran from the mid-80s all the way to about 2005. It only died because the wash tub bearings (or whatever they are called) started to fail and leak the wash water everywhere. The wash motor was also extremely loud just before that happened, so it was either already struggling against failing parts, or, it too was failing. It survived a house move as well. Electronically, there was no computer. It was just a dial controlled machine with various cycles tied to certain positions in the dial.
After that I had a Kenmore, which died after about a decade. It, too, developed a leak in the wash tub that couldn’t be fixed effectively without effectively buying a new machine.
The LG still works today, over 10 years later.
Funny you mention the suspension going bad. The manufacturer price for suspension rods for my washing machine was $230. I was able to source the part online for about $30. All I had to do was toss in some new grease on the joints after taking the top of the machine off, and replacing each rod. The Sump Pump Motor was about $120 from the manufacturer. I sourced the same part from the upstream supplier (which, as it turns out, is used in non-LG washers as well) and that was $60.
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.
Any company that pushes this shit doesn’t deserve your money. Don’t buy their TVs.
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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?
the hype was to keep track of groceries
Most of my groceries are in the pantry not the fridge. This tech was always for people who have a kitchen that is for show and never used.
Their TVs suck too. The remotes barely respond and they’re bogged down with ad-riddled garbage to the point I had to set up a parental lock just so I wasn’t force-fed trashy, outdated reality TV at 300 decibels when I power the damn thing on. Or worse, when the power goes out and it decides to blast at 3 AM. Unfortunately I didn’t make the choice to buy this thing.
Their phones are also locked down proprietary horse arse. I don’t understand the people who repeatedly pick the brand, but oh well.
Samsung makes good screens they don’t make good TV’s.
I believe with their phones, it is because the hardware is honestly solid compared to much of the competition. Samsung phones (ESPECIALLY during the TouchWiz days) haven’t been known for having the best software.
Their TVs on the other hand, a lot of that is because they put underpowered SoCs in the TVs. Their high-end OLEDs are quite good, but that doesn’t fix the fact that Tizen is still a little clunky. Samsung LCDs on the other hand, unless you spend over $2,000 on one, tend to be junk, mostly because the backlights are too dim to accurately reproduce content except in a dark room, or because the backlights fail out too soon. You can get much better performance out of something like a TCL or Hisense for the money, as long as you have trust in those brands… being Chinese and all.
All electronics are garbage now it’s almost like they want you to buy a new one every year.
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.
It there was any hope for these being useful that would have integrated with the mobile experience the same way CarPlay did.
These are it a tv screen on a fridge with a channel that is for the fridge, these are all proprietary junk that it’s the antithesis for a smart home because they control it not the home owner.
Magnetic whiteboard
Because not everything important is digital.
You carry a phone that supports these features in your pocket. Fridges don’t need screens imho
Blah blah blah, I don’t like the form factor so it’s unneeded. You people are insufferable.
Guess what, it is easier to look directly forward on an always on screen that’s going to have a common display like a family calendar of events for that day while I’m preparing my family for the day. I don’t have to find and unlock my phone, I don’t have to wash my hands and open up a calendar app. It’s right there, front and center, where it needs to be for the task.
Not everyone has their reflection burned into the screen holding them all day. Some people actually leave them in other rooms!
Not everyone has their reflection burned into the screen holding them all day.
Yes, some of us go screen to screen and therefore need screen on every appliance in our house! /s 😆
This is not untrue haha, however it’s usually a more productive use of the screen at least 🤣.
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.
For just $15.99/month/user, you can store up to one thousand bytes of text in our super unsecured cloud service, and access it remotely with our Galaxy Pro Platinum Gold Fold Unfold Refold Defold Sync Edition!
*unavailable with any other devices, only available on our latest halo product, when we release the Galaxy PPGFURDSE 2026 in 3 months your device will become unavailable to sync with the fridge. Only available in 2, 3, and 5 year subscriptions, but we will kill the service after 17 months, no refunds.
Samsung. Because fuck you~.
Tablet is more flexible.
Why do gas pumps have screens?
Only in banana republic would customer be less valuable than ad revenue
Normal ones, yes, even 3rd world countries:
have counters only (minimalism).
To display ads.
Everyone should know this. Share it.
Never worked for me. Push that button. Pushed the button below/above. Held the button.
Pushed all the buttons.
None of it worked.
Hero. There’s only one gas station I use that has ads and I’ll try it there for sure. I deliberately avoid screened pumps.
Only sometimes. I’ve seen the mute button be disabled on numerous machines. Worth knowing and trying when the screen is blaring ads at you, but my success rate has been low in muting them.
Yeah, and it varies by station. I push all the buttons. Some times one works, some times not.
Especially lately. The screens used to just be for controlling the pump or letting the station show a silent ad or two for products in their convenience store. Or community ads.
NOW THEY BLARE RANDOM ADS AS YOU GAS UP YOUR VEHICLE.
It’s bliss after hours when the gas station is about to close and the ads stop. You can pump up in peace. Although when the ads crash the pump, have fun paying for gas.
This is actually why I got a Costco membership. 90% of gas stations in my city have a TV screen now and fuck that noise.
“because I’m a dumbass”
“because I’m a dumbass”
–dumbass
You ever think you’re just not creative and alone?
No
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.
Yeah a small screen showing time, day, weather, moon phase, sunrise/set, moonrise/set and daily/weekly schedule would be awesome. I have friends who keep a weekly meal/social schedule on their fridge and when I was staying with them mid move it was really convenient to have what’s going on so prominently displayed
I haven’t been able to get home assistant working but I imagine it has something for home displays like that with a fair amount of customizability
Ads and the news are two things I absolutely don’t want on my refrigerator. This is a large eye level object in the room that days begin in. They’re putting ads there because they know its a really convenient place to display useful information.
So you can see the inside of your fridge while never seeing the inside of your fridge. /s
Just open the fucking door.
- Greek soldiers outside of the city of Troy
Well I suppose that would be sort of a useful feature especially if you could access the camera remotely while shopping but if you think about it that camera angle is impossible.
Family calendar is the big one. I also watch YouTube and sports while cooking.
Yeah at a reasonable price I think a fridge is a decent place to put a display surface. It’s an early point of failure but with some consumer and longevity focused thinking that’s resolvable. I don’t need it enough for the costs but if done well with a focus on the consumer’s needs and wants it could be quite nice. Mind you that condition means fat chance but still, a display telling me what I’m doing today and if I need a jacket would be really convenient in the kitchen. Give it a bus tracker and I think people would really love that.
Honestly I hate how much of tech these days ignores asking if it’s solving a problem
I agree. Speding an additional $1000 for that feature is so much better than a piece of paper and a Spongebob Squarepants magnet.
It is better than a paper calendar, it does AV as well which is fantastic if I’m trying to watch sports and cook, and the feature isn’t 1k. Sucks to suck and have to make up little stories.
Forced ads is stupid. The feature is fantastic you grumpy lonely old man 🤣.
Good god you’re dumb. Enjoy your ads I guess.
Don’t have them 👍
If only there was some less ridiculous or wasteful way of keeping a calendar on a fridge, like a white board or something. Its too bad in the history of fridges that there was no way to keep a calendar on it, its just impossible to
Fuck man, why even have digital calendars at ALL?!!! Let’s just destroy computers, absolutely no need for this shit.
Ignoring the other useful users, my partner and I forward events from our work schedules when something pops up, the school sends an entire month of events which gets directly imported. The soccer team sends out the same shit.
God forbid I spend .23% of my yearly salary not having to sync calendar dates and be able to watch sports when cooking.
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.
…drinking my beer! Or eating my lunch for tomorrow. Or half a birthday cake.
Could’ve just said “eating my lunch”, it’s obviously a beer and half of a birthday cake.
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…
I don’t mind smart products, though I’m not sure what problem is solved by a screen on a fridge. That said, I do hate it when these devices need to rely on the cloud to function, and Ads I can’t tolerate–I usually try to block the DNS address for things that like to spy on me or show me ads.
This sort of stuff damages the Samsung as a brand. It makes me unlikely to consider Samsung for other products like TVs.
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
Windows exist
it was of course a horrible laggy mess.
So the freezer froze?
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
Only if you buy one.
Lololololololilolololololollol
Much better than my current Samsung fridge where that obnoxious Samsung rep has to come every week to plaster a new ad on the door. At least it won’t leave glue all over the floor.
What?
The good news is that it’s going to break soon anyway and you’ll have to buy another. Maybe try one without a screen on it.
My understanding is Samsung, at least as an appliance company, had tanked on quality over the last decade or so. I had all Samsung appliances until every one started failing slowly.
Not sure how they hope to survive with shit products AND a poor user experience.
They will cry into all their ad-money.
