CES 'Worst In Show' Devices Mocked In IFixit Video - While YouTube Inserts Ads For Them (worstinshowces.com) 11
While CES wraps up this week, "Not all innovation is good innovation," warns Elizabeth Chamberlain, iFixit's Director of Sustainability (heading their Right to Repair advocacy team). So this year the group held its fourth annual "anti-awards ceremony" to call out CES's "least repairable, least private, and least sustainable products..." (iFixit co-founder Kyle Wiens mocked a $2,200 "smart ring" with a battery that only lasts for 500 charges. "Wanna open it up and change the battery? Well you can't! Trying to open it will completely destroy this device...") There's also a category for the worst in security — plus a special award titled "Who asked for this?" — and then a final inglorious prize declaring "the Overall Worst in Show..."
Thursday their "panel of dystopia experts" livestreamed to iFixit's feed of over 1 million subscribers on YouTube, with the video's description warning about manufacturers "hoping to convince us that they have invented the future. But will their vision make our lives better, or lead humanity down a dark and twisted path?" The video "is a fun and rollicking romp that tries to forestall a future clogged with power-hungry AI and data-collecting sensors," writes The New Stack — though noting one final irony.
"While the ceremony criticized these products, YouTube was displaying ads for them..."
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland summarizes the article: "We're seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them," iFixit's Chamberlain told The Associated Press... Proving this point was EFF executive director Cindy Cohn, who gave a truly impassioned takedown for "smart" infant products that "end up traumatizing new parents with false reports that their baby has stopped breathing." But worst for privacy was the $1,200 "Revol" baby bassinet — equipped with a camera, a microphone, and a radar sensor. The video also mocks Samsung's "AI Home" initiative which let you answer phone calls with your washing machine, oven, or refrigerator. (And LG's overpowered "smart" refrigerator won the "Overall Worst in Show" award.)
One of the scariest presentations came from Paul Roberts, founder of SecuRepairs, a group advocating both cybersecurity and the right to repair. Roberts notes that about 65% of the routers sold in the U.S. are from a Chinese company named TP-Link — both wifi routers and the wifi/ethernet routers sold for homes and small offices.Roberts reminded viewers that in October, Microsoft reported "thousands" of compromised routers — most of them manufactured by TP-Link — were found working together in a malicious network trying to crack passwords and penetrate "think tanks, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, law firms, defense industrial base, and others" in North America and in Europe. The U.S. Justice Department soon launched an investigation (as did the U.S. Commerce Department) into TP-Link's ties to China's government and military, according to a SecuRepairs blog post.
The reason? "As a China-based company, TP-Link is required by law to disclose flaws it discovers in its software to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before making them public." Inevitably, this creates a window "to exploit the publicly undisclosed flaw... That fact, and the coincidence of TP-Link devices playing a role in state-sponsored hacking campaigns, raises the prospects of the U.S. government declaring a ban on the sale of TP-Link technology at some point in the next year."
TP-Link won the award for the worst in security.
Thursday their "panel of dystopia experts" livestreamed to iFixit's feed of over 1 million subscribers on YouTube, with the video's description warning about manufacturers "hoping to convince us that they have invented the future. But will their vision make our lives better, or lead humanity down a dark and twisted path?" The video "is a fun and rollicking romp that tries to forestall a future clogged with power-hungry AI and data-collecting sensors," writes The New Stack — though noting one final irony.
"While the ceremony criticized these products, YouTube was displaying ads for them..."
Long-time Slashdot reader destinyland summarizes the article: "We're seeing more and more of these things that have basically surveillance technology built into them," iFixit's Chamberlain told The Associated Press... Proving this point was EFF executive director Cindy Cohn, who gave a truly impassioned takedown for "smart" infant products that "end up traumatizing new parents with false reports that their baby has stopped breathing." But worst for privacy was the $1,200 "Revol" baby bassinet — equipped with a camera, a microphone, and a radar sensor. The video also mocks Samsung's "AI Home" initiative which let you answer phone calls with your washing machine, oven, or refrigerator. (And LG's overpowered "smart" refrigerator won the "Overall Worst in Show" award.)
One of the scariest presentations came from Paul Roberts, founder of SecuRepairs, a group advocating both cybersecurity and the right to repair. Roberts notes that about 65% of the routers sold in the U.S. are from a Chinese company named TP-Link — both wifi routers and the wifi/ethernet routers sold for homes and small offices.Roberts reminded viewers that in October, Microsoft reported "thousands" of compromised routers — most of them manufactured by TP-Link — were found working together in a malicious network trying to crack passwords and penetrate "think tanks, government organizations, non-governmental organizations, law firms, defense industrial base, and others" in North America and in Europe. The U.S. Justice Department soon launched an investigation (as did the U.S. Commerce Department) into TP-Link's ties to China's government and military, according to a SecuRepairs blog post.
The reason? "As a China-based company, TP-Link is required by law to disclose flaws it discovers in its software to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before making them public." Inevitably, this creates a window "to exploit the publicly undisclosed flaw... That fact, and the coincidence of TP-Link devices playing a role in state-sponsored hacking campaigns, raises the prospects of the U.S. government declaring a ban on the sale of TP-Link technology at some point in the next year."
TP-Link won the award for the worst in security.
I don't know how my daughter survived baby-hood (Score:3)
... given we didn't have a radar sensor to put in her room.
TP-LINK routers and OPENWRT (Score:5, Interesting)
The hardware itself is not really that bad in a TP-LINK router. Granted, no consumer router is stellar or anything, you DO get what you pay for-- however, the bulk of TP-LINK devices are supported by OpenWRT and are reasonably good feature wise. Replacing the firmware that way completely removes the outstanding security issue posed by the government.
Removing these devices from the market will make it much harder to find a supported device to run the community created and maintained firmware package.
Re: (Score:3)
What about OpenWrt's own OpenWrt One network router [slashdot.org]?
Re: (Score:3)
Removing these devices from the market will make it much harder to find a supported device to run the community created and maintained firmware package.
OpenWRT is excellent, and it supports a huge number of devices so not having TP-Link would not really make it that much harder.
https://openwrt.org/toh/views/... [openwrt.org]
Disposable everything (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I recently went shopping for a bathroom light fixture. After decades of use, the old one started to visibly corrode. About 75% of all fixtures have integrated LEDs, so once they go you can only replace the entire fixture. My guess is that no consumer integrated circuit will last in a very humid bathroom setting, so you might get 2-3 years out of one. This is very wasteful, yet somehow these new lights get all kinds of green and energy star certifications/awards? Why?
My bathroom lights are track style and use replaceable GU10 LED bulbs. The bulbs and fixture are intended and rated for bathroom use.
My Router? (Score:1)
90% of influencer advertisers are crap (Score:3)
The reason companies advertise with successful influences that the subscribers trust them. Basically, people think of the influencer as their friend, so they are getting recommendations from a friend. It is basically buying a small amount of word of mouth.
People with a worthwhile product want you to trust their company and their product, not the promoter. Coca-cola does not need Mr. Beast to tell everyone how great it is. And someone that say invents a new hair growth formula does not need that more than once anyone. Real word of mouth acts faster than purchased word of mouth. It is called 'going viral' for a reason.
I am sure there are exceptions, but by far, the companies like Honey, BetterHealth, etc. that pay to advertise on YouTube and other influencer sites have products not worth trying.
Re: (Score:2)
They are. But some of the incredibly stupid shit they spam advertise on TV is hilarious until it becomes annoying. One of the ones that has been going on for a while is this Kardia [kardia.com] which they spam all the time on the cable news channels. It's amazing! It can detect atrial fibrillation, bradycardia, AND tachycardia! Okay, so it measures your heart rate. I can do that with a carotid pulse. Afib you can kind of detect if you really know what you're doing, but I'd rather buy an Apple Watch. Admittedly, an Apple
Why did Chinese companies even go to CES? (Score:2)