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A comment on Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads. Parent comment

Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by dessant on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @07:29AM (#24626364)
The NVIDIA Shield TV, which runs Android TV, can no longer be initialized without signing in with a Google account, the setup screen will refuse to get past that step, even if you don't have an internet connection.

The forced login is likely illegal, because there is no mention of a requirement for a Google account in their marketing materials or on their sales pages.

The device stays perfectly functional if the the network connection is cut off within seconds after signing in, and the account can be removed after the setup is complete. The only drawback is that you can't update apps from Google Play, unless you add a Google account again.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by WrtCdEvrydy on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @08:09AM (#24626688)
iOS 14 now requires an account to enable the phone.

It literally just bricked my test iPhone SE.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by simonh on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @10:53AM (#24628534)
That doesn't sound right. You do need an iCloud account to enable some functionality, for example to enable seamlessly switching AirPods between different Apple devices.
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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by WrtCdEvrydy on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @09:13PM (#24634872)
I started the phone, put the pin in and triggered the upgrade.

After the upgrade completed there is an only an option to put in a email/password for icloud and there is no "skip" or "do later" button I could find.

I'm pretty derpy but I can tell you it is true.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by LexGray on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @12:26PM (#24640489)
Sounds like you picked up the SE used and it had an activation lock. One of the more annoying things Apple has done was to take down the page for checking that before purchase.

That or you put in an iCloud account at some point but it did not get removed successfully.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by WrtCdEvrydy on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @11:47PM (#24647150)
Nope, found it eventually.

iOS 14 merges the 'not now' from iOS 13 into a 'forgot my account or don't set up now'.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by gruez on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @09:21AM (#24627459)
Are you sure it's not the icloud lock?
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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by WrtCdEvrydy on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @09:55AM (#24627832)
No, it's a requirement after updating to have an icloud account in order to get past the out of the box screen.
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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by m463 on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @07:55AM (#24637775)
I didn't try 14, but on 13 on the "sign in to apple id" screen, you say "don't have one", then say set up later.

has this been removed? It might be getting into GDPR violation territory.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by WrtCdEvrydy on Wednesday September 30, 2020 @12:21PM (#24640433)
Okay, good call, they merged this into "forgot password or don't have one". It still tries to talk you out of it with a pop up with a highlighted button of "sign up now".

Dark patterns... I can see why the older generation is scared of the hardware.

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Re:Samsung TV owners complain about increasingly obtrusive ads by cornedor on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @07:48AM (#24626510)
In Europe it definitely is illegal under the GDPR
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