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A comment on Amazon Sidewalk. Parent comment

Re:Amazon Sidewalk by jasonjayr on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @01:12PM (#27120639)
Define a standard form factor for a box that can have attachments to it. (Say approximatly 1 x RPi or 1.5 x RPi), that has a secure modular connector that is fed HDMI IN/OUT, Power, a data bus (Ethernet?), and space so custom connectors can be on the other side. Offer panels with a 'startup' block, and maybe 1 or two others for other devices. Ensure there is enough ventilation for passive/silent cooling.

Set up partners to make custom boxes. Things like SSD's in the same form factor storing media to be shared with other media block devices, (HDMI would be unpopulated), a Roku in the secondary/primary position. DTv Tuners with a Coaxial F-Connector for the antenna, etc.

This "Standard media block" connector could even be retrofit to legacy panels by means of an external box, and one master upstream connector.

Does anything like this exist yet? If not, what would be preventing it?

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Re:Amazon Sidewalk by patmorgan23 on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @01:28PM (#27120849)
Existing manufacturers make more by locking their hardware into their platform for ads.
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Re:Amazon Sidewalk by nine_k on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @02:32PM (#27121723)
This is not a show-stopper.

You can buy a simple office keyboard for $25, but there is a market for custom mechanical keyboards 10x as expensive.

You can watch YouTube for free, but a lot of people buys the premium subscription to remove ads.

Sam thing here: there may be enough people wanting to buy an ad-free, surveillance-free premium TV with user-inspectable, user-updatable open-source firmware, latest HDMI, and in interface for network boxes to taste. Given that it has a good panel, is well-built, has a minimal but premium look, and the producer offers a modicum of tech support, it can easily be sold for at 150% or even 200% the price of an ad-ridden smart TV from big names.

Such a business can be a good business, even though it won't show hockey-stick growth.

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Re:Amazon Sidewalk by mcdevilkiller on Thursday May 13, 2021 @03:55AM (#27139529)
>You can buy a simple office keyboard for $25, but there is a market for custom mechanical keyboards 10x as expensive.

Or 100x even

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