News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by schappim on Friday April 07, 2023 @04:59PM (#35486929)
You're going to want to change that name... Disney... They have the class 9 Trade Mark for Dumbo, and call out: "television sets;"[1][2].

[1] https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/115...

[2] https://files.littlebird.com.au/Shared-Image-2023-04-08-06-5...

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by pupdogg on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:16PM (#35487076)
Yes, going to take care of that. Thanks for the heads up. I really looked that one over...didn't think too much of it as the domain was available. It's hard to do anything the easy way nowadays!
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by neandrake on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:36PM (#35487305)
Haven’t checked availability but OnlyTV would be fitting.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by lagrange77 on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:35PM (#35487284)
How about IDIOT? Edit: Damn, there is 'IOT' in it.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by lagrange77 on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:01PM (#35487572)
PRIMITV
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by q7xvh97o2pDhNrh on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:15PM (#35487730)
Nice. That is an absurdly good name.

I think it needs just a bit of fool-proofing in a couple dimensions though:

(1) Ideally, the brand would also be able to speak to the segment of people who aren't going to get the wordplay.

(2) Also, there's the age-old pronunciation question. Is it just "Primitive"? Is it "Primi - Tee - Vee"?

It's quite close to being a great brand, though. I wonder if it just needs a skillfully-placed lowercase letter, or a couple dots, or something — maybe some sort of subtle variation could solve both problems.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by dcow on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:36PM (#35488564)
I think it’s perfect.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by bobthepanda on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:47PM (#35488671)
Eh, this isn’t that crazy.

Like, most people probably don’t think about the fact that Uniqlo is short for “unique clothing” and yet it’s the #3 clothing retailer in the world.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by lloeki on Saturday April 08, 2023 @05:44AM (#35491896)
A good example, for which people also don't care about the pronunciation, which, being a japanese brand, is supposed to be ユニクロ (yunikuro) [jɯnikɯɾo]
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by Dalewyn on Saturday April 08, 2023 @01:14AM (#35490745)
>Also, there's the age-old pronunciation question. Is it just "Primitive"? Is it "Primi - Tee - Vee"?

PrimiTV.

As in: DirecTV.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by mholt on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:06PM (#35487618)
I would buy a good offline TV called "Primitv" in an instant
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by askvictor on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:32PM (#35487908)
That's really nice. Though there's a _slight_ chance that Amazon's lawyers might come knocking due to the similarity of Prime (TV?).
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by taftster on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:29PM (#35487875)
Oh, that's just beautiful. You're hired.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by pedalpete on Friday April 07, 2023 @08:06PM (#35488848)
PRIVATY? PRIVATV?
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by svilen_dobrev on Saturday April 08, 2023 @02:51PM (#35496377)
privyTv :)
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by j3s on Saturday April 08, 2023 @02:12AM (#35490973)
damn bro u out here just dropping names like this for free??? that's a $10k idea
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by deesep on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:17AM (#35491281)
This is an awesome name. Love it!
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by Grimburger on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:53AM (#35491463)
Absolutely topnotch, you could have a bright future in branding.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by gnarbarian on Saturday April 08, 2023 @04:22AM (#35491578)
voting for this. it's perfect
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by lagrange77 on Saturday April 08, 2023 @05:28AM (#35491824)
Thanks for the positive feedback, guys! It was kind of a spontaneous inspiration.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by pupdogg on Saturday April 08, 2023 @09:56AM (#35493138)
Hi lagrange77, I like this name too. Thank you for the suggestion. It's a bummer that primi.tv is already taken, but I'm fairly optimistic that I can find another easy-to-remember domain. Also, I'll do some digging beforehand to make sure that I'm not overstepping any existing trademarks or copyrights. If everything works out, I'd like to give you one of these displays if and when I get the prototype unit off the ground. Would that be okay?
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by lagrange77 on Saturday April 08, 2023 @02:17PM (#35496077)
Hi pupdogg, thank you very much for the generous offer!

Actually, I don't own a TV, and besides, it would be the coolest story to tell when people ask me where I got this device. So I would like to gladly take you up on the offer IF you actually end up using the name, everything worked out as you hoped and you're in serial production.

I really like the design btw, clean, uniform bezels and logo-less! That's what i always look after, for my computer displays.

I'll drop you an email. Thanks again :)

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by pupdogg on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:32PM (#35496755)
Sounds good. Thank you again! For time being, I was able to purchase and reserve primitv.co and primitv.net
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by zamnos on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:21PM (#35496662)
Good domains are hard to come by. I've poked at getting primi.tv and will report back.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by pupdogg on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:42PM (#35496861)
That would be awesome! Thank you. For time being, I was able to purchase and reserve primitv.co and primitv.net
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by zamnos on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:26PM (#35496705)
What do you think of primitive.tv? That's available via godaddy.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by GoblinSlayer on Monday April 10, 2023 @05:40AM (#35510613)
There's a precedent with antismartphone, so maybe you can reuse it for tv.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by atomize on Saturday April 08, 2023 @12:37PM (#35495011)
Neat endeavor. PrimiTV is pretty good.

I wanna play the name game.

Perhaps something along the lines of:

'NOAD' - noad.tv - I could see a regular googler search for 'no ad TV'

Or some other word for 'dumb', 'not smart'. Like dunce.tv. dolt. simpleton. dullard. etc.

Maybe a play on the TCP error ENETUNREACH? hehe.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by dllthomas on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:12PM (#35487688)
The IDIOT TV IDs the viewers with IOT technology :D
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by Koshkin on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:37PM (#35487963)
But who/what are you calling "idiot" and why? I would never think of calling that a plain HDTV set - it is still a technological marvel (and also would have all kinds of "smarts" built in anyway, just no apps or wifi).
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by Godel_unicode on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:54PM (#35488143)
Calling the version with no smarts “idiot” seems pretty clever to me.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by partdavid on Sunday April 09, 2023 @01:57PM (#35504953)
"Idiot box" is an immediately-accessible slang term for television for me, but maybe the usage is a little old.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by chriscjcj on Saturday April 08, 2023 @12:59AM (#35490676)
Yeah.... I never purchased any books in the "For Dummies" series out of self respect.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by xigency on Saturday April 08, 2023 @05:40AM (#35491874)
Beginning Programming for Dummies isn’t too bad.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by 867-5309 on Saturday April 08, 2023 @04:19AM (#35491567)
because it's a synonym of dumbo
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by elkos on Saturday April 08, 2023 @01:09AM (#35490729)
According sources in the Wikipedia article about: idiot:

The word "idiot" comes from the Greek noun ἰδιώτης idiōtēs 'a private person, individual' (as opposed to the state), 'a private citizen' (as opposed to someone with a political office), 'a common man', 'a person lacking professional skill, layman', later 'unskilled', 'ignorant', derived from the adjective ἴδιος idios 'personal' (not public, not shared). In Latin, idiota was borrowed in the meaning 'uneducated', 'ignorant', 'common', and in Late Latin came to mean 'crude, illiterate, ignorant'. In French, it kept the meaning of 'illiterate', 'ignorant', and added the meaning 'stupid' in the 13th century. In English, it added the meaning 'mentally deficient' in the 14th century.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by hk1337 on Saturday April 08, 2023 @09:43AM (#35493011)
The Id10TV
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by TylerE on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:34PM (#35487279)
What about something a bit more...positive? PureTV?
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by gpm on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:40PM (#35487354)
Or SimplyTV
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by TylerE on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:41PM (#35487359)
Yeah, that was one of my first thoughts, but I figure SimpliSafe probably owns the trademark for household electronics.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by tanelpoder on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:49PM (#35487443)
Basic.tv

Edit: as in you have to code BASIC to change the channel

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by dublin on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:59PM (#35488195)
GOTO no longer considered unsafe! (Actually, it never really was all that unsafe, anyway, the function guys just established themselves as the new programming hipsters...)
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by ryandrake on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:11PM (#35487676)
JusTV
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by ufo on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:45PM (#35488036)
Perhaps too close to justin.tv (aka Amazon®)
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by mosquitobiten on Friday April 07, 2023 @08:02PM (#35488807)
jusTiVi
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by xen2xen1 on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:45PM (#35488043)
Taken for a product that bleeps out cuss words IIRC.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by larrywright on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:48PM (#35488071)
This sounds a little too close to PureFlix, which is a streaming service for family friendly/religious content.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by philistine on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:31PM (#35487229)
Might I recommend DUMBY?
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by lovemenot on Saturday April 08, 2023 @04:28AM (#35491603)
Dumbox
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by scrollaway on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:17PM (#35487089)
It's a great name for a non-smart tv, to be honest. But Disney'll be Disney. Good luck.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by exclusiv on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:51PM (#35487463)
Suggestion: STANDARD
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by suprjami on Friday April 07, 2023 @05:55PM (#35487504)
Terrible. Imagine searching for "standard TV".
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by exclusiv on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:42PM (#35488629)
Kind of like framework laptop though. So while I agree search wouldn't be great to start, This isn't a TV for the masses if we're being honest. It will be high word of mouth and on niche tech sites.

Top 2 results: standardtvandapplicance.com and https://talent.nebula.tv/

not impossible

Also, marketing isn't only about search results. Another example: Standard Hotels

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by Andrex on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:49PM (#35488692)
OK, then abbreviate it. "STD TV"
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by ulrikrasmussen on Saturday April 08, 2023 @05:49AM (#35491917)
Wouldn't most people associate STD with Sexually Transmitted Disease?
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by modderation on Sunday April 09, 2023 @11:39PM (#35508959)
Indeed, perhaps something like Simple Television Interface (STI) or Visual Display (VD) would be better? ;)
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by ezekg on Friday April 07, 2023 @10:35PM (#35489935)
Not impossible to rank for. For example, see "stripe", or even my business, Keygen, which now ranks #1 for the term "keygen" after 7 years (and HN poked fun at me when I claimed I'd rank #1 for the term in my 2016 Show HN).

STANDARD is probably not the best choice for short-term SEO, though. :)

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by muyuu on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:12PM (#35487694)
maybe something like dumb.box ? I think the .box suffix might be very appropriate, something like brainless.box or whatever, I know it's unconventional though, perhaps .tv is better
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by hsbauauvhabzb on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:50PM (#35488096)
I live self deprecating humour but it negatively affects me at work, I imagine dumb.tv or idiot.tv may have similar problems. But maybe also you go viral because of it, who knows.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by minikomi on Friday April 07, 2023 @10:48PM (#35490005)
On that ground, how about justa.box.

Justa box, and nothing else.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by mtrower on Sunday April 09, 2023 @01:34AM (#35500285)
Rolls nicely off the tongue, too.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by avaq on Saturday April 08, 2023 @01:42AM (#35490865)
Suggestion: NoTelly
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by hexnuts on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:32PM (#35487913)
Unhooked.Tech is one suggestion. That way if you want to expand into other devices / spaces, it is already covered.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by j3s on Saturday April 08, 2023 @02:12AM (#35490971)
this is a good example of a preemptive design choice. it's almost always better to optimize for success today, not for success in the future. imo a name like "slab", or even literally "dumb tv" would be much more effective.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by spockz on Saturday April 08, 2023 @03:18AM (#35491287)
Unhooked invoked “unplugged” with me. It is a good analogy for me. They can still put it as the Slab TV product under the Unhooked brand.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by throwanem on Saturday April 08, 2023 @12:30PM (#35494915)
I don't know that I'd buy one, but I'd definitely want an answer to the question of "what the hell's an 'Unhooked Slab TV'?"
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by _emacsomancer_ on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:30PM (#35488495)
how about WiseTV?
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by kbarmettler on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:33PM (#35488524)
Ooooh, that's good.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by kortex on Friday April 07, 2023 @08:48PM (#35489164)
Might run into issues with Wyze electronics.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by simondotau on Saturday April 08, 2023 @01:30AM (#35490814)
Might I suggest monsterenergy.tv
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by xeonax on Saturday April 08, 2023 @07:02AM (#35492204)
Suggestion: SMORT TV/SMORT Appliances

a sarcastic nod to smart.

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by wyldfire on Friday April 07, 2023 @06:58PM (#35488185)
Probably best to avoid the conflict, per your advice. But if they're not really using the mark that way I doubt it's enforceable.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by bluGill on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:01PM (#35488215)
You will make lawyers rich proving that. Even if you win, odds are you don't have enough cash to make the product after that fight.
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by TurkishPoptart on Friday April 07, 2023 @07:36PM (#35488561)
That's not fair!
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by realityloop on Friday April 07, 2023 @08:03PM (#35488808)
LighTV, the tv without the crap you don’t want!
Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by neilv on Friday April 07, 2023 @10:40PM (#35489966)
Maybe consider picking another brand, sooner rather than later?

I like the name "dumbo", maybe coming from "dumb TV" and Jumbotron -- a nice, big TV/display without all the "smart TV" problems, and having fun naming something that's a bit of a cult niche -- but I also want your business to succeed.

(Disney has been putting their Dumbo on TV since at least the 1980s. I don't know whether there are other Dumbos, but I could imagine lawyer billable hours destroying your margin regardless of the theoretical defensibility. Also, separate from US govt. offices and courts, there's ICANN, and I guess you could might suddenly lose your domain name that way.)

Re:Ask Wirecutter: Can You Recommend a Not-Smart TV for Me? by squarefoot on Saturday April 08, 2023 @06:43AM (#35492124)
TAPKAST: The Appliance Previously Known As Smart TV

I contains Tap and Cast (ok, Kast...) plus giving a nod to the famous Prince name copyright case.