I furious at predatory commercials targeting kids, elders and people who are not into tech.

[WaitWhaaaaat]

So long story short my mother(70 yo) called me thay her new phone needs more memory and it is slow. Well samsung a13 is not te best phone in the world but have 64gb of internal memory and she have it for just few months. And when I check the phone everything looks good. There was enough memory and phone was working fine untill she show me youtube and web browser. Multiple adds yelling at her that she have a virus, that she need more memory just click here! I was furious since most of those commercials where provided by google!

Of course first thing was instaling youtube vanced and firefox with ublock. Than painting DNS at pihole. I'm aware that internet content is not free, but predatory commercials are crossing the line.

What are your toughts on that? Is in your country marketing in youtube and other large media provider so predatory?

[Poinkachu]

12 minutes ago, WaitWhaaaaat said:

So long story short my mother(70 yo) called me thay her new phone needs more memory and it is slow. Well samsung a13 is not te best phone in the world but have 64gb of internal memory and she have it for just few months. And when I check the phone everything looks good. There was enough memory and phone was working fine untill she show me youtube and web browser. Multiple adds yelling at her that she have a virus, that she need more memory just click here! I was furious since most of those commercials where provided by google!

Of course first thing was instaling youtube vanced and firefox with ublock. Than painting DNS at pihole. I'm aware that internet content is not free, but predatory commercials are crossing the line.

What are your toughts on that? Is in your country marketing in youtube and other large media provider so predatory?

My country ?
There's ads like that for almost anything.

If you call that predatory, idk what to call the one in my country. It's quite more... brutal.

I simply taught my Mom to not click / tap on anything but play and stop icon on youtube videos & websites, and to contact me before buying something so I can vet it and buy it for her.

Most of the time I managed to find one with way cheaper price for whatever she saw and wanted to buy. And some of them got thrown into the trash bin after one use due to it not passing my safety standard (which is not that high)  I'd rather DIY it to be safer if it allows me to than throwing it away, but yeah, sometimes it's just not exactly possible, at least not without spending more money than buying a real decent one.

 

My thoughts ? it sucks, like... very very.

[Bismut]

8 minutes ago, WaitWhaaaaat said:

What are your toughts on that? Is in your country marketing in youtube and other large media provider so predatory?

That's just what a company that's in the business of selling targeted ads does, people that want to pray on technology-illiterate people are able to serve those ads to them. Best thing is to try to educate your mum/elders in general on it.
 

 

1 minute ago, Poinkachu said:

I simply taught my Mom to not click / tap on anything but play and stop icon on youtube videos & websites, and to contact me before buying something so I can vet it and buy it for her.

Most of the time I managed to find a way cheaper price for whatever she saw and wanted to buy.

That's another option, although very involved for yourself.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just a note on pihole, be careful with using it for non-tech people. It will frequently block the sponsored links in search results, breaks a lot of things like Google shopping and can prevent sites from working. I had it running briefly while I lived with my parents and ended up getting rid of it because of how diffucult my mum found using basic things with it running (and she's pretty good with tech). Unexpected things like downloading an update for the infotainment system in her car didn't work because it was blocking required URLs.

[Poinkachu]

4 minutes ago, Bismut said:

That's just what a company that's in the business of selling targeted ads does, people that want to pray on technology-illiterate people are able to serve those ads to them. Best thing is to try to educate your mum/elders in general on it.
 

 

That's another option, although very involved for yourself.

Yea, she's old, even changing phones with slightly different UI layout & system will mean me re-teaching her for months to use it.

Internet is not that good either here, and most often not unlimited, so I'm still tryin to avoid using something that slows down speed or eat data.

 

Example : Been like at least 10 years since she used smartphone, up to this day she still somehow (like I really don't know how) accidentally turns down the brightness of her phone to near total darkness, and she still don't know how to turn it back up (eventhough I taught her a lot of times already)

[Bismut]

1 minute ago, Poinkachu said:

Yea, she's old, even changing phones with different UI layout will mean me re-teaching her for months to use it.

Welp, I guess that's why people buy iPhones for old people then.

[Poinkachu]

2 minutes ago, Bismut said:

Welp, I guess that's why people buy iPhones for old people then.

Hahah, ya.

Her first phone was an android from my brother though, so.... yeah

First was Blackberry's Android, taught her for like nearly a year.
Changed to samsung, had to retaught for like about 6 months

 

She still don't know how to scan QR code to pay for stuffs.
This one though, I prefer that she stays this way. Less chance for her to get conned or something.

[WaitWhaaaaat]

3 minutes ago, Bismut said:

Welp, I guess that's why people buy iPhones for old people then.

Will this solve the problem? Is there somehow less commercials when browsing internet from iPhone?

[Poinkachu]

1 minute ago, WaitWhaaaaat said:

Will this solve the problem? Is there somehow less commercials when browsing internet from iPhone?

He meant pretty much same UI.

[Bismut]

Just now, WaitWhaaaaat said:

Will this solve the problem? Is there somehow less commercials when browsing internet from iPhone?

No, it's just an interface that's better suited for people that don't know technology, as a new phone will behave very similarly to the old one.
It's also a walled garden, so you need a Mac to properly use the iPhone.

[WaitWhaaaaat]

7 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Just a note on pihole, be careful with using it for non-tech people. It will frequently block the sponsored links in search results, breaks a lot of things like Google shopping and can prevent sites from working. I had it running briefly while I lived with my parents and ended up getting rid of it because of how diffucult my mum found using basic things with it running (and she's pretty good with tech). Unexpected things like downloading an update for the infotainment system in her car didn't work because it was blocking required URLs.

Yes I'm aware of that, but to be honest I don't mind that. In most cases google sponsor links are shitty at best, and I can find much better deals myself. And if there will be any major problems  I will just whitelist problematic parts.

[Poinkachu]

In my experience (for me and my Mom I mean.), I learned that it's much easier (for her, and if she has an easier time, I will too) if I act as like the gatekeeper than relying on more tech.

 

More troublesome for me yeah, but eh... pretty sure raising me was troublesome as well.

 

If you can solve your situation, pseudo-auto with tech though, good. Not really an option for me atm.

As much as I want google to stop shoving pred ads, not much I can do.
Even if a country like US or UK make a law where it's illegal to do so, my country might not adopt the same stance.

 

[NF-A12x25]

15 minutes ago, Bismut said:

It's also a walled garden, so you need a Mac to properly use the iPhone.

that’s just not true??? Macs are good with continuity features but this just just patently false, you don’t need a mac

[Godlygamer23]

37 minutes ago, WaitWhaaaaat said:

So long story short my mother(70 yo) called me thay her new phone needs more memory and it is slow. Well samsung a13 is not te best phone in the world but have 64gb of internal memory and she have it for just few months. And when I check the phone everything looks good. There was enough memory and phone was working fine untill she show me youtube and web browser. Multiple adds yelling at her that she have a virus, that she need more memory just click here! I was furious since most of those commercials where provided by google!

Of course first thing was instaling youtube vanced and firefox with ublock. Than painting DNS at pihole. I'm aware that internet content is not free, but predatory commercials are crossing the line.

What are your toughts on that? Is in your country marketing in youtube and other large media provider so predatory?

The big problem is that ads false claiming malware is present is the big issue, because it's an outright scam. I remember when I had my HTC One M8, those ads were a regular thing, and it absolutely pissed me off. Not so much now with my iPhone XR, but the fact that it occurs at all, even when going to legitimate sites, is absolutely awful. 

[Godlygamer23]

18 minutes ago, Bismut said:

It's also a walled garden, so you need a Mac to properly use the iPhone.

I have an iPhone and a Windows PC, and I can use my iPhone just fine. I even have an application called iMazing that allows me to view the contents present within my backups. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by Godlygamer23

[Bismut]

2 minutes ago, NF-A12x25 said:

you don’t need a mac

Why was I unable to copy files to and from my iPhone, iPod and iPad then? I've never had an Android (or Windows) phone pull that kinda thing, ever.

[Heats with Nvidia]

25 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Just a note on pihole, be careful with using it for non-tech people. It will frequently block the sponsored links in search results, breaks a lot of things like Google shopping and can prevent sites from working. I had it running briefly while I lived with my parents and ended up getting rid of it because of how diffucult my mum found using basic things with it running (and she's pretty good with tech). Unexpected things like downloading an update for the infotainment system in her car didn't work because it was blocking required URLs.

I use a PiHole with my mother and she is lets say, not tech illiterate but also not tech-y and we didn have any problems so far.

But we never used things like Google Shopping anyway. We also don`t have a car with an infotainment system, so maybe we ust don`t have all these problem cases.

[Bismut]

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I have an iPhone and a Windows PC, and I can use my iPhone just fine. I even have an application called iMazing that allows me to view the contents present within my backups.

I even had trouble with my iMac, if I remember correctly. I use Linux and can only copy specific types of files onto my iPads VLC, having to install an app just to be able to copy some files is insane though. Android lets me copy files whereever I may please, and I can just put them on a micro SD if it doesn't work for some reason (like the phone being dead).

[Godlygamer23]

Just now, Bismut said:

I even had trouble with my iMac, if I remember correctly. I use Linux and can only copy specific types of files onto my iPads VLC, having to install an app just to be able to copy some files is insane though. Android lets me copy files whereever I may please, and I can just put them on a micro SD if it doesn't work for some reason (like the phone being dead).

That part can be annoying, but I use an SD card adapter with my iPhone, and I can copy just about any file I want to with the Files app, including copying to/from my FreeNAS server. Maybe it's just our specific use cases, but I've never really had a problem with transferring files on my iPhone. If you still use an iPhone, or know someone who does, iMazing is a really nice app that for me was an absolute game changer. 

[Bismut]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

with the Files app

My iPad is pretty old, it doesn't have that.

 

1 minute ago, Godlygamer23 said:

I use an SD card adapter with my iPhone

I don't see why I would spend another 10€ for that and copy files to the SD, if the other team just lets me plug and play the phone itself.
 

2 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Maybe it's just our specific use cases

It probably is, I tend to be in the minority group when it comes to tech.

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, Bismut said:

My iPad is pretty old, it doesn't have that.

What iPad are you using? 

[Bismut]

Just now, Godlygamer23 said:

What iPad are you using? 

iPad Mini, the OG one. Got it for free and pretty much only use it for iMessage nowadays.
The iPhone was an OG SE using IOS 15.

[Godlygamer23]

4 minutes ago, Bismut said:

iPad Mini, the OG one. Got it for free and pretty much only use it for iMessage nowadays.
The iPhone was an OG SE using IOS 15.

That would explain it, although I think you can get it on your iPhone, if you still have it

 

Apple though has changed a lot. I switched to an iPhone 7 back in 2017 because iOS was a lot different from when I last had an iPhone - the last one I had was a 4S, so things were definitely a lot different, and I haven't looked back. No desire to use Android. While it could still be a "walled garden", they've opened up a lot of things that Past Apple wouldn't have done at all. 

[Bismut]

29 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

if you still have it

No, it's broken :( But I have considered fixing it/buying one again, I really like the form factor, as well as the 3.5mm headphone jack.

 

31 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Apple though has changed a lot.

But using their phones as a glorified USB still isn't an option, right?

[Godlygamer23]

1 minute ago, Bismut said:

But using their phones as a glorified USB still isn't an option, right?

The only thing I can use it for are photos, and I can't create any folders or add any files to it through Explorer. I can only pull photos from it.