221
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 17 points 5 days ago

It's for searching (so you don't have to type words on a virtual key pad with a remote with no alpha-numeric key pad).

It would actually be OK, if they all had a hardware switch that cut power to the mic, but I doubt that how they work.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Having the mic on the remote always on and streaming back to the host would drain the battery in about a day.

[-] saltesc@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Less. They're usually just a couple AAAs, so like 1800 mAh.

[-] SirLeToet@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

It's scary how much data you can transmit with those batteries on optimized hardware.

I have IoT things eating more data than a cheap voice call that last months.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

I recall it being about a day when I worked on those exact devices. For comparison, my tiny Bluetooth earpiece can run for about six hours.

[-] zarathustrad@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

I don't know how they work but I would assume that the mic is not always streaming, as you say it can't be due to battery.

I do not feel comfortable to assume that there is ZERO possibility that the mic can be made to stream without the physical button pressed ...

... unless I did the work to understand how it's wired and controlled, something I don't care to do. So I'll just assume they are unsafe spy devices until proven otherwise.

[-] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Fair enough. I certainly don't have the schematics for any of those devices made in the 2020s.

[-] LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Pretty sure the Roku remote went to that. Physical button to turn on off it listening for hey Roku commands, but the physical button could instigate it to listen as well. Haven't ever cared to look into them though, so it could be a lie

this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2026
221 points (97.0% liked)

Privacy

5160 readers
225 users here now

Icon base by Lorc under CC BY 3.0 with modifications to add a gradient

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS