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Amazon Echo Dot

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Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#51

Post by mikejmoffitt »

ghaff wrote: post #29
startupfounder wrote: post #14

The transition from primarily visual UX towards an auditorial UX is really powerful. Looking at screens to get key information distracts me from my surroundings and seems archaic. My wife is a sound designer who has opened my eyes to the importance of sounds both in film and in the world. It's not that I was unaware of sounds, but I didn't realize how important they are to centering me in this world and the made up w…

The problem is that voice interfaces break down pretty quickly once you try to do anything complicated. The Echo has pretty solid voice recognition--far better than anything else I've ever used--but it's still hard to get it to do anything useful once you get beyond a pretty narrow script. (e.g. what's the weather forecast, play this artist, etc.)

Never mind that in order to use a voice service, it requires you to speak at a rate slower than many can type, all while demanding that the people in the room hush up so it won't get confused. Repeat if there was a mistake.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#52

Post by NDizzle »

ghaff wrote: post #29
startupfounder wrote: post #14

The transition from primarily visual UX towards an auditorial UX is really powerful. Looking at screens to get key information distracts me from my surroundings and seems archaic. My wife is a sound designer who has opened my eyes to the importance of sounds both in film and in the world. It's not that I was unaware of sounds, but I didn't realize how important they are to centering me in this world and the made up w…

The problem is that voice interfaces break down pretty quickly once you try to do anything complicated. The Echo has pretty solid voice recognition--far better than anything else I've ever used--but it's still hard to get it to do anything useful once you get beyond a pretty narrow script. (e.g. what's the weather forecast, play this artist, etc.)

I'm not so sure about that. Check this out. One of the toughest fights in one of the toughest games performed with only voice commands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m2a2dLdZ0M

Now, granted, this is a specific use case, but, you know... "explore the space" and all that. (more cowbell!)

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#53

Post by sp332 »

erikdared wrote: post #23
dabeeeenster wrote: post #7

Why don't Amazon have an Alexa iOS/Android app?

Does this not work standalone? https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.amazon.dee...

No, when you launch the app you have to put in your Alexa ID. You need at least an Amazon Fire TV to get the ID.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#54

Post by hoorayimhelping »

ghaff wrote: post #29
startupfounder wrote: post #14

The transition from primarily visual UX towards an auditorial UX is really powerful. Looking at screens to get key information distracts me from my surroundings and seems archaic. My wife is a sound designer who has opened my eyes to the importance of sounds both in film and in the world. It's not that I was unaware of sounds, but I didn't realize how important they are to centering me in this world and the made up w…

The problem is that voice interfaces break down pretty quickly once you try to do anything complicated. The Echo has pretty solid voice recognition--far better than anything else I've ever used--but it's still hard to get it to do anything useful once you get beyond a pretty narrow script. (e.g. what's the weather forecast, play this artist, etc.)

>The problem is that voice interfaces break down pretty quickly once you try to do anything complicated

I've done a fair bit of interface engineering for the web. Between that and using so much software over the course of my life, I'd say that this applies to GUIs just as much as voice interfaces.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#55

Post by ausjke »

ausjke wrote: post #49

My FireTV is also upgraded to Alexa silently recently and it's fun to play with. Is it possible for me to upload my own content, say an audio book, some music I own etc so I can use Alexa as a voice command to fetch my own data too? be it on the cloud or my local NAS/DLNA box.

The short answer is "NO": https://forums.developer.amazon.com/forums/thread.jspa?threa...

Before it supports those features Alexa is more of a toy, I played with it for a few minutes then never used it again.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#56

Post by reitoei »

leecarraher wrote: post #46
matthewbauer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it needs a base Amazon echo to work if I understand correctly.

man that would suck. the computing internals of the echo are less impressive than a raspberry pi -0. The dot has bluetooth and apparently wifi to communicate with speakers and network devices. The real benefit of the echo over other homemade voice command devices like jasper(github.com/jasperproject) is the more proprietary far-field speaker array.

> The real benefit of the echo over other homemade voice command devices like jasper(github.com/jasperproject) is the more proprietary far-field speaker array.

Um, and the insane underlying voice API?

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#59

Post by mikeash »

danesparza wrote: post #6

There is something delightfully ballsy about making this only available to users of Alexa Voice shopping: "Echo Dot is available in limited quantities and exclusively for Prime members through Alexa Voice Shopping. To order your Echo Dot, use your Amazon Echo or Amazon Fire TV and just ask: "Alexa, order an Echo dot" Also, this makes me sad. I'd kind of like to try this out, but I have no Alexa voice service currentl…

I don't imagine it will be like that forever. It's just a clever way to limit demand until they can ramp up manufacturing, or work out the bugs, or whatever their motivation is for keeping it in a limited release for now.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#60

Post by ghaff »

avenueb wrote: post #40
Gratsby wrote: post #18

Man... I had my audrey doing this in the '90s. I can't believe I missed the boat and somebody else is making a bajillion dollars. It's time to search through the archives of all the cool stuff we did 20 years ago and put it in a shiny new wrapper.

x-10 FTW!

I still have a couple of X10 lights controlled wirelessly in my house. When I moved in, many of the lights in the house weren't wired to switches but just had pull chains. Over time, most of the house has been rewired and switches added but I still have a couple of lights that haven't been connected to switches and I still use X10 for them.
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