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Amazon Echo Dot

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Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#91

Post by ethbro »

visakanv wrote: post #86
caractacus wrote: post #63

When did I turn from the enthusiastic kid who dreamed of audio-controlled personal assistants like this to a cranky old man who doesn't want anything remotely spy-possible in his house?

This is probably a function of the amount of bad news you've read over the years about people getting exploited, taken advantage of, spied on, etc. When you're a kid it doesn't even really seem like a thing.

When you're a kid, you generally assume people around you are all wonderful.

... Then you gain life experience.

/75% jokingly

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#92

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

jallmann wrote: post #74
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 transition from primarily visual UX towards an auditorial UX is really powerful. It's also less accessible. I'm sure auditory UI is useful in many cases, but it also seems to be more cumbersome in others. In any case, I hope that pervasive auditory UI doesn't become any sort of standard without an accompanying visual/physical interface. > Try watching a scary movie with the sound turned off, it turns into a com…

> Allow me to be pedantic and say it is that being fully immersed in the context of the movie that really matters.

I hope to not be a super pedantic ass for pointing out that the 'immersive' media in films is the audio, not the visual components.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#93

Post by sschueller »

caractacus wrote: post #63

When did I turn from the enthusiastic kid who dreamed of audio-controlled personal assistants like this to a cranky old man who doesn't want anything remotely spy-possible in his house?

Couldn't legally the FBI get a court oder to be able to listen in on conversions in a room that has one of these? They already do that with car assistance services. [1]

[1] http://www.cnet.com/news/court-to-fbi-no-spying-on-in-car-co...

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#94

Post by Nullabillity »

Rezo wrote: post #61

"If you have more than one Echo or Echo Dot, you can set a different wake word for each". This is something I've been thinking is becoming more problematic as well as an opportunity for real ubiquity. I have 3 separate devices nearby that are Google Now voice activated (the newer devices support this even if the screen is off), and they will sometimes trigger at the same time accidentally. Since the processing is clo…

It's also a bit annoying that the Android Wear version of Now doesn't work the same as the regular Android version. For example, the full-sized one seems much more flexible with wording, and supports listening in several languages at once, while Wear is limited to one language.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#95

Post by tbrock »

ghaff wrote: post #50
monkmartinez wrote: post #31

Still too expensive, imo. I've read a lot about "Alexa" and Echo... and beside the privacy issues, in many cases the Echo quickly becomes an expensive speaker (after the kids and everyone else gets tired of asking "Alexa" questions). $89 is not in my compulsion buy price range. I may be in the minority on that though...

I sorta agree. I got the original Echo for $100 when they had a special deal for Prime members. The timer is handy. The shopping list is handy. It's occasionally vaguely useful to ask it questions about the weather or other things--though it's not like my phone is that far away. I do use it for Amazon Music when I can't be bothered finding something to play on my stereo. Potentially, the ability to interface with hom…

It's painful to have it read back answers. The weather, for example, takes one quick glance on my phone but forever for Alexa to read.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#96

Post by rrrx3 »

NDizzle wrote: post #52
ghaff wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!)

The "play some good 60s rock" example isn't a VUI breakdown, it's a functionality gap in the backend. One that will probably be fixed pretty quickly, given the way things are headed.

A VUI breakdown would be inability to understand accents, or non-responsiveness to commands. As a user input, Alexa is pretty well buttoned up.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#97

Post by PKop »

ghaff wrote: post #50
monkmartinez wrote: post #31

Still too expensive, imo. I've read a lot about "Alexa" and Echo... and beside the privacy issues, in many cases the Echo quickly becomes an expensive speaker (after the kids and everyone else gets tired of asking "Alexa" questions). $89 is not in my compulsion buy price range. I may be in the minority on that though...

I sorta agree. I got the original Echo for $100 when they had a special deal for Prime members. The timer is handy. The shopping list is handy. It's occasionally vaguely useful to ask it questions about the weather or other things--though it's not like my phone is that far away. I do use it for Amazon Music when I can't be bothered finding something to play on my stereo. Potentially, the ability to interface with hom…

The single greatest feature of Echo that I use, (and too few others use) is turning on my Phillips Hue lights. You can give each individual light a name, as well as groups of lights their own name. Very convenient to turn on / off lights from anywhere in range of the mic.

I use it everyday multiple times a day. If anyone finds network connected lights useful, then they'll find controlling them through Echo doubly useful as it obviates the need to pick up your smartphone.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#98

Post by arien »

fluxquanta wrote: post #80
caractacus wrote: post #63

When did I turn from the enthusiastic kid who dreamed of audio-controlled personal assistants like this to a cranky old man who doesn't want anything remotely spy-possible in his house?

I think when we were kids we didn't think that the personal assistant would have to communicate with the outside world via the internet in order to perform its function. If all of "Alexa" was included in a disconnected local database I bet it would still be as appealing. Rosie on the Jetsons didn't have to "phone home".

Almost. More specifically, we didn't think that the personal assistant would have to communicate with a corporation that wants our info to make (more) money. The government option doesn't sound any better, either.

I think they are rather creepy, because it's so obvious there is (or, could be) a hidden agenda.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#99

Post by masonhipp »

roymurdock wrote: post #87
masonhipp wrote: post #75

This is a better product than the original. They added one of the most requested features (audio out) and didn't remove anything important (unless you don't have a better plug-in speaker system). The biggest oversight is now the fact that it can't work together with an existing Echo: Amazon is making us order these _using_ an Echo... but the two devices don't communicate at all and require individual wake words. I wa…

Connecting them will be as simple as a future software update. Amazon's challenge right now is to get the hardware in place before its competitors (Nest, Apple) - and it seems to be pressing hard to get a wide range of devices in every room of the house.

I agree with you on this, but generally they'd have an easier job of it if they worked as a connected mesh rather than independent controllers. I can't say for certain but it doesn't seem like the added engineering time would be that much greater.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#100

Post by Nullabillity »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #54
ghaff wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure, but the difference is that it's (almost) always obvious what actions are possible in a GUI. With voice interfaces you're back to trial-and-error.
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