Amazon Echo Dot • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#161

Post by joeyramone » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:23 PM UTC

joshstrange wrote: post #8

davis_m wrote: post #3

I'm not entirely clear on the difference between the regular Echo and the Echo Dot. It appears you have to have an original Echo in order to purchase a Dot. Is this simply an extension that proxies all of the requests back to the original Echo?

It's the Echo using your own speaker (it has a tiny one still). The "ordering through your existing FireTV/Echo" is just a stupid marketing ploy. As far as we know right not it does not talk to other Echo's on your network (no proxying/grid/mesh/etc).

You can order it here without an Echo: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00VKTZFB4/ref=dp_olp...

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#162

Post by jedberg » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:24 PM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #154

I don't own one of these devices, yet I'm curious, can you "modify the device's name"? I mean, what if someone in the household has the name Alexa. No, not you Alexa, the other Alexa. Alexa do your homework. Alexa take out the garbage.

Yes, by default you can call it Amazon instead. I have this problem because I have a cousin named Alexis and my Echo gets confused when she comes over. But I still keep it at Alexa.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#163

Post by jedberg » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:28 PM UTC

rdudek wrote: post #151

What's stopping people from accidentally ordering things with this thing? Could I go into somebody's house that has one of these devices setup and say "Alexa, order some breast clamps" ?

Yes. Yes you can. Hilarity ensues.

The "security" is the you have to trust the people you invite into your house.

It's not great security. :)

(ok, that's not entirely true. as far as I can tell, you can only reorder things they've already bought via the website)

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#164

Post by GaetanJUVIN » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:29 PM UTC

Actually, I think this is very useful for two things: - Set timer for cooking - Listen music

I’m sceptical about getting other skills. "Alexa ask MyApp to do something”… it’s very long and annoying

But I strongly believe they will improve that.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#165

Post by lukeschlather » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:29 PM UTC

pc86 wrote: post #135

fluxquanta wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While indeed creepy, I ordered the original Echo as soon as it was made available, but I'm probably a special case. I live by myself and barely even speak out loud at home. If Amazon can somehow monetize my primary use of Echo as a glorified kitchen timer I will be impressed.

$180 for a kitchen timer seems a bit steep.

I would pay $180 for a voice-controlled kitchen timer which did not need an Internet connection to function and had verifiably secure command log deletion.

I'm less than enthusiastic about a $180 kitchen timer that uploads everything I say to the cloud for analysis, even if I understand that the analysis is to some degree necessary to improve the voice recognition.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#166

Post by Jordrok » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

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!)

Ok, that is pretty damn cool. I've played Dark Souls so I can appreciate how difficult that must have been. Very impressive.

Devil's advocate though: this seems more like a case of the guy being good enough at the game to win in spite of the voice controls rather than because of them. Compared to a regular controller/keyboard+mouse/whatever there's just no contest in terms of input speed and precision. Not all genres are a good fit for this either. I'd be really interested to see if anyone could make it work with, say, a competitive FPS game.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#167

Post by ausjke » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

rpgmaker wrote: post #128

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.

My dream is to have some kind of android TV box that performs this.

For voice activated solutions the hard part is the front end, i.e. voice recognition, which is what Alexa is strong at. Once this is covered, it's relatively easy to cover the rest. Really the core competency of Alexa is its excellent voice recognition performance, which is still hard to find elsewhere these days.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#168

Post by mc32 » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:31 PM UTC

jedberg wrote: post #162

mc32 wrote: post #154

I don't own one of these devices, yet I'm curious, can you "modify the device's name"? I mean, what if someone in the household has the name Alexa. No, not you Alexa, the other Alexa. Alexa do your homework. Alexa take out the garbage.

Yes, by default you can call it Amazon instead. I have this problem because I have a cousin named Alexis and my Echo gets confused when she comes over. But I still keep it at Alexa.

Good to know, thanks.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#169

Post by Someone1234 » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:33 PM UTC

tnorthcutt wrote: post #137

Echo Dot ($89.99) is available exclusively for Prime Members through Alexa Voice Shopping. To order your Echo Dot, use your Echo or Fire TV and just ask: “Alexa, order Echo Dot.”

I noticed that, so I assume they're targeting this as an accessory for existing Echo owners (additional rooms, etc).

But here's what confuses me: The Dot SEEMS like it would work extremely well without owning an Echo, the two don't seem to integrate together, the Dot just uses an external speaker instead of an internal one.

So maybe this is just a promo available to Echo owners and everyone will be able to buy it later for a higher price? But the page could be clearer about what their intentions are and how they justify the Echo-only buying option.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#170

Post by Slippery_John » Thu, Mar 03, 2016, 4:34 PM UTC

rdl wrote: post #37

davis_m wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, I didn't notice that it hooks up to existing speakers. I'm curious how many people will use that however. My anecdotal experience is that most of the people that actually own an Echo are fairly tech illiterate and benefit from it being an self contained package, but that may change if the Echo API is extended.

I was just thinking "I want echo with a speaker port" 3 days ago. The thing I really really want from them is echo in the car.

You could put a Dot in your car. It's USB powered and you can plug it into your stereo with an AUX cable or some such. You would just need to tether your phone's wifi or have some other in-car wifi solution.