281–290 of 410 posts
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A workaround would be to mute the device itself, and then use the remote (which has its own mic, and works well in noisy environments since you just hold it closer to your mouth).
but then I just have to carry a remote while I'm having a party.
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If by "locked down" you mean able to develop and deploy your own software onto[1], then sure. Given what's going on with the FBI, I'm starting to see the absurd security of the platform as more a positive than a negative. [1]: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2933052/apple-frees-casual-io...
> If by "locked down" you mean able to develop and deploy your own software onto[1], then sure. That doesn't allow publishing anywhere, which is still behind a paywall and still tightly controlled. It also still requires you to use a Mac, from what I can tell. > Given what's going on with the FBI, I'm starting to see the absurd security of the platform as more a positive than a negative. Oh yes, the wonderful mixup b…
Which isn't the point the point is you can run what you want on your own device now regardless of whether Apple likes it or not.
The tight control is a feature, not a bug. I'd rather put up with this slight nuisance than have the adware, malware infested dump that is the Play Store. Random hackers and advertisers are a much more clear and present threat than anything Apple can do to me.
I've had less and less reasons to jailbreak over the past few releases, and with good reason, a jailbreak both lessens your security and functions as an exploit all on its own.
I'm wondering why it took the product being from Amazon for geeks to finally be ok with a device that silently listens to everything you say in your home and sends that data to Amazon's servers.
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 could also be doing this wrong as I literally unboxed my fire tv just for this. I'm using the companion iOS app to access the microphone, but selected the phrase on the Fire TV.
The voice rec also sucked. I had to say the damn sentence like 9 times in an unnatural way. I hope that's not indicative of this experience I'm wanting to order...
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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...
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…
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Sounds like the Enterprise computer: Geordi: Computer, subdued lighting. (computer turns the lights off) Geordi No, that's... that's too much. I don't want it dark. I want it cozy. Computer: Please state your request in precise candlepower. (The scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPZnR3Ue1n4 )
There will certainly be some aspects of the computer training the human, too. Just using this as an example, I don't know how much candlepower I want, but computers don't get bored or annoyed by my requests. I could start with 1 candlepower and move up to 10 if it's not bright enough. 100 might be too bright, so now I know what range I'm looking at. Next time I could just say "computer, 12 candlepower lighting, pleas…
Which would you rather do? Be forced to state your lighting preferences in candlepower, or have the computer learn that when you say "subdued lighting", you mean "12"?
Wow, what a coincidence. I just did a setup like this with Amazon Echo and Sonos, by "hacking" the Amazon Echo to do audio-out. I wrote up a little post on it here: https://medium.com/@MathiasHansen/hacking-an-amazon-echo-and... Obviously, actually having bluetooth speakers with the Echo Dot is a much better solution, but after using the Sonos setup for 3-4 weeks I must say that it works surprisingly well, and despit…
My soundbar would work well, but Alexa would get muzzled every time I turned on the TV to watch something. On the other hand, my portable bluetooth speaker will run out of battery if left on its charger.
The AUX connection is almost a better option, but then am I supposed to leave my amp turned on all the time? There's also the same problem where Alexa loses her voice when I switch the amp over to the Bluray player.