341–350 of 410 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
FTA: Includes a built-in speaker so it can work on its own
Built in speaker is for alarms, not media, I think.
> Built-in speaker for voice feedback when not connected to external speakers > Includes a built-in speaker so it can work on its own as a smart alarm clock in the bedroom, an assistant in the kitchen, or anywhere you might want a voice-controlled computer
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.
A text field in contrast doesn't need any intelligence, nor do buttons. This is in particular important for instance for people living in non english speaking countries but using english in specific contexts (work, gaming, minor hobbies etc.). Switching language in audio applications are generally a PITA. Then even when you do the switch between languages every time, the engines are still have huge performance gaps between the languages.
Sofware has become way extremely tolerant for multiple languages IMO. Voice recognition interfaces are not so mature yet in my experience.
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 am sure you would not have a problem using these kinds of systems if it were assured that you could not be tracked or monitored because the devices and systems were secured in overlapping ways.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but GUIs have two or three dimensions available (up/down, left/right, time) whereas voice just has the one (time). We humans can also full-duplex GUIs much more easily than voice-based interface. And GUIs at least can be hooked up to full-powered grammar-based interfaces whereas voice, somewhat ironically considering the nature of human communication, has more trouble with it. (I'd suggest this is actually a com…
And copy and paste. People seem to always forget the power of it. It's the GUI equivalent of "Search for that on Google" or "Now, SSH to this IP I found digging through AWS." Copy and pasting of text from application to application is the clunky Unix Pipe. It's universal and deeply important. Taking sections of the last response, or hell, even having every response essentially be wrapped up in some sort of object you…
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've found that the voice recognition on Android phones works well enough to be useful in a wide variety of circumstances. Navigating, getting directions, setting alarms, taking notes, sending text messages, sending emails, searching for things, and many more. When I was still using my Moto X I did the majority of every-day tasks with voice recognition. The iPhone is catching up fast too...my wife's taken to sending…
Real easy to say: "Okay Google... navigate to California Academy of Sciences."
What's missing for me is spotify/app specific integration.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found that the voice recognition on Android phones works well enough to be useful in a wide variety of circumstances. Navigating, getting directions, setting alarms, taking notes, sending text messages, sending emails, searching for things, and many more. When I was still using my Moto X I did the majority of every-day tasks with voice recognition. The iPhone is catching up fast too...my wife's taken to sending…
The use of Google Now from my bluetooth'd helmet has really improved my motorcycling experience. Real easy to say: "Okay Google... navigate to California Academy of Sciences." What's missing for me is spotify/app specific integration.
For that to really happen in a robust way, I think Google needs to open up Custom Voice Actions.
[0] https://developers.google.com/voice-actions/custom-actions
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And copy and paste. People seem to always forget the power of it. It's the GUI equivalent of "Search for that on Google" or "Now, SSH to this IP I found digging through AWS." Copy and pasting of text from application to application is the clunky Unix Pipe. It's universal and deeply important. Taking sections of the last response, or hell, even having every response essentially be wrapped up in some sort of object you…
I've often postulated that copy and paste is perhaps the biggest productivity enhancement in the history of computing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've found that the voice recognition on Android phones works well enough to be useful in a wide variety of circumstances. Navigating, getting directions, setting alarms, taking notes, sending text messages, sending emails, searching for things, and many more. When I was still using my Moto X I did the majority of every-day tasks with voice recognition. The iPhone is catching up fast too...my wife's taken to sending…
The use of Google Now from my bluetooth'd helmet has really improved my motorcycling experience. Real easy to say: "Okay Google... navigate to California Academy of Sciences." What's missing for me is spotify/app specific integration.
Okay Google... Play music will start Music app Okay Google... Start Radio will start NPR app
Earlier quoted context omitted.
$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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Being overheard isn't the only privacy concern. Most of these solutions offload the speech recognition and language parsing functions to corporate servers. I like texting with Siri but I'm not exactly keen on having Apple record everything. It also seems limiting in that I can't use voice commands without a network. It would be nice for voice recognition platforms to start being built in. I know there's training data…
I think the processing requirements for handling on-device Siri would destroy battery life.