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> You can use Alexa to turn off the lights, ask it how much gas is left in your car, or order a pizza. I'm getting a bit tired of these examples. Is there a comprehensive list of things Alexa can do?
> You can use Alexa to turn off the lights, ask it how much gas is left in your car, or order a pizza. I'm getting a bit tired of these examples. Is there a comprehensive list of things Alexa can do?
> You can use Alexa to turn off the lights, ask it how much gas is left in your car, or order a pizza. I'm getting a bit tired of these examples. Is there a comprehensive list of things Alexa can do?
> You can use Alexa to turn off the lights, ask it how much gas is left in your car, or order a pizza. I'm getting a bit tired of these examples. Is there a comprehensive list of things Alexa can do?
Do you have also some personal experince comparing with Now , Siri or Cortana? What went really bad or amazed in terms of speech recognition and speech comprehension?
[0] http://www.cio.com/article/2953989/software-productivity/10-...
> You can use Alexa to turn off the lights, ask it how much gas is left in your car, or order a pizza. I'm getting a bit tired of these examples. Is there a comprehensive list of things Alexa can do?
That's all in addition to the basic things it can do out of the box, like set timers and reminders, manage a todo list, play music and books (from an admittedly limited set of sources), tell (mostly bad) jokes, sync with your google calendar and respond to questions about upcoming events, tell you the weather forecast, read off headlines, and a bunch more.
To a greater or lesser extent, it's like a living room installation of Siri.
[1] https://ifttt.com/amazon_alexa [2] http://alexa.amazon.com/#skills (might require you to already have an Echo)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, that's kind of my take as well. But I put that in the lazy reporting category. Seems like it would be worth the paragraph explaining the misconception and helping people realize why the seemingly weird stuff Amazon kinda does makes sense.
Don't feel bad -- we at Bloomberg always get classed a "media" company when the media properties came about a decade after the software (& hardware). It's just easier to say because it fits better into public expectation. To most people Amazon is e-commerce because nearly everyone buys things from them online or via mobile apps.
> online or via mobile apps
As far as I'm concerned 'mobile apps' operate 'online' and it isn't clear the distinction you are making. Is it common to refer to 'online' as via a web interface (ports 80/443)?
"An e-commerce company wouldn’t seem like an obvious leader in [augmented reality]." Amazing that even today articles are still calling Amazon an e-commerce company. I wonder if this is an image Amazon actively cultivates or if it's just consistently lazy reporting?
It's possible the author of the article knows that Amazon is now a tech company as well, but is assuming that their audience does not yet realize this. My impression is that people who don't work in tech don't know this; I have explained many times to people outside of our world how Amazon is one of the most important tech companies in the world, and that discussion always starts with a puzzled look from them.
I really want an Echo, I just can't justify the cost. And the cheaper options don't have the listening mode which nerfs the whole appeal.
I got early access to pre-order (can't remember why) at $99 and almost didn't do it. I'm SO glad I did. It gets used all day every day. I grab the last two eggs and say "Alexa, add eggs to the grocery list", hands are full of mess while cooking, "Alexa, set a timer for 5 minutes", etc. The fact that it works with my home automation hub is also nice, when I'm across the room and want the lights off, or want the garage…