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Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

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Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#21

Post by microcolonel »

new299 wrote: post #15
GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

A lot of technology is pretty flaky. I think you have a couple of issues however: 1. You have sucky Internet. Bad Internet is going to cause numerous issues. From what I've heard it's hard to get a really good Internet connection in the US. But in many places in the world, great Internet connections are available at low cost. Bad Internet means devices are going to have issues with firmware updates. Things will be mo…

I've had considerable problems between MacBook Pros and Airport Extremes in both noisy and extremely radio-quiet locations.

I'm not shocked if somebody drops $3,000+ on a MBP, and can't reliably connect to an AP from the same vendor, let alone any other vendor.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#22

Post by SomeStupidPoint »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

I feel much the same way about technology you do (and work in tech myself).

I just like to think I have a keen sense of where technology doesn't make things better, just more complex.

I still mostly use paper books, paper to take notes, have a physical journal, whiteboard, and calendar, and generally not a lot of home automation. It's not even that the technologies don't work so much as they don't offer anything I need -- eg, why manage the overhead of a digital online calendar between multiple accounts when some paper and a thumbtack works fine to share plans for meals with roommates?

I just don't think complexity is the same as progress, which makes a lot of modern technology sort of unappealing -- it's complex (and hence error prone) solutions to simple problems, usually with a side helping of exploitative psychology and selling your personal information.

Pass.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#23

Post by hkmurakami »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

"The industry" will have to pry my "dumb house" out of my cold, dead hands. :)

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#24

Post by wildmusings »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

You're not alone kindred spirit. Everything sucks and they keep inventing new ways for things to suck. Bluetooth devices randomly won't sync, internet randomly goes down for a few hours a week, console always needs to download a multi-GB update when I just want to watch a youtube video, OS install starts acting up after a couple of months, Siri goes into an infinite loop repeatedly confirming my new alarm, I switch to FM/AM with a button on my car center console but to bluetooth/usb audio with a button between the seats (wtf MINI?). There's still no single way for me to get all of my content onto my TV/speakers, only different subsets with Airplay, Bluetooth, Chromecast, and my XBox. Oh, and NEVER NEVER NEVER press cancel on a progress dialog; that's the doorway to the Twilight Zone.

On the other hand: I pay $10 a month for unlimited music, $8 for tons of movies and tv shows, I get most of the stuff I buy in the mail in two days, Google Maps can navigate me anywhere, and I do all of my trading instantly online with low fees.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#25

Post by niftich »

Fascinating.

Don't take my comment the wrong way -- I'm not begrudging anyone on their spending habits or how they use their disposable income, but I genuinely have several items or activities that I'd rather spend that $140 current sale price on.

Or, to rephrase, the idea of voice controlling music in my house appeals to me, but not at this price point? For what it's worth, the sibling products are also awkwardly priced for me: the cheapest Tap (edit/correction: Dot) has a terrible speaker while the mid-range Tap isn't hands-free.

I'd be truly curious how people actually use the Echo: how much of it is music playing, how much of it is checking the weather, or witty banter, or re-ordering a household item. Is it more of a utility device? Is it more of an entertainment device? Is it some clever hybrid thereof?

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#26

Post by hijohnnylin »

what are people actually using these for? i'm legitimately curious about the use cases for this. if you have an android phone or iphone or smartwatch, you already can "Hey Siri/Google" whatever you want, including playing music. is it for light switches? Hey Siri/Google already does this, no? also, how many people have 50$ wifi connected bulbs? and isn't the most convenient way to turn on a light switch still just physically flipping the switch? (they're usually located right where you need them) is it for shopping? this seems like still a rare use case. is it to check the weather? that's already on your phone/wrist/computer/tv/window. is it to look up facts? again, siri/cortana/heygoogle does this.

it's possible that i'm not the target demographic, that i'm the only person who doesnt have literally everything in their home futuristically connected (locks, lights, windows, curtains, vacuums, etc) -- and that this is actually solving a huge problem for a lot of people. but that seems unlikely -- i live in a relatively tech-infested city (SF) and almost nobody i know has those things.

maybe i'm too old (27) to "get it"? get off my lawn??

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#27

Post by _greim_ »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

I've definitely noticed certain people seem to deal with more glitches and breakage than others. Not saying any of these are you, but here's some speculation as to why:

1. Some people customize more, so their setup tends to operate in ways that weren't as heavily tested, or anticipated by the makers.

2. Some people are more technologically fluent, and instinctively avoid common failure modes, and/or tend to get everything humming along with minimal effort.

3. Some people push their tech harder, or more thoughtlessly, like people who open ninety browser tabs, or are oblivious to the fact that their laptop fan runs constantly.

4. Some people like to have the bleeding edge latest tech, which has had less time for the kinks to work out.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#28

Post by capex »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

I like your sense of entitlement, but most of these devices are novelty stuff. You shouldn't expect your macbook or wifi router to not work 5% of the time, but I guess you could live a happy life with wireless speakers, light switches and bluetooth connections work 95% of the time.

Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush

#29

Post by microcolonel »

GuiA wrote: post #7

Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm for it as well. There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am I just less tolerant of defects than most people are? I am currently typing this from a 2016 ma…

I get it.

I think every time I work on a type of software for work, I can never trust it again. I have javascript disabled by default, images disabled by default, cookies disabled by default. Smartphones are too inconvenient to carry around, so I use a Nokia and keep a smartphone plugged in at home for tinder.

Even on my workstation, I got fed up with desktop environments so I don't use them.

Echo, at least, does not need to be charged.

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