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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

#51

Post by xelfer »

hijohnnylin wrote: post #26

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 ph…

> playing music

where does the music come from when you ok google it? I don't have a sonos or whatever set up in my house, so I use my Echo for this (the speaker is excellent) and playing spotify, playing tunein radio, playing pandora, setting kitchen timers when cooking and getting weather reports.

yeah you can get these in a million other ways, but it's just convenient to have in the kitchen.

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

#52

Post by ianlevesque »

microcolonel wrote: post #21
new299 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not a panacea but for me using exclusively 5 GHz fixed wifi once and for all.

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

#53

Post by eclipxe »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #35
niftich wrote: post #25

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 pr…

If the price point is the only issue, I'm pretty sure the Echo Dot does the same thing for $40. My concern is that voice controlling the music might not be worth sending out recordings of everything said in my house.

It doesn't record everything said in your house. It only listens to the wake word, and then records. Source: I worked on some of the low level audio functionality.

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

#54

Post by fragsworth »

I was given one as a gift, but I can't bring myself to plug it in.

The device sends sound to their servers to process what you are saying. They probably aren't sending all the sound, but if they aren't, I can't be bothered to keep up to date on if they change that policy.

Is it unreasonable to assume that the NSA is logging (or will eventually be logging) everything sent over the Internet with this device around?

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

#55

Post by Sanddancer »

pixard wrote: post #42
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 am not in the US, but I've also had many of the issues you describe. For me everything originated in the network equipment. I kept upgrading to more and more expensive routers until I came to the conclusion they are all just shit. I literally bought the best router you could buy from Asus for like $300 and I kept getting disconnects and issues many times a day. I tried the custom firmwares and what not as well, but…

The Ubiquiti APs really are the key here. My household had the same problem with the various makes, models, etc until we switched there. For wifi, we use a mini-itx box running pfsense and it works fantastically. If you want reliability, you need to not use consumer gear, period, because it's all crap.

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

#56

Post by realstuff »

microcolonel wrote: post #21
new299 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why you're not shocked?

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

#57

Post by idunno246 »

hijohnnylin wrote: post #26

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 ph…

My mom loves it. It introduced her to the idea of unlimited free music(prime music) since she didn't care to figure out the others The other big thing, even with a phone it needs to be out. Until recently hey Siri wasn't a thing. Cooking timers are really convenient - my phone gets covered in flour.

The echo is always in the same exact spot, so there's no hunting for it, never a need for hands. It just works

Lights are still a gimmick.

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

#58

Post by philip1209 »

tedunangst wrote: post #46
philip1209 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely not. They can't gain sales from this because they're sold out. High opportunity cost - flatline zero revenue for the next week, which is (at least one of) the highest demand weeks of the year.

That's ok. You can order one now for shipment in January, and buy something else to put under the tree!

1) I bet that conversions plummet on a page where the buyer can't immediately get the item. There's a reason they have optimized for fast delivery.

2) I bet that the average cart size at checkout is less than half of the cost of an Echo.

The benefits don't outweigh the costs of a marketing stunt of claiming that they are sold out.

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

#59

Post by vacri »

vlunkr wrote: post #36
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…

Living in a house with no great internet options for a couple of years kind of cured me of my impatience with technology. I have co-workers who get ticked off immediately if the internet is out for more than a minute and get Comcast on the phone. I think it's good to lower your expectations with technology a bit. You really can live without internet or Bluetooth connectivity for a few minutes. But I'm also in the sam…

> if the internet is out for more than a minute and get Comcast on the phone

I love those people who choose to purchase the bottom-tier internet, and then bitterly complain about how terrible the customer service is. "So open your wallet and get an ISP with good customer service" -> cue look of hate from them.

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

#60

Post by drdrey »

nhangen wrote: post #40
hijohnnylin wrote: post #26

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 ph…

The voice recognition technology is so much more reliable and flexible than I've found Siri to be. It has an API that allows developers to build apps for it, and is updated every week with new voice commands and features that make it even more interesting and useful. I resisted for a long time, then bought an Echo, and I loved that so much that I bought a dot, then another, then a 3 pack for my kids for Christmas. It…

what do you mean by "browsing amazon"?
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