Why do I love the Echo? It was stupid easy to put up a Skill to control my house, my way. Skills are open to do whatever you can code up. They need to talk to a secure endpoint, but with Lets Encrypt handing out SSL like candy, what is your excuse? Since my Skill is custom to my house, it isn't open to the public - I'll just be "testing" it for a long time.
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
#212My amazon dot and Rpi3 enabled kodi are next (literally) to each other, yet communication needs to leave the house for them to talk to each other...sort it out amazon!
How do you like Kodi?
I'm working on setting one up now, but find the docs confusing at best. I'm hoping once I get it set up it will work well, but I'm having trouble getting to that part.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got what you meant, and that was my first thought too. The main reason I haven't bought an Echo (and am looking into self-hosted solutions instead) is the privacy concern.
Well, according to Amazon nothing is sent to their server unless Alexa is awake (after saying the magic 'Alexa' keyword).
And we all know Amazon would never lie, and that the Echo could never be compromised...
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#214Have had an echo since launch and the Google Home for a month. The Echo basically uses commands. There is some flexibility but not inference like the Google Home. So with the echo you sometimes have to do a quick Google search to get the name of the song so you can tell the Echo. The Google Home does not require the extra step. With the Google Home I am starting to use a condensed English. So I will say "play sting G…
I've been eyeing these and had a question about a use case like this. Is it easy to utilize multiple media sources for this, like Plex and/or Spotify? Can you tell Alexa or Google Home which to use?
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#215I have noticed that Amazon (and Amazon merchants) seem to be unprepared for this holiday season. Amazon was always my go-to place for "oh shit I need a Christmas present at it's December 20th".
I went online to buy a few things this weekend and almost every item I looked up was marked "Back in stock on Dec XX" where XX was somewhere in the range of 24th to 30th.
So I'm not surprised that this extends to Amazon's own products. It's a shame, as one of the main reasons to shop on Amazon is to know you can get almost anything with no notice.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
But what if you don't want to buy it as a present? Or know someone with a birthday in January?
I'd still argue that many people are more likely to buy gadgets in December (gift to yourself). Birthday is different though, but will not be the case for most decisions.
I'd absolutely agree more people buy gadgets in December, but I don't see how that means it couldn't be artificial scarcity.
Long term gains > Short term gains on a product like this.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#217Clearly, 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 love solving problems like this at work.
I hate solving problems like this at home. Part of the challenge is that I don't have the same resources, though.
> Perhaps you live somewhere with a lot of RF noise?
I hate this X-factor of WiFi with a passion. It's something that legitimately can vary in the time domain, either periodic or aperiodic. I have no good way to rule it out.
I have started using home powerline adapters and found them to be effective and reliable high throughput, low-latency connections to the smart TV/set top devices in my home.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
These comments about the NSA listening to you through these get annoying enough to me, I hate to think how annoying they must be to you when you built the damn thing.
Is there any reason an Echo couldn't be updated to add 24/7 listening? Just because someone built a part of it doesn't mean they know how it works now
It would be pretty trivial to detect the network transit of the thing sending audio 24/7.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#219Fascinating. 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…
I felt the same way and held off on getting an Echo for a long time. I thought it was too expensive at the $99 price point that it was originally sold under, in fact. I broke down and got one on sale for $129-ish because it seemed to be the cheapest it was ever going to get. It's nice to play with but I don't think it was worth the money for us. It is certainly a powerful speaker and if you're in the market for a goo…
I had a similar impression until I got the Echo Dot. The Dot has way better audio recognition than the original Echo. Which makes sense since its the next generation of it. I’m loving it so far :)
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#220I was hoping to see a review of them here. I almost bought an Echo, or a Tap, but then I read the audio wasn't great. I wanted something to play music well and it sounded as if it didn't. I would love to know whether or not their audio quality or Google Home's, were worth it. Otherwise I guess I'll buy a decent quality amp for my Airport Express or something, which seems to cost about as much.
I know Google put significant effort and takes serious pride in the audio quality of the Home, so while I haven't heard it myself it is probably worth a try.
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Passable enough that I don't immediately Chromecast to another set of $$$ speakers.