FWIW, they still have them in stock at the Amazon Bookstore (in Seattle). My sister in North Carolina was trying desperately to find one for a gift, so I popped in there. They're also on sale, a discount of about ~$40. They seemed to be aware of the shortage and saw this a good way to get people to check out the store.
Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
251–260 of 273 posts
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker you have; why are we freaking out about this except for the fact that it's being sold as a microphone? Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all our audio? I guess you could make an argument that far-field mics make it different, but I have a lot of conversations near my laptop and phone. As tekromancr mentioned; it would be…
> They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker you have...
Absolutely. That's why I don't really let stuff auto-update, use as much FOSS stuff as I can, etc. Just because someone can push a malicious update to $product_a doesn't mean we should ignore the fact that they can do it to $product_b. I fail to see the logic here.
> Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all our audio?
I do. And that's why I don't use Chrome. Just because you don't seem to be worried doesn't mean other people don't worry about it.
> ...it would be pretty obvious if these changes were made, especially on a wide-ranging basis...
Maybe, but I'm not worried just about wide-ranging basis, but a narrow-ranging basis as well.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Sure, if you were watching. But most people don't watch their network 24/7. Even if you watched it for one week, the next week they could turn it on 24/7, then turn it back of a couple of days later.
It's only trivial to detect if everyone is watching all the time.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
> what are people actually using these for? Off the top of my head from last night while cooking dinner: * "hey google, add olive oil to the grocery list" * "hey google, set a timer for 15 minutes for rice" * "hey google, play some Christmas music" * "hey google, how much time is left on the rice" I could have fumbled with pulling out my iphone for all of these, but I would have had to stop prepping dinner, wash my h…
I soooo wish there was a way to define non-Amazon defaults for a lot of things, but I get why they'd want to lock it down. I don't suppose there's an open-source alternative to hack on? "play some Christmas music" doesn't work so well if you want to use Spotify -- it has to become "play some Christmas music from Spotify ", which feels awkward. "order X" defaults to Amazon, where I might want to voice-order groceries…
As of a couple months ago, you can set Spotify as your default music player -- so you no longer have to do this.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#255what 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…
I don't think it's age. It's a lot more relevant to me as a parent (of 2). I suspect it has to do with how much time and energy you need to invest in the activities near where an Echo would be.
I was most excited to hook the Echo up to home automation, but I haven't yet because the special bulbs and plug adapters are too expensive.
Instead, my wife and I use it heavily for:
* Music: Playing music immediately to get kids jumping around, when hosting people over for dinner, whatever. We have a portable Bose speaker, but it's not nearly as convenient.
* Timers: We set these a lot to multitask. Filling the bath, cooking, whatever.
* Weather: While getting ourselves and the kids ready in the morning, we usually ask about the weather for today to figure out which sweater/coat combinations need to happen.
* Shopping: We are constantly running out of things. We can quickly say "Add ___ to the shopping list." Even if we don't actually order from Amazon, later I can pull up the list on my phone. Plus, using IFTTT, the items get copied to my iOS Reminders list, which is shared with my wife.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker you have; why are we freaking out about this except for the fact that it's being sold as a microphone? Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all our audio? I guess you could make an argument that far-field mics make it different, but I have a lot of conversations near my laptop and phone. As tekromancr mentioned; it would be…
> They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker you have... Absolutely. That's why I don't really let stuff auto-update, use as much FOSS stuff as I can, etc. Just because someone can push a malicious update to $product_a doesn't mean we should ignore the fact that they can do it to $product_b. I fail to see the logic here. > Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all ou…
> I fail to see the logic here.
Most people are not concerned about Chrome, iOS or Android auto-updating; I'm sure you can see that you're an outlier here.
FOSS software might not have automatic updates, but if you do any sort of update where you don't verify the blob you got is the same one as everyone else you have exactly the same problem.
I largely expect that unless you get super paranoid about this (and hey, we're on HN, so that's a possibility), you're not really going to stop a sophisticated government adversary. And at the point where you're on a specifically targeted list, they will probably not limit themselves to the digital world.
I also think that expecting this level of privacy where the government cannot figure out what you're doing is a historical anomaly; most people who avoided telephones because the government could be listening are generally considered crazy people.
Does the government target people in a violation of their civil rights? Yes, but you probably know if you're doing something the government doesn't like, and it does not seem sensible to argue that people should become experts in technology and then give up a lot of benefits to avoid a risk that is not real for them.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#257Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker you have... Absolutely. That's why I don't really let stuff auto-update, use as much FOSS stuff as I can, etc. Just because someone can push a malicious update to $product_a doesn't mean we should ignore the fact that they can do it to $product_b. I fail to see the logic here. > Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all ou…
> I fail to see the logic here. Most people are not concerned about Chrome, iOS or Android auto-updating; I'm sure you can see that you're an outlier here. FOSS software might not have automatic updates, but if you do any sort of update where you don't verify the blob you got is the same one as everyone else you have exactly the same problem. I largely expect that unless you get super paranoid about this (and hey, we…
> Most people are not concerned about Chrome, iOS or Android auto-updating; I'm sure you can see that you're an outlier here.
Sure, but I don't see how that invalidates my point. Some people are concerned about privacy, some people aren't. That doesn't mean the original software couldn't be updated with malicious code.
> FOSS software might not have automatic updates, but if you do any sort of update where you don't verify the blob you got is the same one as everyone else you have exactly the same problem.
I'd disagree. Having the ability to verify it has kept a lot of people from pushing a lot of bad code because they know they could be caught.
> you're not really going to stop a sophisticated government adversary.
I'd agree, but just because I can't really stop someone from breaking into my house doesn't mean I'm OK with putting a key under my doormatt.
> I also think that expecting this level of privacy where the government cannot figure out what you're doing is a historical anomaly
There's a huge difference between being able to figure out, and recording everything for later use.
> most people who avoided telephones because the government could be listening are generally considered crazy people.
lolno. Movies have often had a trope about talking in person because "someone could be listening" for a long time. Audiences understand this quite well and go along with the story. And it doesn't have to be the government. When party-lines were common, people knew you had to be careful, or the town gossip could get all the juicy details. The Public has long known that someone could be listening. The difference now is that a lot of actors are trying to always be listening.
> it does not seem sensible to argue that people should become experts in technology and then give up a lot of benefits to avoid a risk that is not real for them.
I'm not really sure where I said that. If I did, I'd like you to point it out. I just think people should be able to educate themselves and decide for themselves if that trade-off is worth it.
I'm not saying people shouldn't make the tradeoff, but pretending that "It's OK, the Echo could never be used maliciously because some guy on HN said he wrote the software and it doesn't do that" is naive at best.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
The manufacturing process is likely still several days as it involves more than one factory in the process. Plus shipping to the US (1-2 days) you'll end up at probably around a week in the best case. And that only if there's enough cargo capacity to add 100k units on that route (don't know how busy they are in these weeks). I'd guess it's realistically closer to 2 weeks from decision until it's in the warehouse. It…
Even with that lead time, you know ahead-of-time when you're about to run out of supply in 2016. There's just no excuse. That said, I just don't see too many people buying Echo. Another distracting device that tries to get you to buy more stuff on Amazon is just not something I think people want, and the speech recognition works flaky at best, even in a quiet room (my Amazon engineer buddy has one). It's just like Si…
I'm here in Chicago and it's really sold out. Nothing at any of the major retailers within 50 miles of my location.
Google Home also seems to be completely gone at every store I've visited in the last few days. That includes places like Target, who usually have their shit together when it comes to inventory.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#259I see this "artificial supply constraint" hype-mobile getting played up a lot by consumer electronics marketing. It's pretty easy to get the factories in Shenzhen to crank out a couple extra to meet demand (it USED to be a lot harder). I call BS.
I wonder if the Hanjin Shipping bankruptcy caught a bunch of inventory in the middle.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/31/hanjin-shipping-vessel-unable...
Maybe not for Amazon per se, but someone must have lost out on Christmas because of this.
Re: Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush
#260I found the idea that it could be always listening to you creepy at first...but if you think about it your mobile phone, landline phone, computer microphone and more could be hijacked to always listen to you as well so there isn't much difference.
"I thought leaving my door key under my matt was a bad idea, but then I realized that if someone wanted into my house, they could just break my window!" I'm not saying your making the wrong decision, it's a trade-off that everyone needs to make individually. If your happy with your Echo, great! But just because someone has one attack-vector on you doesn't mean you should dismiss new attack vectors.
You should be more worried about using npm. How do you know that when you install 100 of different dependencies, there isn't one that is turning on your mic and listening to your conversations?
The Echo is an unlikely device to be compromised and recording everything you say, because it's pretty locked down and definitely not a general purpose computer.