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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

#261

Post by Zombieball »

wmeredith wrote: post #207
systemtest wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like presence detection is a better option for lights. Stumbling in the dark waiting for Echo to process your command versus just having the lights turn on when you enter a room.

I disagree, here. I may not always want the lights on. I prefer voice control to motion detection.

Yep. Same here. You want to be able to explicitly turn off the lights (say when you go to bed). Not have to wait for some timer to expire.

I suppose if the motion sensors had some extreme AI and could detect when I would want the lights on or off and make that decision before I verbalized it. But I'd probably want the voice interface as an override when the AI gets the wrong answer.

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

#262

Post by CaptSpify »

srssays wrote: post #260
CaptSpify wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

(I don't use npm, but I do use other repos) The difference between an Echo and repo-code is that repo-code is open-source. I can verify it's running what it's running. AFAIK, there's no way to do that with the Echo.

> it's pretty locked down

source? AFAIK you can't verify what it's doing, so it doesn't matter how well it's locked down.

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

#263

Post by ajford »

r1ch wrote: post #241
ajford wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered upgrading your Wifi setup to something like Ubiquiti Unifi hardware? I'm trying to convince the spouse that I need ~1k$ upgrade our home network to Ubiquiti... There's a blog post that was on HN a few days back about it: https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-final...

Consider going with Mikrotik gear instead. It's the same hardware, but you aren't locked into Ubiquiti's proprietary Java cloud management software - everything can be managed with SSH if you prefer. It isn't as user-friendly or as pretty as Ubiquiti's web interface, but you can get deep down into all kinds of internal settings and it also ends up being significantly cheaper. For example, three dual band triple chain…

Any good setup guides? One of the things I was hoping for was a good central management system, plus good roaming and handoff. I currently have two DD-WRT flashed ASUS routers, and having a hell of a time with handoff when going from one floor the the next.

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

#264

Post by smackfu »

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…

It's the only smart home control that we actually use. "Alexa turn on the lights" is easier than any other way of doing it.

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

#265

Post by smackfu »

Eridrus wrote: post #151
jsz0 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you have an android phone or iphone or smartwatch, you already can "Hey Siri/Google" whatever you want, Most of those devices just don't have speakers/microphones cable of working reliably at room scale in real world conditions. They've certainly gotten better over the years but I doubt they will ever match the reliability of physically larger devices purpose built for the task. > how many people have 50$ wifi c…

I can't wait to be able to control my TV from one of these things. Much easier than hunting for the Roku app on my phone, since I've long lost the actual remote.

Harmony works with Echo now. "Alexa turn on the TV" works well.

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

#266

Post by Eridrus »

smackfu wrote: post #265
Eridrus wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wait to be able to control my TV from one of these things. Much easier than hunting for the Roku app on my phone, since I've long lost the actual remote.

Harmony works with Echo now. "Alexa turn on the TV" works well.

Nice. For me it seems a little ridiculous to spend $99 on an IR sensor + LED since I don't have any more home automation.

Given I gave the Echo I had away, I'm hoping the next iteration of the Echo or Google Home device has the $2 of components required to implement this functionality so that it just works out of the box.

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

#267

Post by therein »

croon wrote: post #114
therein wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have the same router with the same firmware. I'm using a mid-2014 MBP Retina and my Echo Dot works great along with all my wireless devices both in 2.4G and 5G. My setup is basically Internet -> pfSense -> RT-AC87U with Webpass. Over 5G, I get 250+ mbit.

Oh, yes, the wireless performance I get is great, it's the reliability I take issue with. You never get any disconnects or hickups?

No disconnects at all. I don't reboot the router often at all either. In fact I realized I probably should reboot one after realizing some issues with the onboard RAM and the uptime was over 3 months at that point.

I'm in the San Francisco area so you'd think RF noise would be pretty heavily present here. Before this I had the TP-Link AC1200 and I had all the issues you mentioned with that.

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

#268

Post by dx034 »

CaptSpify wrote: post #216
dx034 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Because for Amazon the echo is not the actual product, it's just the platform. Don't think they make that much profit at the current price. But people who have one will more likely stay prime members and buy things at Amazon.

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

#269

Post by lttlrck »

r1ch wrote: post #241
ajford wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered upgrading your Wifi setup to something like Ubiquiti Unifi hardware? I'm trying to convince the spouse that I need ~1k$ upgrade our home network to Ubiquiti... There's a blog post that was on HN a few days back about it: https://www.troyhunt.com/ubiquiti-all-the-things-how-i-final...

Consider going with Mikrotik gear instead. It's the same hardware, but you aren't locked into Ubiquiti's proprietary Java cloud management software - everything can be managed with SSH if you prefer. It isn't as user-friendly or as pretty as Ubiquiti's web interface, but you can get deep down into all kinds of internal settings and it also ends up being significantly cheaper. For example, three dual band triple chain…

I have a Routerboard Hex and it's solid. It was a fiddle but I managed to get port isolation working so I could add a guest WLAN. This was more for 'fun' than any real need :-) A foundation in IP and routing is definitely beneficial for these devices. Due to its excellence I have been eyeing their Wifi solutions.

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

#270

Post by garethsprice »

Eridrus wrote: post #243
garethsprice wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Picked up an Echo Dot on Black Friday on a whim and I'm genuinely surprised how much I use it. Last night's tasks: - Got into a dark house with my hands full of bags, "Hey Alexa turn on the living room lights. Play blues music." - Taking my shoes off, "Hey Alexa what's the news" - Cooking, "Hey Alexa what's 12 fluid ounces in cups. Add garlic to my shopping list." - On the way out the door, "Hey Alexa ask NYC Transit…

> - Going to sleep, "Hey Alexa turn off the bedroom light. Play white noise. Loop." > - Wake up in the middle of the night "Hey Alexa what time is it? What time is my first meeting tomorrow? Cancel my alarm for 7:30AM. Set an alarm for 8AM.". All without shining a screen in my face, which can disrupt sleep cycles. I've seen a bunch of people mention use cases in their bedrooms, which is great, but they seem to fall a…

Yep! Currently the solution I have to that is an old bedside clock with glow in the dark hands. It's great when I'm sleeping alone though - which is what most consumer tech seems optimized towards.
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