The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
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Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#2That happens when you lower the crap out of the price. For 30 bucks with a freebie, I even bought one. And a google home mini. In the same room.
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#3That happens when you lower the crap out of the price. For 30 bucks with a freebie, I even bought one. And a google home mini. In the same room.
Someone put an Echo Dot in my stocking. I’ve been ranting about these devices for a while and even recently wrote a little blog post:
https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-inte...
Is it worth getting a Google Mini too? I’m told that it’s actually smarter. I’m going to set up my Echo so I can reorder all the stuff I hate to shop for.
We’ve been waiting half a century for “Voice as a User Interface”. Now we’re only a decade away?
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#4Ok, it is cheap. It is also cool. But does the techies here find it really useful? If so, why?
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#5That happens when you lower the crap out of the price. For 30 bucks with a freebie, I even bought one. And a google home mini. In the same room.
Someone put an Echo Dot in my stocking. I’ve been ranting about these devices for a while and even recently wrote a little blog post: https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-inte... Is it worth getting a Google Mini too? I’m told that it’s actually smarter. I’m going to set up my Echo so I can reorder all the stuff I hate to shop for. We’ve been waiting half a century for “Voice as a User Interface”.…
I mean, I just use mine to check the weather. But for 30 bucks, the three seconds I save from not reaching for the phone are kinda worth it, I guess? It reminds me of my first few calendar items too...
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#6That happens when you lower the crap out of the price. For 30 bucks with a freebie, I even bought one. And a google home mini. In the same room.
Someone put an Echo Dot in my stocking. I’ve been ranting about these devices for a while and even recently wrote a little blog post: https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-inte... Is it worth getting a Google Mini too? I’m told that it’s actually smarter. I’m going to set up my Echo so I can reorder all the stuff I hate to shop for. We’ve been waiting half a century for “Voice as a User Interface”.…
I would say that the Amazon Echo is generally better at DOING STUFF (e.g. setting alarms and reminders, playing music, adding stuff to your Amazon shopping cart (of course), controlling your TV if you have a Fire stick, etc). Supposedly controlling smart home gear, although I haven't dipped my toes in those waters yet.
The Google Home is generally better at ANSWERING QUESTIONS and providing information. Random queries that pop into your head a thousand times a day (e.g. Who starred in such-and-such movie? Who won the last time the Atlanta Falcons played the Carolina Panthers? etc).
Occasionally though, Alexa will surprise you by answering a question where Google flopped. Either way, like others in this thread, I now have both since they discounted them so low for the holidays. But for the Google, I get by with the "Mini" version... whereas I sprung for the full-size Amazon Echo because I use it for music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc and want the better sound.
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#7Google is miles ahead in terms of a conversational assistant.
There is a lot of friction in using voice activated services. If I have a choice of typing "Weather in XXXXX zip" in the address bar vs. asking an assistant, I choose the former. Therefore, every time I use anything else but Google, I am afraid it won't recognize my command and I immediately feel like throwing that thing out of the window.
I need to be 100% sure that I will get a return on my time invested when it comes to searching or asking for information. When a Google search fails in a browser, at least I have something to bite on.
For other things such as timers, calendars, game scores, home lights, music - assistants are nice.
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#8Ok, it is cheap. It is also cool. But does the techies here find it really useful? If so, why?
I do find it useful for the one very niche purpose of telling it to play music and control the room temperature while I'm taking a shower. I also fully acknowledge the privacy risks of having an always listening device in the bathroom.
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#9Google is miles ahead in terms of a conversational assistant. There is a lot of friction in using voice activated services. If I have a choice of typing "Weather in XXXXX zip" in the address bar vs. asking an assistant, I choose the former. Therefore, every time I use anything else but Google, I am afraid it won't recognize my command and I immediately feel like throwing that thing out of the window. I need to be 100…
"Alexa, what's the weather?"
This isn't too difficult. I know Google is well off in this space but Alexa is pretty damn good too.
Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
#10Ok, it is cheap. It is also cool. But does the techies here find it really useful? If so, why?
I mostly use it to control Philips Hue bulbs.