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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

#91

Post by nugi »

eropple wrote: post #46
StevePerkins wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really feel like it's creepy. But I DO believe that we need to come up with a different word other than "invest" for contexts like this. Because when anyone talks about "investing" in a wifi lawnmower, or any other consumer gadget, I think they're seriously misusing the word...

A wifi lawnmower is literally investment--it is the purchase of what in a business sense would be plant assets. Capital. The up-front expenditure of cash to generate value, in the form of saved time, later. Getting used to the idea of home automation as investment, as opposed to just business automation is something that older folks are going to have to come to grips with. But, like, I have Hue lights at home, I have…

I did the math, and found that hiring a local lawn service was even cheaper, more reliable, and used less of my time, the thing I am actually optimising for. Efficiencies of scale still beat gadgets. Not to mention the care, and graceful handling of edge cases. This is to say nothing of the myrid other services they provide.

That said, I always dreamed of one, as a kid, who had to mow an acre. But as an adult, its clearly not the best option. Stop calling it an 'investment'.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#92

Post by semperdark »

fortylove wrote: post #88
fermienrico wrote: post #7

Google 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…

This sounds a bit extreme: >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

It sounds extreme, but it's definitely necessary in order for a service to be treated like a tool. When was the last time your screwdriver decided to fail for undefined reasons? For that matter, how about your text editor?

For something like a voice interface to become second nature, you need to deeply trust that it'll do what you expect. Work with screwdrivers enough and they become an extension of your hand.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#93

Post by daveFNbuck »

mulletbum wrote: post #21
gruglife wrote: post #15

Am I the only one that thinks these are useless? I got one last Xmas and stop using it after a month or so.

I got new tires, but didn't buy a car, so they are worthless. That is basically what you are saying here. We both agree, it will tell you the weather, your commute, and play some music. Those are the things you grew tired of, but many people have their entire homes wired to these devices (me included). I don't use them daily, I use them hourly at home. It runs my sprinklers, lawn mowers, vacuums, lights, alarms, time…

It was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season. I'm betting most of those purchases go into your worthless category but Amazon has been aggressively pushing them anyway.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#94

Post by darklajid »

figgis wrote: post #39
lgas wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why Goole before Amazon?

Personally I resent the fact that Amazon has done everything in their power as a company to make it so I cannot stream amazon prime to my chromecast. That alone has tarnished my opinion of the company.

I hate that Google has done nothing to enable me to stream things to my Chromecast.

Unless I use Chrome. Which I don't. Or Android. Which is annoying if I look at something on my laptop.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#95

Post by makecheck »

saalweachter wrote: post #59
dilap wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker. Google's products don't feel like they are designed by humans.

Have you ever been in a room with an Alexa unit when people are trying to talk about it? It's like a comedy routine with the device activating spuriously over and over.

I keep the name “Alexa” but you can choose a few (“Computer”, “Echo”, and I think “Amazon”).

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#96

Post by chaostheory »

Washuu wrote: post #87
notyourwork wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

"Alexa, what's the weather?" It proceeds to tell me the weather for a state over. "Alexa, set my location to XXXXX." It can't do that. Actually getting correct location details requires downloading a separate smart phone application and digging through its menus to figure out how to set the location for each individual Alexa device.

Alexa is far from perfect, but it has weather down. Things may have changed or my memory is imperfect, but one of the first things the iOS app asks you is for your home zip code. Even without that, "What's the weather in San Francisco?" works fine.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#97

Post by Sephr »

dilap wrote: post #69
saalweachter wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you ever been in a room with an Alexa unit when people are trying to talk about it? It's like a comedy routine with the device activating spuriously over and over.

I have, and it's pretty funny. We quickly adapted to just saying "A." or "her". Probably in a few years this whole debate topic will seem quant, as devices will be much at figuring out when we're addressing them than the primitive idea of a wake-word. :-)

This is not feasible with software updates alone on the Echo Dot or Google Home Mini, as it will require better hardware unless you just want your device to constantly phone home everything.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#98

Post by chaostheory »

daveFNbuck wrote: post #78
lern_too_spel wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're both barely better than useless, but the software for both is only going to improve. Amazon is going to hire the AI people and build up their own knowledgebase in the A9 team over the next few years, and Google is going to make the partnerships to reach third party skills parity over the next few months. The right way to choose between them is by looking at the hardware, and the reviews I've seen say…

The echo dot is meant to be connected to a speaker. The built-in one is just there for basic functionality.

imo the Echo Dot is better for this very reason. You can hook it up to much nicer speakers compared to what comes fixed with the standard Echo.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#99

Post by fermienrico »

semperdark wrote: post #92
fortylove wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds a bit extreme: >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

It sounds extreme, but it's definitely necessary in order for a service to be treated like a tool. When was the last time your screwdriver decided to fail for undefined reasons? For that matter, how about your text editor? For something like a voice interface to become second nature, you need to deeply trust that it'll do what you expect. Work with screwdrivers enough and they become an extension of your hand.

I couldn't have explained it better. You've nailed the core issue - Reliability & Robustness. These attributes of a product disappear in the background when it just works.

Voice activated devices, even Google assistant, are far away from the reliability/robustness we expect from a reliable tool. Therefore, they are not tools yet.

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