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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

#141

Post by pbhjpbhj »

notyourwork wrote: post #9
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…

"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.

Hmm, works for me in UK.

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

#143

Post by nbwilliams »

tjoff wrote: post #127
dilap wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. :-)

You're assuming that these devices have anything to offer even if they worked.

Not for the owner==product. Someone though may benefit from one additional microphone in every house.

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

#144

Post by touristtam »

JulianRaphael wrote: post #121

Very revealing discussion. Most of the participants just argue about Amazon vs. Google here, some fear surveillance, some consider the devices useless, a few want to understand if the HN crowd finds it useful. This is something I notice here on HN in product-related discussions more and more: people just say what THEY think about product X (typically a negative opinion or complaint), rather being creative, constructi…

General public has probably been sold on the potential & novelty of the device, without realizing how little there is to it (feature wise). It feels like it is similar to VR and personal drones; it sounds exiting, but it isn't that practical in everyday setting to replace other activities, and setting it up can feel tedious.

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

#145

Post by blensor »

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…

While those devices are far from perfect they are an evolutionary step in how people are able to interact with technology.

My mother in law does not use a computer or smartphone at all, but she loves to use the Echo because it provides a familiar interface (speech) to services she would use (music, weather, casual information search).

And interacting with voice assistants is a two way street in my opinion. They will get better at understanding what we want and we will adapt to phrase our questions in a way the software understands.

And while I doubt us folks would use a voice assistant to query a solution for an error message on stackoverflow it still provides a convenient way to control music, lights, shutters while our hands are occupied in other ways (cooking, drawing, crafting, ...)

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

#146

Post by mewse »

melling wrote: post #53
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.

“Hey Google” is the same number of syllables as Alexa.

Also the same number as "Hey, Siri". And Samsung's "Hey, Bixby". I'm assuming it's not a coincidence.

I think it's likely that three syllables just happens to be a nice cut-off point that minimizes the number of spurious activations, and that explains why everybody doing voice control uses that particular threshold to activate their digital assistant.

Heck, even Star Trek got it right way back in 1966 with its "Computer" wake word.

About the only company I can find that seems to be ignoring the three-syllable rule is Microsoft, who use "Hey, Cortana", which is four syllables. But Microsoft's always been a fan of using really long phrases to identify their products, so maybe that shouldn't be a surprise.

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

#147

Post by darklajid »

bornonline1 wrote: post #134
nickelbox wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree it would be nice to be able to cast without Chrome on a laptop (looks like VLC had experimental cast support but removed it), but it's literally in the name... As for Android, I was fairly certain iOS at least can cast as my Apple fanboy roommate was having fun messing with the volume and pausing playback.

Use SodaPlayer.

I didn't know that app.

But it's a crutch AND doesn't allow the same stuff: If I watch a YT video, it's in my browser. No way to throw it at the TV. If I watch Twitch, it's in my browser. No way to throw it at the TV.

Maybe it can handle URLs. But if I have to copy the URL, paste it somewhere, fiddle to get to the same spot in the video ... then I can just launch Chrome and curse just as much.

(Highly ironic that the player offers the option to install a Chrome extension to open movies in SodaPlayer. For me the whole selling point of the thing would be to .. not need Chrome ofc)

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

#148

Post by nagVenkat »

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.

I was looking at an echo dot for the first time. my roommate is using it and our location is a small town 35 miles away. We tried to set the location through voice and then through the app but both didn’t work. We just gave up after wards thinking the weather should be similar.

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

#149

Post by k__ »

blensor wrote: post #145
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…

While those devices are far from perfect they are an evolutionary step in how people are able to interact with technology. My mother in law does not use a computer or smartphone at all, but she loves to use the Echo because it provides a familiar interface (speech) to services she would use (music, weather, casual information search). And interacting with voice assistants is a two way street in my opinion. They will…

Interesting.

We have an Echo and to this day we haven't found any use for it.

Talking is broadcast and most of the time we search stuff for ourself on mobile. Also, it often simply says it has no answer.

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

#150

Post by mrweasel »

neves wrote: post #4

Ok, it is cheap. It is also cool. But does the techies here find it really useful? If so, why?

Nope, I don't see the point in voice controlled gadgets, except maybe for use in cars. Otherwise: Just give me something with buttons to push.
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