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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

#171

Post by 2-4-Flinching »

dilap wrote: post #50
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…

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.

>Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker.

LOL. That is one of the reasons I hated Alexa. She turned on when a podcast said something about her, the TV ad came on, we talked about our friend Alexa and when anything sounded kinda like Alexa. Ended up changing it to Echo, which worked a bit better. Amazon was out of the question when order to much from there and so common conversation have Amazon in them.

I enjoy Googles way more and no one I know still uses "OK, Google" its much simpler and rolls off the tongue to say "Hey, Google!". First world problems after all.

>Google's products don't feel like they are designed by humans.

And Amazons does? Over half of the stuff I said to Alexa comes back as "I don't know how to help with that" even simple facts. Alexa seems to be very limited in researching and answering. While google has there powerful search engine. Also with google I can build shortcuts for even the most advanced, long winded commands and wrap it into "Hey google, protocol seven" or whatever I want.

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

#172

Post by melling »

WalterBright wrote: post #100

I don't need that, I already have The Clapper.

If you weren’t Walter Bright, I’d downvote the comment. You’ve been waiting half a century for this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NM4yEOdIHnc

Of course, we aren’t there yet but it’s a step in the right direction. There’s nothing like a few multi-billion dollar companies in an arm’s race to get us to the next level.

Maybe an open source version is more your cup of tea? First, we need good speech recognition:

https://voice.mozilla.org

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

#173

Post by 2-4-Flinching »

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…

Simple, they have hit a price range that the average person feels they can spend and not feel to bad about wasting money later if it sits on the shelf.

You would probably need to edit your question to "Why do you think millions of people bought an [Amazon] Echo Dot or a Google Home [Mini]" The evidence is clear both are the lowest costing home assistant device for their respective lines. At $30 on sales this season it could make it even into many gift swaps with that budget. Just as a few years ago the Firestick and Chromecast did.

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

#174

Post by b4lancesh33t »

afpx wrote: post #157
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…

None of my closest 100 friends and family bought either product, which is very strange given our technology backgrounds and the products’ apparent popularity. A good friend who works in IoT sort of considered it, but then ultimately became unmotivated because she doesn’t yet see the usefulness of consumer IoT. My guess is that most buyers are much younger than me. Perhaps they seek to be early adopters like I once di…

> None of my closest 100 friends and family bought either product

How do you know that?

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

#176

Post by 2-4-Flinching »

touristtam wrote: post #144
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.

I have had a Google Home Mini since they came out and use it daily. Controls lights, multiple outlets, the Chromecasts through out my house, I used it to add stuff daily to my calendar, add items to my grocery list and much more. So I think its pretty practical in an everyday setting.

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

#177

Post by rblatz »

mcny wrote: post #154
k__ wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> We have an Echo and to this day we haven't found any use for it. I briefly played with the webhook in ifttt and I think the "serverless" aws or Google Cloud could use this as a custom dash button. Instead of going to a dash button and pressing it if you run out of tide, you simply say "echo, trigger detergent" or I'm thinking with custom programming, "echo, trigger [predefined post request here that starts a series…

It also supports youbsaying Alexa order tide, or Alexa reorder tide. And she will ask you if you want to buy the most recent tide product you purchased again.

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

#178

Post by ataturk »

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…

Whatever the utility, there are certain lines that I draw with my privacy and having an open mic anywhere in my house is one of those lines. It's foolish. There are millions upon millions of foolish people out there. Whether or not you care who hears you, whether or not anyone is listening, you can't argue it is benign technology. Google and Amazon are most certainly listening because it's what they do. There are no assurances they can give that would be enough. The data is one subpoena away from being used against you anytime.

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

#179

Post by barrkel »

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…

I trust Amazon more than Google, though; I both expect products to be less aggressively discontinued, and data collection to be less rapacious with Amazon. Amazon also have a known and reasonably moral means of making money. Advertising OTOH is mass manipulation. And Google have too much other information on me especially from search, I need to keep things distributed.

I'm one of the people who bought my partner a Dot. It works very well for the things we've used for so far.

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

#180

Post by ataturk »

toyg wrote: post #162
andy_ppp wrote: post #103

Can we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded, by the companies or by back doors created by the security services? Seems too much like a telescreen for my liking. The problem is I would love one I could trust!

> Can we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded You can be absolutely certain everything is being recorded, if anything as a statistical datapoint to improve voice recognition. Whether this stuff will get its way to the security services depends almost entirely on whether such services find it useful (the other relevant parameter is the country market-size, i.e. how…

It is argued that the security services pushed for these companies to create these products in the first place. Tinfoil, I know, but the tail does often wag the dog.
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