Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 229 posts

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#191

Post by amznthrowaway2 »

drsim wrote: post #115

Alexa needs a PageRank and an 'I'm feeling lucky' that is successful the majority of the time. I would like it to work as a room of human experts works with a moderator. Alexa, how long will it take me to cycle to Netto? Alexa sends this parsed query out to all apps it thinks can answer. They respond with a confidence level and answer / follow up question. Alexa decides which app to choose (the 'PageRank') based on a…

The “canfulfill” API for skills is available. Alexa scientists are constantly working on improving the arbitration experience but it’s a very difficult problem, especially due to security concerns.

https://developer.amazon.com/docs/custom-skills/implement-ca...

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#192

Post by regnerba »

casper345 wrote: post #190

When I turn down the Alexa because of music but then I ask Alexa what is the weather, it is the same volume as down and I cant hear it. Then I have to say increase volume and then ask Alexa again. This is small but I think defines the missing design principle of Alexa. Yes I want the music to be low when Im doing active 1, but the introduction of new action of knowing the weather I need to hear it. These are the litt…

Same thing with the Google Home's. The first step in our good morning routine is set the volume low and the last step is increase the volume again at the end.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#194

Post by maayank »

ryanbrunner wrote: post #129
StevePerkins wrote: post #18

My Echo was an interesting novelty at first. But a couple years in now, it is essentially (in order of usefulness): 1. An alarm clock / kitchen timer 2. A thing that tells me the weather report during morning coffee, so I know what to wear 3. A DJ that my kids yell at to play pop music If it died tomorrow, I'd probably just go back to using my phone for these 3 things rather than buy a new one. I can't imagine gettin…

Pretty much the same for me, although I'll add (I have Google Homes but pretty much the same thing): 1. Metric / imperial conversions, especially in the kitchen - this is one feature that is miles better than using a phone or computer if my hands are dirty cooking something and I want to know how many grams 12 ounces is or something like that. 2. Intercom between my 2 google homes, one in my kitchen and one in our co…

How do you do 2-4? I'm in OP's camp, where I've tried these things in the past and never knew I can do them now.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#195

Post by enobrev »

maayank wrote: post #194
ryanbrunner wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the same for me, although I'll add (I have Google Homes but pretty much the same thing): 1. Metric / imperial conversions, especially in the kitchen - this is one feature that is miles better than using a phone or computer if my hands are dirty cooking something and I want to know how many grams 12 ounces is or something like that. 2. Intercom between my 2 google homes, one in my kitchen and one in our co…

How do you do 2-4? I'm in OP's camp, where I've tried these things in the past and never knew I can do them now.

2. "Hey Google, announce dinner is ready". It handles standard meals with a standard message. Otherwise it will play back a recording of what you said. You can also use "broadcast" instead of "announce"

3. "Hey Google, call my wife". or mom or person's name.

4. "Hey Google, find my phone".

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#196

Post by lugg »

darkpuma wrote: post #179
doctorpangloss wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Alexa is that Amazon runs their R&D team like a consumer research organization. I mean, you gotta listen to every word that comes out of the customer's mouth right? Their Principles are too reductive to even guarantee that copies of other people's ideas are successful. For as much of a genius as he may be, Jeff Bezos has created an organization of automatons.

Lots of people working there have good ideas that they never bring up, because past experience has taught them that it's a waste of time. So it's not that the workers are automatons, but rather that the workers have learned that the organization wants and what it doesn't want, and don't waste their time with what the org doesn't want. The individuals who comprise the organization are fine, but the meta-organism that…

So an organisation full of automatons?

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#197

Post by lancesells »

analogmemory wrote: post #176
ryanbrunner wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the same for me, although I'll add (I have Google Homes but pretty much the same thing): 1. Metric / imperial conversions, especially in the kitchen - this is one feature that is miles better than using a phone or computer if my hands are dirty cooking something and I want to know how many grams 12 ounces is or something like that. 2. Intercom between my 2 google homes, one in my kitchen and one in our co…

Agreed on the kitchen part. Once I moved my google home (mini) into the kitchen it got more useful. * Setting multiple alarms (why can't apple do this??) * Conversions * Food questions I think it would be rad if I could feed it a recipe and then have it read me the ingredients and instructions for each step. Maybe that exists?

> * Setting multiple alarms (why can't apple do this??)

It launched without that ability but an update sometime last year lets you set multiple alarms.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#198

Post by enobrev »

analogmemory wrote: post #176
ryanbrunner wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty much the same for me, although I'll add (I have Google Homes but pretty much the same thing): 1. Metric / imperial conversions, especially in the kitchen - this is one feature that is miles better than using a phone or computer if my hands are dirty cooking something and I want to know how many grams 12 ounces is or something like that. 2. Intercom between my 2 google homes, one in my kitchen and one in our co…

Agreed on the kitchen part. Once I moved my google home (mini) into the kitchen it got more useful. * Setting multiple alarms (why can't apple do this??) * Conversions * Food questions I think it would be rad if I could feed it a recipe and then have it read me the ingredients and instructions for each step. Maybe that exists?

It can definitely read recipes, although I've only ever had it read me recipes I've found by voice. I don't know how to explicitly tell it the recipe I want. It's still kind of cool as it goes step by step, although that can be a bit buggy, especially if you're also listening to music, but i still use it from time to time

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#199

Post by enobrev »

Resinderate wrote: post #170
Cyph0n wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. One feature I would like is to be able to change where your shopping list goes as I do not particularly enjoy using the Alexa app.

I had the same problem with google home. I already had a shared (with the SO) google keep note for my shopping list. I wrote a google keep integration with an IFTTT app to solve this, letting me do a "OK Google, we need X" to add X to the list. https://github.com/Resinderate/shopping-list/blob/master/sho...

When I first got a Google home, the keep integration was built in. And then they moved it to Google Express shopping list, suddenly, which was infuriating. Ended up using ifttt with Asana. Will try with keep as I preferred keep for shared shopping and Todo lists.

Re: Amazon’s Alexa Has 80k Apps and No Runaway Hit

#200

Post by notatoad »

abakker wrote: post #87

The problem is that Alexa is just a consumer voice command line. UI discoverability is impossible, and everything that you can do is just a utility that does something else. There are no native apps because everything that it can do is just an IO to something else. If they actually get conversational, this will change, but until then, it’s just a command line with no man page.

Sheer volume of commands is a pretty good solution to the lack of discoverability - if it does enough, you're probably going to try things without knowing if it works. I got a Google Home recently and have been impressed at the complexity and range of commands it supports. Obviously there's a limit, but it's a lot "fuzzier" than a command line.
Post reply on HN