I'm also worried about echo devices scanning my home network
Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
61–70 of 249 posts
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, but at least this turns the light off and the light is stuck off (and can't be turned back on by software even if they decide to stop listening).
Sure but it's still a bad design. If the device ever loses power, or restarts for any reason while the mute is engaged an informed user must accept a non-zero probability that their privacy was invaded. I have wireless headphones that work like this and it's a terrible design. If they go out of range temporarily, they unmute. It makes the 'hardware' mute functionality absolutely useless since it cannot be relied upon…
Short of a switch that is sticky when powered off, or a design that comes up muted... or excessive wizardry to persist state, this is non-negotiable, though.
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#63An OTA firmware update can change this behavior overnight. Unless it's a physical bounce switch that actually disconnects power mechanically, you are still at the mercy of someone else.
> Unless it's a physical bounce switch that actually disconnects power mechanically
That's literally what you're looking at.
The schmitt-trigger and the DFFs debounce the switch in hardware, and then the FET that controls the power input to the microphone also controls the power input to the LED. What do you want, a relay?
Firmware can only reset the DFFs (which does turn on the microphone), but it can't change the physically coupled LED / mic-power behavior.
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not physical debounce switch? I get it is more expensive but no one would question it twice.
What’s wrong with their solution / implemention? Why do they have to defend against a tear down?
The design allows the SOC to unmute via software. This is a significant security vulnerability.
Yes the light will turn off, but who constantly monitors the lights on their devices?
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#65Red light used to indicate recording, traditionally. I'd expect the light to be green when I'm safe from spying.
Not sure why this was voted down, as that's the way I'd expect it to work as well. The red light should flash or pulsate when recording, in fact. Otherwise, people without good color vision might miss the cue.
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Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure but it's still a bad design. If the device ever loses power, or restarts for any reason while the mute is engaged an informed user must accept a non-zero probability that their privacy was invaded. I have wireless headphones that work like this and it's a terrible design. If they go out of range temporarily, they unmute. It makes the 'hardware' mute functionality absolutely useless since it cannot be relied upon…
Short of a switch that is sticky when powered off, or a design that comes up muted... or excessive wizardry to persist state, this is non-negotiable, though.
Physical switches for mute are underrated, think of all the conference call time that could be saved (and embarrassing moments avoided) if laptops had physical mute switches.
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#67Red light used to indicate recording, traditionally. I'd expect the light to be green when I'm safe from spying.
Not sure why this was voted down, as that's the way I'd expect it to work as well. The red light should flash or pulsate when recording, in fact. Otherwise, people without good color vision might miss the cue.
The parent comment is a "hurr de hurr it should be green when I'm PROTECTED from SPYING" comment. From the point of view of a normal person who bought it for the Alexa functions, is GREEN for "stop" and RED for "go" honestly the way round you'd expect it to work?
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
in the same vein, what about the overlooked 1mm x 1mm chip that holds logic such as {{ if red_led==active then pushAudio('udp://amazon.com/jeffsBathroomSpeaker') }}
Unless it has a microphone itself, that's difficult, because the actual microphone is depowered.
What does it mean for a microphone to be depowered? Doesn't the movement of the diaphragm induce a current, which is amplified- so it's the microphone amplifier that's depowered? Are we assured that the current produced by the diaphragm is too weak to reconstruct audio, even if it's very noisy?
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#69I'm also worried about echo devices scanning my home network
Then don't buy one.
Re: Amazon Echo Flex: Microphone mute button appears to be real and functional
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks. Annoying that clickbait titles are allowed here.
The title gives all the information you need : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... If it was not a real mute, it would not be a question in the title but a statement such as "Amazon Echo Flex Teardown: The Microphone Mute is Fake".
The title is not a yes/no question. You can't answer "is it real or fake?" by "no", the law doesn't apply and you have to take the bait to get the answer.