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

Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 63 posts

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#51

Post by duxup »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #42
mrweasel wrote: post #28

Is Amazon actively trying to kill of their Echo/Alexa business? Every story about Alexa for the past six months, maybe a little more, have been about Amazon taking steps to dismantling anything with in their business or product line up that could potentially be useful. If they aren't making money, and don't believe that they ever will, then why not simply shutdown the whole thing? Is this some weird way of doing that…

Amazon thought people would say "Hey Alexa, buy more paper towels, a pack of soap, rent breaking bad season one, and tell me about the top rated blender in the store" Instead people say "Hey Alexa, set a timer for 10:00"

By a mile set timer is my most frequent Siri command.

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#52

Post by ransom1538 »

akmarinov wrote: post #37
ransom1538 wrote: post #26

Alexa should just use chatgpt, you would have a trillion dollar empire in 10 minutes. That would useful. Otherwise, alexa is usually dumber than my dog.

How? There’s no monetizing Alexa or ChatGPT in its current form

To have a useful alexa instead of 3 of them unplugged in the garage? I mean... its a step towards making money.

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#53

Post by oliwarner »

This feels like a pretty fundamental change in capability. I get that this was an extension by subscription, but a device that can now only blast advertising into my house feels like a substantial loss in value.

They've got to offer a refund, right?

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#54

Post by SkyPuncher »

duxup wrote: post #51
Workaccount2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon thought people would say "Hey Alexa, buy more paper towels, a pack of soap, rent breaking bad season one, and tell me about the top rated blender in the store" Instead people say "Hey Alexa, set a timer for 10:00"

By a mile set timer is my most frequent Siri command.

It’s the only command that even has a chance of working consistently.

I absolutely hate how these products attempt to be good at everything, and therefore suck at anything.

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#55

Post by mrweasel »

jorvi wrote: post #50
Workaccount2 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon thought people would say "Hey Alexa, buy more paper towels, a pack of soap, rent breaking bad season one, and tell me about the top rated blender in the store" Instead people say "Hey Alexa, set a timer for 10:00"

The funny thing is, if it wasn't Amazon that Alexa was ordering stuff from, you could bet your ass people would have been using it like that. But because Amazon sells used diapers, counterfeit items, can have gigantic price swings for some items, and has reviews that are gamed to the gills, no one would ever want to order from there blindly.

I don't think Amazon management is aware of how bad their site as gotten.

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#57

Post by jrs235 »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #54
duxup wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By a mile set timer is my most frequent Siri command.

It’s the only command that even has a chance of working consistently. I absolutely hate how these products attempt to be good at everything, and therefore suck at anything.

But Alexa devices are so stupid they can't operate without the Internet. So if the Internet/Wifi goes out due to ISP issues or power loss, your devices can't set timers and any previously set alarms (i.e. wake up alarms) will fail to go off.

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#58

Post by jrs235 »

mrweasel wrote: post #43
MyFedora wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There never was a business here to begin with. Amazon wants to kill Alexa because they couldn't find a way to monetize it.

But then why not just shut the whole thing down? Tell customers that the services will be shutdown January 1st. 2026 and yank the remaining device from the store? That's where we're heading anyway.

If they do that I'll completely write Amazon off.

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#59

Post by taskforcegemini »

mrweasel wrote: post #55
jorvi wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The funny thing is, if it wasn't Amazon that Alexa was ordering stuff from, you could bet your ass people would have been using it like that. But because Amazon sells used diapers, counterfeit items, can have gigantic price swings for some items, and has reviews that are gamed to the gills, no one would ever want to order from there blindly.

I don't think Amazon management is aware of how bad their site as gotten.

presumably because they have people shopping for them

Re: Amazon is bricking primary feature on $160 Echo device after 1 year

#60

Post by phendrenad2 »

amatecha wrote: post #15
alwa wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s what makes this sting: the buyers already did pay a price premium (and subscription) to motivate behavior consistent with their preferences. And even after accepting that premium, the company is just choosing not to deliver on its end anymore. And to be clear, “its end” here is refraining from pushing ads: a twisted state of affairs where the default condition is the company doing the work to force you to see…

Right, basically a legal form of extortion. "Pay up or we'll employ our best psychological manipulation techniques (invasive ads) to ensure you spend more money with us in the future". Paying to remove ads is such a grotesque result of hyper-capitalism.

Invasive ads are psychological manipulation? Which part is the psychological manipulation, the ads you chose (by not paying, but still using the service)? So the ads aren't really there to sell you something, they're there to punish you for not paying?

I have so many more questions but this is a good start.

Post reply on HN