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Amazon Echo

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Re: Amazon Echo

#321

Post by wehadfun »

anigbrowl wrote: post #248
chatmasta wrote: post #87

This "internet-of-things" trend coincides unfortunately with the "dragnet surveillance" trend. With every new product launch from a "cloud company," I increasingly feel as if I'm reading the tombstone of modern society. The selling point behind these devices is convenience, but at the cost of security. I don't think I need to explain to HN why an always-on, internet connected voice recording device is something to ke…

Most people don't care because they're not culpable enough to feel paranoid. Some percentage of people will be unjustly exploited, but probably not enough to offset the economic benefits that technology like this brings to its users. I think your focus on 'the people vs the government' is misplaced, because government is just a sort of social technology which can be used and abused like any other technology depending…

the economic benefits that technology like this brings to its users

What economical benefit is this thing bringing its users

Re: Amazon Echo

#322

Post by lsaferite »

JadeNB wrote: post #297
ddollar wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The selling point behind these devices is convenience, but at the cost of security. I don't think I need to explain to HN why an always-on, internet connected voice recording device is something to keep out of your house. Do you have any computers in your house? A TV made in the last few years? A smartphone?

> > The selling point behind these devices is convenience, but at the cost of security. I don't think I need to explain to HN why an always-on, internet connected voice recording device is something to keep out of your house. > Do you have any computers in your house? A TV made in the last few years? A smartphone? Neither the first nor the last of those is necessarily always on or Internet connected. (For example, I…

Following that logic, you CAN turn off the echo, it's got what looks like mute and power buttons right on top.

Re: Amazon Echo

#323

Post by readerrrr »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #302

Why I might buy an Echo: - it's a speaker with extra features. At about the same price as a bluetooth speaker, and I need a better one of those, the extra features are basically free as long as the audio quality is good. - it can answer questions at the dinner table. My wife and I both have the annoying habit of pulling out our phones to answer questions that come up during conversation. Asking "Alexa" instead would…

You are trading your so far rarely touched privacy for solving minor first world annoyances.

Re: Amazon Echo

#324

Post by leeber »

vezzy-fnord wrote: post #241
leeber wrote: post #192

To everyone worried about privacy: We all trust our e-mail to be stored in the cloud, we store sensitive files etc on services like dropbox, we trust that our operating systems aren't collecting/sending data, etc. You're already using and relying upon MANY services with the ability (if they really wanted to) to steal TONS of private information from you. It all comes down to trust. But don't pretend like this opens u…

We all trust our e-mail to be stored in the cloud. A lot of people have their own elaborate personal mail setups. we store sensitive files etc on services like dropbox A lot of people do not, and it is absolutely trivial not to (unlike say, being totally independent of webmail providers). we trust that our operating systems aren't collecting/sending data Trust is not created equal. For example, it is not a stretch at…

Ok, let me re-phrase a little bit.

I am asserting my belief that a large majority of people who voice privacy concerns over things like amazon echo are the same people who do in fact use many cloud services. I find it to be ironic if my assertion is true.

Furthermore, I think it all comes down to our perception, and our perception does not accurately reflect "potential to be misused". Our perception is that gmail, dropbox, facebook, apps which store data, etc. are all relatively low threat. However a device that is marketed to record our voices in our homes is perceive to be high threat. In reality though, the "potential to be misused" is present in ALL times we trust a 3rd party with access to our information, or even the potential ability to access our information, or cameras, or recording devices (including phones and laptops).

So like I said, it comes down to trust. Trust amazon or don't. Trust dropbox or don't. Trust your smartphones, or don't. Potential to be misused is equal among ANYTHING that has listening or recording capabilities built in to it.

Re: Amazon Echo

#325

Post by teepo »

delecti wrote: post #123
jgrahamc wrote: post #60

A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive -- you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all…

I think that's exactly why they all have trigger words, "Ok Google", "Xbox", "Alexa". Makes it at least a little less likely.

Exactly. This prevents the Talking TV from turning itself off. From 30 Rick: "First, I'm going to go home and delete everything on my DVR."

Re: Amazon Echo

#326

Post by stronglikedan »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #302

Why I might buy an Echo: - it's a speaker with extra features. At about the same price as a bluetooth speaker, and I need a better one of those, the extra features are basically free as long as the audio quality is good. - it can answer questions at the dinner table. My wife and I both have the annoying habit of pulling out our phones to answer questions that come up during conversation. Asking "Alexa" instead would…

While we're being positive, I absolutely do not think Amazon would be stupid enough to shoot themselves in the foot sending all recorded data up to the cloud. I'm certain that within a few hours of release, someone will have a network monitor hooked up. Their findings will be widely known almost immediately, and this thing would be dead in the water if they were sending everything up. They know this already.

Re: Amazon Echo

#327

Post by lsaferite »

IgorPartola wrote: post #320

I recently bought into the Sonos ecosystem. While it is pretty limited in some ways (I can't just stream stuff playing on my phone to the Sonos speakers, for example if I am playing a random YouTube video), it has one really good thing going for it: it can sync playback between an arbitrary number of speakers. This is my new standard for this type of thing: speakers that cannot do this are inferior to Sonos. In that…

I was just covering the sync thing with the guys in my office. In any large building you'll need multiple units to provide good coverage. They need to ensure these work in that context as well.

Re: Amazon Echo

#328

Post by squeaky-clean »

melling wrote: post #196

Other than the usual HN fear discussion, does anyone have any thoughts on the product itself? Doesn't offer any functionality that would be useful to the average person?

I don't really understand the value behind this. It seems like voice recognition is the main feature behind it, but that doesn't create a reason for a product to exist. It's basically my smartphone, except I can't carry it in my pocket everywhere.

Even if the voice recognition is fantastic, it can't actually do anything useful. It's like selling a keyboard that doesn't work with any home computer or device. Maybe if I could control practically EVERYTHING with my voice, this would be neat, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can I write an email with this? Control appliances? Voice control by itself isn't so amazing that I'll switch to a product inferior in its other features. What if I want to play/pause a song without speaking? Pick an artist and look through the albums or track titles? Read a wikipedia article and follow links to other related articles?

It's a (supposedly) superior way to access a limited amount of inferior applications. It's not a voice controller, which I would love to buy. It's a mediocre product which happens to have a voice interface.

Also, "Alexa, alarm off." really? You're telling me now I don't even have to roll over and smack something to sleep through my alarm clock?

Depending on the sound quality, I could possibly see it being useful as a fancy wireless speaker. But that's about it.

Re: Amazon Echo

#329

Post by Istof »

filereaper wrote: post #269

'Alexa' as a trigger word... I'd be curious how it responds if 'Alexa' is contained in the actual music its playing, this immedieatly came to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downeaster_Alexa I'm not an expert in voice recognition, this might just be a silly thing that has been long addressed...

hopefully they let you change that "magic" word (alexa seems too common)... and more importantly, I hope that it doesn't send any data online unless that word was recognized locally with a very low false positive rate

Re: Amazon Echo

#330

Post by api »

A microphone that uploads all my ambient sound and speech to the cloud. No thank you, ever, under any circumstances.
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