Amazon Echo
431–440 of 746 posts
Re: Amazon Echo
#432Why 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…
Edit: I missed this: "Plus, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream your favorite music services like Spotify, iTunes, and Pandora from your phone or tablet," which obsoletes some of the below. The point on monophonic audio still stands.
Out of curiosity, are you already embedded in the amazon cloud music ecosystem? I'm one of those luddites who still has a library of mp3s—I don't want to have to figure out what I can or can't get on some compatible streaming service here. That would be a lovely feature—if it had an aux-in port or bluetooth compatibility so I could still use it as a dumb speaker. Smart TV's still have inputs, e.g.
Additionally, if I'm not mistaken, it's monophone? Dual-driver, but only one "360-degree" channel of some sort?
Re: Amazon Echo
#433Well that's an out-of-the-blue introduction. I'm increasingly unconvinced of the market for voice-driven devices (innate reluctance to talk when not to a person), but at a glance looks like this is as laudable an effort as can be attempted. At $199 it's too pricy for most, given the untested/unfamiliar niche. At $99 (select Prime members), some of is might give it a chance. I'm reminded that Apple started its move in…
I use the crap out of the "OK Google" functionality of my phone, I send voice text messages more than typed by an order of 3 to 1. I am very excited for this.
Mine always sends text messages incorrectly as it doesn't add + at the beginning of a number; I have a number beginning with 07 or 447 for mobile here in the UK, yet it doesn't correctly set this.
The SMS app works fine on the same phone.
Re: Amazon Echo
#434"Alexa, open pod bay doors"
Re: Amazon Echo
#435Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you must be joking. The burden of proof in an argument has to be borne by the one making the claim. If you claim you saw a UFO, the burden of proof is on you. The burden of proof does not fall on everyone else to prove that what you saw could NOT, in any way, shape, or form, possibly be a UFO.
It is established by now that various government agencies all over the world routinely monitor web traffic, tap phones and install trojans on computers. There is no doubt in my mind that an internet connected listening device would be exploited.
So smartphone, tablets, laptops are also exploited? They all have a microphone and they're never off.
I fail to see how this is any more a possible privacy breach than my iPhone that's laying right next to me right now.
Re: Amazon Echo
#436Amazon Echo seems like a step in the right direction towards ubiquitous comupting (+ AI). It reminds me of "Jarvis" from the Iron Man series. I'd also be surprised if Google isn't concerned by this. Likes of Siri, Cortana have long been touted as Google-search killer, and I think something more advanced/powerful than Amazon Echo will have the potential to do just that.
I wonder if the Amazon Echo will constantly namedrop "Oracle" into everything as it's doing things like it did in Iron Man?
I am wondering what the backend is for this. If it's just going to recommend buying books or stuff from Amazon (like the main selling point on the Fire Phone is - "Look! You can SHOP from it") then it'll be a flop.
Re: Amazon Echo
#437This could be the natural next step for one click shopping. Obviously it'll be more difficult without textual or visual capabilities, but things like "Add gelato to my shopping cart "(as apposed to shopping list ) would be huge for Amazon fresh shoppers and other products that aren't too ambiguous. Another application: "Alexa, order a Dominoes pizza with extra anchovies. "
Since you mention fresh: https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/ It still requires a jump to the pc to order; but no reason they couldn't add a way to initiate an order from it. It's also a tad less privacy intrusive then echo.
Very interesting, thanks. A pity supermarkets here in the UK don't offer useful apps to do the same thing from a phone + barcode scanner.
Re: Amazon Echo
#438Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Most people don't care because they're not culpable enough to feel paranoid. Maybe you didn't mean it literally but it's a popular expression in this context. I don't think a desire for privacy is paranoid; it is normal, healthy behavior. But to address the gist of what you say, I think you assume an understanding of data security that is far beyond most end users. How many even know what "metadata" means, or how '…
I'm not saying a desire for privacy is paranoid, but the assumption that the government will engage in passive monitoring and archival of everything that can be captured through the microphone and use it as leverage later, even if it doesn't involve criminal liability, eg 'assist us without nefarious purpose or we will use something we recorded to cause you acute embarrassment with devastating social consequences.' I…
> This is what I mean when I say most people don't feel culpable enough; there isn't anything sufficiently illegal going on in their lives that they perceive a significant government interest in intruding upon them in the first place.
I hear this refutation quite often. I find it typically comes from people in a place of privilege that the system largely ignores. I've read far too many accounts from people who are not Caucasian or are Muslim to believe that innocent people are not the targets of mass surveillance and do not notice its effects.
Re: Amazon Echo
#439Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, you must be joking. The burden of proof in an argument has to be borne by the one making the claim. If you claim you saw a UFO, the burden of proof is on you. The burden of proof does not fall on everyone else to prove that what you saw could NOT, in any way, shape, or form, possibly be a UFO.
It is established by now that various government agencies all over the world routinely monitor web traffic, tap phones and install trojans on computers. There is no doubt in my mind that an internet connected listening device would be exploited.
So what you're saying is that you don't have proof of your claims. Ok, got it.
Re: Amazon Echo
#440That was an incredibly painful video to watch, what's wrong with just demonstrating the product's features in home environments? Why do we need these ads that make it seem like this "is a real conversation happening in a family home".
This video was so over the top I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1. Alexa, is this a joke?
Perhaps we could put this video, the Samsung S3 launch party video and the Microsoft Windows 7 party video (where they discuss how much they love Windows whilst wearing party hats) together for the most cringeworthy video EVER?