It would be nice if this thing could read eBooks or at least play Audiobooks from Amazon. If they add this feature (and remove some of the creepy stuff), i'm sold.
Amazon Echo
711–720 of 746 posts
Re: Amazon Echo
#712I have my old CD collection ripped to .wav and served up via DLNA device. It would be nice if Echo worked with DLNA devices so I did not have to redo all this work.
Re: Amazon Echo
#713Earlier quoted context omitted.
Example?
ecological
If the recognition algorithm works the way I believe it does, it's looking for silence before the keyword, indicating it's the start of a question and "Alexa" is the subject:
e.g. "Alexa, how many people live in Germany?"
and not
"I should talk to Alexa about ordering ten new televisions."
Can't think of a lot of sentences that start with "ecological".
Re: Amazon Echo
#714This "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…
I disagree; I think most people desire privacy. It's just that the speed of technology change has been faster than social awareness.
For instance, most people understand cameras - they've been around since birth. And, most would be uncomfortable if there was a visible camera on every surface, pointed at them. There's an understanding that there's a 'watcher' at the other end of that picture or video. In fact, as cameras emerged, some cultures rejected them as a technology that could 'steal the soul'.
But, today, most people don't understand the 'sensors' that are everywhere, tracking their behavior. Not only are the sensors invisible, they're not something that most people are even aware of or understand. Many of us are in this business, and I'd suggest that most of us aren't even aware of all of them.
These sensors are similarly 'stealing our souls', but we don't even know that it's happening.
Re: Amazon Echo
#715Can someone disassemble and reverse engineer/monitor one to try to verify that its not spying on us?
Re: Amazon Echo
#716Everyone is freaking out about the privacy concerns but I'm pretty sure we've been typing these search queries into google for the past 10 years?
Re: Amazon Echo
#717Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pretty standard tactic of ad agencies for years now to deliberately make TV adverts slightly hallucinatory and weird, to make the viewer jerk out of their coma and lay down some memories. These people are not stupid.
TIL there's a very logical reason that ads have gone for the "random awkward humor" vibe in recent years. Cool.
Here's a classic example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrMD_z_FnNk
This was a massive hit with students and the like, and spawned many online techno remixes, before that was a thing.
(BTW I'm not an advertising executive or anything, but I was told this by someone who works in print media.)
Re: Amazon Echo
#718Earlier 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…
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Re: Amazon Echo
#719Yeah, nope won't buy it. Don't need Amazon analyzing my happens for profit.
Re: Amazon Echo
#720Earlier quoted context omitted.
By that argument, those people won't buy the Amazon Echo either, so what's the problem?
The people who don't broadcast their lives on social media are also concerned about what happens to the people who do. Because they are not psycopaths. well, generally speaking.
Converting other people to your religion "because you care". How nice of you.