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Amazon Echo Show

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Re: Amazon Echo Show

#121

Post by sagethesagesage »

tsunamifury wrote: post #99
mikeash wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we ever going to see unity between these services, or are we doomed to have little walled-off fiefdoms forever? A phone number works anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world, with anyone who has a phone. All e-mail providers work with each other. I don't care who you're with, and I wouldn't even have to know except it's usually part of the address. SMS works no matter which provider we both have. It feels…

This isn't that complicated or sad. You can still call anyone in the world and still text anyone in the world. Its that the remaining spaces to compete in are feature based, and features don't move forward quickly on open standards. There are plenty of working open standards to do the basics, its if you want to do anything beyond the basics that you end up in a walled garden.

Matrix is capable of many advanced features, and can be used as the framework for others, while being an open standard.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#122

Post by dkrich »

trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #26
dkrich wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I saw this, I actually had the opposite reaction. I remember when I first saw an iPod Nano with the color screen and the scroll wheel that magically scrolled up and down by just moving your finger around it without actually turning a wheel. It seemed like magic. Same thing when I first saw the iPhone/iPod Touch. Apple's products were very carefully designed and only released when they were perfect, and very rare…

My latest gen Apple TV wants to disagree with you. As does my wife's first gen Apple Watch ... both are magical turds IMHO.

I don't own an Apple Watch, but I know lots of people who do and love them.

But in any case, I think the last ten years of iPhone and iPad releases do somewhat agree with me.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#123

Post by msabalau »

rkangel wrote: post #87
odonnellryan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, why go this route instead of creating a device to add to your TV? My echo is right next to the TV.

Because this way the screen can turn on and off dynamically. Also, it doesn't tie you to having to have a TV in a location you want one.

Hmmm, Google Home already turns Android TVs on and off on the fly. (or TVs with Chromecasts plugged into a modern HDMI-CEC slot). Or push info to the discovery tab of the Home app. I suppose there is some value in putting an ugly (IMO) 7" screen in specific locations where you don't have or want a TV, like a kitchen, but it seems rather niche.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#124

Post by danielbln »

eclipxe wrote: post #82
verytrivial wrote: post #63

I must be one of those old farts who prefers privacy over convenience. I do not want what amounts to an always-on black-box surveillance device in my home and I simply do not understand why other people think it is okay. I honestly don't. Down with this sort of thing!

Do you own a cellphone with a camera and microphone?

Personally, I have a sticker on all cameras (front-facing phone camera, monitor, laptop). I can't do anything against having hot mics everywhere, but I'll be damned if I have internet connected cameras pointed at me, I don't trust IoT security one bit.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#125

Post by obstinate »

uptown wrote: post #93

“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugge…

Kneejerk Orwell quote referencing minor advance to existing technology: check.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#126

Post by sharkweek »

uptown wrote: post #93

“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugge…

"And but so why the abrupt consumer retreat back to good old voice-only telephoning?

The answer, in a kind of trivalent nutshell, is: (1) emotional stress, (2) physical vanity, (3) a certain queer kind of self- obliterating logic in the microeconomics of consumer high-tech."

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest

http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#127

Post by Godel_unicode »

noonespecial wrote: post #75

Why does it have to be a tiny self contained screen? Until I can say "Alexa, on the main view screen" (right after "Alexa, Earl Grey, hot" of course), we've got progress to make. Which reminds me, I've got a Keurig to hack...

Ok Google, show me Futurama from Netflix on living room. Ok Google, fast forward 27 seconds.

As soon as they get the ability to play specific episodes (it knows what you're asking, it just can't do it yet) and hook it up to the knowledge graph? Ok Google, show me the Futurama episode where Hermes loses his job on living room.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#128

Post by jerf »

nicky0 wrote: post #103
odonnellryan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, why go this route instead of creating a device to add to your TV? My echo is right next to the TV.

Locate remote, Turn on TV, select EXT3 input....

Modern HDMI-based systems can do this in one stroke. And by "modern" I mean that pushing my PS3 (yes, 3, not 4) button to start it up starts up my TV, and would start up my audio system were it not too old for that. (Though it occurs to me now to check whether it might do that if I routed HDMI in to it; for historical reasons I route optical audio to it which I believe lacks the channel for this.)

Shutting things back down seems to be a bit more challenging, though. The TV recognizes the PS3 turning off and returns to live TV (the last thing I really want it to switch to, but whatever), but the whole system teardown is a bit more complicated.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#130

Post by dkrich »

lowtolerance wrote: post #116
ganfortran wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Amazon's products are cheap. Echo first gets out, it is merely 99 dollars, and at the time, a vanilla bluetooth speaker worth that much. It is about accessibility.

Amazon Echo was $199 when it was first introduced, which was still fairly competitively priced against premium bluetooth speakers.

Also the Fire Phone, which as I remember was priced at about $650.
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