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Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

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Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#131

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

FreakyT wrote: post #79
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #56

> The one that has jumped out at me first is called “Drop In” — which lets you make a call to someone without them even answering the phone first. I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. EDIT: That's too mean spirited. If you want to peer in on your elderly parents, webcams are a better idea because you'll put them in a p…

> What person would ever want this "feature"? Look up research on "media spaces" if you're interested in the practical applications of this kind of feature. Just one example paper, but there are many more: https://www.billbuxton.com/DGPmediaspace.pdf Digitally creating a "portal" like this can be considered roughly analogous to connected spaces in real life. So, for example, two break rooms across different campuses…

Eh, that seems like a much cooler idea implemented with untethered VR/AR lenses rather than screens everywhere. I don't like being on camera so it personally gives me the creeps.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#132

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

mikeash wrote: post #106
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #56

> The one that has jumped out at me first is called “Drop In” — which lets you make a call to someone without them even answering the phone first. I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. EDIT: That's too mean spirited. If you want to peer in on your elderly parents, webcams are a better idea because you'll put them in a p…

I really don't understand this anger. I can't imagine using it either, but it's optional and off by default. If people like it, why shouldn't they have it? If they don't, they won't use it. I don't think the spying concerns are reasonable. If somebody wants to spy on somebody, there are already plenty of ways to do it. Why require that developers buy an expensive Amazon widget when you could require that they buy a $…

> If people like it, why shouldn't they have it?

It may become the norm that even though it's still optional, society moves in a direction where people have it on by default, and you are met with confused/dissapointed faces when you explain it is uncomfortable. Or it simply becomes a cultural norm in the professional world

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#133

Post by dragonwriter »

cpcb wrote: post #91
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #56

> The one that has jumped out at me first is called “Drop In” — which lets you make a call to someone without them even answering the phone first. I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. EDIT: That's too mean spirited. If you want to peer in on your elderly parents, webcams are a better idea because you'll put them in a p…

I just placed a pre-order for 2 of the Echo Shows mostly for this Drop In feature. My wife and I are about to be first-time parents and for us, this is a pretty exciting product for parents compared to the other devices out there in this space. For the "drop in" feature specifically, my plan is to leave one Show in the nursery and one for my parents. They like to call us a lot, and with this device, I should be able…

> I think a lot of people have a problem with the privacy aspect, but for us, I don't see why we would have a problem with my parents seeing the nursery at any given time, esp with the 10sec window to decline.

As someone who is 16 months into being a first-year parent, I'm going to say that if you are about to be first time parents, you are about to discover the answer to a whole lot of "I don't see see why" questions, and "why we wouldn't want to have to actively refuse rather than actively allow anyone, even our parents, to see what is going on in the nursery at will" is pretty likely to feature prominently on that list.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#134

Post by ghurtado »

albedoa wrote: post #116
ghurtado wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a different figure, you should share it

This is your source to defend. 85% of smartphones purchased in 1Q16 were non-Apple. You used this figure to claim that 85% of all people don't own iPhones. You're most likely right, but I don't know what kind of honest conversation can be had with someone who is so willing to pull one over on the rest of us to force his point. You derived your own figure from an unrelated figure and implied a connection. If you had a…

You've used a lot of words to say close to nothing at all.

> You're most likely right

What exactly are you complaining about then?

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#135

Post by mikeash »

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #132
mikeash wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't understand this anger. I can't imagine using it either, but it's optional and off by default. If people like it, why shouldn't they have it? If they don't, they won't use it. I don't think the spying concerns are reasonable. If somebody wants to spy on somebody, there are already plenty of ways to do it. Why require that developers buy an expensive Amazon widget when you could require that they buy a $…

> If people like it, why shouldn't they have it? It may become the norm that even though it's still optional, society moves in a direction where people have it on by default, and you are met with confused/dissapointed faces when you explain it is uncomfortable. Or it simply becomes a cultural norm in the professional world

I don't see why it would change anything in that respect. Like I said, you can already achieve this without Amazon's fancy new box by saying, "Answer your phone when I call or you're fired."

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#136

Post by albedoa »

ghurtado wrote: post #134
albedoa wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is your source to defend. 85% of smartphones purchased in 1Q16 were non-Apple. You used this figure to claim that 85% of all people don't own iPhones. You're most likely right, but I don't know what kind of honest conversation can be had with someone who is so willing to pull one over on the rest of us to force his point. You derived your own figure from an unrelated figure and implied a connection. If you had a…

You've used a lot of words to say close to nothing at all. > You're most likely right What exactly are you complaining about then?

You don't think being intentionally misleading should be an issue to people who might otherwise agree with your base claim? There's something seriously wrong with your compass here.

> You've used a lot of words to say close to nothing at all.

Alright man, that says a lot about how willing you are to change.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#137

Post by ghurtado »

albedoa wrote: post #136
ghurtado wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've used a lot of words to say close to nothing at all. > You're most likely right What exactly are you complaining about then?

You don't think being intentionally misleading should be an issue to people who might otherwise agree with your base claim? There's something seriously wrong with your compass here. > You've used a lot of words to say close to nothing at all. Alright man, that says a lot about how willing you are to change.

> intentionally misleading

I think what's wrong with this conversation is that you think you can correctly attribute malice to the opinions of complete strangers simply because you don't agree with them.

This will get you into trouble more often than not.

Did you notice how I didn't accuse you of intentionally adding nothing to the conversation or intentionally being obtuse?

That's because I don't know you at all and therefore I don't claim to know anything about your intentions. As a matter of fact, even after this very ridiculous conversation, and although I haven't the slightest clue of what your actual intentions are, I still give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your intentions are noble, (albeit clearly based on incorrect assumptions).

That's the difference between you and I.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#138

Post by albedoa »

ghurtado wrote: post #137
albedoa wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think being intentionally misleading should be an issue to people who might otherwise agree with your base claim? There's something seriously wrong with your compass here. > You've used a lot of words to say close to nothing at all. Alright man, that says a lot about how willing you are to change.

> intentionally misleading I think what's wrong with this conversation is that you think you can correctly attribute malice to the opinions of complete strangers simply because you don't agree with them. This will get you into trouble more often than not. Did you notice how I didn't accuse you of intentionally adding nothing to the conversation or intentionally being obtuse? That's because I don't know you at all and…

What will get you into trouble is insisting we don't know you at all. On the contrary, you've told us enough.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#139

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

derefr wrote: post #123
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #56

> The one that has jumped out at me first is called “Drop In” — which lets you make a call to someone without them even answering the phone first. I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. EDIT: That's too mean spirited. If you want to peer in on your elderly parents, webcams are a better idea because you'll put them in a p…

> EDIT: This will definitely become a feature on sites like Upwork so that buyers can make sure developers are billing them the correct hours, even though the prices are dirt cheap already. Upwork already does this; clients can watch your screen or your webcam whenever they want, if you sign up for a job that requires such. The Hansonian-em dystopia of barely-positive-utility working-to-live doesn't need Amazon's hel…

Really, wtf? If my boss, who is a 10x coder, looks over my shoulder it's one thing because he's more or less always right with his criticism. I couldn't imagine anyone else micromanaging the dev process though

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#140

Post by orisa2 »

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #130
manyxcxi wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a thought, is it because it's Amazon? For me, if it was D-Link, Netgear, or most other brands, I'd immediately pass. Just absolutely no trust that they'd get it anywhere near right. If it's Google, I may pass because they already have so much of my data, and I'm just generally kind of creeped out by them a little bit more every day. If it's from Apple or Amazon I'm not assuming it's bulletproof, but I'm thinking…

> If it's Google, I may pass because they already have so much of my data, and I'm just generally kind of creeped out by them a little bit more every day. If it's from Apple or Amazon I'm not assuming it's bulletproof, but I'm thinking it's going to be more secure than the vast majority of their competition, and likely as secure as anything else available. Curious why you differentiate between Amazon and Google. Mayb…

For me, I don't care if Amazon has my shopping preferences. I don't see a list of every item I've ever bought or viewed as particularly sensitive information. If you use Chrome, Google search, Gmail, and maybe have an Android phone, then Google knows everything. Private conversations, every service you have ever used (assuming email is used for login), every thing you've ever searched for, every url you've ever viewed in your browser, basically everything of everything.
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