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Amazon Echo Show

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Re: Amazon Echo Show

#171

Post by [deleted] »

drewda wrote: post #162
sgift wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The joke's on us. Not even Orwell thought people would be willing to pay for that kind of technology. He thought government would have to force people to get it into their homes.

See the forward to Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death": > "But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell's dark vision, there was another--slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#172

Post by iamatworknow »

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.

Prime subscribers were offered it for $99 when it was first announced. I think you had to get put on a waiting list but that's how I ended up with mine.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#173

Post by rsync »

mhermher wrote: post #46
colemannugent wrote: post #19

I feel like this entire product could be a Chromecast-esque dongle that connects to a TV. Having a personal dashboard would actually be quite useful, but this seems like they want to sell appliances not experiences. Maybe they've gone with this form factor because of the 2x 2" speakers? But why would I want that when it could be plugged directly into my home audio setup? Or maybe it's so they can include a touchscree…

Agreed on most points, however there is a bit of utility in it. Every time your echo directs you to the Alexa smartphone app, you realize how useless it is. I know how to use the Internet. If I wanted to look something up, I know how to do it and I wouldn't need to use the Alexa app. I think the key part of the screen is how it functions as output rather than as input. It can "fail" more gracefully when it has no ide…

"I have sort of come to the same conclusion that these home assistants would be best as plug ins to a TV with HDMI pass through."

Wait - is "HDMI passthrough" a thing ?

I wouldn't think so - HDMI has copy protection on it and so an HDMI passthrough device would need to MITM the normal signal ...

Would be very interested to know if this exists and if so, how it works ...

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#174

Post by IneffablePigeon »

electriclove wrote: post #153
lsaferite wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ever take a look at the location tracking info google keeps on you? They know everywhere I've been for the last several years or so. I just checked, they list location data back to 2009. https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

I went here with the intent to delete my history but I actually kinda like being able to see this. I've got mixed feelings about it..

I wrote a little script for viewing the data as a heatmap a while ago, if you're interested: https://github.com/olane/locationheatmap

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#176

Post by amelius »

> If you want to limit your interaction with Alexa, simply turn the mic/camera button off.

Of course, that button is a handy indicator for Amazon to know when to record stuff :)

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#177

Post by djhworld »

FLGMwt wrote: post #3

Any echo owners feel like they would get additional value out of this? 90% of my interaction with my standard echo has been "what's the weather". Even when I want visual controls for music, I'd rather pull out my phone than walk over to a screen.

My main interactions with it are to play the radio (TuneIn), connect to my phone via bluetooth, and stop/start the playback.

That's about it right now, I don't use it for anything else. I find you really need to enunciate your words otherwise it just gets confused and gives up (that's a UK midlands accent for you though...)

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#178

Post by dagw »

mhermher wrote: post #46
colemannugent wrote: post #19

I feel like this entire product could be a Chromecast-esque dongle that connects to a TV. Having a personal dashboard would actually be quite useful, but this seems like they want to sell appliances not experiences. Maybe they've gone with this form factor because of the 2x 2" speakers? But why would I want that when it could be plugged directly into my home audio setup? Or maybe it's so they can include a touchscree…

Agreed on most points, however there is a bit of utility in it. Every time your echo directs you to the Alexa smartphone app, you realize how useless it is. I know how to use the Internet. If I wanted to look something up, I know how to do it and I wouldn't need to use the Alexa app. I think the key part of the screen is how it functions as output rather than as input. It can "fail" more gracefully when it has no ide…

I have sort of come to the same conclusion that these home assistants would be best as plug ins to a TV

Very much disagree. My TV is not in the part of the house I spend most of my time, and when I'm watching TV I almost certainly don't want a bunch of stuff overlaid on top of whatever I'm watching. I could conceptually see something like this working in my kitchen/dining room, but not if I have to put a TV there just for that.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#180

Post by mholmes680 »

Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they're throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in.

I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice controlled speaker. Give them a remote! Now, give them a voice-controlled camera! Now, give them a voice-controlled screen! Soon, give them and let them go hands free! Rinse-repeat.

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