Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 414 posts

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#181

Post by tmm »

neves wrote: post #4

Ok, it is cheap. It is also cool. But does the techies here find it really useful? If so, why?

I use it primarily to control lights and my thermostat. In theory I can use it to control my entertainment system, but that seems less convenient than an app on my phone.

The lighting control is great. I see a lot of people saying a physical button or switch is better, but voice control is a button that is always exactly where you are.

I live in an older house which with the exception of the kitchen and bathroom is lit entirely with tabletop lamps. Adding modern recessed lighting with convenient switches would be a major undertaking. Installing a bunch of Insteon lamp controllers took 15 minutes and pairing with Alexa was pretty simple.

Bottom line, Alexa is an I/O device just like a keyboard is. It's only useful when connected to other devices. If you find home automation worthwhile, you'll probably like the voice control Alexa provides. If you think home automation is more trouble than it's worth, Alexa probably won't change your mind.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#182

Post by donatj »

m0ngr31 wrote: post #31

Google might be ahead in some conversational things, but functionality wise, Alexa is way better. Probably has something to do with being on the market first, but developing a skill is a much better experience than it is with Google (imo). I think that's a big reason why. I've developed a number of skills for some big companies, and I'm fighting Amazon right now about getting my open source one published ( https://gi…

I find 3rd party skills a painful experience to use.

Having to open a skill like an app before asking what I want Alexa to do feels completely wrong. It leads to me basically never using any third party skills.

If I wanted to open apps I’d use my phone. I want something more natural.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#183

Post by fiatpandas »

enraged_camel wrote: post #153
fermienrico wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Ok Google comes extremely naturally to most people I know. I prefer Google’s personification of an assistant - it’s the brand itself. Not some Alexa or Siri or some gender specific role. Google has taken an absolute brilliant approach towards voice and their popularity shows. It’s a pleasure to use compared to anything else.

>>Ok Google comes extremely naturally to most people I know. And it sounds incredibly stupid to anyone else within earshot. I can’t get over how dumb my roommate sounds whenever he uses the thing. My immediate thought when I hear him say “OK Google” is that Google must have told him something and he is responding with “OK” to acknowledge. You know, the way people actually communicate. I get that it becomes natural af…

Not sure what English speaking country, or even US region, you come from but “OK [name], [call to action, often one involving both speaker and listener]” is a thing. And it doesn’t have to be a response to something said previously.

Remember, people can do whatever they want with their language, and it becomes a thing even if you personally aren’t familiar with it.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#184

Post by barrkel »

fermienrico wrote: post #99
semperdark wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds extreme, but it's definitely necessary in order for a service to be treated like a tool. When was the last time your screwdriver decided to fail for undefined reasons? For that matter, how about your text editor? For something like a voice interface to become second nature, you need to deeply trust that it'll do what you expect. Work with screwdrivers enough and they become an extension of your hand.

I couldn't have explained it better. You've nailed the core issue - Reliability & Robustness. These attributes of a product disappear in the background when it just works. Voice activated devices, even Google assistant, are far away from the reliability/robustness we expect from a reliable tool. Therefore, they are not tools yet.

They're completely reliable for weather, specific queries like will it rain, timers and music. That's enough to be compelling at the price level.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#185

Post by endorphone »

touristtam wrote: post #144
JulianRaphael wrote: post #121

Very revealing discussion. Most of the participants just argue about Amazon vs. Google here, some fear surveillance, some consider the devices useless, a few want to understand if the HN crowd finds it useful. This is something I notice here on HN in product-related discussions more and more: people just say what THEY think about product X (typically a negative opinion or complaint), rather being creative, constructi…

General public has probably been sold on the potential & novelty of the device, without realizing how little there is to it (feature wise). It feels like it is similar to VR and personal drones; it sounds exiting, but it isn't that practical in everyday setting to replace other activities, and setting it up can feel tedious.

>General public has probably been sold on the potential & novelty of the device, without realizing how little there is to it (feature wise).

There is an outrageous amount to it, feature wise. Voice is the holy grail for a pretty large amount of the public, and it is finally there.

The setup is surprisingly unintuitive (even the simple step to connect to a specific wifi network is beyond many users, and it is notable that Google Home on the same device just does it by itself), but I'm sure the techie niece will do it for most.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#186

Post by ZenoArrow »

JulianRaphael wrote: post #121

Very revealing discussion. Most of the participants just argue about Amazon vs. Google here, some fear surveillance, some consider the devices useless, a few want to understand if the HN crowd finds it useful. This is something I notice here on HN in product-related discussions more and more: people just say what THEY think about product X (typically a negative opinion or complaint), rather being creative, constructi…

> "Why do you think millions of people bought an Echo Dot or a Google Home? Not from YOUR perspective, but from the perspective of millions of people that seem to see value in this product?"

I have no problem with the product category Echo Dot and Google Home sit in, and can see why they make interesting gifts, my only issue is with the surveillance aspects of these devices.

Why do I think people bought them regardless of this issue? I'd suggest either surveillance wasn't forefront in their minds, or it doesn't bother them that much.

What's interesting to me is to compare these devices to Google Glass. There was a huge backlash about Google Glass as it was obvious people were being recorded without their consent. You had people wearing the devices getting called glassholes, and the devices being banned from certain venues. Compare that to the Echo Dot. The level of unwarranted surveillance with Google Glass and Echo Dot is pretty much the same, but because one is less visible than the other it doesn't get the same level of backlash. Is there something about audio surveillance which makes it more socially acceptable than video surveillance? If a future version of Amazon Echo came with a camera that watched your actions, would that get people to see the downsides of these devices? I'm not sure.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#187

Post by konceptz »

seanwilson wrote: post #125
JulianRaphael wrote: post #121

Very revealing discussion. Most of the participants just argue about Amazon vs. Google here, some fear surveillance, some consider the devices useless, a few want to understand if the HN crowd finds it useful. This is something I notice here on HN in product-related discussions more and more: people just say what THEY think about product X (typically a negative opinion or complaint), rather being creative, constructi…

> Why do you think millions of people bought an Echo Dot or a Google Home? Not from YOUR perspective, but from the perspective of millions of people that seem to see value in this product? I enjoy the discussions here but the reaction of this niche audience is not a good predictor of how the average person will act. Most people don't understand how internet ads work or care that much about the privacy of mundane acti…

I’m reading these comments particularly for the “niche audience” reactions. It’s one of my many valued information gathering destinations on the road to forming an opinion.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#188

Post by eecks »

2-4-Flinching wrote: post #171
dilap wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker. Google's products don't feel like they are designed by humans.

>Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker. LOL. That is one of the reasons I hated Alexa. She turned on when a podcast said something about her, the TV ad came on, we talked about our friend Alexa and when anything sounded kinda like Alexa. Ended up changing it to Echo, which worked a bit better. Amazon was out of the question when order to much from there and so common conve…

The word Google isn't as nice to say as Alexa. I don't have the problems you seem to have with Alexa. It works perfectly.

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#189

Post by eecks »

C14L wrote: post #101
Washuu wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Alexa, what's the weather?" It proceeds to tell me the weather for a state over. "Alexa, set my location to XXXXX." It can't do that. Actually getting correct location details requires downloading a separate smart phone application and digging through its menus to figure out how to set the location for each individual Alexa device.

Same. Alexa insists to tell me the weather of the city I lived until a year ago. No idea how to inform her that I moved.

Gotta set it on your Alexa app or through alexa.amazon.co.uk / .com

Re: The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season

#190

Post by StavrosK »

dustinmoris wrote: post #129
icc97 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that Google shouldn't be in the name at all.

You are missing the point. Even a random name wouldn't work when people talk about it. Alexa is the perfect example! Google did the right thing. Google home is what people talk about and "Ok Google" is what activities the device.

That's because Google didn't give its assistant a personality. People talk about Alexa because personifying the software is powerful, otherwise they'd be talking about the Echo.

Notice how, even in your post, you say "people talk about Google Home", but the equivalent to Google Home isn't Alexa, it's the Echo Dot.

Post reply on HN