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Amazon Echo Show

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191–200 of 467 posts

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#191

Post by iplaw »

ghostly_s wrote: post #110
iplaw wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There isn't a need; it's more of a want. I have a few Echos and use them to control my whole home audio system. "Alexa, play Kendrick Lamar on Spotify." Just like that, I have music throughout the house and in the front and back yards. You can also get more specific with commands in order to limit where the music plays, what music service is polled, etc. It is much easier than pulling out a device, navigating to the…

> You can also get more specific with commands in order to limit where the music plays, what music service is polled, etc. How do you have this set up? Does it integrate with some other home audio control system you have, or do you have an Echo plugged into each space and the music plays directly off them? Is there a way to play your own mp3 collection instead of streaming services?

It integrates with my Crestron control system, which controls the entire house. Alexa also integrates nicely with Sonos and Heos wireless speaker systems, letting you dictate music and location(s).

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#192

Post by mhermher »

rsync wrote: post #173
mhermher wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ...

The Xbox One is the only device I know of that has it. There may be others. A quick search seems to suggest so, but it appears that a lot of it use it for audio only? Not sure how that works.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#193

Post by ghaff »

alphakappa wrote: post #101
problems wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HDMI-CEC allows similar on most modern TVs. As for not being tied to where you have a TV, for $200 you can buy a 40"+ 1080p TV, for $100 you can have a really nice IPS 22" 1080p monitor. Probably better than this tiny thing.

Would you put that TV on your kitchen counter? Sometimes you don't need a 22” screen.

Yeah. I have no place in my kitchen to reasonably put a large monitor. That said, I wouldnt be at surprised to see a future version of this as a box or a fire stick like thing to plug into an existing tv.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#194

Post by deegles »

irq-1 wrote: post #151
trapperkeeper79 wrote: post #4

Amazon is killing it in IoT/Smart Home. However, IMHO, they are making a bit of mistake by not allowing developers to monetize their platform (at least the last time I checked). There were also certain device functions that apps could not utilize (e.g. programmatically mute and unmute). I suspect they'll have a wall garden approach to their new Echo devices too ... if this was open, they'd win it all (again, just my…

Amazon subsidizes hardware by collecting information on the users, so they can't open their hardware. It's ironic because, like uBlock on Chrome, only a small percentage would change the hardware/OS anyway -- and those are the people who could try radical experiments and show Amazon what works. Hopefully Google, Samsung or Microsoft(?!) will sell open hardware/firmware that isn't subsidized by collecting information.…

Sources? Those are big claims to make.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#195

Post by smaili »

sgift wrote: post #132
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…

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.

Depends... If the people knew they had the ability to use this technology for making personal calls or checking the latest weather, sports, etc, then I'd actually believe people would be willing to pay for it.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#196

Post by lowtolerance »

iamatworknow wrote: post #172
lowtolerance wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My mistake. I haven't been a prime subsciber for many years, and didn't realize that they got such a great deal on the Echo at first.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#197

Post by alxvio »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #51
tetrep wrote: post #27

I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.

> can do more things You answered your own question. Not every device used in a home (remote control, light switch, thermostat) needs to be replaced with a full tablet computer, even if it could be.

Who would want this Amazon product for every light switch, remote control, and thermostat? No, most buyers will probably just buy one for a household. In that case, I agree that a regular tablet would suffice.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#199

Post by rtkwe »

NegativeLatency wrote: post #135
smacktoward wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The moment you tell people "for this to work you have to go buy something else separately," you lose a huge chunk of potential sales. People don't want to do the work of figuring out what specific model of something else they need, where they have to go to get it, etc. Even if you put the something else on the shelf right next to your thing, the added cognitive load will turn lots of people off. Build the other thing…

Did you click through and see the offers to bundle security cameras and other IOT products?

That's different. Those are additional functionality not a requirement to use the core functionality of the device.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#200

Post by dharma1 »

mhermher wrote: post #59
tetrep wrote: post #27

I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.

It has a much better microphone array. It's actually probably the one thing that stands out about the echo to me. The mic is really good.

one day there will be a cheap bluetooth mic array that works with anything. I'm surprised that day hasn't arrived yet
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