So the product is named "Echo" but you ask it questions by calling it "Alexa"? That's just odd.
Strange choice for a wake-up word, given that it's a person's name.
I had to read that line several times to make sure I was not missing some thing.
Amazon Echo
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Re: Amazon Echo
#22So the product is named "Echo" but you ask it questions by calling it "Alexa"? That's just odd.
My guess would be that they can switch the name of either if needed in the future (to rebrand or whatnot). This isn't that dissimilar from the iPhone's Siri, or Window's Cortana.
Re: Amazon Echo
#23It's great to see Amazon using its huge profits to fund this kind of bleeding edge technology. (Maybe someday engineers will figure out how to squeeze this functionality into handheld devices.)
Amazon (in)famously has lots of revenue, but weak profits.
Re: Amazon Echo
#24If this was for home automation, it would be a lot more useful.
Also I forgot to add, isn't it a little creepy that something is listening to your speech 24/7 without you consciously activating it? Like Kinect, it's probably pretty limited right now but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the trend.
In Amazon's defense, if you don't enable listening 24/7 then the customer loses convenience... so are you willing to trade more of your privacy for convenience?
Re: Amazon Echo
#25So the product is named "Echo" but you ask it questions by calling it "Alexa"? That's just odd.
I believe you get to pick the name you want to call it (called the wake word), per the video.
Re: Amazon Echo
#26Can I change the wake word? Alexa was the name of a girl I once dated, and would prefer not to call out her name.
Re: Amazon Echo
#27Well hang on - doesn't my iPhone already do all this? And presumably so does the Android equivalent? I appreciate this will have much better microphone technology but it still seems a little redundant.
Yep, exactly my thoughts. With Siri and Google voice, why do I need to buy another piece of hardware. Amazon could have integrated all of this in kindle or amazon phone if they really wanted to.
Re: Amazon Echo
#28I just don't see the point when we already have devices like this in our pockets.
Re: Amazon Echo
#29So the product is named "Echo" but you ask it questions by calling it "Alexa"? That's just odd.
In the video, the actors say they chose the wake-word themselves. So presumably you can use anything you like.