221–230 of 414 posts
Who could imagine that people would install telescreens voluntarily, and pay for the privilege?
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"Alexa, what's the weather?" This isn't too difficult. I know Google is well off in this space but Alexa is pretty damn good too.
"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.
Can we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded, by the companies or by back doors created by the security services? Seems too much like a telescreen for my liking. The problem is I would love one I could trust!
Are there any assistants that aren't connected to the web? Or at least aren't by default. Here are some things I'd love to be able to do that don't need the web. Set a timer Set a reminder for something in X minutes Take a voice note Create lists (maybe could be pushed to phone via bluetooth) Maybe some home auto stuff I imagine most of this stuff could be shared to my phone via bluetooth if I needed it on the go (li…
As I understand it, all the voice assistants rely on a backend to do the voice processing, at a minimum.
https://voice.mozilla.org/data
If everyone who reads HN commits a little time to Mozilla Common Voice in 2018, we might have a non-cloud solution in 2019.
Google is miles ahead in terms of a conversational assistant. There is a lot of friction in using voice activated services. If I have a choice of typing "Weather in XXXXX zip" in the address bar vs. asking an assistant, I choose the former. Therefore, every time I use anything else but Google, I am afraid it won't recognize my command and I immediately feel like throwing that thing out of the window. I need to be 100…
I trust Amazon more than Google, though; I both expect products to be less aggressively discontinued, and data collection to be less rapacious with Amazon. Amazon also have a known and reasonably moral means of making money. Advertising OTOH is mass manipulation. And Google have too much other information on me especially from search, I need to keep things distributed. I'm one of the people who bought my partner a Do…
I used to believe this, and I still do too some extent. Amazon won us over with a great online experience and best in class customer service. However, Amazon is on an explosive expansion phase of expanding their business and pushing vertical integration in all corners. They are rivaling any other company out there in terms of ability to mass manipulate as well.
I have an undisclosed relationship to the man running Amazon India's fashion vertical, and it's easy to see Amazon's position rivaling Google in terms of that feeling of "Google having too much information".
In the end, as I said I still agree with you with Google having to much information (I rely on Google apps and Android to this day), and that diversifying where that information is being gathered and classified is one of the few ways of both using these handy products and impeding companies knowing more about me than I know (a la Netflix video recommendations).
Amazon is now yet another giant to be weary of.
Am I the only one that thinks these are useless? I got one last Xmas and stop using it after a month or so.
They have uses, but some people delude themselves into thinking they make a significant difference in their lives
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Alternatively, maybe they do make a significant difference in those people's lives. I mean, seriously--who do you think you are to be the arbiter of that for them?
Perhaps rubatuga is an observer rather than arbiter?
Hard to tell how significant that news is since Amazon doesn't list any Google Home product. And with Google Home Mini priced at $29, it's easy to speculate that it sold quite a few as well.
Also that the Echo can essentially "only" be bought on Amazon. While they advertise them there, a very small supply was sent to stores. Amazon uses the retail space for advertising but they're out of stock which drops you in the lap of Amazon. With other products sales will be split between retail and online (and retail is up about 4% this year). Or something that is only advertised online doesn't attract impulse buy…
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Have you ever been in a room with an Alexa unit when people are trying to talk about it? It's like a comedy routine with the device activating spuriously over and over.
I keep the name “Alexa” but you can choose a few (“Computer”, “Echo”, and I think “Amazon”).
Amazon tried to get around it by naming the product "Echo" while making the activation phrase "Alexa" but that means people don't call it "Echo" in practice.
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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.
wait, VR is freaking awesome, please don't put it in the same box.
For what uses? I've been trying VR on multiple occasions, I still don't see much use for it. Even most VR games suck completely.