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

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

#261

Post by throwaway7645 »

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…

Perfect example is my mother in law bought one for her husband. They then have to have us set it up and after asking it a knock knock joke or two end up hating it. I've observed that a lot of the over 50 crowd get the weather + news from the TV, while the technologically savy use the internet or a phone app already. Sure Alexa can do it, but it honestly isn't much more convenient than your phone which is easier to glance at visual data than listen for a couple of minutes as Alexa reads it off. There is a cool list of Easter eggs someone posted on Reddit like asking her to "beam me up", "set phasers to stun", or "Alexa I am your father". It has a neat SciFi choose your own adventure game, but they thought that was stupid. One thing that bothered me was Alexa couldn't say who made her other than "Amazon". The AIM chatbot smarterchild could even spit out a list. I wanted to hear a list of developers or something funny like the "marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation" (from hitchikers guide to the galaxy).

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

#262

Post by m0ngr31 »

StavrosK wrote: post #211
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…

Oh this is fantastic, I'm going to deploy it when I get back home. Thanks for opensourcing it! One question: Which sections in the kodi.cfg are necessary? I already have Kodi configured and don't want to just replace the file, or spend time changing options your skill doesn't need.

You just need to enter the connection information.

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

#263

Post by StavrosK »

m0ngr31 wrote: post #262
StavrosK wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh this is fantastic, I'm going to deploy it when I get back home. Thanks for opensourcing it! One question: Which sections in the kodi.cfg are necessary? I already have Kodi configured and don't want to just replace the file, or spend time changing options your skill doesn't need.

You just need to enter the connection information.

Ah, makes sense, thanks.

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

#264

Post by slantyyz »

baby wrote: post #163
touristtam wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>> wait, VR is freaking awesome, please don't put it in the same box.

It's not freaking awesome for everyone. I feel like throwing up any time I spend more than a couple minutes on it.

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

#265

Post by 659087 »

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?

Because it was the "hot new thing". Of the many "non-technical" people I know who foolishly put these things in their homes over the past couple years, all but a few have unplugged them and thrown them in a closet already.

It was a novelty at first, but one they quickly realized didn't offer much or any advantage over what they could already do with their phones - and wasn't worth the added surveillance. My sister in particular was creeped out by how often it seemed to activate without any "wake words" being said.

Now that Amazon made them cheap enough to be stocking stuffers even for lower income families in order to expand their mass surveillance network, a whole new portion of society will get to go through the same process.

I think anyone who puts these in their home should be required to have some kind of sign on their door to let anyone who enters know that "by entering this home, you agree to Amazon/Google's privacy policy".

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

#266

Post by usrusr »

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…

Buying decisions for gifts between adults who constantly buy stuff for themselves are governed by a very special set of rules.

It can't be something they already have. It can't be something from a special interest hobby field, where enthusiasts identify deeply with every single related purchase decision. It can't be a commodity they would routinely buy anyways, that'd be like giving money.

This leaves us with purely sacrificial gifts ("to show you that I care, I have, through an elaborate mechanism too complicated not only to explain but also to understand, paid some poor kid to spend their life burrowing through dirt to find this nice stone which I now present to you"), things you know they would have bought, but didn't like the price and, most importantly, things they might like but they don't know it yet.

Echo dot and the like must be huge holiday sellers because many people who would never but one might still enjoy then, and the whole concept is sufficiently new that even a blind guess yields an acceptable risk in "do they already have one?".

And then there is of course the onegenerational aspect, a great many senior citizens who never got fully accustomed to digital screen media have children or grandchildren who can't think of much besides gadgets, perfect match.

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

#267

Post by slantyyz »

Washuu wrote: post #87
notyourwork wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

The locations and maps are a little peculiar with Alexa for me. Granted, Echo is new in Canada, so I guess it needs time.

Alexa gives me my specific neighborhood as my location (as opposed to my city). The thing is, I don't really live in a big city, and I would bet that most people in my city don't know the neighborhood names. For me, it's too specific.

As it relates to my city, the maps don't give common street names, but rural route numbers instead.

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

#268

Post by Spooky23 »

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…

It’s a product with a heavy marketing push, that’s the why.

In terms of the response to these devices... they are tough devices in that they do not stand alone, and their usefulness is really defined by who the user is.

I think what you’re reading here is a coming to grips with it. Nobody really knows what these things are good for yet... but someone’s teenager likes to listen to music with it and someone’s grandma likes to control the lights.

The same discussions were had about the “information superhighway” in 1997 :)

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

#269

Post by slantyyz »

woolvalley wrote: post #108
fermienrico wrote: post #7

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 think a big reason why people chose the dot is the price. With a home mini you need to also buy a chromecast to use your speakers, while an echo dot has that aux out already. Music is the universal killer app of these devices. My relative after talking to me basically chose the dot because of the above reason. For myself, thats what I ended up using the dot for in my house. Music, weather, traffic & turning off som…

>> while an echo dot has that aux out already.

It can also stream to a bluetooth speaker.

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

#270

Post by baby »

slantyyz wrote: post #264
baby wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wait, VR is freaking awesome, please don't put it in the same box.

>> wait, VR is freaking awesome, please don't put it in the same box. It's not freaking awesome for everyone. I feel like throwing up any time I spend more than a couple minutes on it.

Yeah I'm actually really sad about that, a good friend of mine just told me "AR is way better, I'm going to buy magicleap" while he's never tried AR in his life but just had a pretty bad experience with VR (did a VR park in Japan and was nauseous the whole time).

I thought the new iterations of the Vive had fixed most problems but seems like some people are just not going to experience this thing any time soon :/

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