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Alexa+

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Re: Alexa+

#281

Post by criddell »

yuehhangalt wrote: post #200

I had Alexa devices throughout my home to control music and lights and set timers. Over time, the amount of advertising on anything that had a screen and the overall annoying reminders about tipping my delivery driver or leaving a review when I asked the time made me realize that I didn't want or need them anymore. I sold them all last year and just use my phone/smart watch to do what Alexa had been. For music, Sonos…

> I increasingly want less of it

I think that’s because computing isn’t very personal. So much of what we do on our computers is really done partially or wholly on somebody else’s computer for their benefit.

Panay says Alexa+ is personalized for you. Well, I’ll believe it when I see it. If you ask me, most of the Echo’s problems so far stem from Amazon tailoring the device for their benefif, not mine. They wanted their cash register to be in my kitchen and when I didn’t use it like that, they made it worse with their “by the way…” bullshit.

Re: Alexa+

#282

Post by blibble »

Aurornis wrote: post #113
creshal wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would Amazon want you to have it, though? They benefit fantastically from manipulating search results against you.

> They benefit fantastically from manipulating search results against you. Amazon makes money by selling products you want and loses money when you return them. They aren’t manipulating search results “against you”

being a retailer sucks, low profit margins

however being a "platform" (i.e. middle-man) between retailers and customers is highly profitable

guess which one Amazon is mostly now?

Re: Alexa+

#283

Post by UberMouse »

mvdtnz wrote: post #193
jazzyjackson wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've found Perplexity.ai with Deepseek R1 to be very good at choosing a product or a hotel for me. I just punched in your query and it actually chose the air fryer that's already sitting in my kitchen ! "Cosori Pro LE Air Fryer" It's a good air fryer. https://www.perplexity.ai/search/air-fryers-without-bluetoot... Another example, after spending an hour on trip advisor going back and forth to maps to check for walkin…

I just tried this and it completely an utterly failed on the first prompt. Useless. > earbuds that have the wire in between so I can dangle them around my neck First result: Sony WI-1000XM2 Wireless. These are neither earbuds nor do they have a wire. Pointless garbage. It also doesn't let me copy and paste the result, for no reason. Bad software.

Honestly that seems like a good result to me? Did you look at the product? Earbuds Connected by wires to a thing that you can dangle around your neck

Re: Alexa+

#284

Post by jhp123 »

Arthanos wrote: post #152

>Let’s say you need to get your oven fixed—Alexa+ will be able to navigate the web, use Thumbtack to discover the relevant service provider, authenticate, arrange the repair, and come back to tell you it’s done—there’s no need to supervise or intervene. This is a disaster waiting to happen. I don't trust an LLM to choose between two brands of dish soap for me let alone pick a contractor, schedule a repair, and make a…

This reminds me of Facebook's "M" assistant from 2017.

> Today, a few hundred Bay Area Facebook users will open their Messenger apps to discover M, a new virtual assistant. Facebook will prompt them to test it with examples of what M can do: Make restaurant reservations. Find a birthday gift for your spouse. Suggest---and then book---weekend getaways.

https://www.wired.com/2015/08/facebook-launches-m-new-kind-v...

Re: Alexa+

#285

Post by tokioyoyo »

reaperducer wrote: post #232
tokioyoyo wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many times has that happened? Those cases make the headlines, but it’s so rare that, in my opinion, they can be disregarded. Nothing is perfect, just assess your risks and tolerance to error. That’s subjective, so one acts accordingly.

Once is enough. It's easy to disregard when it isn't you or someone you love. The rest of us were born with empathy.

It’s really not though. It goes back to the whole “at that point you shouldn’t drive/fly/cross the road because you might die” argument. Literally millions (billions?) people commute every day using navigation apps. There will be accidents, but so far it’s been statistically insignificant, so people keep using them. Everyone has their own risk tolerances.

Re: Alexa+

#286

Post by j_timberlake »

Hot take: If AI ever gets smart enough to actually do these activities well, the USA government will decide AI is a "national security risk" and not allow companies to sell access to it. Terrorists and drug cartels might use it!

Chatbots will be fine, but anything actually useful? Banned.

Re: Alexa+

#287

Post by [deleted] »

olyjohn wrote: post #207
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't believe that in 2025 BestBuy is my go to for electronics. Wild times.

I'm so horrifically disappointed every time I go in there. Their monitor selection is all super low-end trash, as is most of their electronics they sell (TVs, stereos, computers etc). You're lucky if they have an actual PC component in the store, there are bare shelves everywhere. They don't even offer a good selection of phones, accessories or memory cards. It's starting to feel like Fry's right before they went out…

[deleted]

Re: Alexa+

#288

Post by Exoristos »

brookst wrote: post #148
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #129

> and free with Prime Gee I can't wait for my Amazon Prime renewal price to go up this year when Amazon decides they had to raise the price to justify the inclusion of AI.

Pricing for Prime is totally disconnected from costs. They will price at whatever maximizes p*q.

Which is impacted by perceived value:cost by customers.

Re: Alexa+

#289

Post by dlcarrier »

crooked-v wrote: post #96
dlcarrier wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's all moat users ever do with an Echo. Amazon thought that users would trade the benefits of comparison shopping for convenience and use the Echo to order products chosen by Amazon, but they did not. Outside of providing the time and whether, and turning lights on and off, Amazon severely limited the ability for third parties to add features, and even reduced it it further well after launch.

I could see users absolutely doing that if it was with, say, the extensively tailored product selection of Costco, where you can order a Kirkland brand item in any category and generally be satisfied with the results. But Amazon shot themselves in the foot by flooding every category with brands like XGYSZY and KWYBLPOP. No one is ever going to trust ordering off Amazon without actually seeing what they're buying. It'…

Those weird brand names come from an odd method that Amazon uses to reduce counterfeit products. They require some sellers have a brand name filed with the US patent and trademark office. It can be difficult to get a trademark for something too generic or common, but if it's just a garbled string of characters, it's really easy to get approval.

As far as those cheap imported products go, for any given type of product, they all come from the same handful of manufacturers, so which off brand doesn't really matter. Once I figure out which variation I want, I just want to be able to sort by price, and get the cheapest version. Amazon's maliciously broken sort-by-price feature already makes it difficult, but ordering through an Echo makes it impossible.

I've ended up using eBay more than Amazon, as well as the occasional exporter like ALiexpress and TVCmall.

Re: Alexa+

#290

Post by taeric »

wiremine wrote: post #105

I'm not optimistic, but my recent experiences with Gemini's mobile app gives me pause on my pessimism. My wife and I are planning a family vacation, and we had some questions about various destinations. I opened Gemini, and we had a helpful 10-minute conversation. If Alexa+ can provide a similar experience, I can see us having more of those voice-based sessions.

I'm more than a little curious on what sort of questions you would have needed an AI to query regarding a trip? Like, genuinely curious what sort of conversation you had.

We travel as a family a fair bit nowadays, and building an agenda for each day of the trip is surprisingly not that difficult if you are going to any common destination. Biggest thing to not forget is to add slack so that you can rearrange on the fly if needed.

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