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Amazon Echo Show

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Re: Amazon Echo Show

#301

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

ribs wrote: post #236
mikeash wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we ever going to see unity between these services, or are we doomed to have little walled-off fiefdoms forever? A phone number works anywhere in the world, to anywhere in the world, with anyone who has a phone. All e-mail providers work with each other. I don't care who you're with, and I wouldn't even have to know except it's usually part of the address. SMS works no matter which provider we both have. It feels…

It's all still quite new, and the drive to compete and gain market share keeps them separate, as it does in all industries. There will be consolidation in time. For now, it's a mixed blessing, but mostly a blessing.

> For now, it's a mixed blessing, but mostly a blessing.

In what way? You can accomplish all these things for free with your existing phone, Google Assistant, IFTTT, and very little effort. If you do it this way, your virtual assistant won't be as dumb as rocks either.

Sorry, but Alexa is still riding on the short bus.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#303

Post by dmix »

orky56 wrote: post #292
mholmes680 wrote: post #180

Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they're throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in. I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice co…

Amazon has been in the hardware game for awhile now with the various Kindle devices. They entered that market, deployed enough SKUs to satisfy nearly everyone out there, and started shifting outside the e-reader product to tablets, etc. Apple is the juggernaut and is likely to overthink its product offerings and how it affects the ecosystem of existing devices. Just like the Kindle, Amazon is ready to flood the marke…

> Amazon is ready to flood the market with SKUs to see what sticks

This seems to be the case, they are taking a short release cycle iterative approach to get it into the customers hands fast. Very lean-startup-esque.

Apple on the other hand is more of a luxury brand. The dynamics with luxury brands is a bit different and high-end product development is more involved. Customer retention and brand consistency is critical to their business. And given their track record and ability to attract talent they don't seem to have much of an issue with doing a yearly waterfall-esque style release.

I'm not sure it makes sense for them to push out a high volume of products. They seemed to operate best when they had a few focused offerings in each category. If they want to expand they should hit new markets instead of flooding one with lots of options (which seems to be the way Tim is going).

But otherwise I agree, Apple tends to pigeonhole their 'ecosystem' into everything, which smells of valuing internal business goal instead of consumer values.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#305

Post by wppick »

Eventually, with the internet of things, there will need to be a "home brain" type device to control all of the devices in your house. The company that holds that position of controlling what devices can work with others will have a lot of market power.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#306

Post by chaostheory »

cbhl wrote: post #182
odonnellryan wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder, why go this route instead of creating a device to add to your TV? My echo is right next to the TV.

They actually already have that. The Fire TV Stick has "Alexa" in it, but you have to use the push-to-talk remote instead of having an always-on mic as in the Echo.

It would be nice not to need a remote, like with Kinect but with better mics and voice recognition

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#307

Post by ehsankia »

odonnellryan wrote: post #84
pwaivers wrote: post #10

A few thoughts: - This is way less creepy-looking than the Amazon Look ( https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistan... ), but it is actually very similar. - It is great to add a screen to the Echo. Just more feedback on interacting with it, and possibility to watch YouTube, Netflix, etc. casually. - It doesn't have the same cool minimalism as the Echo. The Echo sits on my counter and looks nice when…

I wonder, why go this route instead of creating a device to add to your TV? My echo is right next to the TV.

I don't think this is the same usecase, and the person above suggesting it could be used for Netflix is a bit ridiculous to me. I see it more for watching a quick instructional Youtube videos (as we all know there's a How To for everything on Youtube). It's also something small and easy to have around the house for quick video calls.

For watching anything long and serious, I would definitely send it to my TV.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#309

Post by ehsankia »

pwaivers wrote: post #10

A few thoughts: - This is way less creepy-looking than the Amazon Look ( https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistan... ), but it is actually very similar. - It is great to add a screen to the Echo. Just more feedback on interacting with it, and possibility to watch YouTube, Netflix, etc. casually. - It doesn't have the same cool minimalism as the Echo. The Echo sits on my counter and looks nice when…

I doubt anyone would use this to watch long videos or Netflix. I see it more for quick calls and short instructional videos. It's small and fits in any room of the house. For longer videos, you'd definitely just send it to the TV.

Watching random videos while washing the dishes though is great.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#310

Post by VLM »

fenwick67 wrote: post #261
iamatworknow wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now introducing Amazon Stock Photos! (I had to search to make sure this didn't already exist, and I'm surprised it doesn't.)

Can I use the Amazon Echo to lead an imaginary life? "Show me pictures of my family" (stock photos) "Show me my vacation photos" (synthesizes a photo of me at the grand canyon with my waifu)

I've proposed this for social media for a long time. Rich and famous people have handlers run their social media to meet their goals. I think it fair for poorer people to experience the same relaxation and freedom. Why can't I hire a cloud powered bot to manage my kids social media presence to get him into an ivy "Hey everybody, like my pix of me doing voluntourism in some 3rd world country where I'm photoshopped into a pix of a school being constructed." "How do you do, fellow kids, I am very concerned today about (insert randomly selected progressive cause)".

It wouldn't be a social problem as legacy social media is so yesterday, only auntie and grandma still use facebook and corporations and bots are now the majority users. You just know grandma is going to get into the weirdest flamewar ever on myspace or ICQ or twitter with your social media bot avatar.

I think it would be useful to have a bot run my linkedin for me. A form letter to respond to recruiter form letters. Every week it goes to Google Trends, runs a query on "computer language" to find the trendy framework of the week, and ta da I am now an expert on linked-in for "computer graphics programs in c language with output" "what does pdf mean in computer language" "computer in hindi language" and sure you laugh today, but normies (like HR gatekeepers) google for this kind of stuff all the time, and if my bot's effort posting gets me jobs you're not getting, well, we'll see who gets the last laugh ...

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