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Amazon Echo Show

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Re: Amazon Echo Show

#321

Post by VLM »

slackoverflower wrote: post #42

What is Amazon's long term strategy with all these devices with the main feature still being voice?

My honestly non-sarcastic guess is the dash button form factor will merge with Alexa resulting in something like disposable fashionable ST:TNG communicator buttons.

I'm not kidding at all, although I can sympathize this might seem a touch ridiculous. Billions were made off the "its kinda like a tricoder or a ST:TOS communicator but its mostly a phone". Its highly likely a lot of money will be made selling each member of the general populace a handful of ST:TNG communicator buttons in or around 2030. Schools will spare no expense to make sure each kid has one "for security and learning purposes only of course". Your music service will be part of the communicator badge ecosystem or it won't exist much longer, and so on.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#322

Post by mikeash »

Eridrus wrote: post #168
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…

I think the free nature of these services is what leads to this fragmentation. Slack is an outlier because you don't actually need to communicate with everyone in the world on Slack. But for others, it would be completely unreasonable to ask your acquaintances to pay to install Skype to talk to you. And you probably wouldn't pay for Skype if it didn't interop with whatever other people were paying for. In a world whe…

Sounds likely. I'd say that there's still a decent cost in terms of setting up and maintaining all these different accounts, but I'm sure many users don't see it that way, or don't care.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#323

Post by VLM »

sgift wrote: post #132
uptown wrote: post #93

“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugge…

The joke's on us. Not even Orwell thought people would be willing to pay for that kind of technology. He thought government would have to force people to get it into their homes.

Negative reinforcement is possible once its popular enough and has a large enough installed base to make not having one a deviation from the norm, a warning signal. Like not having a TV or facebook account today.

The way it'll be rolled out to achieve that large enough installed base to become normalcy will be strictly positive enforcement.

All carrots to start out because there's too much legacy propaganda in western dead white male culture that no one reads anymore. After the tipping point is reached, then the carrots get put away and the sticks come out.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#324

Post by odonnellryan »

cbhl wrote: post #186
sailfast wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes - though it's not listening and you need the voice remote to be in your hand and/or you need to spin up the app on your phone. While that doesn't sound like a barrier to much, it definitely has been for me asking for simple things especially from across the room. Voice interfaces are good for hands-free action, which FireTV doesn't really allow.

As someone who owns both an Echo and a Fire TV Stick, I found it initially surprising that the Echo couldn't control things on the TV. I also found it surprising that the same APIs returning voice responses had been returning data about things to display on a screen the whole time. This seems like an obvious product for those who completely buy into the Alexa ecosystem.

Yeah. I really meant Alexa being able to control my TV.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#325

Post by lallysingh »

ziikutv wrote: post #276
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…

This is my biggest beef, thanks for pointing it out. All of this is great, but it adds to separation of market. In an idea l world, all of the 'big players' would sit together, and come up with a way to unify their services.

What, jabber?

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#326

Post by imartin2k »

rckclmbr wrote: post #230
imartin2k wrote: post #228

Maybe that's just me, but based on the photos, this device looks quite ugly - which matters for a gadget that people put inside their homes, doesn't it? The "original" Echo has a futuristic design. This one feels more like created in 70s or 80s.

I think that's intentional. It's more like something my grandma would own. And it looks less likely that they would be spying and recording everything I'm doing. I guess it makes people feel safer since it looks "dumber"

Good point.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#327

Post by btym »

Declanomous wrote: post #298
cptskippy wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TV manufacturers seem to be really averse to just making an awesome display. They have to value add features that open security holes and are so poorly maintained that in a couple years you'll need to buy a new TV.

Not to mention they add all those useless post-processing effects that increase latency to the point where it's almost impossible to play games on them. I don't understand why a signal coming in through HDMI signal has 9 milliseconds of lag on my cheap monitor, and 46 seconds on my fairly nice tv. In gaming mode the tv has something like 35 ms of lag. I've seen TVs that have enough input lag that you get noticeable a…

AFAIK most TVs have a "Game" picture mode that will disable post-processing.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#328

Post by takeda »

criddell wrote: post #265
verytrivial wrote: post #63

I must be one of those old farts who prefers privacy over convenience. I do not want what amounts to an always-on black-box surveillance device in my home and I simply do not understand why other people think it is okay. I honestly don't. Down with this sort of thing!

If the expected utility of the device exceeds the likely set of problems that come with it, people might choose to buy one. Clearly you've done this calculation but come up with a different answer. Assuming there is some utility there, it must be the surveillance aspect that is the problem. If you got an Echo, what harm do you think you would likely experience?

I got an echo from a company for attending a presentation.

I used it a bit, but turned it of permanently after one day I logged in to my router and saw that Echo was generating noticeable amount of traffic even though no one was at home.

I think the only way I could try always on device again is if company like Amazon would provide API and I would create the always-on device.

In short I want to be in control what is being sent and what isn't.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#329

Post by takeda »

rckclmbr wrote: post #232
tonyedgecombe wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would never bring something like this into my home, I just don't trust big corporations enough for that.

A lot of people who say this still bring in the smart TV. Or the comcast remote with a Mic. Or an IP camera. Or a cellphone. What's so different about this?

Are you sure those are the same people? If so it might be ignorance. Also it is a bit harder to buy non smart TV, but you don't have connect it to the network.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#330

Post by mholmes680 »

anonymousthx wrote: post #270
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…

They started working on this late 2014 / early 2015. Work started on Look in late 2015. Source: ;)

Awesome. Now, one more thing: Echo Car. I dunno why, i just want Alexa in my car. She's already in 4 rooms in my house (no wait, 5 including Fire Stick? 7 including the Kindles?), and in my pocket.
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