It’s amazing how much of a difference a marketing video makes. This and the Echo Look are not at all that dissimilar, yet one appears to be friendly and essential, while the other is creepy as hell.
Amazon Echo Show
331–340 of 467 posts
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#332People are missing this: "With the Alexa App, conversations and contacts go where you go. When you’re away from home, use the app to make a quick call or send a message to your family’s Echo. Alexa calling and messaging is free—to get started download the Alexa App." Alexa is now in the messaging and communication game. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/09/amazon-enables-free-calls-...
jwz: 'Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.'
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#333Earlier 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…
No. I won't install a privacy invasive app (which they all are) just because you have it, never. SMS or nothing if we don't already use something else we'd rather use.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#334why should a Fire tablet paired with speakers not be able to do this?
I am not against any category of products, but as a person who likes to own and manage fewer devices, I like my devices to be versatile.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#335Earlier 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…
FWIW, email only sorta interoperates...try running your own mail server and unless you get all the elements of server reputation exactly right, your email will probably not get delivered to people using the large email providers. Thanks to spammers, we've allowed our open, interoperable standard to be much more closed. And SMS is also frustratingly non-universal. After years of having cell service with one of the lar…
"And SMS is also frustratingly non-universal. After years of having cell service with one of the large providers"
..
"Each SMS shortcode is only supported on a provider-by-provider basis."
Yes, each provider does support their own short codes, but this is not a great example of SMS being "non-universal"
A short code is just "dialling sugar" for {country_code} + {network_code} + {short_code}.
Think about it this way: It would be kind of like trying to access the following url: http://news.ycombinator
Do you need it on .com? .co.za? .io?
So in other words, if you are roaming and you want to use a short code. Just prefix with {country_code} + {network_code}.
The routing should work correctly, the switch (msc) routing tables will have the country code + network code, and route the message correctly to your network. If your network has been configured correctly, it will be able to respond.
There is nothing inherently in SMS that prevents it working. Though carriers can choose to block short codes to other networks (usually to avoid fraud). Your carrier would then need to include request the roaming partner white list a set of allowed short codes.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#336Great now the echo will record all video as well and "anonymize" it and use it to improve their systems. This class of devices are the most puzzling to me. People know their value proposition is to record everything but then keep buying them. I keep waiting for the day when the scales tip in favor of privacy but that never happens.
*at least, they do not record all the time...for now.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#337If they are going to enable calling, I sincerely hope they learn from the current phone spam and email spam mess and don't let just anyone call you at any time.
Ideally, you could authorize people to call you by giving each person/entity a different token that authorizes them to call you. Then if that person/entity sells the token to 3rd parties, you not only know who sold you out, but also you have the ability to revoke that token easily.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#338People are missing this: "With the Alexa App, conversations and contacts go where you go. When you’re away from home, use the app to make a quick call or send a message to your family’s Echo. Alexa calling and messaging is free—to get started download the Alexa App." Alexa is now in the messaging and communication game. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/09/amazon-enables-free-calls-...
This feels forced and sort of flies in the face of how people have demonstrated that they prefer to communicate over the past 20 years or so. I already have a phone that I can pull out and send a text or make a call with to anybody, without regard to whether they have an Amazon device. My 79 year old mother, who is the last remaining person to not give into a smart phone, is most certainly never going to learn how to…
I think there are plenty of aging folks that are open to being set up with whatever their family sets them up with to keep in contact. Especially if it increases contact with the distributed family. My siblings and I went in on an iPad for my grandmother a few years ago when she was over 80 and she used it a ton and regularly got FaceTime video calls from her 5 grandkids and 11 great grandkids (who are across the United States) before her death a few months ago.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
No. I won't install a privacy invasive app (which they all are) just because you have it, never. SMS or nothing if we don't already use something else we'd rather use.
I'm sure you realise you're in the minority here.
None of these messaging apps care if you install their product or not because there are so few people who share your views.
Re: Amazon Echo Show
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Is your internet metered? I'm trying to find what people think is the likely harm to come from Amazon having a microphone in their home.