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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

#341

Post by dionian »

enraged_camel wrote: post #197
fiatpandas wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what English speaking country, or even US region, you come from but “OK [name], [call to action, often one involving both speaker and listener]” is a thing. And it doesn’t have to be a response to something said previously. Remember, people can do whatever they want with their language, and it becomes a thing even if you personally aren’t familiar with it.

Exactly, when used that way it involves both the speaker and the listener, as in “OK Bob, let’s go to the park”. Or, if it is used to pretend a command, it is used as a continuation of an existing conversation, like when you are at the doctor and he or she says “Go ahead and get on the scale” and then “OK, now sit here and open your mouth.” The way google uses it is definitely not natural. There is also the pause, af…

native speaker of english from USA here. starting a conversation or question with 'ok' is incredibly rare and sounds painfully awkward.

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

#342

Post by DannyBee »

not_kurt_godel wrote: post #55
adjkant wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A level of trust from past actions and comparing each, the branching out of Amazon and Bezoz with media, grocery stores, tech with AWS, and more is scary as well as how many industries they have killed / absorbed. I realize Google is doing this a bit as well, but it feels much less sinister. A friend of mine walked past a brick and mortar Amazon bookstore, which is really surreal to me. Amazon's work culture philosop…

Google literally makes its money from advertising directly keyed on your personal information and searches. Amazon makes money because you buy things from it. Google can't not share your information with advertisers if it wants to survive. Amazon, on the other hand, is extremely protective of private information to the point of defying law enforcement in a murder case ( https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/28/tech/amazon-echo…

You are crazy if you think amazon isn't trying to get into advertising.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/26/amazon-digital-advertising-p...

"Two media buyers said Amazon showed some willingness to share more user data than Google and Facebook have traditionally — if the advertising budget was big enough."

Pretty much the only way Amazon will have significant success here (IE not just stay #3 or worse) is if it is more willing to share data than Google or Facebook.

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

#343

Post by pavel_lishin »

eecks wrote: post #188
2-4-Flinching wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker. LOL. That is one of the reasons I hated Alexa. She turned on when a podcast said something about her, the TV ad came on, we talked about our friend Alexa and when anything sounded kinda like Alexa. Ended up changing it to Echo, which worked a bit better. Amazon was out of the question when order to much from there and so common conve…

The word Google isn't as nice to say as Alexa. I don't have the problems you seem to have with Alexa. It works perfectly.

I wonder if your feelings are related to the Bouba/Kiki effect.

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

#344

Post by walshemj »

2-4-Flinching wrote: post #171
dilap wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker. Google's products don't feel like they are designed by humans.

>Having to say "OK, Google" instead of just "Google" (or "Alexa") is a deal-breaker. LOL. That is one of the reasons I hated Alexa. She turned on when a podcast said something about her, the TV ad came on, we talked about our friend Alexa and when anything sounded kinda like Alexa. Ended up changing it to Echo, which worked a bit better. Amazon was out of the question when order to much from there and so common conve…

earlier this you I was on a skype conference from home with a colleague called Alex and a client.

At one point the conversation triggered alexa and i had to apologise and quickly pull the plug

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

#345

Post by walshemj »

toyg wrote: post #156
tjoff wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're assuming that these devices have anything to offer even if they worked.

Considering their enduring popularity in mass-appeal science-fiction constructs (stories, movies etc), I'm pretty sure they do have "something to offer".

I want one sounding like EDI from massefect II and II or Orac from Blakes 7

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

#346

Post by ehsankia »

xyzzyz wrote: post #132
ijidak wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I've wondered. Why not let us designate our own??? Or provide a number of choices. It seems only natural that one day users will be able to name their assistant. We'll look back at fixed naming and wonder who ever thought that made sense. If I want my assistant to be named Jarvis, it puzzles me why I can't do that. It would also simplify the case where multiple devices are in the room (e.g. not having to…

Personalization would require training the network to recognize your hot word, which needs to work in all sound environments, and detect hot word spoken by different people. That network also needs to be optimized to be small enough to be run constantly by a low-powered CPU in standby mode. I am not saying that it is not doable, it's just there are real engineering tradeoffs present here.

Yep, most people don't realize that:

1. Hotword detection runs on a minimal low powered local subsystem

2. The two provided hotwords run networks that have been trained on millions of samples in thousands of different environments.

That thing is very heavily optimized. Alexa and Bixbi get far more false positives and false negatives.

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

#347

Post by ehsankia »

adjkant wrote: post #23
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…

When I'm rushing out of the house and would prefer to multitask tying my shoes and checking my phone, my new Google Home makes two things incredibly easy: weather and train times. That along with a good speaker connected to Spotify has been super worth it. Bonus points for connecting to Chromecast. I'm an iPhone / Mac person and the Chromecast / Home combo has made me consider what a life in the Google ecosystem woul…

There are definitely certain things that are easier to do with voice, and certain things that are easier by touch. Voice will definitely never replace 100% of interaction, the trick is knowing where it's most useful.

For example, one great example is, sometimes I'm watching something on my Chromecast and I want to skip a very specific amount. I can go "OKG, skip forward 48 seconds". Try doing that with the tiny track bar on your phone precisely...

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

#348

Post by ehsankia »

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…

"I think a big reason why people chose the dot is the price."

First off, while this may be true, we don't know yet. What this article says is that "Dot was the best selling product on Amazon". Google products aren't on amazon so it's not really a comparison. We'd have to get the numbers from Walmart and Target.

As for AUX out, while I agree it's a shame, I don't think it impacts as many people as you imply. Chromecast by itself is also amazing value and it brings even more value to the Home mini as you can easily send netflix, youtube and music to your TV (which is connected to your sound system).

While you can get away with the music, for the other actions, you would need a fire stick too.

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

#349

Post by dylanfw »

pythonboi wrote: post #212
gh02t wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find ghome to be better for smart home use. The app is a little more intuitive with organization and it is a lot better with recognizing the names of your stuff. Alexa would have trouble recognizing arbitrary names while ghome almost always gets it right. I started with Echo but ended up replacing it with Google Home because I like it so much more.

Thankfully I am not the only one who thinks this! I had an argument with my brother over IoT devices with Echos vs Google Home products. Google Home still requires you to use 3rd party apps but you are forced to set up the device in a location in your home/apartment. I can walk into my apartment and say "Ok Google, turn on all lights" and not have to worry about which brand of lights turn on. When I used my Echo Dot…

You can create “Routines” on the Echo (like IFTTT procedures). You could easily create one for “Alexa turn on all lights” that triggers all of your smart home lights regardless of brand.

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

#350

Post by ehsankia »

lgas wrote: post #33
adjkant wrote: post #29

Makes sense, but give me the Google Home. The Chromecast pairing is insane, a better speaker in the mini, and frankly, I'll invite Google to own my life before Amazon.

Out of curiosity, why Goole before Amazon?

1. It's far more conversational. It understands vague questions far better, and the speech understanding also works far better for people with deep accents.

2. It has great integration with other Google services if you're already a heavy Google user (maps, mail, calendar, Fi/GV, hopefully Keep soon...)

3. It has fantastic uses with chromecast (netflix, youtube, pause, rewind, volume, etc).

Obviously, #2 and #3 will vary heavily for people; you can probably get most of #3 if you get a Fire stick. It really depends if you're already a Google/Android/Chromecast user or not.

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