Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Echo Dot

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 410 posts

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#371

Post by spydum »

freehunter wrote: post #314
Karunamon wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that cuts both ways. If the computer can be trained to understand the user's intent, that seems like a better solution than forcing the user to think a different way. Which would you rather do? Be forced to state your lighting preferences in candlepower, or have the computer learn that when you say "subdued lighting", you mean "12"?

Very true, but this is one simple example. Look at what Wolfram Alpha tries to do for even more complicated examples. If I put in "if I am traveling at 60 miles per hour how many hours does it take to go one hundred miles" it gives me an answer of 6000 seconds (1.66 hours). Very intuitive, and it actually ruined my example because I did not expect the site to understand what I was saying. But if I type in "how fast d…

You asked: "how fast do I need to go to travel 100 miles in 6000 seconds" Which is equivilent to saying "at what rate do I need to go to travel {rate}". It's a nonsense question, you already know the answer. You need to go 100 miles per 6000 seconds.

What you should have asked is: "100 miles per 6000 second to miles per hour", which it will happily convert the rate you gave, for the one you really wanted.

I guess what your saying is it should be able to figure that out, but at some point, the old phrase "garbage in garbage out" surfaces.. You never told it to convert the unit.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#372

Post by khaosrage96 »

saym wrote: post #369
mehta wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought this already worked. Okay Google... Play music will start Music app Okay Google... Start Radio will start NPR app

I can say "Open Spotify" and it will open the app. Then I have a button on the helmet that sends the Play command. But I can't do anything robust like playing a specific artist. Perhaps if I used Google Music the integration would be built out.

On my Nexus 6p saying "OK Google play 'artist'" will open Spotify and start playing the top songs of that artist. This does not work to play specific playlists though.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#374

Post by yoodenvranx »

cubano wrote: post #344
krinchan wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And copy and paste. People seem to always forget the power of it. It's the GUI equivalent of "Search for that on Google" or "Now, SSH to this IP I found digging through AWS." Copy and pasting of text from application to application is the clunky Unix Pipe. It's universal and deeply important. Taking sections of the last response, or hell, even having every response essentially be wrapped up in some sort of object you…

I've often postulated that copy and paste is perhaps the biggest productivity enhancement in the history of computing.

I use KDE Connect to enable seamless copy and paste between my PC and my phones. It's the single best thing I ever installed in the last 1 or 2 years.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#375

Post by SirensOfTitan »

nogbit wrote: post #325
BatFastard wrote: post #252

I love my echo! I probably use it 15-25 times a day. 1) Acts as my alarm 2) Turn on my favorite radio station while I make breakfast. 3) Timers for cooking breakfast. 4) Listen to flash news 5) Alarm again if I need a nap. 6) Timers for lunch meal 7) Add item to shopping list. 8) Add todo items. 9) Plays spotify while I work on my computer from across the room. 10) More flash news (its really quite extensive) 11) mor…

Wow, you need a reality check here with your "A bloated sense of self importance?". Here is some history for you.... My Dad has written a book about Native Americans in the pacific northwest. Part of his research turned up personnel letters from an officer in the US Cavalry long ago (many officers). These letters were very personnel, and only ever meant to be read by his wife. Unfortunately, these letters were passed…

> So don't become famous, run for office or try to be big corp CEO

I don't necessarily disagree, but the vast majority of people will do none of these things mentioned.

The real issue is that of a person's private life seeping into all of their interactions with society. A person could be easily controlled even in private settings if a misstep could land them without a job, ruin a marriage, or cost a person their freedom.

With that being said, the majority of people don't care about privacy. Almost all of us are oversharing (although the demographic on HN are likely more privacy-conscious than most). Either we're all going to get bitten in the ass, or somehow we'll adapt as a society to accept others more deeply (as the alternative is mutual destruction).

I'm quite privacy conscious myself, but when does our habits of privacy-first make us bigger targets than others who are not?

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#376

Post by Touche »

wyldfire wrote: post #341
corin_ wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Built in speaker is for alarms, not media, I think.

it does seem to exclude media. > Built-in speaker for voice feedback when not connected to external speakers > Includes a built-in speaker so it can work on its own as a smart alarm clock in the bedroom, an assistant in the kitchen, or anywhere you might want a voice-controlled computer

That's crazy, why do I want this without a speaker? The bluetooth speakers they recommend are all really expensive; a speaker + Echo Dot is more expensive than a regular Echo... why wouldn't I just get a second Echo?

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#377

Post by gervase »

josh2600 wrote: post #337
xigency wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being overheard isn't the only privacy concern. Most of these solutions offload the speech recognition and language parsing functions to corporate servers. I like texting with Siri but I'm not exactly keen on having Apple record everything. It also seems limiting in that I can't use voice commands without a network. It would be nice for voice recognition platforms to start being built in. I know there's training data…

I think the processing requirements for handling on-device Siri would destroy battery life.

This actually doesn't seem to be the case. Take a look at Google Translate's offline voice recognition AND translation - it's really amazing, considering it's all happening on your device.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#378

Post by philrapo »

tbrock wrote: post #95
ghaff wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I sorta agree. I got the original Echo for $100 when they had a special deal for Prime members. The timer is handy. The shopping list is handy. It's occasionally vaguely useful to ask it questions about the weather or other things--though it's not like my phone is that far away. I do use it for Amazon Music when I can't be bothered finding something to play on my stereo. Potentially, the ability to interface with hom…

It's painful to have it read back answers. The weather, for example, takes one quick glance on my phone but forever for Alexa to read.

i was thinking this too. i'd like to also have a screen, for example on my fridge, where echo can post visual data replies.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#379

Post by pbhjpbhj »

samstave wrote: post #288
startupfounder wrote: post #14

The transition from primarily visual UX towards an auditorial UX is really powerful. Looking at screens to get key information distracts me from my surroundings and seems archaic. My wife is a sound designer who has opened my eyes to the importance of sounds both in film and in the world. It's not that I was unaware of sounds, but I didn't realize how important they are to centering me in this world and the made up w…

They should announce Amazon echo for the deaf, which would just be a screen.

... with a couple of kinect type devices to monitor one's signs.

Re: Amazon Echo Dot

#380

Post by hemdawgz »

ryandrake wrote: post #216
caractacus wrote: post #63

When did I turn from the enthusiastic kid who dreamed of audio-controlled personal assistants like this to a cranky old man who doesn't want anything remotely spy-possible in his house?

I love "smart" devices, but hate "devices that needlessly insist on connecting to the Internet". One of the worst offenders is Dropcam. They have a super camera, easy to set up and use. Great picture quality. Would be an awesome baby monitor or "closed circuit TV replacement". But why the goddamn hell does it need to connect to the Internet? Why is the only option available to needlessly stream video out of my home n…

The video quality probably doesn't compare but I've used an old iPhone with iPCamera (i'm sure Android equivalents exist) installed for this purpose, which simply hosts an mjpeg stream at a local IP address. It should be simple to start or stop recording the stream on any device that's connected.
Post reply on HN