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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

#371

Post by cube2222 »

dylanfw wrote: post #349
pythonboi wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And then another one for "dim all lights" and another one for "brighten all lights" and another one for "set all lights to warm white" and another one for...

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

#372

Post by philsnow »

m0ngr31 wrote: post #79
cthalupa wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's pretty sweet. I am concerned about the IAM policy you're choosing - Administrator access should basically never be given out or used. I would highly recommend figuring out what your actual dependencies are and restricting the policy to just what's necessary.

Yeah, I run it with the bare minimum, but I kept getting confused people not doing it right, so it was just easier to instruct full admin access. If Amazon won't approve my skill (they have an issue with Kodi after the fire tv stick debacle), I have a hosted version that won't require setup like there is currently, so it's just a temporary solution.

I've seen some github repositories have a button you can click that supposedly instantiates an entire cloudformation stack. I haven't ever clicked on one, so I don't know how smooth the experience is, but it's arguably better than "go learn about terraform" or "click here, there, that, here, type a policy name, paste this policy in this box, click save".

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

#373

Post by portmanteaufu »

chaostheory wrote: post #98
daveFNbuck wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The echo dot is meant to be connected to a speaker. The built-in one is just there for basic functionality.

imo the Echo Dot is better for this very reason. You can hook it up to much nicer speakers compared to what comes fixed with the standard Echo.

The 2nd generation full-sized Echo has Bluetooth/line out support[1].

[1] https://www.amazon.com/All-new-Generation-improved-powered-d...

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

#374

Post by toyg »

throwaway9980 wrote: post #234
toyg wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do you think millions of people bought an Echo Dot or a Google Home? Duh, because this has been the holy grail of personal computers since forever: you ask and computers do, no questions asked, no training, nothing. It's having servants without the pesky societal thing. In any scifi story ever there is something like that. It's the first time it really feels like AI dreams are getting real. Interpreting speech…

Servants? Alexa, wash the dishes! Alexa, change my kid’s diaper! Alexa, pickup my kid from school! Alexa, vacuum the living room! Alexa, take out the trash! She can’t help me with any of that. I guess everyday people need to have lower barriers to interacting with computers, but I’m good. I like to read HN the way I would have read the newspaper. I listen to some podcasts the way I would have listened to the radio. B…

> She can’t help me with any of that.

Oh she will, eventually.

Already she can basically do all your shopping. That's a servant job alright. And there are plenty of other things that you would typically ask of "the help", which I bet you can already do:

"send an Amazon gift voucher to my cousin on 25 december."

"call a Uber for 5pm and send it to address X to pick up the kids."

"find plumbers near me with good ratings."

"call my lawyer on Skype."

And there will be things that will likely appear very quickly:

"create a new document with template X and the following text: ..."

"make a mix of songs A, B and C and send it to my girlfriend."

"share photos of holiday X with Dad"

... and so on and so forth. As more and more things are plugged in, it will really feel like you had an invisible servant at your disposal, doing all the dirty work for you, starting with "dealing with computer interfaces" which is what it does right now. Some things are obviously difficult or pointless to automate (like sorting dirty clothes or loading a dishwasher - note how the actual washing is already automated). Some are easier, like sweeping floors with a Roomba.

It's like we were looking at the Apple II, and you were complaining that the desktop cannot write a letter and send it for you. Vocal recognition is an enabler, an interface. If the interface is successful (and it looks like this is the case), programs and "peripherals" will come.

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

#375

Post by adjkant »

659087 wrote: post #304
adjkant wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> the Chromecast / Home combo has made me consider what a life in the Google ecosystem would look like. Like living in a fish tank being filmed from all angles.

Who cares if you're in a fish tank being filmed if the video is never viewed and the tank is in a sealed room?

Where the fish tank is placed and where that video is going is important. Details matter and trying to dismiss technology with these taglines do those details a disservice. I'm an engineer myself, I am very aware of the dangers and watch closely. Right now, for my personal calculus, the benefit outweighs the risk.

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

#376

Post by toyg »

EADGBE wrote: post #297
francisofascii wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, there are a few robotic vacuums that can be controlled with Alexa.

When I was reviewing robotic vacuums for potential purchase I was disappointed to understand that most of these (if not all of these) are for the "maintenance" use of cleaning a floor. By that I mean, they will run a rather random route, and may or may not get to that spot on the rug you'd rather them clean, which would harken the "Alexa, clean the rug". These things, although still very cool, seem kinda useless for…

> they will run a rather random route, and may or may not get to that spot on the rug you'd rather them clean

This could probably be solved by the robot mapping floors as it sweeps them, which most already do. Results could be accessed via pc/tablet, where a user could mark specific areas as "rug", "kitchen" etc. I bet we will see this sort of feature appear in a not-so-distant future.

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

#377

Post by mac01021 »

dao- wrote: post #368
mac01021 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Around where I live, you probably have to mow about 25 times per year. The lawn care people have quoted me about $70 per time to mow my ~1 acre yard. That's $1750 per year. It looks like, if these robots are able to become 20-30% cheaper then it seems like they'll probably be competitive with those people.

At some point lawn care firms will start to automate and the costs will come down. The idea that every landowner should own those devices that sit idle most of the time is a bit crazy if you think about it. By the way, why do you /have/ to mow 25 times per year? Is that an actual requirement of some sort or really a personal preference? I live in central Europe (Berlin), haven't mowed a single time this year. Doesn't…

The grass in my lawn (in Connecticut) really thrives in the soil here. If I let it go for a whole month in the may-oct range, then it becomes 12-15cm long and takes hours and hours for my little mower to get through.

Perhaps I just need to grow a different kind of grass?

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

#378

Post by Washuu »

kodt wrote: post #222
Washuu wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Alexa, what's the weather?" It proceeds to tell me the weather for a state over. "Alexa, set my location to XXXXX." It can't do that. Actually getting correct location details requires downloading a separate smart phone application and digging through its menus to figure out how to set the location for each individual Alexa device.

I don't think it is even possible to setup an Echo without that app, so I'm not exactly sure how downloading the app is an extra step. You would have already needed to do that to get it connected to your wifi network.

Because I deleted the application from my iPhone after I finished setting up the wireless network. There was no reason to keep it around afterwards.

I own a smart phone, but it basically just is used to make phone calls. Hacker News is the closest I come to a social network.

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

#379

Post by Washuu »

slg wrote: post #117
Washuu wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Alexa, what's the weather?" It proceeds to tell me the weather for a state over. "Alexa, set my location to XXXXX." It can't do that. Actually getting correct location details requires downloading a separate smart phone application and digging through its menus to figure out how to set the location for each individual Alexa device.

One of the biggest problems with voice assistants is that discoverability for their full feature set is awful. If you want to get the most of it, you are going to have spend some time digging through menus and learning what the device can do. I don't know why downloading an app would be a deal breaker for anyone, but all the settings and skills are also available on the web at alexa.amazon.com.

It took six months to figure out how to get Alexa to change the temperature in the built in Echo of the Ecobee4 thermostat in my house. It would always respond with, "I didn't find any smart home devices." Turns out the Ecobee skill is not enabled by default for a device it is built into. Asking how to enable it or how to make it work lead no where as well.

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

#380

Post by erikpukinskis »

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…

If you’re in any iMessage-only group chats, you can’t really switch to Android. Apple will just silently fail to deliver any further messages to you if you try to shut down your iMessage account.

You’d have to coach each person (individually) in all of those threads to delete the thread and create a new one in order to be included again, which is a crazy barrier. Even more so if the threads are work related.

I suspect Apple is in violation of federal law in this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2511

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