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Amazon Echo Show

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Re: Amazon Echo Show

#381

Post by Spooky23 »

curun1r wrote: post #133
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…

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…

That's only true if you are in certain IP spaces that get lumped in with residential users or are public spaces that are heavily used like AWS.

I've run on-Prem email for years in different capacities. It isn't nearly as difficult as its often portrayed.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#382

Post by silvanojr »

dexterdog wrote: post #349
silvanojr wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RingByName You need to link the skill with a RingByName account in order to use it. Yes, it works well. However, Amazon's speech recognition from Alexa is a challenge for names. Works fine most of the time for American names, but it struggles with foreign names. Results also vary depending on the accent of the user, so our skill always repeats what it got from Amazon to make sure users don't call someone else. We had…

Well we're getting rid of our foreigners so that problem will go away.

If you get rid of foreigners even Amazon will go away :)

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#383

Post by mgkimsal »

dkrich wrote: post #273
hrktb wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think amazon is trying to extend markets, so what happened during the past 20 years can't be their guide. Otherwise I'd see a use of this device for small kids (parents would protect them from generic chat apps, and they're not good at typing yet) and people who put their phone in random places in the house and only check when they actively want to do something on it.

Otherwise I'd see a use of this device for small kids (parents would protect them from generic chat apps, and they're not good at typing yet) and people who put their phone in random places in the house and only check when they actively want to do something on it. This could pretty much describe the iPad as well. To me, Amazon is betting way too heavily on voice as the optimal way to interact with hardware. I know th…

> Amazon is betting way too heavily on voice as the optimal way to interact with hardware. I know that it's cool because it hasn't ever been done well before, but in practice the utility just isn't there for the vast majority of use cases.

Beyond the issues with dialects and accents - those will eventually be solved with better learning/adaptation algorithms - I've always felt voice interfaces very... limited. Perhaps it will enable more 'social' experiences, but 3-5 people can be in a room and use their devices (laptop/tablet/etc) more or less as they do now. If/when devices with 'voice interactions' are the norm... how will I get any privacy from those around me? And simultaneous voices will present some ongoing problems (until, maybe, personal voice recognition, vs just 'voice', is achieved?)

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#384

Post by silvanojr »

thatwebdude wrote: post #352
silvanojr wrote: post #134

I was battling back and forth FOR A MONTH with their skill certification approval team for a skill update that would allow customers to call people by name, where in the first version it was only by phone number. They would fail the certification because apparently people didn't know how to test, or used fake numbers to make phone calls and complained the call would not connect, or the certificate validation (that wa…

Their skill approval system overall can use a bit more, ahem, intelligence.

No kidding. One of their test results was complaining that our skill was misunderstanding "my coworker" for "michael quicker". I had to reply to say that's just how Amazon sent us what Alexa understood.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#385

Post by fps »

ashark wrote: post #38
non_sequitur wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the biggest benefit is video calling. Get your parents one, get one yourself, schedule a video call with them once a week (or whatever). Easier than Facetime since you don't have to hold up the phone. Reminds me of the videophones in the Starship Troopers movie.

Surely two phone stands would be cheaper. You can even initiate the call with voice if you really don't want to touch anything.

Neither of my parents (70+) can handle smart phones. They get computers, TVs and other personal electronics just fine, but iOS and Android are both basically unusable for them. Both OSes have too many distractions and too many interaction choices, so the phone is always doing something unexpected and confusing. I've occasionally talked them through doing a hangouts call on a computer and they've loved seeing their grandkids on the video, but the smartphone interface has kept them from doing regular video calls. However, my father figured out how to turn off my TV and turn on lights in about 5 minutes, without being taught, using my Echo Dot.

It's not about not "wanting to touch anything" - the voice interface is slower and less flexible than a visual interface in a lot of ways, but it's also more consistent and easier to memorize key interactions.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#386

Post by simcop2387 »

chaostheory wrote: post #306
cbhl wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They actually already have that. The Fire TV Stick has "Alexa" in it, but you have to use the push-to-talk remote instead of having an always-on mic as in the Echo.

It would be nice not to need a remote, like with Kinect but with better mics and voice recognition

Part of the problem with that is that if the TV isn't on the right input then you won't be able to receive the response. HDMI Control to change the input exists, but with false positives it might be a bad thing still because it would interrupt whatever you're doing to listen and go "i couldn't understand the question i was asked". I'd quickly disable it if it was doing that.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#387

Post by curun1r »

jpatokal wrote: post #378
ismail wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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:…

This isn't really correct. Short codes are hardcoded routing rules specific to each operator, not just syntactic sugar. They don't map to regular phone numbers (MSISDN) and are generally not available from other networks or overseas, unless the service provider (not the operator) makes an effort to replicate the code across operators and provide it internationally. Some countries have regulatory coordination to preve…

> short codes are rapidly becoming obsolete

I wish. With the prevalence of using SMS for 2FA, short codes are very much in use. When you've got a provider that doesn't work with most short codes, you run into a frighteningly large number of difficult situations. Some providers will give you a "I didn't receive the text, call me" option. Some (grr...Venmo) don't. But it's one of those features you don't realize how often it's used until it doesn't work for you.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#388

Post by CyberDuck »

netsharc wrote: post #216
mhermher wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does AppleTV have HDMI pass through? You would need it for it to compete with the echo. The echo is always on, always listening and accessible. Having to turn on the TV and change inputs and all that removes all of the conveniences of the echo. My feeling is that some company is gonna do that eventually, use the set top box as the home hub, but there are some convenience issues to be figured out.

Why not sell a display that will work with it wirelessly? It would basically be the iPad with WiFi but no touch screen, no camera, maybe even no battery (always plugged-in), and a stripped down iOS with limited CPU/RAM/storage. You talk to the AppleTV box, the display lights up and shows you what you asked for. Add a microphone to the display so it can hear where you are and display you the results in your kitchen di…

There are a lot of smart TVs already integrating with internet... I would imagine most would be like that in the future. It didn't make sense to me why they integrated a screen (other than to get people to use it in every room/ some sort of Amazon strategy that usually works for an unforeseen outcome).

What I haven't seen is something like the electronic-paper Kindle... a calm display. Most of the time I have my laptop and tv on quick shut-down because the ambient light feels grating (maybe it's the feeling of losing energy? not sure why it annoys me). A calendar or XKCD board would be awesome.... have the echo just populate a poster with stuff that's slightly irritating to lookup... this leads into an idea of having 'settings' for the environment/ room...hmm

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#389

Post by sixothree »

aphextron wrote: post #351
Kiro wrote: post #348

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So people buying Alexa products are delirious or what are you suggesting? Because saying there's no market for them is obviously incorrect.

>Because saying there's no market for them is obviously incorrect. No I'm not saying that at all. Of course people will buy these things. It's just really creepy to me that we've gotten to this point as society where people willingly accept having a webcam and microphone connected to the biggest corporation in the world sitting in their living room, able to monitor anything at any time. People don't realize how much…

I feel like all of the evidence we have seen is that if something has a camera or microphone then it will be recording you. It might be hackers, law enforcement, overreach by corporations, mass surveillance. But if it exists, it will be used.

Anecdote time. I remember turning on my iPhone and briefly seeing a picture of myself from earlier that day. I don't think I had ever used the front camera on the phone up until that point. My phone was spying on me. It was the creepiest and most unsettling feeling seeing that picture of myself where it should not have been. There were lots of reports of this sort of thing at the time. And I was surprised to see it happen to me. Not entirely pleased with Apple but Google is worse.

Re: Amazon Echo Show

#390

Post by sixothree »

lucasmullens wrote: post #299
aphextron wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I can't possibly see the value in these integrated devices for anyone but Amazon. Beyond that, these things can and will be hacked immediately.

"will be hacked immediately" is a bit of a bold claim.

I would be surprised if this device were not already compromised by our government.
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