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

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

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

381–390 of 414 posts

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

#381

Post by andygates »

dionidium wrote: post #310
daveFNbuck wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Google" is an extremely common word in casual conversation. Any human who tested a device that activated every time you said "Google" would quickly recommend a change to a less likely phrase.

I don't think the argument is that it should necessarily be "Google" instead of "OK, Google." It could be anything, but whatever it is, "OK, Google" is a really clunky, robotic, and unnatural sounding phrase. Worse, it thinks it's human and conversational, but it's not, so it actually has a sort of auditory uncanny valley feeling. It's not good. I'm not saying they should use "Google." I don't care what they use, as…

The Assistant now supports "Hey Google" as an option, and it's surprising how much better -feeling it is. It's less clunky, and it seems to motivate more conversational queries.

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

#382

Post by echosmith »

donatj wrote: post #182
m0ngr31 wrote: post #31

Google might be ahead in some conversational things, but functionality wise, Alexa is way better. Probably has something to do with being on the market first, but developing a skill is a much better experience than it is with Google (imo). I think that's a big reason why. I've developed a number of skills for some big companies, and I'm fighting Amazon right now about getting my open source one published ( https://gi…

I find 3rd party skills a painful experience to use. Having to open a skill like an app before asking what I want Alexa to do feels completely wrong. It leads to me basically never using any third party skills. If I wanted to open apps I’d use my phone. I want something more natural.

Why not just 'Play X on kodi'

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

#383

Post by echosmith »

figgis wrote: post #39
lgas wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, why Goole before Amazon?

Personally I resent the fact that Amazon has done everything in their power as a company to make it so I cannot stream amazon prime to my chromecast. That alone has tarnished my opinion of the company.

What do you think about Google not allowing iOS or Firefox to become cast sources, or FireTV to act as a cast target? Does that piss you off, or are your feelings of outrage only limited to our own personal convenience?

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

#384

Post by echosmith »

figgis wrote: post #320
MikusR wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's Google not Amazon.

No that's on Amazon. Chromecast is open and free to use. On top of which Amazon has shutdown any homegrown solutions sooo. https://developers.google.com/cast/ Amazon is the one banning it.

Amazon doesn't want to support being a cast source because it's products are not allowed to be cast targets.

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

#385

Post by echosmith »

craftyguy wrote: post #115
andy_ppp wrote: post #103

Can we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded, by the companies or by back doors created by the security services? Seems too much like a telescreen for my liking. The problem is I would love one I could trust!

>Can we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded, by the companies or by back doors created by the security services? It's all proprietary, so the answer is: no.

Amazon releases the on-device source code I believe:

Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=...

I personally haven't gone through it, but someone more interested can take a stab at it.

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

#386

Post by echosmith »

afpx wrote: post #157
JulianRaphael wrote: post #121

Very revealing discussion. Most of the participants just argue about Amazon vs. Google here, some fear surveillance, some consider the devices useless, a few want to understand if the HN crowd finds it useful. This is something I notice here on HN in product-related discussions more and more: people just say what THEY think about product X (typically a negative opinion or complaint), rather being creative, constructi…

None of my closest 100 friends and family bought either product, which is very strange given our technology backgrounds and the products’ apparent popularity. A good friend who works in IoT sort of considered it, but then ultimately became unmotivated because she doesn’t yet see the usefulness of consumer IoT. My guess is that most buyers are much younger than me. Perhaps they seek to be early adopters like I once di…

Are you sure none of those 100 were gifted one?

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

#387

Post by ekianjo »

Namrog84 wrote: post #254
ekianjo wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VR is freaking awesome For what uses? I've been trying VR on multiple occasions, I still don't see much use for it. Even most VR games suck completely.

Not all new technologies hit the ground running. Not that vr is necessarily new at this point. Look at early video games versus now. Look at early office home software versus now. These things have come a long way in 20-50 years. Yes, many vr games are still little more than tech prototypes and the hardware still needs improvement. But if you haven't used a decent brand system and can't appreciate how much potential…

> some of the potential it has in next few years

To be honest we've been told about the potential for VR for the past 3 or 4 years at least and I still can't see any killer app to justify the investment. Yeah, it's fun for cockpit games and simulations in general, but... there's not many games "made for VR" that are really interesting. Maybe business applications will be more appealing in the end?

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

#388

Post by EADGBE »

figgis wrote: post #321
EADGBE wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I resent the fact that [Google] has done everything in their power as a company to make it so I cannot stream [YouTube] to my [Fire Stick]. That alone has tarnished my opinion of the company. They had a nice YouTube app, too. Then, just took it away. Even has casting from the YouTube iOS app. __________________________________________ It's like deciding who gets to sit at the Cool Kids table at lunch.

If a competitor removed your products from their store and banned your applications/services from running on their product would you not consider doing the same? It's amazing how once Google retaliated Amazon finally allows chromecast on their store (but no streaming!)

It's just a pissing match.

Too bad our services vanish from thin air when it happens, instead of any actual resolution.

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

#389

Post by smileysteve »

always_good wrote: post #165
smileysteve wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a google home solely because it came w/ a hue package and tried to show it to my family. The Home couldn't hear me over itself (music) across the kitchen... My alexa can hear what I'm saying down the corridor with the shower on and much louder. It was embarassing

I'm curious, why did the package size matter?

A phillips hue bridge w/ 3 color ambiant lights + a google home.

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

#390

Post by dilap »

dilap wrote: post #50
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…

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.

look how many times the family has to remind their grandma to say "ok" or "hey" in front of google in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2R0NSKtVA0&feature=youtu.be

not designed for humans! i rest my case.

Post reply on HN