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Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

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Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#61

Post by dtien »

Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home 'smartbox' that Amazon popularized with Alexa.

We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I'm now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa's existence. Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me.

Essentially, you've now opened up the possibility of exposing a lot of the latest tech to a new demographic of people that probably were 'too old' to 'get it', or not tech savvy enough to use it. The combination of a voice interface (not perfect, but improving) with access to all the latest web services spanning music, telephony, email, todo lists, home automation, etc is huge. I can now actually envision my parents, or even grandparents using services like Spotify, Podcasts, Connected Calendars, VOIP, and any number of things that the tech savvy take for granted through their phones or other devices.

Circling back to my first statement about Apple; the quintessential consumer oriented tech company. The company that's supposed to make all things nasty and complicated into things that are simple and accessible. How did Apple who already had Apple TV (home box), Siri (voice interface), Itunes (music and app ecosystem), Icloud( ugh.. but still integrated personal mgmt) and FaceTime (VOIP) not come up with this sooner. Or at least, once they saw Alexa gaining popularity not just bundle up their services and release it. Apple typically is late to the party with a more refined product, but Amazon is executing at an impressive rate these days and it's getting harder to see how Apple can close the gap.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#62

Post by gordon_freeman »

dtien wrote: post #61

Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home 'smartbox' that Amazon popularized with Alexa. We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I'm now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa's existence. Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me. Essentially, you've…

Apple still has a huge advantage with their iOS app ecosystem. They can introduce a hardware and add an SDK to iOS that allows their developers to create apps that seamlessly work on that hardware. But they need to come up with the hardware fast because Amazon will race far ahead otherwise.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#63

Post by FullMtlAlcoholc »

rkho wrote: post #58
FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #56

> The one that has jumped out at me first is called “Drop In” — which lets you make a call to someone without them even answering the phone first. I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. EDIT: That's too mean spirited. If you want to peer in on your elderly parents, webcams are a better idea because you'll put them in a p…

> I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. Is this necessary?

The people responsible for this knew exactly what they are doing. They are putting a vice grip on society's notion of what privacy is, crushing it into an ever smaller idea. It's not for the benefit of people, it's for their own narrow self-interest and profit.

If this were bi-directional, that along with a loss of privacy came blanket transparency into how they're using the data they record, shared their data sets and open sourced their algorithms, I may not feel comfortable with it, but I wouldn't feel this existential dread that my greatest value comes from being a data point.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#64

Post by JamesUtah07 »

> You can call or message any contact who also has the free Alexa App, an Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Show and has enabled Alexa calling and messaging.

Just to be clear for others that can't/didn't read the full article, you can't make full calls to anyone, they have to have at minimum the amazon alexa app.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#65

Post by ianai »

dtien wrote: post #61

Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home 'smartbox' that Amazon popularized with Alexa. We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I'm now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa's existence. Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me. Essentially, you've…

This might be the thing that stirs apple to action.

I'm under the impression that Alexa works much better at understanding than Siri? Is that true?

What would be great is if all these things could work together. Amazons smartphones are not compelling and they don't have laptops/desktops. It sounds like they do IoT well, while Apple does the later.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#66

Post by ianai »

gordon_freeman wrote: post #62
dtien wrote: post #61

Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home 'smartbox' that Amazon popularized with Alexa. We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I'm now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa's existence. Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me. Essentially, you've…

Apple still has a huge advantage with their iOS app ecosystem. They can introduce a hardware and add an SDK to iOS that allows their developers to create apps that seamlessly work on that hardware. But they need to come up with the hardware fast because Amazon will race far ahead otherwise.

Let's not forget their huge cash on hand. Apple could purchase its way into any market and technology at this point.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#67

Post by Mtinie »

at-fates-hands wrote: post #55
Mtinie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a different level of expected privacy with Amazon's services than you do with Apple, Google, or Microsoft? Alexa Calling will compete with FaceTime, Google Duo, and Skype (amongst others). Do you feel the same way about those other services or is your concern specifically related to the Echo platform?

> Do you have a different level of expected privacy with Amazon's services than you do with Apple, Google, or Microsoft? I was thinking about this today, and figured this is the epitome of a dystopian society. We've readily given up our freedoms and privacy in lieu of technology that is able to gather data on us and shared with entities we probably don't approve of, blinded by the "cool" things this technology can do…

> Every time I see something like this I get nauseated because people are willing to hand over all their personal data for some shiny new technology that really doesn't do anything really amazing at all.

It isn't clear to me if you are directing that towards my comment, or if you meant it as a general criticism. My question was intended to understand more about the concerns that the previous comment raised and if they were only critical of Amazon's implementation or if they were more broadly concerned with privacy wrt all communication tools of this type. It was not to advocate for a "who cares, it's not important" position by any means.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#68

Post by ianai »

FullMtlAlcoholc wrote: post #63
rkho wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish that the product person who pushed this as an "innovative" idea lives a short, brutish, and painful life where he/she dies alone. Is this necessary?

The people responsible for this knew exactly what they are doing. They are putting a vice grip on society's notion of what privacy is, crushing it into an ever smaller idea. It's not for the benefit of people, it's for their own narrow self-interest and profit. If this were bi-directional, that along with a loss of privacy came blanket transparency into how they're using the data they record, shared their data sets a…

Yes, I can't shake the terror of everything I say or do being recorded and analyzed.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#69

Post by mulletbum »

ianai wrote: post #65
dtien wrote: post #61

Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home 'smartbox' that Amazon popularized with Alexa. We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I'm now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa's existence. Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me. Essentially, you've…

This might be the thing that stirs apple to action. I'm under the impression that Alexa works much better at understanding than Siri? Is that true? What would be great is if all these things could work together. Amazons smartphones are not compelling and they don't have laptops/desktops. It sounds like they do IoT well, while Apple does the later.

My gosh, yes. Alexa's ability to understand me far outclasses Siri in almost every manner.

Re: Amazon enables free calls and messages on all Echo devices with Alexa Calling

#70

Post by ehsankia »

dtien wrote: post #61

Apple (and Google) really dropped the ball on the connected Home 'smartbox' that Amazon popularized with Alexa. We received one as a gift this past Christmas, and I'm now a full believer in this tech after being a very big skeptic during the first couple years of Alexa's existence. Add to the fact, that we primarily use it as a smart connected radio, and the benefits are still beyond clear to me. Essentially, you've…

I'm not sure how Google dropedp the ball? I see your argument that Apple was also well situated to create this, but other than starting a bit late, what has Google done wrong?

They are catching up very quickly, since like Apple, they are in a much better position to create this technology as they have most of the ingredients already. Google Home has managed to mostly catch up in 6 months to a product that's been out for over 2 years. 3rd party support is growing very fast, the new SDK opens many doors, the IFTTT/Actions support allows tinkerers to hack up cool new features, and when it comes to conversational AI, most agree that Google is far ahead.

That being said, the competition is still fierce and I'm loving the innovations each side brings.

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