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

Post by adjkant » Wed, Dec 27, 2017, 6:24 AM UTC

dilap wrote: post #70

adjkant wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both. It comes down to the keyword identification algorithm of course, not the design by Google. Google's decision choice was not picking a random name that can be identified but instead working in their brand name. My bet is that give it a few years and we will have custom activation words within some constraints.

Is it both? The Google Home I was playing with at my in-laws house a couple days ago definitely only seemed to respond to "OK" (people kept forgetting and using "hey", which didn't work).

Post by mertd » Wed, Dec 27, 2017, 6:29 AM UTC

dilap wrote: post #68

melling wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Hey Google” is the same number of syllables as Alexa.

The number of syllables isn't the problem, it's that prefixing every request with "OK," feels extremely unnatural -- almost like you're treating the Google assistant in a sardonic or sarcastic manner. (Also, "OK" is a very unnatural prefix! Notice how you accidentally replaced it with "hey". I watched a 7 year repeatedly do this a couple of days ago with Google Home, concluding it was broken. Compare w/ Alexa, which…

Post by daveFNbuck » Wed, Dec 27, 2017, 6:39 AM UTC

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.

Post by daveFNbuck » Wed, Dec 27, 2017, 6:42 AM UTC

lern_too_spel wrote: post #35

discodave wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Amazon is ahead in cash money dollars, market penetration and app/IoT integrations. Also, don't think for a second that they're lazing about and not trying to figure out how to surpass Google in the areas where they're behind.

I think they're both barely better than useless, but the software for both is only going to improve. Amazon is going to hire the AI people and build up their own knowledgebase in the A9 team over the next few years, and Google is going to make the partnerships to reach third party skills parity over the next few months. The right way to choose between them is by looking at the hardware, and the reviews I've seen say…

Post by cthalupa » Wed, Dec 27, 2017, 6:52 AM UTC

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.