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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

#81

Post by crazcarl »

scosman wrote: post #34
wan23 wrote: post #22

This seems like the biggest feature these devices have been missing. Some use cases off the top of my head: * Alexa, call my phone (because I can't find it) * Alexa, call for Chinese food (okay everyone call out what you want) * Alexa, send a message to my son -- "I've fallen and I can't get up"

Or as an intercom: * Alexa, call the living room: hey everybody, dinner's getting cold!

You can use the drop in feature for this, right?

Allow drop in between your devices in your home, and you can call one from another. Maybe they'll allow call groups and you can call to every room at once.

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

#82

Post by Animats »

FreakyT wrote: post #79
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…

> What person would ever want this "feature"? Look up research on "media spaces" if you're interested in the practical applications of this kind of feature. Just one example paper, but there are many more: https://www.billbuxton.com/DGPmediaspace.pdf Digitally creating a "portal" like this can be considered roughly analogous to connected spaces in real life. So, for example, two break rooms across different campuses…

So, for example, two break rooms across different campuses of the same company.

I once suggested that to a company which had two locations that weren't getting along. Put up a teleconferencing link in their break room and leave it up. Unfortunately, this was before bandwidth was cheap enough this was a no-brainer.

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

#83

Post by ghurtado »

dkrich wrote: post #78
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 spends years meticulously developing and then releasing the most successful (and profitable) consumer computing platform of all time. Nearly every man, woman and child in the US has an Apple device no more than five feet from them at all time that's completely capable of controlling every home device connected to the internet. Amazon spends years and billions of dollars trying to compete in the hardware space w…

> Nearly every man, woman and child in the US has an Apple device no more than five feet from them at all time

How did you come up with this claim? It's certainly not true for myself, my household, most of my relatives and most of my friends and coworkers.

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

#84

Post by dtien »

dkrich wrote: post #78
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 spends years meticulously developing and then releasing the most successful (and profitable) consumer computing platform of all time. Nearly every man, woman and child in the US has an Apple device no more than five feet from them at all time that's completely capable of controlling every home device connected to the internet. Amazon spends years and billions of dollars trying to compete in the hardware space w…

You're almost speaking to my point, Apple did create one of the best and widely adopted computing platforms out there with the Smart Phone. And yet... even you describe it as a 'computing device'.

Echo/Alexa is the first step to that ubiquitous IoT future, where computing is sort of removed from the terminology and services are just available on demand in the most natural of human interfaces -- voice.

Similar to that first moment of watching a 5 year old ( or 60 year old ) accessing YouTube on an Ipad ( simplified touch interface ) when the first i-devices came out. The voice interface will be just as transformative, if not more so.

The moment for me was when my 2 year old niece screamed, "Alexa, play the gummy bear song"... and it started playing, and she started dancing. That was a game changing moment for me, to realize that this device opens the doors for the young, the old, the impaired, and even the tech averse to access all kinds of cool tech that we take for granted. Hell even for me, "Alexa, play the latest 'how I built this' podcast"

Don't get me wrong, typing and touch is infinitely more efficient and powerful, but voice will be infinitely more accessible. Touch devices, as simple as they are, still require a mental model of which icons provide which services, clicking through and typing out requests and looking at results, versus what my 2 year old niece was able to do with Alexa.

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

#85

Post by petra »

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 don't have alexa, just "OK, Google", and the interaction model is very similar to the commandline - which isn't too positive when it comes to regular people.

And it fits with :

>> we primarily use it as a smart connected radio,

Does anybody see a solution to that problem ?

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

#86

Post by ethn »

bearcobra wrote: post #8
ethn wrote: post #7

"If they're not selling something to you, they're selling you" -Anonymous

Well they are selling you the device...

Services cost money, that's why all phones don't offer free calling. The 'free' calls will eat away at the margins. I don't understand why this quote is controversial. It's quite obvious that they want the free data to at least train their machine learning algorithms, if not to also 'provide targeted ads'.

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

#87

Post by AlexandrB »

Mtinie wrote: post #10
AlexandrB wrote: post #5

This is "free" as in Amazon is free to record your calls and messages and use them either as training data for AI or targeting data for advertising.

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?

No. The same Faustian bargain applies to these other services as well. I just think it's worth pointing out that this is not free. You're paying with your data.

I should also point out that the situation has evolved. Back when Skype was new, it was clear they were providing a service in exchange for ad revenue, but not so clear how much conversation data they were retaining if any. As the ad economy evolved perpetual [meta]data retention has become the norm - effectively increasing the cost of using these services.

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

#88

Post by dkrich »

dtien wrote: post #84
dkrich wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple spends years meticulously developing and then releasing the most successful (and profitable) consumer computing platform of all time. Nearly every man, woman and child in the US has an Apple device no more than five feet from them at all time that's completely capable of controlling every home device connected to the internet. Amazon spends years and billions of dollars trying to compete in the hardware space w…

You're almost speaking to my point, Apple did create one of the best and widely adopted computing platforms out there with the Smart Phone. And yet... even you describe it as a 'computing device'. Echo/Alexa is the first step to that ubiquitous IoT future, where computing is sort of removed from the terminology and services are just available on demand in the most natural of human interfaces -- voice. Similar to that…

My point is that the iPhone/iPad/Android-enabled tablet is a ubiquitous IoT control panel.

I disagree that the most natural of human interfaces is voice. It's like saying that listening to an audiobook will always be a better way to consume media than watching a video. Audio only is great for some use cases, but not most. Humans developed the ability to see, touch, hear, and speak for a reason. After all, radios predated television by a long shot. Then when televisions were released, they pretty much cannibalized the sale of the home radio, because it added the ability to see in real time what you were listening to.

Speech is most certainly an important part of communication for humans, but it's just one, and only best for certain things. Simple queries like "what's the weather today?" or "play some music" is better said than typed, I would agree. But for lots of other tasks its just not efficient. I'd rather pull out my phone and search for restaurant recommendations than try and fumble around communicating by voice. When I pull up the Yelp app, I can instantly view a list of many of restaurants and because I'm used to the interface and visual cues, like the number of stars, location, and reviews, I can discern what I think I'd like very quickly. Now imagine a human trying to describe what they saw on that app to me. It'd be impossible to do. It's just very difficult to convey subtleties with voice only.

As an aside, if Apple wanted to get into the IoT business and pose a threat to Amazon, I think if they released some sort of "Always On" listening mode and began giving developers the ability to build apps which responded to it, they'd already be caught up. If I could say "play some music" or "Face Time Dave" and it solved the simple query problem, I don't know that I'd ever use my Echo again (I maybe use it once or twice a week now).

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

#89

Post by dkrich »

ghurtado wrote: post #83
dkrich wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple spends years meticulously developing and then releasing the most successful (and profitable) consumer computing platform of all time. Nearly every man, woman and child in the US has an Apple device no more than five feet from them at all time that's completely capable of controlling every home device connected to the internet. Amazon spends years and billions of dollars trying to compete in the hardware space w…

> Nearly every man, woman and child in the US has an Apple device no more than five feet from them at all time How did you come up with this claim? It's certainly not true for myself, my household, most of my relatives and most of my friends and coworkers.

Well, Apple sells about 200 million iPhones a year, so when you add in iPad sales to that, unless you are outside the US, you should consider yourself in a very select minority.

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

#90

Post by accountyaccount »

intopieces wrote: post #44
accountyaccount wrote: post #14

This effectively makes the Echo Show a circa-1995 video phone for remote grandparenting.

I was only 8 in 1995, can you link me to a such a device? I'd like to compare.

Sure, I was thinking of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULX-omgUzIc

But in general the product has been around in some (generally expensive) form since the '70s.

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