Amazon Echo...do want.

[kranky]

No, no, no. It said right in the video that the Alexa can only hear you after you say "Alexa" so it's perfectly private.

Must be magic. It knows you said it while it's not listening!

 

[avinyc]

I've seen better acting in infomercials. Made it through one minute before I closed the video, but this thing feels like a flop. Maybe 5 years ago it would have been more appealing, but like everyone is saying, why use this when you have it on your phone?

 

[Grooveriding]

Very cool. I had not heard that the NSA was selling their products under the Amazon brand name. :thumbsup:

 

[Childs]

I signed up for an invite. I definitely see potential but I don't think this is the device that will meet the potential. Still, I'm interested in testing it out. I think if they can fully integrate it with existing home automation solutions and also introduce some integration with FireTV, it could be a big winner. I don't want to have to carry my cell phone around the house or have it near me; you guys need to use your imagination a little.

"Why would you want to have it work with FireTV?", you ask? Well, I can imagine walking into the living room and saying "Computer...errr, I mean, Alexa -- what is the weather going to be like this week?" As she starts talking, I can say "Computer, onscreen!" Just like Star Trek!

If it connected to your phone or computer it would make more sense. Then it would be an extension of your phone's voice assistant. It appears to be stand alone, so thats another device and another account and data to manage.

I would think the goal might be to have all the Amazon devices linked together. So if you had a Fire Phone and TV, tablet and Prime, and you can just say something like "Alexa play 'Shake it off'" or "continue reading harry potter" or say "Create alarm for 12/3/14' and it does it to a cloud account where the action would be synced then executed and outputted on the appropriate device. And if you have an Echo in each room, they are all connected, so if you go into another room you can just say something like "Continue playing in this room". This doesn't appear to be the case though. Content limited to a couple of streaming services, or else you have to use an app on a PC or phone to send it to the Echo like AirPlay or Miracast.

 

[Kaido]

I'm not an Amazon fanboi, but it is well-known that one of the ultimate goals of geekdom is omnipresent computers that listen to what you say and can answer questions and execute directives. Just saying.

It's going to be huge for the home automation market...no one has a truly good "talk anywhere" microphone for controlling your smarthome. If the microphones are as good as they say, that will be awesome...there will be zero mental friction for looking things up or writing things down, you can simply ask it to tell you stuff like Wikipedia entries or the weather, and have it write stuff down like notes or calendar entries.

Not that pulling your phone out is hard, but if a thought crosses your mind and all you have to say is "Alexa, I have soccer practice at 11:00am this Saturday" and you're done...that's gonna be a gamechanger. Plus if they make it a Sonos/Airplay competitor, that will be awesome, especially with the Amazon Prime music stuff.

 

[WelshBloke]

I think they missed the mark on a product that could have done well. Soundbars are the rage now. Dedicated speaker systems are on the decline and small, sleek soundbars you can hang on the wall or put on a mantle are what consumers are shifting to. They could have made a soundbar that you stick under your tv and that basically had a Fire TV built into it. One HDMI cable run to your TV and all of the Amazon and traditional streaming stuff built into it. You then just talk to it. It'll stream pandora. It'll play Netflix. If you do plex it will pull movies from your computer. And it does it from a box that makes your TV and music sound better.

Make a smart sound bar for $250 or $300 and it should do *very* well.

Couldnt you just plug a fire tv into a standard soundbar using the audio out bit?

 

[Kaido]

If it connected to your phone or computer it would make more sense. Then it would be an extension of your phone's voice assistant. It appears to be stand alone, so thats another device and another account and data to manage.

I would think the goal might be to have all the Amazon devices linked together. So if you had a Fire Phone and TV, tablet and Prime, and you can just say something like "Alexa play 'Shake it off'" or "continue reading harry potter" or say "Create alarm for 12/3/14' and it does it to a cloud account where the action would be synced then executed and outputted on the appropriate device. And if you have an Echo in each room, they are all connected, so if you go into another room you can just say something like "Continue playing in this room". This doesn't appear to be the case though. Content limited to a couple of streaming services, or else you have to use an app on a PC or phone to send it to the Echo like AirPlay or Miracast.

If they can beef up the quality of the service, I'll bite. I pre-ordered the Fire TV Stick at $19 and I signed up for an invite on Echo. Siri is meh...I turned it off long ago. Android's voice control (Now?) is loads better, but it's still not to the point where it works like I want it to. If Amazon can really conquer the integration...like if I have friends over and decide to go out & see a movie, I can just say "Alexa, buy 4 tickets for the Hobbit for 7:30pm" and it actually breezes through everything, yeah, that'd be awesome. They're almost there...

 

[vi edit]

Couldnt you just plug a fire tv into a standard soundbar using the audio out bit?

Absolutely. But it's clear that they are trying to shoot for a different type of tech & use here. It'd be a much larger audience and household hub if they integrated it into a soundbar.

 

[Childs]

If they can beef up the quality of the service, I'll bite. I pre-ordered the Fire TV Stick at $19 and I signed up for an invite on Echo. Siri is meh...I turned it off long ago. Android's voice control (Now?) is loads better, but it's still not to the point where it works like I want it to. If Amazon can really conquer the integration...like if I have friends over and decide to go out & see a movie, I can just say "Alexa, buy 4 tickets for the Hobbit for 7:30pm" and it actually breezes through everything, yeah, that'd be awesome. They're almost there...

Yeah, I think they are slowly putting the pieces in place. Maybe version 2 will be where its at. When Google and Apple have something like this I think it will be better, but its good that someone is at least trying it.

 

[WelshBloke]

Absolutely. But it's clear that they are trying to shoot for a different type of tech & use here. It'd be a much larger audience and household hub if they integrated it into a soundbar.

I think that the thinking is to stick with the fire tv in the living room as its suited to linking up to the TV.

This seems to be a non visual thing and seems more suited to a central position in a busier place like maybe the kitchen.

I actually like the idea if only for a stand alone, voice activated music streamer with decent sound (thats if it works as it should).

Amazon take a lot of stick over their hardware but they have made more successes than failures.
The fire tv is pretty solid, the kindle ereaders are very good, fire tablets have the highest market share of any android tablet... Yeah the fire phone is an unmitigated disaster but what company hasnt had one or two hardware disasters?

 

[kranky]

I look at any Amazon hardware item as a tool to sell you more stuff from Amazon, and anything else it does is only there to make you think you want it for other reasons.

I can imagine this device (which doesn't listen unless it hears and recognizes its name while somehow not actually listening) recognizing product names from ordinary conversations and then you get an email pointing out the great deal they have on that item.

 

[Red Storm]

It's going to be huge for the home automation market...no one has a truly good "talk anywhere" microphone for controlling your smarthome. If the microphones are as good as they say, that will be awesome...there will be zero mental friction for looking things up or writing things down, you can simply ask it to tell you stuff like Wikipedia entries or the weather, and have it write stuff down like notes or calendar entries.

Not that pulling your phone out is hard, but if a thought crosses your mind and all you have to say is "Alexa, I have soccer practice at 11:00am this Saturday" and you're done...that's gonna be a gamechanger. Plus if they make it a Sonos/Airplay competitor, that will be awesome, especially with the Amazon Prime music stuff.

This will definitely be cool and fun to have at home, but Amazon's problem is that they're Amazon, they try to tie everything to their services, which pale in comparison to Apple and Google. What good does setting a reminder with Amazon do me if it doesn't sync to my Android or iOS device? This is why Apple and Google will take over this market, it all goes back to which mobile devices are people actually using, and unfortunately for Amazon it's not their devices.

Actually now that I think about it, Google Now would be amazing for this. It already knows to notify you about traffic alerts or update your travel times to make it to appointments, just add in the mics and speakers for your home and you've got a poor man's Jarvis automatically reminding you to take an umbrella when you're getting ready (and it knows what time you do get ready either by telling it or learning from when you ask about the weather in the mornings for example), or wake you earlier than usual because of an accident on your commute. Factor in smart appliances and could say "OK Google, make me some coffee." and eventually have it automate that task as well.

Looking forward to the next few years as home automation really takes off.

 

[BoberFett]

This product is the start of something that will be much more useful in the future. Right now it's probably pretty limited.

Someday I imagine homes will be outfitted with speakers and microphones all over the place. It will probably be driven by your personal device however (phone, watch, etc.) and just use the speakers and microphone for better sound fidelity, so you don't have to walk around staring at your phone.

 

[Red Storm]

This product is the start of something that will be much more useful in the future. Right now it's probably pretty limited.

Someday I imagine homes will be outfitted with speakers and microphones all over the place. It will probably be driven by your personal device however (phone, watch, etc.) and just use the speakers and microphone for better sound fidelity, so you don't have to walk around staring at your phone.

Yep, and that's why Amazon will fail at it, because the majority of people are using Android and iOS. I can see why they so desperately want to make a phone that people will use. We're headed in a direction where choosing what phone OS you go with will decide what secondary tech devices you go with (smart watches, home automation, etc.).

 

[IndyColtsFan]

This product is the start of something that will be much more useful in the future. Right now it's probably pretty limited.

Someday I imagine homes will be outfitted with speakers and microphones all over the place. It will probably be driven by your personal device however (phone, watch, etc.) and just use the speakers and microphone for better sound fidelity, so you don't have to walk around staring at your phone.

Bingo. Bober gets it. Too bad that I also agree that this device will probably not go far enough but I think in a few years we may see a device that will integrate with home automation systems, your TVs, support remote mics/speakers, etc. This is the beginning of the Star Trek home and as a geek, I am excited.

 

[ultimatebob]

This product is the start of something that will be much more useful in the future. Right now it's probably pretty limited.

Someday I imagine homes will be outfitted with speakers and microphones all over the place. It will probably be driven by your personal device however (phone, watch, etc.) and just use the speakers and microphone for better sound fidelity, so you don't have to walk around staring at your phone.

Yeah, this will be cool once it works. That said, anybody who's ever used voice recognition in their car or on their smartphone knows that the technology isn't reliable yet and is a pain in the ass when it misunderstands you.

 

[Red Storm]

Yeah, this will be cool once it works. That said, anybody who's ever used voice recognition in their car or on their smartphone knows that the technology isn't reliable yet and is a pain in the ass when it misunderstands you.

Speaker/mics in your home don't have to fit inside hand held phones, they can use much better equipment that can hear you more clearly (they have to actually, it's gotta be able to hear you anywhere in the room it's in).

 

[vi edit]

Google now is pretty good. Now if it's anything like the Microsoft sync in my Fords it would go like this:

Me: Hey Alexa, open Pandora and play station Muse
Alexa: Did you say you would like to order a Fedora and a Playstation 2?
Me: No.
Alexa: Ok, please repeat what you want
Me: OH-PEN PAN-DOR-UH
Alexa: Ok, I'll play you Dora The Explorer
Me: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Alexa: I'm sorry I did not understand.
Me: Fuck you Alexa
Alexa: I'm sorry, you're not my type.

 

[WackyDan]

If this thing worked as a speaker phone too, then it is a great value, but I don't see that capability listed.

 

[HumblePie]

Posted this elsewhere on the intraweb, but this device reminded me of this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mgWES4oBhs

 

[Markbnj]

It's going to be huge for the home automation market...no one has a truly good "talk anywhere" microphone for controlling your smarthome. If the microphones are as good as they say, that will be awesome...there will be zero mental friction for looking things up or writing things down, you can simply ask it to tell you stuff like Wikipedia entries or the weather, and have it write stuff down like notes or calendar entries.

Not that pulling your phone out is hard, but if a thought crosses your mind and all you have to say is "Alexa, I have soccer practice at 11:00am this Saturday" and you're done...that's gonna be a gamechanger. Plus if they make it a Sonos/Airplay competitor, that will be awesome, especially with the Amazon Prime music stuff.

Yeah I agree, the vision is exciting, and this is just the latest in a series of indicators that we're getting close. At the same time I definitely think there is potential for abuse. The fact that it's listening all the time, and it's the front-end for a back-end hosted on Amazon... I want to know a _lot_ more about the nature of what is sent back before I turn one of those on in my house in the current "National Security Environment." Fortunately I have no doubt that will all be exposed shortly.

 

[Rakehellion]

Unfortunately for Amazon, that strategy only seems to work well for Apple.

Apple at least has the courtesy to pair their gimmicks with a killer app.

 

[nakedfrog]

Google now is pretty good. Now if it's anything like the Microsoft sync in my Fords it would go like this:

Me: Hey Alexa, open Pandora and play station Muse
Alexa: Did you say you would like to order a Fedora and a Playstation 2?
Me: No.
Alexa: Ok, please repeat what you want
Me: OH-PEN PAN-DOR-UH
Alexa: Ok, I'll play you Dora The Explorer
Me: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Alexa: I'm sorry I did not understand.
Me: Fuck you Alexa
Alexa: I'm sorry, you're not my type.

Prissy wench thinks she's too good for everyone

 

[Printer Bandit]

 

[BUTCH1]

Yeah just wait until you put the kids into bed and start talking with your wife. First it's talking about the new bike you are going to get your kid for Christmas and then the topic comes around to her wanting to go shopping for new underwear.

You log into Amazon's website the next morning and your recommended items are bikes and lacy g-strings.


:ninja:

LOL, agree, HOW could they possibly resist...