Amazon echo - this is the future

[Consignia]

Who needs an Amazon Echo, when you've already got a creepy thing that has voice recognition. Meet Cayla:



If there's not one of these in everyone's houses in ten years time, I'll eat my phablet.

[BPFHAY]

perhaps the only thing in biggy "THE ORACLE OF FUTURETECH1!!1" titbo's list that i'd find a use for it to control the lighting - and that is fucking pushing it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny8-G8EoWOw[nb]Chia Pet too, wow, it's a Wayne's World double whammy[/nb]

[biggytitbo]

I thought I'd bump this a staggering 2 years after I said "This is the future" and was mostly derided and cruelly taunted like a latter day nostradamus.


What do people think now?


The main thing I think that will hold this back now is it really needs to be 1 thing, rather than separate offerings from google, apple, amazon etc. Whereas lots of people might have a windows pc, apple phone and android tablet, nobody realistically wants 3 different talky things in their house, it needs to be one thing that  can order from amazon and search google and play itunes etc. The big 3 need to realise that most people use some of each companies services so locking down their version to only work within their walled gardens is a bit self defeating.


There needs to be an open api for voice control and the competition comes from making better services to hook into it, and better hardware to exploit it.

[kngen]

as well as the usual shit like alarms and timers, I use my Android for making a shopping list and for driving directions while in the car. Yes, Google are storing that information, so when I do decide to buy 20 gallons of hydrogen peroxide and drive to the Pentagon to 'deliver' them, I'll probably use a paper and pen and a map.

I think Biggy was on the money on this one though - it was just a matter of time before people got used to using this tech and not feel stupid about it, much like those Bluetooth headsets, which had a such a cringe factor attached to them at their launch, it was impossible to see how they could ever take off - now, you barely even notice someone braying away to no one while standing in the queue at Starbucks.

[doppelkorn]

I thought I'd bump this a staggering 2 years after I said "This is the future" and was mostly derided and cruelly taunted like a latter day nostradamus.


What do people think now?


The main thing I think that will hold this back now is it really needs to be 1 thing, rather than separate offerings from google, apple, amazon etc. Whereas lots of people might have a windows pc, apple phone and android tablet, nobody realistically wants 3 different talky things in their house, it needs to be one thing that  can order from amazon and search google and play itunes etc. The big 3 need to realise that most people use some of each companies services so locking down their version to only work within their walled gardens is a bit self defeating.


There needs to be an open api for voice control and the competition comes from making better services to hook into it, and better hardware to exploit it.

Do you use yours often?

[imitationleather]

My missus wants one and keeps convincing me to buy it (I'm not the big earner of the relationship, I'm just the one who spunks all his money on impulse buys) because she likes the idea of it reading books to her while she cooks. Why not just play an audiobook through our speakers? She's like "You can use Spotify on it too!" First of all I'm not actually sure that's true because surely Amazon want you to use their own streaming service, not Spotify. Second, trying to think up something to listen to and picking it without the benefit of being able to see a physical list of what is available sounds like a fucking nightmare. Especially since I have a laptop connected to a hi-fi which I have within reach the entire time I am indoors anyway.

It still seems too much of a useless item for me and I will buy any old shiny tat.

[MojoJojo]

Those aren't good reasons to get one. But it's good for some things. Like adding stuff to a shopping list or checking when pancake day is.

[Consignia]

Those aren't good reasons to get one. But it's good for some things. Like adding stuff to a shopping list or checking when pancake day is.

Or getting it to play Digger, Digger

[HappyTree]

The social experiment that was Microsoft trying to make their new console spy on people all the time spectacularly failed. This was an always-on voice activated device that consumers in their droves, DROVES I tell you, rejected and made the PS4 race way ahead. Some people will use voice stuff and it's great that this tech exists for disabled people, but it didn't catch on and was specifically what made MS have to completely change their Xbone vision. Cost some arrogant cunt his job too. Remember the MS "deal with it" guy? Binned shortly after.

If such a system could be local and only do mechanical stuff like turn lights on, etc., then I'd probably be inclined to use it. But having it connected to the net and clouded and analysed and logged, NFW.

[Twed]

She's like "You can use Spotify on it too!" First of all I'm not actually sure that's true because surely Amazon want you to use their own streaming service, not Spotify. Second, trying to think up something to listen to and picking it without the benefit of being able to see a physical list of what is available sounds like a fucking nightmare. Especially since I have a laptop connected to a hi-fi which I have within reach the entire time I am indoors anyway.

With the Google Home (I don't know about the Echo) you can definitely use Spotify, and pick from a list on your phone to choose what you want to play. That's no better than any wireless speaker though.

[Old Thrashbarg]

I was sceptical about how much we'd use our Echo, but I've found that we use it all the time, especially whilst cooking. Nothing ground-breaking, but being able to tell it to play any radio station I want, along with any music I own (after putting together a skill to allow it to play music from my Plex server) or anything on the built-in services, without having bother cleaning my hands and going over to wherever my phone/radio/laptop are is very nice to be able to do all the same. And being able to set multiple timers and manage them whilst getting on with other stuff is such a useful ability.

Being able to add calendar events and then be reminded about them is also nice, though that doesn't really improve the process from doing the same on your phone. Other uses have mainly been novelties (altering the thermostat, playing games, asking for sports results, reading out new headlines, searching Wikipedia, etc.), but those two main functions really do justify having one for me.

[QDRPHNC]

Most of the future will be shit.

[Noodle Lizard]

I've had one of these for about a year and it's pretty great.  And yes, you can say "Alexa, play Whatever-The-Fuck from Spotify" and it'll usually work.

I have a Sonos Play:3 which is undoubtedly the better (and more expensive) speaker, but I often find myself using Alexa just for the convenience of being able to tell it what to do.  The technological revolution will definitely be driven by laziness.

Thought this thread had been bumped because of this bizarre recent story:  https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/27/amazon-echo-audio-data-murder-case/

[Noodle Lizard]

Incidentally, I think I was the first person to ever cast Alexa in a movie:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn_T4QCFsqA