With Apple rumored to launch Siri home speaker, Amazon preps flagship touchscreen Echo

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 30
    crimguycrimguy Posts: 124member
    macxpress said:
    crimguy said:
    Having used a Fire TV for a while, Amazon is perfectly capable of making a limited-use UI.  Further, the current Echoes have a very responsive voice control interface, with an excellent microphone array.

    I think at this time it's Apple who better make damn sure their system is responsive, and works well.
    The Amazon Echo is a fad that will slowly fall away...I'm sure Apple isn't too worried about it. Just because its seeing moderate success doesn't mean its a sustainable product. People thought the same thing about Netbooks and said Apple was missing out by not releasing one. 
    A fad that Apple is apparently preparing to copy . . . 
  • Reply 22 of 30
    crimguycrimguy Posts: 124member
    mattinoz said:
    So from this are we to conclude Siri speaker rumor is more about making buzz for Amazon product than making sense?
    It really does make sense.  I have a certain level of automation in my house using either siri/homekit or alexa/smartthings.  Once you get the instant-reaction of the Echo in a room where it's needed, instead of fishing for a phone or iPad, you can see where it makes sense to have a dedicated unit.


    The problems after using Echo for a while are, in my opinion, not so easy to cure.  It has no inkling what room it's in, can be hopelessly dumb in taking commands ("turn on stereo lamp" turn on a light i have above the stereo, but if I accidentally say "turn on stereo light" it will turn on my AV receiver), and makes no attempt to learn your speech patterns.

    It's also a security problem, as evidenced by my 10 year old son running into the room yelling, "Alexa, play Ariana Grande!!"  Voice recognition is needed for Amazon, Siri, etc. asap.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 23 of 30
    krreagan2krreagan2 Posts: 75member
    The Echo sucks. My wife got me one for Xmas it was okay at first then it started playing random music that it picked up from conversations we were having in the room not meant for her. While the tech is close, Echo is a poor first attempt. It's now in my class but no banana box of tech stuff that did not meet muster.
    Apple is probably the only large company I would trust to have an always on mic in my living home. Not MS, not Google, most definitely not Google! And not Amazon. Beezos has shown he has no respect for peoples privacy. Google just want to distlille you down to your meta data and sell you to advertisers. MS wants to sell you a computer that is full of useless shit that it has sold to other verdors. All these companies have decided you are the product that they can sell to other companies... I'm much rather pay for some services from Apple knowing that much less info about me is then being sold to other companies. I wish Tim would come out and declare that they never sell any personal info to third parties.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 24 of 30
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    Rayz2016 said:
    sog35 said:
    This is a great thing, because it gets a camera into the area where you try on your clothes.  You know, to get fashion advice from Amazon's personal shopper.  I hope it turns out better than their policy for packages they say are delivered but are not.  "Go out & ask the neighbors if they got a package.  Look in any nearby bushes."  Anyway, that's why you need a touch screen, to be able to show you the picture of yourself as you're trying on something you like from your closet & so it can find something similar.  Camera in the bedroom, what could go  wrong?
    or "Please live in neighborhoods with less crime"

    My theory is that Bezo's knows that Echo camera is creepy as hell but just wants to feed his ego that he can't do anything wrong in the eyes of Wall Street and the tech media. Basically the King has no clothes. Oh, and Bezo's just sold $1 billion in AMZN stock, and Wall Street does not care one bit.
    Bezos sold a bill in stock? Why wasn't that reported here?
    Also interesting is what he'll do with the money. Likely fund further his space efforts. https://www.blueorigin.com
  • Reply 25 of 30
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    Are 'camera in use' LEDs hardwired into the camera power supply on Apple products now? The were at some point, correct?
  • Reply 26 of 30
    iqatedoiqatedo Posts: 1,822member
    A huge step for personal assistants (although I am only experienced with Siri) will be to recognise context better. If I ask Siri to "give me the second derivative of... something" I'd like it to recognise a maths expression coming up. I suppose we can all think of an example. Do other systems perform better in this respect?
  • Reply 27 of 30
    pepe779pepe779 Posts: 84member
    pepe779 said:
    I don't quite understand Apple's ambitions in this particular area, because these speakers/assistants clearly have very limited practical usage and are basically gimmicks that I don't believe anybody truly uses longer than maybe a few days and whatever Amazon is trying to achieve by adding a screen to it is just utter nonsense imho. This is not about innovation or solving real life problems anymore, this is about flooding the market with products that have no meaning and are just DOA. I seriously don't see why I would buy and use this instead of simply using my iPad for the very same purpose.
    No this is incorrect.  I use my Google Home every single day.   It controls the lighting in my room, plays music genre on demand and if I was more steeped in the Google Universe would manage my Calendar, ToDo and more. 

    When you say "I don't see ...."  the important part to realize is the "I" you are unique and bring your own set of values and perspective that will differ from others. 
    Okay so since you're one of those users who see the added value here, please, explain how different or better it is compared to simply enabling "Hey Siri" on your iPad or iPhone, because somehow I still fail to understand that.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 28 of 30
    stanhopestanhope Posts: 160member
    Wait til the hackers get into that camera........Vivid will have a lot of fresh new "amateur" material. I wouldn't let my sister have one at all. Might be good for kim kardashian.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 29 of 30
    koopkoop Posts: 337member
    pepe779 said:
    pepe779 said:
    I don't quite understand Apple's ambitions in this particular area, because these speakers/assistants clearly have very limited practical usage and are basically gimmicks that I don't believe anybody truly uses longer than maybe a few days and whatever Amazon is trying to achieve by adding a screen to it is just utter nonsense imho. This is not about innovation or solving real life problems anymore, this is about flooding the market with products that have no meaning and are just DOA. I seriously don't see why I would buy and use this instead of simply using my iPad for the very same purpose.
    No this is incorrect.  I use my Google Home every single day.   It controls the lighting in my room, plays music genre on demand and if I was more steeped in the Google Universe would manage my Calendar, ToDo and more. 

    When you say "I don't see ...."  the important part to realize is the "I" you are unique and bring your own set of values and perspective that will differ from others. 
    Okay so since you're one of those users who see the added value here, please, explain how different or better it is compared to simply enabling "Hey Siri" on your iPad or iPhone, because somehow I still fail to understand that.
    They have weak speakers and microphones being that they are battery powered devices. That's enough of a reason there. You'd have to experience the Echo's ability to pick up sounds and play music to know that it makes sense as a stationary voice assistant at that price point. Google Home often hits $99, and an iPad is $329 at its cheapest.
    gatorguy
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