Amazon Echo/Google Home

House of Wax

House of Wax

Active member
Anybody use these devices? Thoughts? Seems like they`re becoming more popular, but I can`t help but wonder if they`re more of a novelty right now than anything
 
Do you feel its "popular" because of the advertising is everywhere for them? Seems that way to me but I realize that it is just the marketing. They DO seem cool to be honest. lol
 
I`ve seen em mentioned on a couple of forums recently and me and the wife hung out with a couple tonight that have the echo and claim they love it. Nothing they described about it though seemed to me like it was worth spending money on

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
 
I got some for Christmas for Jen and the girls.

Fun toy, not necessarily useful. If you want it to do stuff like control lights etc, you need to add more apps.......


But daily I ask it the weather, and to tell me jokes.
 
I`ve got the Echo Dot. $50.
My father has the Echo , with Amazon prime which you can listen to all kinds of music.

The Dot doesn`t have the stereo speakers.
I ask it the weather like Ron.

A feature I love is when I wanna take a nap but need to get up for something, you tell Alexa to set timer or alarm and she wakes me up.
No fumbling with an alarm clock.
 
it`s neat if you have home automation. my cousin has one and he controls EVERYTHING in his home. hvac. tv. lights. front door lock. garage opener. rice cooker. coffee maker. crock pot.

at one point, i showed up at his front door and he just sat on his couch and told alexa to unlock the front door for me.

is it necessary? no. is it cool and lazy? yes

btw, other people can also speak to it to do things. I.E. my other cousin asked alexa to place an order for toilet paper off amazon. lol
 
I got an Amazon Echo Dot as a Christmas gift...can`t imagine what I`ll ever do with it (even if I could get over my cyber-paranoia enough to give it any real thought).

This is another item I`ll group with hackable vehicles/houses/etc.

I look at some of the other people are using such devices (including their smartphones) for, and think [sarcasm] "gee, what could possibly go wrong?" [/sarcasm]
 
I read an article that said by using one of these devices you give up your rights to "Reasonablr Expection of Privacy". So if I read it right anyone one can hack into one of these devices and use the information they get without your permission. That alone keeps me from getting one. They are always on and easily hacked. Not that I have anything to hide, but I want to keep my business private.
 
if you have a modern smartphone, most likely it`s the same concept as these devices.

if you have an iphone and it is plugged in to charge. it is always listening for your "hey siri" command. same on android for "okay google"

big brother is always listening lol. they can even track and monitor you while posting on this forum
 
I ended up with one for Christmas as well. I tried playing with it by asking it some things like what is the weather. It`s mildly amusing for a couple minutes but not anything I would consider useful for tasks. What it was sorta OK at was playing songs. I have prime so it will play a lot of songs but way too many times it would only play "sample" excerpts of songs. Even with prime you can only listen to what amazon has access to. It was pretty good with internet radio stations though.

I agree with the above comments regarding the interaction of these devices and the "internet of things" such as wireless network enabled thermostats and lights in the home. I just not comfortable with the idea...although I don`t think that Russian hackers particularly care about the lamp in my living room, basic appliances are something I don`t want to be dependent on wifi reliability to work.
 
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