7 ms·

Amazon's Alexa is the new Vaudeville

45 points by steven 10y ago

wwwdonohue 10y ago
I thought the subheader was a sarcastic dig. Playing music is virtually the only thing Alexa seems capable of doing, and even then only semi-reliably.
- manyxcxi 10y ago
  You obviously don't have one, and if you do, you've horribly wasted your money. Even on day one it launched with more use than that. I can set or check my thermostat, control any light or group of lights in my house, get an Uber to pick me up, have the morning news headlines read to me while I'm making breakfast, check traffic on my way out the door, add notes to my to-do list as they cross my mind, and add things to my shopping list with my face still in the refrigerator. Those are all things that come out of the box with no custom code. With the additional skills I've personally written I have it tell me releases and showtimes at my nearest theater, I can ask if the garage door is open or closed, and a few other half cocked ideas. The Alexa skills kit is quite easy to get your head wrapped around and the limit really is your imagination.
  - gcb0 10y ago
    pretty much what i could do with a cell phone (had i not disabled voice input), but you lose all that when you leave the house/room?
    - eclipxe 10y ago
      It's different.
    - spdustin 10y ago
      And I and the rest of my family can do it from anywhere in four rooms without me or my phone being present. It's wonderful.
  - jgalt212 10y ago
    > control any light or group of lights in my house Alexa has nothing to do with that. The hard/expensive part is making all the lights in your house accessible via remote control.
    - TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
      From the user pov, that's just engineering. Users want stuff to work. They don't care about the engineering behind it. In fact they want to see as little engineering (friction) as possible. Alexa is the part that makes the engineering fun and useful. And it's much harder to build a system like Alexa than it is to build a 433MHz dimmer system for your lights. Alexa is actually the new Windows. MS, Apple, and Google are following not leading now, and they should all be worried Amazon got a successful and popular consumer hardware product into this space first.
      - jgalt212 10y ago
        > Alexa is actually the new Windows. That's one of the bolder and inherently unprovable statements I've heard in quite a while.
    - manyxcxi 10y ago
      Alexa has a lot to do with it, my wife doesn't use the app for our home automation hub, and when I'm home I don't either. Pulling my phone out, unlocking it, firing it up, getting to the right section. Even with everything optimally placed it takes just as much time as me walking into the other room and turning the light off. So all that home automation I installed was going mildly unused because your phone as a control when you're in the house is just kind of not worth it unless you're talking upstairs vs downstairs. As soon as Alexa got integration with HA products our usage immediately changed- especially my wife. She went from just plain not using the home automation to using it for everything. I installed all of our home automation gizmos, configured the hub, grouped all the rooms, etc. I know how much Alexa has to do with any of it working, but it has everything to do with them being used.
    - _JamesA_ 10y ago
      Hard/expensive is relative. The Samsung SmartThings hub[1] is $99. GE Link[2] and Phillips Hue[3] Zigbee light bulbs are $15 at Home Depot. Z-Wave replacement outlets[4] and switches[5] are less than $50. And there are a ton of other Z-Wave and Zigbee compatible devices available. Alexa has been an awesome addition to my home automation. Instead of reaching for a remote control or a smartphone app I can just say "Alexa, turn on the <insert name here> light". [1]: https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings-hub https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings... [2]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A19-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-PSB19-SW27/205404345 http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White... [3]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-A19-Hue-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-455295/206633282 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White... [4]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Z-Wave-Enabled-15-Amp-Scene-Capable-Receptacle-with-LED-Locator-White-Ivory-Lite-Almond-R02-DZR15-1LZ/205298666 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Z-Wave-Enabled-15-Amp-Sce... [5]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-Z-Wave-Controls-15-Amp-Scene-Capable-Switch-White-Ivory-Light-Almond-R02-DZS15-1LZ/205298583 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-Z-Wave-Controls-15...
JonRB 10y ago
That's not going to get confusing at all! http://www.alexa.com/ http://www.alexa.com/
- eclipxe 10y ago
  Good thing Amazon owns both
  - WA 10y ago
    "Now you can talk to your website analytics software?" – "No, the other Alexa thing, which nobody has a clue what it is."
- harryf 10y ago
  Funnily enough the articles tag line applies quite well to alexa.com > Amazon’s Alexa is a stupendous novelty act that can play thousands of songs, guess your weight, and conjure a pizza from thin air! Pretty much applies to how Alexa.com attempts to measure traffic
- colincarter41 10y ago
  Even, I was confused while reading the headline. I was thinking it was about Alexa and Amazon partnership.
- puranjay 10y ago
  Alexa.com is a business service known only to people who work with websites. Alexa the device is for regular folks
eva1984 10y ago
Having Alexa for almost a year now. My daily routine: Evening -> "Alexa, set the alarm @9:30" Morning -> "Alexa, stop"
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- NKCSS 10y ago
  Uhm, it has no memory?
  - eva1984 10y ago
    Don't think so.
  - rdl 10y ago
    They added repeating alarms a couple weeks ago. e.g. "Alexa, set alarm for six a m every day"
surrealvortex 10y ago
> "Dot, a hockey-puckish satellite, extends the range of an Echo or Tap" No. The Dot is standalone, and is not a range-extender. I think Amazon's tactic of allowing only those people who already own an Alexa device has backfired, if an otherwise well researched article misrepresents this basic fact.
kondro 10y ago
I'm sure Echo is great if you live in the USA.
- inopinatus 10y ago
  I'll echo that gripe. Amazon have hobbled their ecosystem by the bizarre design decision of mandatory configuration by US zip code. This effectively excludes all non-American users, and makes the barriers for overseas developers prohibitively high. Since I am in Australia, my Echo is good only for parlour tricks and streaming audio: without an accurate time and place, even simple things like checking weather are impossible. Forget about booking a cab, or home automation. So I have not tried to develop for the platform, because I do not develop things I cannot test. Perhaps Amazon were afraid of diluting their product focus. But failure to think globally means your product cannot be a world leader.
- plandis 10y ago
  It's understandably annoying from a consumer perspective but perhaps there are valid reasons for not being in other markets just yet and Amazon decided to launch early and incrementally roll it out?
texan 10y ago
I find it interesting that the author completely looks over Cortana when listing the various voice assistants. Cortana is perhaps the most widespread voice assistant, it being on almost every windows pc.
- vr3690 10y ago
  > it being on almost every windows pc Every PC with Windows 10. I'm not sure how many there are, but it may not be most widespread or most used.
  - scholia 10y ago
    Windows 10 is probably on roughly 14%-15% of Windows PCs, which is some way short of "every". According to Microsoft, more than 270 million devices run Windows 10. However, Cortana voice isn't supported in all countries, and many people have turned "her" off.

45 points by steven 10y ago

I thought the subheader was a sarcastic dig. Playing music is virtually the only thing Alexa seems capable of doing, and even then only semi-reliably.

manyxcxi 10y ago
You obviously don't have one, and if you do, you've horribly wasted your money. Even on day one it launched with more use than that. I can set or check my thermostat, control any light or group of lights in my house, get an Uber to pick me up, have the morning news headlines read to me while I'm making breakfast, check traffic on my way out the door, add notes to my to-do list as they cross my mind, and add things to my shopping list with my face still in the refrigerator. Those are all things that come out of the box with no custom code. With the additional skills I've personally written I have it tell me releases and showtimes at my nearest theater, I can ask if the garage door is open or closed, and a few other half cocked ideas. The Alexa skills kit is quite easy to get your head wrapped around and the limit really is your imagination.
- gcb0 10y ago
  pretty much what i could do with a cell phone (had i not disabled voice input), but you lose all that when you leave the house/room?
  - eclipxe 10y ago
    It's different.
  - spdustin 10y ago
    And I and the rest of my family can do it from anywhere in four rooms without me or my phone being present. It's wonderful.
- jgalt212 10y ago
  > control any light or group of lights in my house Alexa has nothing to do with that. The hard/expensive part is making all the lights in your house accessible via remote control.
  - TheOtherHobbes 10y ago
    From the user pov, that's just engineering. Users want stuff to work. They don't care about the engineering behind it. In fact they want to see as little engineering (friction) as possible. Alexa is the part that makes the engineering fun and useful. And it's much harder to build a system like Alexa than it is to build a 433MHz dimmer system for your lights. Alexa is actually the new Windows. MS, Apple, and Google are following not leading now, and they should all be worried Amazon got a successful and popular consumer hardware product into this space first.
    - jgalt212 10y ago
      > Alexa is actually the new Windows. That's one of the bolder and inherently unprovable statements I've heard in quite a while.
  - manyxcxi 10y ago
    Alexa has a lot to do with it, my wife doesn't use the app for our home automation hub, and when I'm home I don't either. Pulling my phone out, unlocking it, firing it up, getting to the right section. Even with everything optimally placed it takes just as much time as me walking into the other room and turning the light off. So all that home automation I installed was going mildly unused because your phone as a control when you're in the house is just kind of not worth it unless you're talking upstairs vs downstairs. As soon as Alexa got integration with HA products our usage immediately changed- especially my wife. She went from just plain not using the home automation to using it for everything. I installed all of our home automation gizmos, configured the hub, grouped all the rooms, etc. I know how much Alexa has to do with any of it working, but it has everything to do with them being used.
  - _JamesA_ 10y ago
    Hard/expensive is relative. The Samsung SmartThings hub[1] is $99. GE Link[2] and Phillips Hue[3] Zigbee light bulbs are $15 at Home Depot. Z-Wave replacement outlets[4] and switches[5] are less than $50. And there are a ton of other Z-Wave and Zigbee compatible devices available. Alexa has been an awesome addition to my home automation. Instead of reaching for a remote control or a smartphone app I can just say "Alexa, turn on the <insert name here> light". [1]: https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings-hub https://shop.smartthings.com/#!/products/samsung-smartthings... [2]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-A19-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-PSB19-SW27/205404345 http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-Link-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White... [3]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White-A19-Hue-Connected-Home-LED-Light-Bulb-455295/206633282 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Philips-60W-Equivalent-Soft-White... [4]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Z-Wave-Enabled-15-Amp-Scene-Capable-Receptacle-with-LED-Locator-White-Ivory-Lite-Almond-R02-DZR15-1LZ/205298666 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Z-Wave-Enabled-15-Amp-Sce... [5]: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-Z-Wave-Controls-15-Amp-Scene-Capable-Switch-White-Ivory-Light-Almond-R02-DZS15-1LZ/205298583 http://www.homedepot.com/p/Leviton-Decora-Z-Wave-Controls-15...

JonRB 10y ago

That's not going to get confusing at all! http://www.alexa.com/ http://www.alexa.com/

eclipxe 10y ago
Good thing Amazon owns both
- WA 10y ago
  "Now you can talk to your website analytics software?" – "No, the other Alexa thing, which nobody has a clue what it is."
harryf 10y ago
Funnily enough the articles tag line applies quite well to alexa.com > Amazon’s Alexa is a stupendous novelty act that can play thousands of songs, guess your weight, and conjure a pizza from thin air! Pretty much applies to how Alexa.com attempts to measure traffic
colincarter41 10y ago
Even, I was confused while reading the headline. I was thinking it was about Alexa and Amazon partnership.
puranjay 10y ago
Alexa.com is a business service known only to people who work with websites. Alexa the device is for regular folks

eva1984 10y ago

Having Alexa for almost a year now. My daily routine: Evening -> "Alexa, set the alarm @9:30" Morning -> "Alexa, stop"

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
NKCSS 10y ago
Uhm, it has no memory?
- eva1984 10y ago
  Don't think so.
- rdl 10y ago
  They added repeating alarms a couple weeks ago. e.g. "Alexa, set alarm for six a m every day"

surrealvortex 10y ago

> "Dot, a hockey-puckish satellite, extends the range of an Echo or Tap" No. The Dot is standalone, and is not a range-extender. I think Amazon's tactic of allowing only those people who already own an Alexa device has backfired, if an otherwise well researched article misrepresents this basic fact.

kondro 10y ago

I'm sure Echo is great if you live in the USA.

inopinatus 10y ago
I'll echo that gripe. Amazon have hobbled their ecosystem by the bizarre design decision of mandatory configuration by US zip code. This effectively excludes all non-American users, and makes the barriers for overseas developers prohibitively high. Since I am in Australia, my Echo is good only for parlour tricks and streaming audio: without an accurate time and place, even simple things like checking weather are impossible. Forget about booking a cab, or home automation. So I have not tried to develop for the platform, because I do not develop things I cannot test. Perhaps Amazon were afraid of diluting their product focus. But failure to think globally means your product cannot be a world leader.
plandis 10y ago
It's understandably annoying from a consumer perspective but perhaps there are valid reasons for not being in other markets just yet and Amazon decided to launch early and incrementally roll it out?

texan 10y ago

I find it interesting that the author completely looks over Cortana when listing the various voice assistants. Cortana is perhaps the most widespread voice assistant, it being on almost every windows pc.

vr3690 10y ago
> it being on almost every windows pc Every PC with Windows 10. I'm not sure how many there are, but it may not be most widespread or most used.
- scholia 10y ago
  Windows 10 is probably on roughly 14%-15% of Windows PCs, which is some way short of "every". According to Microsoft, more than 270 million devices run Windows 10. However, Cortana voice isn't supported in all countries, and many people have turned "her" off.