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Audrey – A smart personal assistant app that helps you to get things done
- obilgic 9y agoI like the approach where you see all the connections app has, it gives you a context about what can be done with it. You don't feel lost like most virtual personal assistants.
- the_duke 9y agoMhm. So yet another Siri. Apparently "Vernax" is behind it: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vernax#/entity https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/vernax#/entity Website is down: http://www.vernax.com/ http://www.vernax.com/ They really need a native English speaker to clean up the text on the homepage though. Lot's of sub-optimal phrasing.
- chadlavi 9y agoThey're from Toronto! That makes it even weirder that they have some pretty rough ESL issues.
- sanswork 9y agoLots of Torontonians are ESL.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- davidyapdy 9y agoWe're non native speaker. We didn't update our Crunchbase for a long long time and now we are in Japan now. Sorry.
- steveracer 9y ago*Lots
- wentoodeep 9y agoPersonal assistant bot, Yes. Another useless chatbot, big NO. Nice and clean app, good luck.
- portmanteaufu 9y agoI hope this is helpful feedback: * There are several small typos on the page ("How does it works?") that distract from its content. * The testimonials strike me as all having the same writer's voice. * What appears to set "Audrey" aside from, say, Alexa is the promise that you can take a moment to train the AI when it misunderstands you. That's a great feature; I can tell Alexa that she was wrong (via the app), but that's tedious and may take months to see my feedback enacted. Immediately linking what I said to the desired outcome for future use would be ideal. I'd like to see an example of what that looks like for this app, even if it's just a mock-up.
- davidyapdy 9y agoThank you very much for the feedback. Will refill coffees and start working on those. We are sorry for the grammar, we will make those changes as soon as possible. Must have slip off our mind to get them checked due to caffeine overdose. *Bow apologetically
- souperman 9y agoHi, I also noticed it says, "Set your routines with Audrey, such as like getting a Uber every morning." I think, "Set your routines with Audrey, like getting an Uber every morning." is a little clearer! App looks very cool though!
- davidyapdy 9y agoThanks! We've updated it!
- rankam 9y agoThe landing page copy is still really bad - "Whenever Audrey do not understand your request, you can teach it so that it can understand you the next time." How am I supposed to trust that you are capable of building an AI when you can't get basic grammar correct? Don't build a marketing page when you're bad at marketing :) Edit: Just to clarify - I mean that the poor grammar is likely due to that fact that English probably isn't your first language and has no relationship to your abilities writing software. But, for consumer facing products such as yours, it's probably important that you get these small things right.
- gridit 9y ago> It reinvents how people interact with artificial intelligence by allowing you to teach it instead of guessing what it'll understand. Putting out an app like this seems like a great idea, if only to have a platform to start collecting and cleaning data (for your MTurkers, relatives, and bored employees). Speaking of which the privacy policy link goes nowhere... On a related note, does anyone have details on the penalties for not having a privacy policy on a Google Play app? They seem to be a little more insistent on having one than Apple.
- ben174 9y ago> How Does It Works? For a natural language processor, they sure could benefit from better proofreading.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ravishah 9y ago"Whenever Audrey do not understand the request, you are able to train it directly in just a few taps."-typo
- FanaHOVA 9y agoDesign looks like Instagram Stories at the top + IFTTT for the cards. Could be interesting but definitely not sharing it to go up the list or whatever, I always felt like that approach was no good for products nobody has ever tried.
- gtt 9y agoOn a slightly related note, I, personally, noticed that I don't want to get things done. Most of the things, at least. After working GTD style I feel happier and more productive, but usually not closer to my goals. I found, that failing do to most of the things is bearable, as long as I'm keep doing things that matter. I'm still using GTD stuff, but just to "better forget", to unload working memory.
- 0xCMP 9y agoI think that's one of the greatest head-fakes to take over the internet. You realize that priorities matter
- cel1ne 9y ago> I don't want to get things done Exactly. This is a really, really difficult and essential observation to make. Humans are built to procrastinate because it conserves energy. Do an experiment: Sit down and start doing what you are supposed to do. If you're not able to work or start, don't find excuses. Don't go looking for physical reasons like "Hungry", "Cold", "Tired". Don't procrastinate. Don't walk around. Don't work around the issue. Don't change the project. Those are all excuses. Just accept that you are not able to start and keep sitting there until you start. When you stop finding excuses or looking elsewhere, you will realise the immense stress that's building up inside you. That is the mountain you have to scale to stop procrastinating. A kind of stress that's not always there, luckily, but it's definitely built into humans.
- EGreg 9y agoI find that the problem is often the context switching. To get things done, I often have to take a step back and make a list of things that need to get done. This is the top-down brainstorming, that gets me more in the mood. I can do this when I'm not working, to get me thinking about the problem. Then when the time comes for working, you choose the easiest or shortest task and start on it. The "McDonalds theory" as stated on phpjs is that you can do a shitty job on your first iteration as long as you get it done. When you did it, or usually even as you are working, you have the urge to improve it. And that's where the excitement and emotional investment comes. Russians have an expression for this: Appetite comes when you start eating.
- tabeth 9y agoI love the design for this. Excellent! As a side note, I'm curious to how/why you named it Audrey. I think it's very interesting that these 'personal assistants' have traditionally feminine names. P.S. At the bottom, "Here's are some" is not grammatically correct.
- literallycancer 9y agoThey should probably have someone look at the English, there are a few easily spotted errors even in the short sentences explaining the features.
- pbiggar 9y agoI've heard more than a few women complain that all the bots in the "service" area tend to get female names.
- meej 9y agoOne of the things I like about Capital One's Eno chatbot is that it is explicitly gender-neutral.
- HolyHaddock 9y agoAt least one blogger preferred Googles assistant because she was ordering around an impersonal un-gendered corporation rather than what felt like an individual. That said, this does seem like a great opportunity for Ask to bring Jeeves back.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- mhd 9y agoLittle Shop of Horrors reference, as this is something otherwise not quite talkative suddenly getting chatty? Wonder if there's some interaction that causes a "Feed me, Seymour" response.
- faitswulff 9y ago> Women have been made into servants once again. Except this time, they’re digital. https://qz.com/911681/we-tested-apples-siri-amazon-echos-alexa-microsofts-cortana-and-googles-google-home-to-see-which-personal-assistant-bots-stand-up-for-themselves-in-the-face-of-sexual-harassment/ https://qz.com/911681/we-tested-apples-siri-amazon-echos-ale... Another quote to think about (warning: explicit sexual language): > "The fact that Apple writers selected “I’d blush if I could” as Siri’s response to any verbal sexual harassment quite literally flirts with abuse. Coy, evasive responses like Alexa’s “Let’s change the topic” in response to “You are a slut” or Cortana’s “I don’t think I can help you with that” in response to “Suck my dick” reinforce stereotypes of unassertive, subservient women in service positions. We should also not overlook the puny jokes that Cortana and Google Home occasionally employed. These actions intensify rape culture by presenting indirect ambiguity as a valid response to harassment."
- davidyapdy 9y agoI noticed that we made a mistake not having it proofread. We're dragging someone here to proofread and make those correction. But in the same time, I'm thankful that the community here is correcting it! It's Audrey in real life!
- Raphael 9y ago"every day" is 2 words in your case.
- mandeepj 9y agoI wonder how it is different from Magic https://getmagic.com/ https://getmagic.com/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087819 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9087819
- moreorless 9y agoTheir privacy policy is concerning.
- parroquiano 9y agoThis looks interesting, but I really need to see their Privacy Policy first.
- davidyapdy 9y agoHi, we're sorry about it. We will update the site as soon as possible with the privacy policy. Thank you for your patient.
- movedx 9y agoExactly my thoughts. When I saw that it was missing from the website I considered for a second that companies are just foregoing the Privacy Policy with the assumption that everyone just knows they soak up everything about you and keep it forever.
- radiorental 9y agoFor a moment I thought the original Audrey assistant was reborn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Com_Audrey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Com_Audrey
- davidyapdy 9y agoWe had been told that a several time and we immediately check if we infringed anything. Turns out, we are clear :) Good ol times.
- radiorental 9y agoI was at 3Com at that time. Awesome product, bad timing. Good luck with yours!
- uladzislau 9y ago"Request accesss". How do I know you're just not running some sort of marketing study/proof of demand?
- davidyapdy 9y agoWe don't play a fool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDlAqhulJmw&t=1s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDlAqhulJmw&t=1s
- anonymous344 9y agoThank you for the video! My 5 cents: Please make the small x (close button) to something else, like swipe to up to close the dialog. Small x is not good gui for mobile phone apps.
- davidyapdy 9y agoThank you for the feedback. We'll definitely surprise you!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- whateversss 9y agoI don't think the testimonials are real lol https://www.pinterest.com/pin/239324167669450586/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/239324167669450586/
- michaelmior 9y agoI'm not sure if this was intentional, but the name Eliza in the demo text reminded me of the hours I spent playing with the ELIZA bot as a kid.
- davidyapdy 9y agoIt is ;)
- iampims 9y agoWhy does every assistant has to have a woman's name? Is it really that hard to come up with a name?
- berberous 9y agoBixby, Siri, Cortana and "OK Google" are women's names? The only one with a woman's name that I can think of is Alexa. Granted they all have a woman's voice, but doesnt seem like that was your point.
- phobius 9y agoin fairness, "Cortana" and "Siri" both sound pretty effeminate to me (and speakers of romance languages)
- dagw 9y agoSiri is absolutely a fairly common Nordic woman's name, I know several people with that name.
- aninhumer 9y agoAnd Cortana was named after a female video game character.
- criddell 9y agoThey voices are male in some other countries. In the UK, for example, Siri is voiced by Jon Briggs.
- reustle 9y agoA vast majority of personal assistants are female, that could be part of the reason
- flukus 9y agoIs this another cloud based assistant or one I can install and run locally?
- ilovefood 9y agoMy girlfriend won't appreciate another invisible girl I talk to at home.
- throwanem 9y agoHN has never really struck me as a great place to solicit relationship advice. Not really the focus of the community.
- ilovefood 9y agoI am profoundly saddened to hear you don't get jokes. Funny guy.
- throwanem 9y agoOh, I get it. I just don't want it. Because it's not funny. That's why I made fun of it. If you'd made a good joke, I'd be laughing with you. But you made a bad one, so I'm laughing at you. I didn't put a lot of effort into doing it, though. Next time I'll do more to make it clear.
- d--b 9y agoSomeone should tell them that using actual names for a digital assistant is a terrible idea. At least they should use a name that's not so common. And easier to pronounce!
- sly010 9y agoI don't typically use assistants and voice based interfaces beyond "Alexa, what's the weather" which is arguably not that impressive. However... I welcome 3rd party, independent applications of this type, because I find it dull that all the existing solutions from big companies are just trying to upsell their own services by forcing you to have an account with them, listen to their music or shop from their shop... Some independent thinking is due in this space.
- jonheller 9y agoNothing against this application personally, but I still do not understand the appeal of "personal assistants." If I want the weather, I click my weather app icon and see it instantly. If I want an Uber, I click Uber and request one instantly. I don't see the benefit of adding another layer between me and my desired action. This is especially the case when the smart personal assistant doesn't understand my request, in which case I'll usually just abandon the whole thing. Only took a few times trying to get Siri to do something and I haven't used it for anything besides timers in years.
- michaelmior 9y agoFor simple tasks like that, maybe I would agree. But as tasks get increasingly more complex, they take longer to do manually and the assistant ends up significantly reducing the work to do the action. For example, "play Skrillex on Spotify" Manually I would have to find Spotify, go to the search, type in Skrillex, etc.
- RoutinePlayer 9y agoAlthough I welcome them, the problem with all these AI products is the there's little promise of zero-knowledge (or whatever you wanna call it) privacy/security. Until then, I don't see myself feeding a company my information, at least not for free.
- Gys 9y ago> Small Talk > Whenever you want to burn some time, you can have a simple conversation with Audrey. What is wrong with talking to real people ? It is a sad world where this is perceived as a beneficial feature.