6 ms·

I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.

by tetrep 9y ago

CoolGuySteve 9y ago
I have an old iPad taped to my kitchen wall for recipes, YouTube, and playing music via Bluetooth. It's really handy but "Hey Siri" works maybe 30% of the time. I don't really use it anymore. The worst part is that Siri can't integrate with other music apps, other note taking apps, other video players, or pretty much anything. So it's incredibly crippled despite being able to parse my requests. If Alexa can fix that, this would be pretty neat.
oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
> can do more things You answered your own question. Not every device used in a home (remote control, light switch, thermostat) needs to be replaced with a full tablet computer, even if it could be.
- alxvio 9y ago
  Who would want this Amazon product for every light switch, remote control, and thermostat? No, most buyers will probably just buy one for a household. In that case, I agree that a regular tablet would suffice.
  - oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
    My point was that you have a remote control already; you don't use a tablet instead of that, just for use as a remote control. In a similar way, a tablet might be overkill for a 'home assistant', and the Amazon Echo seems designed to address that.
mhermher 9y ago
It has a much better microphone array. It's actually probably the one thing that stands out about the echo to me. The mic is really good.
- danso 9y ago
  Seconding this. I never used Siri because it required holding the phone up to my face for reliable results. The Echo Dot can hear me across the room even as its playing music and other people are talking. The Fire tablets have Alexa built in but I believe they not only require a button-push to activate, but rely on their limited mics. Until Alexa, I hadn't tried Siri since its initial launch years ago. I was surprised to see that its AI/NLP was as good as Alexa's. So the killer feature really is the convenient and reliable interface provided by the Echo's mics.
- dharma1 9y ago
  one day there will be a cheap bluetooth mic array that works with anything. I'm surprised that day hasn't arrived yet
lowtolerance 9y ago
A tablet can do a lot of things that this can't, but your tablet's microphone can't reliably recognize speech at normal volume from a few feet away, let alone from across the room.
criddell 9y ago
That it can do more things is a negative for me. An always on dedicated device that lives in one location with excellent array mics is going to be more useful to me than a tablet that I have to locate and turn on before I can use it.
VLM 9y ago
I have a nexus 6p with an aftermarket Qi charger and a generic Qi pad in my bedroom to charge, and its mostly nice other than the charger interface and/or pad go into "save the earth by destroying your devices" mode after a 100% charge so every morning I pick up a 70% or so charged phone. That way trying to have a charged phone I'll get way more cycles and wear out the battery faster. Boy is that fun having control of your battery charging taken away from you for your own good or just design incompetence. I also had an old Moto Defy I kept for years and years plugged into a wall outlet as a dedicated tune-in audio device. Listen all I want to TuneIn and it wouldn't eat my phone's battery because my old appliance phone was on a charger and my phone was unused in my pocket or whatever. After a couple years on the charger, maybe it was the heat, I donno, the battery bubbled up as they do before they blow up and I got rid of it. I had a nexus 7 and my kids have had two generations of ipads and there is no perfect stand out there. There are some the fold and collapse when you don't want them to. There are some that hold nicely as long as you're not plugged into charging. There are some that work but look ugly and cluttered. Its a hard problem, apparently. You folks will laugh but my kids solution to the problem of too many devices and not enough space for charging is a device pyramid. I've noticed the main difference between harder-core older computer users and noob/kids is tolerance of dust, grease, and dirt on the screen, so a pyramid of devices on a desk makes sense to kids and noobs even as a more experienced professional who looked into screens 10 hours per day WTFs about it. Portable is a fail for appliances. I don't want my kids leaving Alexa in a laundry basket or between the cushions in the couch. I don't want to step on it at night. I don't want one more thing to yell at my kids to put it down and go to sleep its your bed time. No one wants a portable surround sound system or a portable toilet or a portable microwave oven. Or even more utilitarian, contemplate a portable hot water heater. A jetboil is nice when I'm camping and drinking my tea but I wouldn't want to replace my houses hot water heater with a jetboil at every sink and over the shower. A portable outside air temperature thermometer is a good analogy where not knowing where to look to see the temperature is not a feature. Alexa already does more things than I'm interested in having her do. Something that does more is even less interesting than you'd imagine. Unlike my experiments above, this new thing apparently just works yet costs about the same. I'll take the product that actually works.

I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.

by tetrep 9y ago

I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.

CoolGuySteve 9y ago

I have an old iPad taped to my kitchen wall for recipes, YouTube, and playing music via Bluetooth. It's really handy but "Hey Siri" works maybe 30% of the time. I don't really use it anymore. The worst part is that Siri can't integrate with other music apps, other note taking apps, other video players, or pretty much anything. So it's incredibly crippled despite being able to parse my requests. If Alexa can fix that, this would be pretty neat.

oneeyedpigeon 9y ago

> can do more things You answered your own question. Not every device used in a home (remote control, light switch, thermostat) needs to be replaced with a full tablet computer, even if it could be.

alxvio 9y ago
Who would want this Amazon product for every light switch, remote control, and thermostat? No, most buyers will probably just buy one for a household. In that case, I agree that a regular tablet would suffice.
- oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
  My point was that you have a remote control already; you don't use a tablet instead of that, just for use as a remote control. In a similar way, a tablet might be overkill for a 'home assistant', and the Amazon Echo seems designed to address that.

mhermher 9y ago

It has a much better microphone array. It's actually probably the one thing that stands out about the echo to me. The mic is really good.

danso 9y ago
Seconding this. I never used Siri because it required holding the phone up to my face for reliable results. The Echo Dot can hear me across the room even as its playing music and other people are talking. The Fire tablets have Alexa built in but I believe they not only require a button-push to activate, but rely on their limited mics. Until Alexa, I hadn't tried Siri since its initial launch years ago. I was surprised to see that its AI/NLP was as good as Alexa's. So the killer feature really is the convenient and reliable interface provided by the Echo's mics.
dharma1 9y ago
one day there will be a cheap bluetooth mic array that works with anything. I'm surprised that day hasn't arrived yet

lowtolerance 9y ago

A tablet can do a lot of things that this can't, but your tablet's microphone can't reliably recognize speech at normal volume from a few feet away, let alone from across the room.

criddell 9y ago

That it can do more things is a negative for me. An always on dedicated device that lives in one location with excellent array mics is going to be more useful to me than a tablet that I have to locate and turn on before I can use it.

VLM 9y ago

I have a nexus 6p with an aftermarket Qi charger and a generic Qi pad in my bedroom to charge, and its mostly nice other than the charger interface and/or pad go into "save the earth by destroying your devices" mode after a 100% charge so every morning I pick up a 70% or so charged phone. That way trying to have a charged phone I'll get way more cycles and wear out the battery faster. Boy is that fun having control of your battery charging taken away from you for your own good or just design incompetence. I also had an old Moto Defy I kept for years and years plugged into a wall outlet as a dedicated tune-in audio device. Listen all I want to TuneIn and it wouldn't eat my phone's battery because my old appliance phone was on a charger and my phone was unused in my pocket or whatever. After a couple years on the charger, maybe it was the heat, I donno, the battery bubbled up as they do before they blow up and I got rid of it. I had a nexus 7 and my kids have had two generations of ipads and there is no perfect stand out there. There are some the fold and collapse when you don't want them to. There are some that hold nicely as long as you're not plugged into charging. There are some that work but look ugly and cluttered. Its a hard problem, apparently. You folks will laugh but my kids solution to the problem of too many devices and not enough space for charging is a device pyramid. I've noticed the main difference between harder-core older computer users and noob/kids is tolerance of dust, grease, and dirt on the screen, so a pyramid of devices on a desk makes sense to kids and noobs even as a more experienced professional who looked into screens 10 hours per day WTFs about it. Portable is a fail for appliances. I don't want my kids leaving Alexa in a laundry basket or between the cushions in the couch. I don't want to step on it at night. I don't want one more thing to yell at my kids to put it down and go to sleep its your bed time. No one wants a portable surround sound system or a portable toilet or a portable microwave oven. Or even more utilitarian, contemplate a portable hot water heater. A jetboil is nice when I'm camping and drinking my tea but I wouldn't want to replace my houses hot water heater with a jetboil at every sink and over the shower. A portable outside air temperature thermometer is a good analogy where not knowing where to look to see the temperature is not a feature. Alexa already does more things than I'm interested in having her do. Something that does more is even less interesting than you'd imagine. Unlike my experiments above, this new thing apparently just works yet costs about the same. I'll take the product that actually works.