4 ms·

Maybe I'm an outlier, but turned out I don't care at all for asking home assistant various questions. I have GH and my usage is mostly limited to "turn on/off l

by pound 9y ago

Maybe I'm an outlier, but turned out I don't care at all for asking home assistant various questions. I have GH and my usage is mostly limited to "turn on/off lights" and "set timer". It's just that moments like "we need to ask what movie someone also starred at" are not really a part of any conversations we have at home, and if we really need to look some info up we will do it looking at screens. Google Home being ridiculously bad at how it works doesn't help either - it feels like it's getting worse every week. I hate it how it understands me from fifth attempt now, I'm tired of hearing "I cannot help with that" 3/4 of the time for the same command or just listening for a minute and then do nothing. And it's not a matter of dusted mics. And not even starting on all that nonsense as declaring company name many times a day as a wake word, still absent reminders and frigging fiasco with shopping lists. Yet another "let's start with first iteration of product and then move to something else leaving it half-baked, because ADHD and we can" (edited typo)

IgorPartola 9y ago
Exactly the same with my Echos. The problem with asking these things questions when you are in a group of people is that now the whole conversation pauses to hear the damn answer. And then there is the 5-10 second processing time and the very slow non-interactive answer. It's just so much more efficient to have one of the people in the conversation whip out their phone and use Google, then say the answer when it's ready. Especially if the answer is not "Who was the start of The Martian" but something like "How closely was Lincoln the movie based on historical events?" I will say, I also use my main Echo to play music. It is really nice that way, though song, artist, and playlist name recognition is atrocious. "Play Top Hits" and "Play Today's Top Hits" produces completely different result. Don't you know what I mean Amazon? Don't you know what I mean? My kids (turning 4 soon) have figured out how to use it too, which is kinda neat.
- giobox 9y ago
  > and then there is the 5 - 10 second processing time Almost everything you've described matches my experience with the Echo exactly, but if there is one thing that it is consistently good at for me anyway, it's seriously low latency in responding. I've never observed anything like 5 seconds to process my input, let alone 10. It's been way better than Siri in this regard.
Terretta 9y ago
Own all of them, any time one fails, try the others for comparison. Over time, I find Alexa “most improved” and Google most frequently laughably terrible. (Siri most integrated, but most useless outside her zone.) IOW, Google Home might answer most questions but is also most likely to just cross its fingers and pray the upcoming nonsense is useful. Try asking straightforward questions like “Who was the oldest President?” or “Who won last year’s basketball finals?” to see these patterns. Also ask Alexa why she’s better than Google. ;-)

by pound 9y ago

IgorPartola 9y ago

Exactly the same with my Echos. The problem with asking these things questions when you are in a group of people is that now the whole conversation pauses to hear the damn answer. And then there is the 5-10 second processing time and the very slow non-interactive answer. It's just so much more efficient to have one of the people in the conversation whip out their phone and use Google, then say the answer when it's ready. Especially if the answer is not "Who was the start of The Martian" but something like "How closely was Lincoln the movie based on historical events?" I will say, I also use my main Echo to play music. It is really nice that way, though song, artist, and playlist name recognition is atrocious. "Play Top Hits" and "Play Today's Top Hits" produces completely different result. Don't you know what I mean Amazon? Don't you know what I mean? My kids (turning 4 soon) have figured out how to use it too, which is kinda neat.

giobox 9y ago
> and then there is the 5 - 10 second processing time Almost everything you've described matches my experience with the Echo exactly, but if there is one thing that it is consistently good at for me anyway, it's seriously low latency in responding. I've never observed anything like 5 seconds to process my input, let alone 10. It's been way better than Siri in this regard.

Terretta 9y ago

Own all of them, any time one fails, try the others for comparison. Over time, I find Alexa “most improved” and Google most frequently laughably terrible. (Siri most integrated, but most useless outside her zone.) IOW, Google Home might answer most questions but is also most likely to just cross its fingers and pray the upcoming nonsense is useful. Try asking straightforward questions like “Who was the oldest President?” or “Who won last year’s basketball finals?” to see these patterns. Also ask Alexa why she’s better than Google. ;-)