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I can see some use of things like Nest which keeps your electric usage efficient and low. Agree that other things are way over-hyped though. Look at how hard A

by bdod6 9y ago

I can see some use of things like Nest which keeps your electric usage efficient and low. Agree that other things are way over-hyped though. Look at how hard Amazon has been pushing Alexa for years now, and the shopping experience on it is still terrible. For very specific use cases, it works kinda well (i.e. order more household supplies that I've ordered 100x before). For anything else, it's much easier and faster to use a phone or computer. Amazon is devoting hundreds of millions to solve a problem that literally doesn't exist.

ajford 9y ago
As a shopping platform, Alexa is shit. Nobody wants to shop by voice. Unless maybe you're visually impaired. But I can't skim reviews or anything like that via Alexa. But, I love the Echo so much, I recently upgraded from a single Dot to a full Echo and added two more Dots to the house. Being able to ask Alexa for a weather forecast while getting dressed in the morning is great. Asking Alexa to play music or change songs/volume while I'm doing the dishes without drying my hands and fiddling with my phone is awesome. Setting kitchen timers while my hands are dirty from cooking, or while I'm putting something into the oven (I tend to forget if I wait until I've walked away from the oven) is pretty damn useful. My kids love asking Alexa questions, and some of the skills (like the Magic Door) are huge hits with them. Overall, I think assuming the Echo is meant for shopping is a bad assumption. It is meant to pull you into the Amazon ecosystem (Echosystem?), but I don't think voice shopping will ever be successful.