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The Echo Dot was the best-selling product on Amazon this holiday season
- paultopia 9y agoThat happens when you lower the crap out of the price. For 30 bucks with a freebie, I even bought one. And a google home mini. In the same room.
- melling 9y agoSomeone put an Echo Dot in my stocking. I’ve been ranting about these devices for a while and even recently wrote a little blog post: https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-interface-is-almost-here/ https://h4labs.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/voice-as-a-user-inte... Is it worth getting a Google Mini too? I’m told that it’s actually smarter. I’m going to set up my Echo so I can reorder all the stuff I hate to shop for. We’ve been waiting half a century for “Voice as a User Interface”. Now we’re only a decade away?
- paultopia 9y agoI mean, I just use mine to check the weather. But for 30 bucks, the three seconds I save from not reaching for the phone are kinda worth it, I guess? It reminds me of my first few calendar items too...
- StevePerkins 9y agoI would say that the Amazon Echo is generally better at DOING STUFF (e.g. setting alarms and reminders, playing music, adding stuff to your Amazon shopping cart (of course), controlling your TV if you have a Fire stick, etc). Supposedly controlling smart home gear, although I haven't dipped my toes in those waters yet. The Google Home is generally better at ANSWERING QUESTIONS and providing information. Random queries that pop into your head a thousand times a day (e.g. Who starred in such-and-such movie? Who won the last time the Atlanta Falcons played the Carolina Panthers? etc). Occasionally though, Alexa will surprise you by answering a question where Google flopped. Either way, like others in this thread, I now have both since they discounted them so low for the holidays. But for the Google, I get by with the "Mini" version... whereas I sprung for the full-size Amazon Echo because I use it for music, audiobooks, podcasts, etc and want the better sound.
- Trav5 9y agoAnd Samsung Voice can't do anything well.
- adjkant 9y agoI'm sorry, I didn't catch that. What voice interface system would you like to criticize again?
- Trav5 9y agoS Voice by Samsung, found on the Gear S3. It's a watch with a full color screen and a cell modem, an amazing bit of hardware. Voice command does not work well at all though. I would love having Google Now on it.
- notyourwork 9y agoI agree and its not really a surprise either... Google has been in the search (Q&A) business a long time.
- gh02t 9y agoI actually find ghome to be better for smart home use. The app is a little more intuitive with organization and it is a lot better with recognizing the names of your stuff. Alexa would have trouble recognizing arbitrary names while ghome almost always gets it right. I started with Echo but ended up replacing it with Google Home because I like it so much more.
- pythonboi 9y agoThankfully I am not the only one who thinks this! I had an argument with my brother over IoT devices with Echos vs Google Home products. Google Home still requires you to use 3rd party apps but you are forced to set up the device in a location in your home/apartment. I can walk into my apartment and say "Ok Google, turn on all lights" and not have to worry about which brand of lights turn on. When I used my Echo Dot my brother got me last Christmas, I had so many issues with the same command.
- wepple 9y agoYep, do it. You’re interested enough to write it up, you should take a look at the home mini. There are a fair number of people in this thread saying they prefer the dot, which is really interesting to me because I thought the home was the clear winner. Perhaps I need to give Alexa a second chance. The big upside of the home is it has contextual understanding. “Alexa, what’s the temperature in Celsius” gives me the weather, including full day forecast (cloudy etc) in Fahrenheit. Google will tell me exactly what I wanted to know. I’ve given up on Alexa, but maybe “she” deserves a second chance.
- QAPereo 9y agoMaybe it’s just me, but I find these products creepy and intrusive. When I think of entities I’d trust with a networked mic in my home, giant multinationals don’t readily spring to mind. Price is not the issue, much like price isn’t the problem with FB. ...Then again I have a cellphone...
- JonDav 9y agoWhat was the freebie?
- paultopia 9y agoOne of those tp-link smart plugs. Which I haven't even taken out of the box yet, so maybe that shouldn't have influenced my purchase decision!
- neves 9y agoOk, it is cheap. It is also cool. But does the techies here find it really useful? If so, why?
- sdtransier 9y ago1. Always on and ready to go. Don't have to pull out a phone or other device 2. In my experience, understands me and responds way better and quicker than Siri on my iPhone 3. My wife and I love the Spotify integration and other little useful things like timers, alarms, etc. Overall, it's the simply ease-of-use that keeps us using the Dot everyday.
- kevmo314 9y agoI do find it useful for the one very niche purpose of telling it to play music and control the room temperature while I'm taking a shower. I also fully acknowledge the privacy risks of having an always listening device in the bathroom.
- neuronexmachina 9y agoI mostly use it to control Philips Hue bulbs.
- tinbad 9y agoI mainly use it as a home automation "hub", works well if you have multiple systems (I use it w/ Insteon, Hue, Sonos) working together and don't want to run something complicated like Homeseer. My wife uses it mostly to control lights/music, especially when she literally has her hands full with our twins. I also like that I can re-order common stuff like diapers, wipes, etc. without having to find/take out my phone. Sometimes I wish it had a GUI though so I could interact with it even faster..
- gruglife 9y agoI don't find it useful at all. The things it's good at (timer, lights, playing music, etc) are not hard to do to begin with.
- Johnny555 9y ago
- fermienrico 9y agoGoogle is miles ahead in terms of a conversational assistant. There is a lot of friction in using voice activated services. If I have a choice of typing "Weather in XXXXX zip" in the address bar vs. asking an assistant, I choose the former. Therefore, every time I use anything else but Google, I am afraid it won't recognize my command and I immediately feel like throwing that thing out of the window. I need to be 100% sure that I will get a return on my time invested when it comes to searching or asking for information. When a Google search fails in a browser, at least I have something to bite on. For other things such as timers, calendars, game scores, home lights, music - assistants are nice.
- notyourwork 9y ago"Alexa, what's the weather?" This isn't too difficult. I know Google is well off in this space but Alexa is pretty damn good too.
- Washuu 9y ago"Alexa, what's the weather?" It proceeds to tell me the weather for a state over. "Alexa, set my location to XXXXX." It can't do that. Actually getting correct location details requires downloading a separate smart phone application and digging through its menus to figure out how to set the location for each individual Alexa device.
- chaostheory 9y agoAlexa is far from perfect, but it has weather down. Things may have changed or my memory is imperfect, but one of the first things the iOS app asks you is for your home zip code. Even without that, "What's the weather in San Francisco?" works fine.
- C14L 9y agoSame. Alexa insists to tell me the weather of the city I lived until a year ago. No idea how to inform her that I moved.
- gruglife 9y agoAm I the only one that thinks these are useless? I got one last Xmas and stop using it after a month or so.
- rubatuga 9y agoThey have uses, but some people delude themselves into thinking they make a significant difference in their lives
- eropple 9y agoAlternatively, maybe they do make a significant difference in those people's lives. I mean, seriously--who do you think you are to be the arbiter of that for them?
- tonyedgecombe 9y agoPerhaps rubatuga is an observer rather than arbiter?
- mikeash 9y agoAn observer wouldn’t describe one of the sides as delusional.
- jhall1468 9y agoIt does in my case. My entire routine, both morning and night, is set to the Alexa. It's convenient (it reminds me on both my phone and on the device). When I want music, I ask for it. When I'm out of dishwasher pods, I order them. It knows which ones too, because it knows which ones I ordered last time. So yes, it makes a significant difference in my life, as someone with ADD that struggles with these every day tasks. Maybe the delusional one is the person that thinks their particular perspective is the only one.
- mikeash 9y agoTo think they’re worthwhile, we only have to think they’re making at least a $30 difference in our lives. That’s not a particularly high bar.
- adjkant 9y agoMakes sense, but give me the Google Home. The Chromecast pairing is insane, a better speaker in the mini, and frankly, I'll invite Google to own my life before Amazon.
- Viper007Bond 9y agoAlexa can control your Fire TV but yes, I agree. I have a Chromecast built into TV and I use Google Home to play music, Plex, YouTube, etc. on it. So nice.
- glebedel 9y agoSadly it can't in all countries (bought it in UK and discovered Fire TV controls was only enabled for the US because... who knows).
- lgas 9y agoOut of curiosity, why Goole before Amazon?
- figgis 9y agoPersonally I resent the fact that Amazon has done everything in their power as a company to make it so I cannot stream amazon prime to my chromecast. That alone has tarnished my opinion of the company.
- cma 9y agoSounds sort of like the lack of Youtube on Windows Phone.
- eh78ssxv2f 9y agoIsn't it different though? Publishing YouTube app on Windows Phone requires Google to put extra effort into developing an app for a completely new platform which I assume requires lot of engineering effort. Selling Chromecast on Amazon probably does not cost Amazon any extra engineering effort. So, I do not believe that the two situations are equivalent.
- ferongr 9y agoWho could imagine that people would install telescreens voluntarily, and pay for the privilege?
- CamperBob2 9y agoIt's long been clear that Huxley's vision has won out over Orwell's.
- JonDav 9y agoProblem is now the outrageous cost to own a lighthouse.
- thg 9y agoIt's more a mix of both than an either-or. In the western world we can see Huxley's vision much more dominantly, while in China / NK it's not far a stretch to full Orwellian. However, Orwell's envisioned surveillance apparatus is ubiquitous all over the planet, no matter what nation you live in.
- Johnny555 9y agoI think pretty much every 1970's era visionary foresaw video phones in everyone's home https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/bc/c9/70bcc9ab4c2ab6e22e293997a3b5f94e.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/70/bc/c9/70bcc9ab4c2ab6e22e29...
- mikeash 9y agoIt was pretty obvious a decade or two ago when everyone started buying cell phones. I don’t understand why techies are just freaking out about this now. I’ve had a potential listening device in my home since 2001, when I got my first cell phone. Most of you are in a similar situation.
- thg 9y agoHaving the microphone always-on drains a lot of power. You would notice it very quickly were your cell phone to transform into an always-on surveillance bug. You're technically correct that cell phones leak all sorts of meta data that can be used for surveillance, but they aren't always listening. Voice assistants, however, are designed to be always-on and that is the key difference.
- m0ngr31 9y agoGoogle might be ahead in some conversational things, but functionality wise, Alexa is way better. Probably has something to do with being on the market first, but developing a skill is a much better experience than it is with Google (imo). I think that's a big reason why. I've developed a number of skills for some big companies, and I'm fighting Amazon right now about getting my open source one published (https://github.com/m0ngr31/kodi-alexa https://github.com/m0ngr31/kodi-alexa)
- cthalupa 9y agoThat's pretty sweet. I am concerned about the IAM policy you're choosing - Administrator access should basically never be given out or used. I would highly recommend figuring out what your actual dependencies are and restricting the policy to just what's necessary.
- m0ngr31 9y agoYeah, I run it with the bare minimum, but I kept getting confused people not doing it right, so it was just easier to instruct full admin access. If Amazon won't approve my skill (they have an issue with Kodi after the fire tv stick debacle), I have a hosted version that won't require setup like there is currently, so it's just a temporary solution.
- cthalupa 9y agoGood to know! I've switched over to Plex for most everything, but if I end up going back to Kodi I'll definitely be setting this up. Thanks for writing it.
- philsnow 9y agoI've seen some github repositories have a button you can click that supposedly instantiates an entire cloudformation stack. I haven't ever clicked on one, so I don't know how smooth the experience is, but it's arguably better than "go learn about terraform" or "click here, there, that, here, type a policy name, paste this policy in this box, click save".
- kyriakos 9y agoAlexa is supported in way more countries than Google Home. Personally I have no option its either Alexa or none.
- tinyhouse 9y agoDrop-in is another great feature. If you have more than one echo you can use them as an intercom. You can also use it to make calls to/from it. This is very useful if you have kids at home that don't own a phone yet.
- hota_mazi 9y agoHard to tell how significant that news is since Amazon doesn't list any Google Home product. And with Google Home Mini priced at $29, it's easy to speculate that it sold quite a few as well.
- dawnerd 9y agoYeah, my reaction to the headline was, well of course it was. Amazon was forcing it down your throat on just about every page.
- whoopdedo 9y agoAlso that the Echo can essentially "only" be bought on Amazon. While they advertise them there, a very small supply was sent to stores. Amazon uses the retail space for advertising but they're out of stock which drops you in the lap of Amazon. With other products sales will be split between retail and online (and retail is up about 4% this year). Or something that is only advertised online doesn't attract impulse buyers or people who want to see a demo before they buy.
- mikeash 9y agoI saw a huge stock of Echo Dots (Echos Dot?) in at least one local store.
- WalterBright 9y agoI don't need that, I already have The Clapper.
- melling 9y agoIf you weren’t Walter Bright, I’d downvote the comment. You’ve been waiting half a century for this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NM4yEOdIHnc https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NM4yEOdIHnc Of course, we aren’t there yet but it’s a step in the right direction. There’s nothing like a few multi-billion dollar companies in an arm’s race to get us to the next level. Maybe an open source version is more your cup of tea? First, we need good speech recognition: https://voice.mozilla.org https://voice.mozilla.org
- andy_ppp 9y agoCan we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded, by the companies or by back doors created by the security services? Seems too much like a telescreen for my liking. The problem is I would love one I could trust!
- craftyguy 9y ago>Can we be absolutely certain that everything before “Ok, Google” or “Alexa” isn’t being recorded, by the companies or by back doors created by the security services? It's all proprietary, so the answer is: no.
- wepple 9y agoCorrection: it’s all proprietary, so the answer is: yes; you could reverse engineer firmware
- twblalock 9y agoThat won't help you find out if Amazon is storing the recordings in a datacenter somewhere.
- ehsankia 9y agoThe question here is if the data is being sent back at all or not. If you can show that either Google or Amazon is saying voice data outside of the command after the hotword, you already have yourself a huge scandal. No voice data without hotword should ever even leave the device.
- echosmith 9y agoAmazon releases the on-device source code I believe: Here's the link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201626480 https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=... I personally haven't gone through it, but someone more interested can take a stab at it.
- 9y ago
- nepotism2018 9y agoThanks to some great third-party plugins I easily linked my RPI:3 with echo...not ground breaking...to be able to link to separate devices is pretty cool
- JulianRaphael 9y agoVery revealing discussion. Most of the participants just argue about Amazon vs. Google here, some fear surveillance, some consider the devices useless, a few want to understand if the HN crowd finds it useful. This is something I notice here on HN in product-related discussions more and more: people just say what THEY think about product X (typically a negative opinion or complaint), rather being creative, constructive or inquisitive. Why do you think millions of people bought an Echo Dot or a Google Home? Not from YOUR perspective, but from the perspective of millions of people that seem to see value in this product?
- bamboozled 9y agoMight I suggest some simple reasons for the increase in sales for the Dot? * Novelty value, it's a fun idea. It looks cool to buy an "edgy" product for your nephew / niece etc. * The marketing team worked hard to direct prime customers to buy one for their family / friends as gifts. * People are out of ideas and it's something new, novel and affordable. I really don't think people put much thought into presents in general, if there is something new, kind of affordable and in your face, it's a given you're going to buy it.
- notahacker 9y agoThe aggressive price cuts in competition with Google also put it at the perfect price for "novelty electronic good that may or may not be useful" (We bought one for a pretty tech savvy 89 year old who we thought might actually get practical benefits from IoT plugs as well as enjoy the novelty value of something that interacts vaguely like a human since he doesn't go out so much these days. But that's something of an edge case)
- simonjgreen 9y agoSeveral times this last week I got essentially a "sorry, we're busy" message from my echos. I assumed quite a few must have just come online, but of all companies I expected Amazon to have made scale work.
- tedmiston 9y agoI've been seeing this a lot the past few days as well, even just with some skills while others continue to work: "I'm having trouble reaching Skill X right now".
- paul7986 9y agoI’m eagerly awaiting when either Google Home or Alexa show/display your query via projection on your various walls/surfaces in your house. The info appears/projects onto walls and other surfaces and remains for a few minutes. They have the Amazon Show but you have to be up close and it’s only in one room. I want my digital info/queries to be seen and accessible by just looking up wherever i am in my home.
- draw_down 9y agoI don’t get it at all, but if you enjoy using these things then god bless ya.
- djhworld 9y agoI have an original Echo, it's fine. I use it to listen to the radio via TuneIn, to turn lamps on and off and to set timers. That's about it really. Sometimes I use it to convert American imperial units to metric, which is handy when converting recipes in the kitchen (e.g. "what's 2 cups in millilitres") I'm at my parents house at the moment, my Mum primarily uses it to set timers, and reminders (e.g. remind me tomorrow to do X). Although our pet dog absolutely hates it though, which is amusing.
- amorphid 9y agoI have a Google Assistant. I use it for timers, playing music (on my Chromecast), and playing the news. That's about it. I can't find another use case where it seems like the best tool for the job.
- ehsankia 9y agoSame here. For $30, it's great value. Some people try to make it more than it is, or try to use it for absolutely everything. Not all workflows work well with voice, but the few that do bring great value. Same thing with Chromecast, for 35$, it's just decent value.
- dopamean 9y agoAre there any assistants that aren't connected to the web? Or at least aren't by default. Here are some things I'd love to be able to do that don't need the web. Set a timer Set a reminder for something in X minutes Take a voice note Create lists (maybe could be pushed to phone via bluetooth) Maybe some home auto stuff I imagine most of this stuff could be shared to my phone via bluetooth if I needed it on the go (like a shopping list).
- introspectr3 9y agohttps://aiyprojects.withgoogle.com/voice https://aiyprojects.withgoogle.com/voice You control what goes where.
- raoulj 9y agoAs I understand it, all the voice assistants rely on a backend to do the voice processing, at a minimum.
- melling 9y agoThere are several freely available voice datasets. https://voice.mozilla.org/data https://voice.mozilla.org/data If everyone who reads HN commits a little time to Mozilla Common Voice in 2018, we might have a non-cloud solution in 2019.
- sailfast 9y agoThis is awesome. Thank you for pointing me in this direction. This kind of corpus is going to be extremely important to getting a more diverse array of voice applications out there in the open.
- camiller 9y agoIf you want to roll your own server I believe there is a plugin for Home Assistant that can take voice input. https://home-assistant.io/ https://home-assistant.io/ But I don't think either the Echo or the Google Home will connect to that. If you are running home assistant on a raspberry Pi, you could probably build that right into your own speaker.
- francisofascii 9y agoAs a Star Trek fan, it is pretty cool. I would not have bought it if "Computer" was not a wake word option. I showed my young girls a few clips from TNG when Geordi is asking the computer to play music and dim the lights. The experience is pretty similar. Aside from that, playing music and podcasts is how we use it. It beats having to find the song you want on a phone.
- pteredactyl 9y ago‘Amazon says bestselling product made by Amazon’
- sjg007 9y agoThe echo is great. Hands free control of lights, switches, radio, shopping cart, recipes really makes it great. I was on the fence about getting one but I can’t imagine not having one. Same with voice control for the tv.
- SN76477 9y agoIs it just me or do none of these voice products seem like they are ready for the consumer? I have never seen one work properly on a consistent basis.
- 31reasons 9y agoTitle should be this: "An always listening device that record all your private conversations, that may or may not have been compromised (or will be compromised) by the private and government entities for surveillance and profit purposes has been the best selling product in the USA (where people refuse to give-up rights to own guns because they don't trust the government)"
- wepple 9y agoOk, I’ll bite. How does Alexa/home/whatever differ from your laptop? your laptop has a 10x more dangerous attack surface with a full featured web browser and a load of internet-connected apps, and yes it has a microphone too.
- tkxxx7 9y agoLaptop will differ in how much control you have over security. Attack vectors are less likely to be replicable across all users. Smart phone/watch would work better in your point vs Alexa.
- cptkoons 9y agoWow..gifting something of pure marketing bullshit to your loved ones so they can be inundated with more marketing bullshit and buy more bullshit they don't need.
- beriaanirudh 9y agoFunny the article doesn’t say whether it was because echos Dot was sold damn cheap during the sale
- TheYcMaster 9y agoFun fact: in Italy there's no Alexa products at all. There's simply no market / will to spread it there
- bovermyer 9y agoI don't really care why other people buy Echo Dots. I bought one because it's a useful companion to my Echo. /shrug
- metahost 9y agoLong live privacy. Privacy is dead.
- mwexler 9y ago3 months from now, let's see how many of those purchasers or recipients use it for something more than "play a song", "what's new", and "timer, 2 minutes". I hope it's a lot. Otherwise, we can imagine the next headline: "The Echo Dot was the most-returned product on Amazon this post-holiday season."
- garybro 9y agoI bought my parents five Dots for Christmas to use as intercoms. They live on a farm, with multiple outbuildings, so if something happened, they can yell at the Echo in the building they are in for help. Any other use they get out of it (my dad uses the music feature a lot) is just an added bonus.
- Pica_soO 9y agoGiven amazons spotty history when it comes to quality- product-piracy e.g. - this will be hacked and used to plan burglarys and during extended periods of absence. I shall be interested to see what PR Guns amazon has laying in store for that day.