3 ms·

Somewhat interesting, but this really comes off as a Luddite attempting to explain smart speakers to people who’ve never heard of them. He’s not ready to talk

Somewhat interesting, but this really comes off as a Luddite attempting to explain smart speakers to people who’ve never heard of them. He’s not ready to talk to a plastic puck? His friend ‘taught’ her echo to play ambient music? Honestly this sounds like it should have been written in 2015.

ACow_Adonis 8y ago
This luddite clicked the link thinking "what the hell is a smart speaker?" and then had the internal monologue: "oh, a marketing term for those amazon alexa type things millenials with too much money buy". Honestly, to me the article comes off reading like a not so subtle ad...with gratuitous namedrops and a sort of strawman "I don't need this product...but all my friends!" Anyone want to place bets that it is?
- briandear 8y ago
  An Alexa as a music speaker? Barely a step beyond a transistor radio when it comes to audio quality. Listening to serious music on that is blasphemous.
a-dub 8y ago
shrug he's writing about the impact of these things on the music industry in a music publication. It's not going to be as fawning as one of those absurd go-go-gadget-fanboy websites, but it seemed like a perfectly reasonable exposition of what they are, specifically for providing context for how they might impact the music world. and tbh I'm not really ready to talk to a plastic puck either. It's pretty weird, not to mention the uneasiness of having some poorly secured hacked up version of Android running 24/7 in my house with a big fat microphone attached designed to pick up as much as possible. ...and who knows, maybe his friend did tech it about ambient by writing an Alexa skill to organize her ambient playlists.
- jib 8y ago
  Voice control of lights, AC, music is great when doing things that involve using both hands (cooking, baking, maintenance work), as is note taking. It’s not about talking to, it’s about proper hands free control. 95% of things are better controlled with hands, but there is a significant set of things where voice control is superiour (usually due to your hands being otherwise occupied).
- simsla 8y ago
  He's missing some important facts in those areas as well. He talks of the effects of the walled garden of Alexa + Amazon Music on Spotify, but it's long been possible to use competing services (like Spotify) on Alexa...
taneq 8y ago
I don't think 'Luddite' is the right term here - the Luddites were specifically a group who protested against the impacts of mechanisation on the labour market. They didn't hate technology in general. 'Technophobe', maybe?
- bni 8y ago
  It could be he just doesn't like this particular tech

ACow_Adonis 8y ago

This luddite clicked the link thinking "what the hell is a smart speaker?" and then had the internal monologue: "oh, a marketing term for those amazon alexa type things millenials with too much money buy". Honestly, to me the article comes off reading like a not so subtle ad...with gratuitous namedrops and a sort of strawman "I don't need this product...but all my friends!" Anyone want to place bets that it is?

briandear 8y ago
An Alexa as a music speaker? Barely a step beyond a transistor radio when it comes to audio quality. Listening to serious music on that is blasphemous.

a-dub 8y ago

shrug he's writing about the impact of these things on the music industry in a music publication. It's not going to be as fawning as one of those absurd go-go-gadget-fanboy websites, but it seemed like a perfectly reasonable exposition of what they are, specifically for providing context for how they might impact the music world. and tbh I'm not really ready to talk to a plastic puck either. It's pretty weird, not to mention the uneasiness of having some poorly secured hacked up version of Android running 24/7 in my house with a big fat microphone attached designed to pick up as much as possible. ...and who knows, maybe his friend did tech it about ambient by writing an Alexa skill to organize her ambient playlists.

jib 8y ago
Voice control of lights, AC, music is great when doing things that involve using both hands (cooking, baking, maintenance work), as is note taking. It’s not about talking to, it’s about proper hands free control. 95% of things are better controlled with hands, but there is a significant set of things where voice control is superiour (usually due to your hands being otherwise occupied).
simsla 8y ago
He's missing some important facts in those areas as well. He talks of the effects of the walled garden of Alexa + Amazon Music on Spotify, but it's long been possible to use competing services (like Spotify) on Alexa...

taneq 8y ago

I don't think 'Luddite' is the right term here - the Luddites were specifically a group who protested against the impacts of mechanisation on the labour market. They didn't hate technology in general. 'Technophobe', maybe?

bni 8y ago
It could be he just doesn't like this particular tech