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Do either of them actually provide any value (apart from homepod audio quality)? For the life of me I can't find a reason to have one of these in my house and I

by borkt 8y ago

Do either of them actually provide any value (apart from homepod audio quality)? For the life of me I can't find a reason to have one of these in my house and I really am not concerned about the privacy issues.

adpirz 8y ago
My primary uses: play music (connected to Spotify), set timers and alarms (one Dot is in the kitchen), and turning lights on and off (we have Hue smart bulbs). I certainly could do all those things without it, but it is nice and does feel Jetsons-esque to be able to say and have it done, especially the lights -- no more awkwardly reaching over a couch. I've also recently created a few routines which are fun -- "Good morning" triggers a good morning response, lights on, the weather and news, and some light music. It really does feel like the future scifi promised us...
CameronBanga 8y ago
My friends make fun of me because I have three HomePods. One says that I'm probably the only person in the country with 3 who doesn't work on the HomePod team. I bought them for the audio quality primarily. I do use Siri with it daily, and it's fine/passable. I have it read me the weather, my calendar events, reminders, and play the news. This is a weird #LifeHack, but I have one in my bathroom, and a bathroom HomePod/Alexa is the best place to put one. Each morning in the shower, I can ask it about my day, then I usually have it play NPR, Bloomberg, or read the news. At doing that, it definitely is more than serviceable for me.
ramenmeal 8y ago
Timers, alarms, and turning on and off the lights (nearly all of my switches and plugs are wifi enabled).
AaronNewcomer 8y ago
For my family it is probably the best thing I have bought. Wife and even mother-in-law can just say "Hey Siri Play Disney Radio" or whatever and it always just works and the baby can dance around to music. If they are watching Netflix or Hulu or Disney Jr or HBO or etc they just just say "Hey Siri Volume Up" or "Hey Siri Pause" even if the Apple TV remote has made its way under the couch. When we walk downstairs in the morning we can just whisper (so to not wake the baby) "hey siri turn the downstairs lights on" and it always just works. "Hey Siri what's the temperate in [the baby's name]'s room?" "Hey Siri raise the temperate a couple degrees" It would be a BIG deal to remove this from our life right now as we use it for so many things.
chrisjc 8y ago
Really depends on the individual. For my family, Alexa is almost indispensable, especially with a baby. Controlling lights, fans, HVAC, TV (shield, amp, etc), Todo and shopping lists, cooking/laundry timers, reminders, tracking baby (diapers, bottles, nursing), weather. Being able to turn on a light and track baby events while you're up to your elbows in poop is really invaluable. Definitely won't add smart locks anywhere in the mix. Limited music since we use Google music. Also, Celery Man.
- jedberg 8y ago
  > Celery Man Had to Google that. Clearly I've been missing out by not having cable.
subpixel 8y ago
I've scanned all these replies and I have to say they do not resonate for me. Especially when I think of the privacy I'd have to give up to have a device change the volume on the tv or to dim the lights in my house.
- mertd 8y ago
  What privacy would you be giving up? Amazon will know that you have light bulbs in your home?
  - rurp 8y ago
    Well, that and being one bug or secret govt court order from revealing real time audio of his entire family.
    - outworlder 8y ago
      > Well, that and being one bug or secret govt court order from revealing real time audio of his entire family. That doesn't happen. They may ask for the requests you have made to the device, but they won't simply listen to your conversations. These things are not sending realtime audio to AWS servers 24/7. We would know.
jedberg 8y ago
It seems to be more useful if you have kids. Most everything I use it for relates to the children. Timers (for both cooking and reminding the kids to do something) Asking for music when I'm rocking a baby Using the intercom function to remind my daughter to pee without getting up. Using the announce function to tell the whole house that the water heater is broken while I'm in the shower (this happens about once a week because I'm too cheap to replace the controller board on the heater and it can only be reset by pushing a physical button). Also they tell me when someone is at the door because I have a ring doorbell.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  > Also they tell me when someone is at the door because I have a ring doorbell. I don't get this. My doorbell just rings a chime that I can hear and know someone is at the door.
  - Phrodo_00 8y ago
    You might not be interested in the functionality, but ring tells you someone is at the door, they don't have to ring the bell for it.
    - WalterBright 8y ago
      I can hear them clumping on the porch. Much of the functionality seems like it'd be great for a disabled person. But I'm not, and none of it seems like it would improve my life any.
  - jedberg 8y ago
    The advantage is that I have multiple Alexa devices so I get the notification in multiple places instead of just one in the middle of the house. Also the wire was cut five years ago so that chime doesn't work anyway.
blacksmith_tb 8y ago
I have a gHome Mini and an Echo Dot. Both are fine for turning on bulbs, answering random trivia questions etc., but the gHome is especially nice for "Hey Google, please play BBC Worldservice on Chromecast Audio". I remember when I had to string a 30ft shortwave antenna for that... (you can do it in a browser, too, but running a 1000W power supply to listen to the news seems a bit wasteful).
qpalz 8y ago
I have an echo dot hooked up to my living room sound system which allows me to use my phone to play music wirelessly over bluetooth and Spotify connect. My TV also has a terrible sound board so instead of plugging an aux cable directly into the TV, I connect my Apple TV to the dot over bluetooth, which has much better sound quality. It's a big convenience over switching the aux cord between the various devices.
outworlder 8y ago
By themselves? They can do basically what Siri/'Ok Google' already do, except on a stationary location. For Echo in particular, there's a bunch of skills you can enable, from fart jokes to re-ordering your last Pizza on Domino's. If you have the full device (Echo, not the dot), it's also a pretty decent speaker. During the california fires I was constantly asking it about the air quality. Kids love it. For jokes, to simple math problems, and wikipedia-like answers. If you have more than one, they can call each other. Poor man's intercom. They can also play music together. If you have a FireTV, it can control that. Good when you have misplaced the remote. If you have smart devices, then things get more interesting. They can control groups of devices. When I say "Alexa, goodnight", lights are turned off, bedroom air filter is turned on, as are the security cameras (would be even better with thermostats and whatnot). If you can program, you can also build skills for them. Then they will do whatever you want them to do.
ams6110 8y ago
Having read all the other responses here I still am with you. Can't imagine living with devices like these.

by borkt 8y ago

adpirz 8y ago

My primary uses: play music (connected to Spotify), set timers and alarms (one Dot is in the kitchen), and turning lights on and off (we have Hue smart bulbs). I certainly could do all those things without it, but it is nice and does feel Jetsons-esque to be able to say and have it done, especially the lights -- no more awkwardly reaching over a couch. I've also recently created a few routines which are fun -- "Good morning" triggers a good morning response, lights on, the weather and news, and some light music. It really does feel like the future scifi promised us...

CameronBanga 8y ago

My friends make fun of me because I have three HomePods. One says that I'm probably the only person in the country with 3 who doesn't work on the HomePod team. I bought them for the audio quality primarily. I do use Siri with it daily, and it's fine/passable. I have it read me the weather, my calendar events, reminders, and play the news. This is a weird #LifeHack, but I have one in my bathroom, and a bathroom HomePod/Alexa is the best place to put one. Each morning in the shower, I can ask it about my day, then I usually have it play NPR, Bloomberg, or read the news. At doing that, it definitely is more than serviceable for me.

ramenmeal 8y ago

Timers, alarms, and turning on and off the lights (nearly all of my switches and plugs are wifi enabled).

AaronNewcomer 8y ago

For my family it is probably the best thing I have bought. Wife and even mother-in-law can just say "Hey Siri Play Disney Radio" or whatever and it always just works and the baby can dance around to music. If they are watching Netflix or Hulu or Disney Jr or HBO or etc they just just say "Hey Siri Volume Up" or "Hey Siri Pause" even if the Apple TV remote has made its way under the couch. When we walk downstairs in the morning we can just whisper (so to not wake the baby) "hey siri turn the downstairs lights on" and it always just works. "Hey Siri what's the temperate in [the baby's name]'s room?" "Hey Siri raise the temperate a couple degrees" It would be a BIG deal to remove this from our life right now as we use it for so many things.

chrisjc 8y ago

Really depends on the individual. For my family, Alexa is almost indispensable, especially with a baby. Controlling lights, fans, HVAC, TV (shield, amp, etc), Todo and shopping lists, cooking/laundry timers, reminders, tracking baby (diapers, bottles, nursing), weather. Being able to turn on a light and track baby events while you're up to your elbows in poop is really invaluable. Definitely won't add smart locks anywhere in the mix. Limited music since we use Google music. Also, Celery Man.

jedberg 8y ago
> Celery Man Had to Google that. Clearly I've been missing out by not having cable.

subpixel 8y ago

I've scanned all these replies and I have to say they do not resonate for me. Especially when I think of the privacy I'd have to give up to have a device change the volume on the tv or to dim the lights in my house.

mertd 8y ago
What privacy would you be giving up? Amazon will know that you have light bulbs in your home?
- rurp 8y ago
  Well, that and being one bug or secret govt court order from revealing real time audio of his entire family.
  - outworlder 8y ago
    > Well, that and being one bug or secret govt court order from revealing real time audio of his entire family. That doesn't happen. They may ask for the requests you have made to the device, but they won't simply listen to your conversations. These things are not sending realtime audio to AWS servers 24/7. We would know.

jedberg 8y ago

It seems to be more useful if you have kids. Most everything I use it for relates to the children. Timers (for both cooking and reminding the kids to do something) Asking for music when I'm rocking a baby Using the intercom function to remind my daughter to pee without getting up. Using the announce function to tell the whole house that the water heater is broken while I'm in the shower (this happens about once a week because I'm too cheap to replace the controller board on the heater and it can only be reset by pushing a physical button). Also they tell me when someone is at the door because I have a ring doorbell.

WalterBright 8y ago
> Also they tell me when someone is at the door because I have a ring doorbell. I don't get this. My doorbell just rings a chime that I can hear and know someone is at the door.
- Phrodo_00 8y ago
  You might not be interested in the functionality, but ring tells you someone is at the door, they don't have to ring the bell for it.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    I can hear them clumping on the porch. Much of the functionality seems like it'd be great for a disabled person. But I'm not, and none of it seems like it would improve my life any.
- jedberg 8y ago
  The advantage is that I have multiple Alexa devices so I get the notification in multiple places instead of just one in the middle of the house. Also the wire was cut five years ago so that chime doesn't work anyway.

blacksmith_tb 8y ago

I have a gHome Mini and an Echo Dot. Both are fine for turning on bulbs, answering random trivia questions etc., but the gHome is especially nice for "Hey Google, please play BBC Worldservice on Chromecast Audio". I remember when I had to string a 30ft shortwave antenna for that... (you can do it in a browser, too, but running a 1000W power supply to listen to the news seems a bit wasteful).

qpalz 8y ago

I have an echo dot hooked up to my living room sound system which allows me to use my phone to play music wirelessly over bluetooth and Spotify connect. My TV also has a terrible sound board so instead of plugging an aux cable directly into the TV, I connect my Apple TV to the dot over bluetooth, which has much better sound quality. It's a big convenience over switching the aux cord between the various devices.

outworlder 8y ago

By themselves? They can do basically what Siri/'Ok Google' already do, except on a stationary location. For Echo in particular, there's a bunch of skills you can enable, from fart jokes to re-ordering your last Pizza on Domino's. If you have the full device (Echo, not the dot), it's also a pretty decent speaker. During the california fires I was constantly asking it about the air quality. Kids love it. For jokes, to simple math problems, and wikipedia-like answers. If you have more than one, they can call each other. Poor man's intercom. They can also play music together. If you have a FireTV, it can control that. Good when you have misplaced the remote. If you have smart devices, then things get more interesting. They can control groups of devices. When I say "Alexa, goodnight", lights are turned off, bedroom air filter is turned on, as are the security cameras (would be even better with thermostats and whatnot). If you can program, you can also build skills for them. Then they will do whatever you want them to do.

ams6110 8y ago

Having read all the other responses here I still am with you. Can't imagine living with devices like these.