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Amazon Echo Loop
- markstos 7y agoI'll pass for now, but keep me in the loop.
- zknz 7y agoI am amazed that this got green lighted. you know - who is out there saying - what i am missing in my life is a really ugly ring, that i have to charge daily.
- reaperducer 7y agoI am amazed that this got green lighted. It's what happens when a company has so much money it can make things without doing any actual market research. "More dollars than sense" is the appropriate expression.
- txcwpalpha 7y agoI think it's more that Amazon has so much money that their version of market research looks much different than what you typically think of as market research. Producing a new device, throwing it up on their website to sell, and seeing how well it does is Amazon's version of market research. It's "move fast and break things" brought into the hardware space. They actually even say as much in their description of the "Day 1 Editions" program, of which the Echo Loop is part of.
- gtirloni 7y agoExpect they're not breaking anything at all.
- txcwpalpha 7y agoThe "move fast and break things" motto doesn't mean actually "breaking" things. It means not being afraid of mistakes, because things that are "broken" or "wrong" can be fixed down the line. In this case, Amazon is exhibiting not being afraid of releasing a possibly unsuccessful product, because they know they can iterate on it (or pivot, or exit entirely) later on.
- gamblor956 7y agoThis product is part of Amazon's "Day One" program, which is largely stuff that they're throwing against the (shopping) wall to see if it sticks. It's like the Alexa Microwave...a shitty microwave that was intended as a reference design that became the best-selling microwave on Amazon. Amazon is testing the waters for Alexa-integrated wearables. Not just earbuds, which are a saturated market, but other wearables like rings and frames. If it does, the potential upside is huge--they could create an entire new market, like they did with the original Echo and Kindle. If not, it's a rounding error in an immaterial account on the financials.
- mattrp 7y agoRemember the failed phone? Half of these new echo devices likely will suffer the same fate. I can’t imagine wanting to speak to my hand or my glasses in public... looking completely insane while doing it.
- webwielder2 7y agoNo need to green-light spaghetti—there's always plenty of room on the wall.
- jpalomaki 7y ago"Day 1 Editions are designed to bring you our most innovative ideas faster. By choosing to participate, you’ll have the opportunity to contribute feedback that informs future product ideas and development." So compared to for example Apple, they are taking a different approach with this product.
- reaperducer 7y agoSounds like they're making people pay to be beta testers.
- oh_sigh 7y agoI hate when Jeff's goons show up outside my door at 3am telling me to put on the ring or else No one is being made to do anything.
- reaperducer 7y agoWasn't there a movie about that? With trolls or hobbits or something?
- NoNotTheDuo 7y agoNo one is being made to do anything, but if you want to be a beta tester, you have to actually buy the thing. They aren't giving it away for you to test with. And you have to be invited, apparently.
- oh_sigh 7y agoSo the point is that if you want this product, you need to pay for it? Now I know how Bezos made his $100B.
- scarejunba 7y agoNo one's making anyone do anything. I love the opportunity to try possibly new technology. The rest of the conservative world can just wait.
- oh_sigh 7y agoYou stick it on a little nub. Basically as easy as taking it off, assuming you sleep in the same place every night.
- guptaneil 7y agoWhat is the advantage of this over a smart watch?
- JimiofEden 7y agoI would sooner wear a ring than watch. Anecdotally, I have plenty of friends who agree with me (Granted I wouldn't wear this for privacy reasons, but I really dislike wearing watches)
- oflannabhra 7y agoIt is clear to me that Amazon has doubled down on the only foothold they have, after missing mobile. I think that Voice Assistants will always be a feature, though, and not a product. And as a feature, first-party ones will always have an inherent advantage. Especially with this event, it seems that Amazon is going with a feature and trying to back into products, which to me seems like the opposite way to approach a market.
- webwielder2 7y agoAmazon is under the (mistaken?) assumption that the Echo was popular for any reason besides the fact that it makes playing music super easy.
- wvenable 7y agoI don't think they messed that: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/25/20882636/amazon-echo-studio-hd-3d-audio-dolby-atmos-sound-listen-hands-on-specs-features-price https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/25/20882636/amazon-echo-stud...
- justapassenger 7y agoI've owned Echo for 4 years (switched to google home now), and used it to play music only once. It's purely assistant to me.
- canadianwriter 7y agoMy main thing with this is it kind of works well for digital minimalism - no need for notifications or tracking of my body but get the benefit of adding to-dos or looking up quick things without looking at a screen. I hate smart watches cause I wear a normal watch, you know, something i never have to charge and is always on, amazing concept and I don't want to constantly be pulling out my phone, I prefer to keep it in a bag. This kind of gets that middle ground of answering quick one off questions (which I use my Google Home for now, but not out and about) as well as add to-dos and other things. Connecting this with Ifttt can probably do other cool stuff to. Though, this is not a mass market need, it just happens to fill my specific need.
- sacheendra 7y agoI don't know how to feel about this. On one side are the privacy implications. On the other hand, 16 year old me would have loved this. This is the pervasive computing of sci-fi made real. All information is just a tap away. Control lights or run a compute job using a custom Alexa Skill.
- LinuxBender 7y agoSci-fi also showed us the risks of such things, if not implemented properly. STtNG had several episodes where the U.S.S. Enterprise was commandeered via voice hacks.
- oh_sigh 7y agoWhat are the implications that differ from already having Alexa running on your smartphone in your pocket, which the ring requires?
- aymeric 7y agoCurrently I use a ring that allows me to pay like a credit card: I love it (I live by the beach so I prefer not to have a wallet with me). Being able to query google from a ring is attractive to me. I am surprised by the fact the speaker is in the ring, but it means you can potentially receive “private” information from the ring without other hearing. I imagine people whispering to their rings in the bus. I think the hand motion you have to do from speaking to listening might make you look like a fool (google glass)
- scarejunba 7y agoHey, which product are you using? I googled and the McLear came up top. Do you like it? The contactless payment thing sounds fucking amazing.
- thoughtpalette 7y agoThat looks pretty cool. I have not joined the contactless payment game yet, but I'd consider wearing this. Too bad it looks to be UK only.
- harshalizee 7y agoIs this an early April Fool's joke? The video showing people interacting with the ring does not remotely look appealing or cool. I'm surprised this went through all the way to actual production.
- ssully 7y agoHeh, I didn't notice the video until you mentioned it. Every interaction looks like the person is holding an invisible smart phone.
- dariusj18 7y agoYeah, it didn't respond to the first guy's question correctly and then assumed the woman meant dollars, when she did not specify.
- reaperducer 7y agoIs this an early April Fool's joke? It's yet another SV bubble "innovation" that's only useful on the west coast. It's not going to work in half the world for half of the year. Winter. Pockets. Gloves. See also: Apple EarPods, with the cords that get brittle in cold weather and become useless tangles that fly up in your face. See also: Every iPhone I've ever owned which has gone into emergency thermal shutdown just because I dared to use it in Arizona or Nevada.
- dmix 7y agoI've lived in places that were cold for a decent period each year and I wasn't wearing gloves all the time. Even 2-3% of my time would be a stretch. Even in cold countries we spend ~90% of our time inside and much of the ~10% outside in decent weather. The average American spends 7% of their day outside with some obvious outliers push that upwards. The world average is 87% inside. [1] Plenty of products are only used a few times a day. I don't think the downtime spent walking around outside shopping or commuting is the killer. The question is are there enough of those uses to justify wearing it all the time. Not if it works in 100% of situations. 1. https://www.creditdonkey.com/time-spent-outdoors-statistics.html https://www.creditdonkey.com/time-spent-outdoors-statistics....
- davidw 7y agoJava Ring 2.0
- noelsusman 7y agoThis feels like one of those bad Kickstarter projects that get made fun of on YouTube.
- mitasu-hachi 7y agotrying not to imagine what'll happen if the battery starts swelling
- legohead 7y agomaybe work on making the Alexa phone app more user friendly instead...
- mc32 7y agoOh damn! They should have made it in the shape of tiny angels and demons micro drones which hover over your shoulder. You ask a question and you get an assortment of positive and negative responses from them as they flutter and follow you around your shoulders.
- reaperducer 7y agoI guess all the down-voters never watched a Looney Tunes cartoon. Sad.
- blorenz 7y agoI'm usually enthusiastic about Echo products but today's announcements should have included Henry Winkler, a motorcycle and a shark tank.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- teddyh 7y agoOne ring to bring them all…
- huangc10 7y agoI actually like this a lot tbh. I only wish it looked better but worth a try. Been looking to try some new IoT stuff.
- eschneider 7y agoThat...could be quite handy for the elderly. Spend some time as a caregiver and you see that a lot of these oddball form factors are quite handy for some folks.
- gok 7y agoI was in a group of ~a dozen people recently and somehow it came up that over half of our wedding bands were from Amazon.
- acroback 7y agoOnly one question - Why?
- the_watcher 7y agoI can see the appeal of everything else Amazon announced (even the glasses, which have value in that they're basically headphones you don't have to take off when having a conversation). But cannot figure out the target market of this. I'm even someone who is interested in the idea of a smart ring, but the feature it needs is sleep tracking (since I haven't ever been able to sleep with a watch or band).
- elheffe80 7y agoSleep tracking is the only thing I can think of that would be usefull.
- the_watcher 7y agoI could see some use in fitness tracking when playing a sport where you'd be asked to take off a watch (pickup basketball, for example). But that's why I think there could be a market for it - its value prop is simply that it's both extremely low profile and connected. The Oura ring is simply too expensive for me, but I think I'd pay $130 for a wearable sleep tracker that integrates with Apple Health that provided me high quality data about my sleep quality.
- rad_gruchalski 7y agoI do wonder what else does it pick up. This seems to be a voice version of facebook scanning faces of all random people on pictures taken in public and posted to facebook.
- dmitrygr 7y agoA curved LiPo battery being shipped in a real device! cool! This has been a long time coming
- elheffe80 7y agoThis is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.
- artur_makly 7y agothis takes “talk to the hand” to a whole new level. i pray this madness stops
- mark_l_watson 7y agoI give credit for an interesting product idea, but requiring a nearby cellphone makes it much less compelling than an Apple Watch with a data plan. Something like Amazon’s ring but with its own cell data plan and a lot of work put into voice only UIs might be a great product. Still, for now, a watch that can be a replacement for carrying a phone hits the sweet spot for me.
- kempbellt 7y agoOne ring to rule them all? All that is missing is an Amazon Echo Loop Nose Edition. Bear with me... It's mounted right above your mouth, so you never have to raise your hand to your face - pfft, how exhausting right? You tap it with your tongue to activate (if you're flexible enough). And, it just vibrates, making your nose itch, when you have a notification. To charge it, along with your ring, eyeglasses, ear pods, watch, phone, laptop, and smart socks, you will need another usb port. But luckily, you can charge this one in your sleep. Just mount the magnetic charger right to your face. So convenient! Battery lasts all day! (6 hours)
- jdlyga 7y agoIt's basically what the Apple Watch already does.
- echelon 7y agoThe only things I ask Alexa to do are - Turn on/off the lights - What time is it? - What's the weather (today, this week)? Literally that's all I've done since the thing came out. I find other interaction patterns to be inferior to just waiting to use by phone. I hate using Alexa as a speaker since my Sonos system is far better than even the top tier Alexa hardware, and I want to use non-Amazon music services anyway. Alexa really wants to play music though as it frequently misunderstands me and tries its best to get me to like it. I wish I could disable music outright, but the product people at Amazon will never allow it. Alexa is such a toy. It'll never be much else despite Amazon trying their damnedest. It gets things wrong frequently and isn't really life changing. They missed the smartphone boat and this will be their second fiddle.
- dreamcompiler 7y agoOh FFS this is ridiculous. If Amazon can build it into a ring, they can install it subdermally and power it with the Krebs cycle. We're all just aching for a way to have a more intimate, always-on relationship with Amazon. Amazon what are you waiting for??? </sarcasm>
- abvdasker 7y agoThe linked video is priceless. One of the first examples is a guy asking the ring-Alexa "What's on my grocery list?" to which ring-Alexa replies idiotically, "You have five items on your grocery list." This is almost Google Glass levels of tastelessness and bad design. Did none of Amazon's product managers see someone talking into their cupped palm, pausing, and then moving their hand to the side of their face and think, "this looks stupid and weird"? Yikes.
- lasereyes136 7y agoThe Echo Loop might be a dud or it might be a winner we don't expect but I am glad they are trying it. We have no idea what form factor of wearable will end up winning and being in the set of things people use and like. Good for Amazon for trying something new and having the resources to experiment with a new form factor. I have no idea of a ring with a voice interface will stand the test of time but I would like to know if it has any merit.