4 ms·

> "If you’re one of the eight or nine people on the planet who has never interacted with Alexa" What?? Replace "planet" with "United States". I doubt outside E

> "If you’re one of the eight or nine people on the planet who has never interacted with Alexa" What?? Replace "planet" with "United States". I doubt outside Europe and North America Alexa is that pervasive. I only know one person who has it in their home, and I know a bunch of rich people who shop at Amazon. It's just nowhere near common in my large, very populated country.

vzidex 7y ago
That sentence struck me as odd too. Perhaps it's because most of my friends and I are all still broke-ish students, but I also only know one person who has an Alexa in their home.
- saiya-jin 7y ago
  Nah, in Switzerland I know 0 people who would use such crap. And why would you? Amazon doesn't give a nanofraction of a f__k about privacy, they would sell both of your kidneys for Prime delivery if they could. Why would I help some amoral companies like Google, Amazon or Apple (disputable) to know me better than I know myself? They would have to pay me ridiculous amounts to comply. I can do search on my desktop 1000% more precisely, thank you.
  - dmortin 7y ago
    The point is you don't have to use the desktop. E.g you lie in bed in the dark, not sleeping yet and a task comes to mind. You just say "Alexa, set a reminder for...", instead of turning on the light, reaching for your phone or a scrap of paper to note it down, etc. People use it for the convenience. Though, I'd also be vary of having an always listening gadget in my room.
    - saiya-jin 7y ago
      That's not convenience in my view but borderline laziness, something I can happily live without. Your example sucks, because yelling at some assistant in the bed would wake my wife, that would be rather idiotic behavior from my side. That's the thing - there is no strong use case for people with similar mindset to mine, these 'assistants' seem like rather useless gadgets for those who want to desperately feel the 'future is here' moments. It would be a convenience if it would be 100% certified to comply with decent privacy rules, it could almost perfectly understand variety of European languages and... I would be much more lazy person. Not going to happen anytime soon. Looks like I can live happily without such a gimmick.
kjaftaedi 7y ago
It's not pervasive in Europe at all, aside from some countries where Amazon has a presence (germany, uk, etc.). Largely due to extremely limited functionality if you're not using Amazon's services, and limited options for language. I'm not sure about the latest generation, but the previous ones wouldn't even support a 24 hour clock format.
xibalba 7y ago
> Replace "planet" with "United States". Not even. Replace United States with... some very small subset of the United States. I guess the bubble is very real.
- dleslie 7y ago
  The Valley Effect is real.
EGreg 7y ago
Not even! Most of my friends do NOT have an Alexa
yason 7y ago
None of my friends here have Alexa. I've heard of its quirks as some of my US colleagues do but based on their stories I've consistently failed to gather why would I ever want one myself.

vzidex 7y ago

That sentence struck me as odd too. Perhaps it's because most of my friends and I are all still broke-ish students, but I also only know one person who has an Alexa in their home.

saiya-jin 7y ago
Nah, in Switzerland I know 0 people who would use such crap. And why would you? Amazon doesn't give a nanofraction of a f__k about privacy, they would sell both of your kidneys for Prime delivery if they could. Why would I help some amoral companies like Google, Amazon or Apple (disputable) to know me better than I know myself? They would have to pay me ridiculous amounts to comply. I can do search on my desktop 1000% more precisely, thank you.
- dmortin 7y ago
  The point is you don't have to use the desktop. E.g you lie in bed in the dark, not sleeping yet and a task comes to mind. You just say "Alexa, set a reminder for...", instead of turning on the light, reaching for your phone or a scrap of paper to note it down, etc. People use it for the convenience. Though, I'd also be vary of having an always listening gadget in my room.
  - saiya-jin 7y ago
    That's not convenience in my view but borderline laziness, something I can happily live without. Your example sucks, because yelling at some assistant in the bed would wake my wife, that would be rather idiotic behavior from my side. That's the thing - there is no strong use case for people with similar mindset to mine, these 'assistants' seem like rather useless gadgets for those who want to desperately feel the 'future is here' moments. It would be a convenience if it would be 100% certified to comply with decent privacy rules, it could almost perfectly understand variety of European languages and... I would be much more lazy person. Not going to happen anytime soon. Looks like I can live happily without such a gimmick.

kjaftaedi 7y ago

It's not pervasive in Europe at all, aside from some countries where Amazon has a presence (germany, uk, etc.). Largely due to extremely limited functionality if you're not using Amazon's services, and limited options for language. I'm not sure about the latest generation, but the previous ones wouldn't even support a 24 hour clock format.

xibalba 7y ago

> Replace "planet" with "United States". Not even. Replace United States with... some very small subset of the United States. I guess the bubble is very real.

dleslie 7y ago
The Valley Effect is real.

EGreg 7y ago

Not even! Most of my friends do NOT have an Alexa

yason 7y ago

None of my friends here have Alexa. I've heard of its quirks as some of my US colleagues do but based on their stories I've consistently failed to gather why would I ever want one myself.