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> Jeff Bezos wanted this (though unsure if it was his idea) for the original Amazon Echo. What happened to this feature? If Bezos wanted this it would be there
by kardos 7y ago
> Jeff Bezos wanted this (though unsure if it was his idea) for the original Amazon Echo.
What happened to this feature? If Bezos wanted this it would be there.
- zaroth 7y agoThat’s an excellent point. I see zero reason to believe this story is true. Sounds more like urban legend.
- xyzzy_plugh 7y agoI'm happy to show you the prototype. I don't know why it was axed, but my best guess is that it aesthetically looked pretty bad, and it was probably a pain to produce at high yields. Also, I can imagine users finding it more confusing than an obvious well-labelled button.
- 8bitchemistry 7y ago> What happened to this feature? If Bezos wanted this it would be there. Maybe the Echo team said it was too hard, and Bezos had to "disagree and commit".
- hamandcheese 7y agoWouldn’t it be the echo team who must disagree and commit?
- 8bitchemistry 7y ago"This isn’t one way. If you’re the boss, you should do this too. I disagree and commit all the time." -- Bezos in his 1997 letter to shareholders
- sriram_malhar 7y agoTransparent buttons are easy. Transparency is hard.
- jeromegv 7y agoIndeed, let's stop giving credit to him if he didn't actually do it. Alexa and those amazon devices are hardly a model of privacy.
- mrlala 7y ago>Alexa and those amazon devices are hardly a model of privacy How so?
- keeganpoppen 7y agohmm maybe the part where it's an always-on microphone in your home?
- krageon 7y agoUploads all of your speech to a company centered in one of the more privacy-hostile regimes, is strictly for-profit, has a set of policies subject to change at any time, policies are hard to read and therefore difficult to track changes in, unclear when the microphone is truly on and uploading. The list actually goes on but I feel like you get the idea.
- kmlx 7y ago"one of the more privacy-hostile regimes" i assume you're referring to the West/EU/USA here. i share your skepticism, especially around the EU's own GDPR. "government agencies and law enforcement", as well as "activities under the scope of Chapter 2, Title V of the Treaty on European Union" are exempted from GDPR.
- krageon 7y agoI am referring to the US. I have never received any actual proof that the theoretical separation of a datacenter from the mother US-based company will make it immune from the US' draconian surveillance laws, therefore I should assume that it's not trustworthy. Given past experience, I think this is a reasonable stance to take. The GDPR isn't very topical here, because big conglomerates have been violating it since it's inception. Until the teeth have been enforced, we have to assume that a US company is not only shovelling all of your data to every government agency (which would happen even with the GDPR being followed, as you say) that blinks at them a few times but is also selling it to every marketing agency that is capable of paying.
- tropo 7y agoHe might have wanted a transparent mute button until told that it would be $5 per unit and would delay the start of production by 4 months.