5 ms·

Amazon Sorry for Sidewalk 'Confusion'

11 points by pelasaco 6y ago

irjustin 6y ago
For just the moment, I sympathize with the person who sent the marketing email out. I've been there - sent out the wrong email to the wrong group or double fired an email. Worst feeling when it's realized.
- avh02 6y ago
  Yes, but most people then follow up with a correction or apology.
  - hacym 6y ago
    "We recently began emailing customers with Echo devices registered in the US to give them more information about Amazon Sidewalk," an Amazon spokeswoman said. "This service will only be available in the US when it launches. "We apologise for any confusion." Not sure if you’re saying they didn’t issue an apology... but they did?
    - gonesilent 6y ago
      Only USA because 900mhz is available in the US. I think Australia also has it open also. It seems based on Lora.
    - avh02 6y ago
      my interpretation is: 1) from the article: "And UK customers who received Amazon's email have told BBC News this was not the case." - i.e: non-US customers received the email (myself included) 2) "we started emailing devices registered in the US" (which has an untrue scoping, since i have a UK registered device in Berlin, i _may_ have registered it in the US intially, i'm not sure) - to me, this refers _only_ to the original email announcement and 3) still the spokeswoman talking, but no longer about the contents of the original email and not mentioning a follow up email: "This service will only be available in the US when it launches. We apologise for any confusion." all in all: The apology has been an article on the BBC via spokeswoman. Not an email to my inbox (yet), where the mistake occurred. so, while yes, they have apologised, it's not in the format you'd expect someone who sent out a mass email incorrectly.
- sleavey 6y ago
  I try to avoid this by writing the email before the recipient addresses. In theory it shouldn't matter but somehow when I want to write an email my brain is more concerned with putting my thoughts into writing and less about thinking who should receive it as I open the compose screen.
  - bonestamp2 6y ago
    I do the same. I also write the body before the subject line... I usually have a much more concise and useful subject when I write that last.
    - astatine 6y ago
      I do the same. In fact, when replying to very important emails I compose the response in a new compose email window and finally paste it back into the reply.
      - bonestamp2 6y ago
        Hah, I do the same... well, I actually use a text editor to compose the new email. But, I like your idea to use a new email window better.
carlmr 6y ago
They still need to translate the service to Amazon Pavement.
waihtis 6y ago
What a fantastic opportunity for Amazon to divert the conversation away from the other glaring no-no's concerning this concept. For instance, absolutely nobody has every said "I want to share my internet connection with my strangers". Don't you US folks have fairly strict data caps on your home connections also? I would imagine despite Amazon making all assurances that they apply data minimization and other principles to consume as little as possible, this would be a psychological barrier that cannot be punctured through.
- didibus 6y ago
  You can opt out.
  - qz2 6y ago
    Opting out is never a good solution. Opting in is.
    - didibus 6y ago
      I'd say generally I'd agree, but in this case I think opt-out is good, because it really requires a kind of universal momentum to get going, as the entire feature is only useful if there's mass adoption.
      - waihtis 6y ago
        Why does an individual customer care about Amazon gaining mass adoption? What use cases does this exactly help the user with? Why would I ever have an Amazon device operating outside the field of my home WiFi network?
        didibus 6y ago
        Well, honestly I don't know, and I'm not sure they know either. I think it might be a kind of chicken and egg. No point in thinking of products that would leverage having internet access outside your home coverage if there's no way for them to do so. But once there's a grid of outdoor internet to be used, maybe there'll be many cool products I can't think of that get released. I think this is quite experimental in that sense. For now, they seem to say it could be used to find a lost dog or cat that would have a sidecar enabled collar. Or it could be used for controlling outdoor smart lights. Or to be able to check on your outdoor appliances, like say, how much gaz left in your lawnmower, etc. Things like that. It caps the amount of data it can use in a month from your WiFi to 500MB and caps the bandwidth to 80Kbs. Also, the neighbor thing is probably exaggerated. Basically, if you want say outdoor smart lights and your WiFi doesn't reach. You can use existing Amazon devices as an extender, like an Echo or a Ring camera. It'll use low frequency signals to extend it to the furthest possible (though limiting how fast it can go). The only thing is, this extended network won't be something you can set a password too and all that. Instead it'll form a mesh with like all other extended sidecar bridges. So those of your neighbors included.
gonesilent 6y ago
900mhz got destroyed in California by PG&E in the rural environment, now we get Amazon also entering 900mhz game....
Naac 6y ago
They didn't apologize for forcing an opt-out feature on their users, they apologized to British customers for sending them an email about a service only available in the US.
bonestamp2 6y ago
I'm not sure why this erroneous email is newsworthy. The thing that bothers me about sidewalk is that amazon is leveraging their favorable market position to share my internet connection with their devices that belong to other people to add more value to their products under the guise of promoting community safety. I'd be much more supportive of what could be a very helpful and generous service if they used their position to do something truly altruistic and still have the first mover advantage by making this service an open standard for all device that benefit personal and community safety. Amazon, please open this up.
- snvzz 6y ago
  Sharing with everybody? No, they need incentives for people to install the Amazon Microphones into their homes.

11 points by pelasaco 6y ago

For just the moment, I sympathize with the person who sent the marketing email out. I've been there - sent out the wrong email to the wrong group or double fired an email. Worst feeling when it's realized.

avh02 6y ago
Yes, but most people then follow up with a correction or apology.
- hacym 6y ago
  "We recently began emailing customers with Echo devices registered in the US to give them more information about Amazon Sidewalk," an Amazon spokeswoman said. "This service will only be available in the US when it launches. "We apologise for any confusion." Not sure if you’re saying they didn’t issue an apology... but they did?
  - gonesilent 6y ago
    Only USA because 900mhz is available in the US. I think Australia also has it open also. It seems based on Lora.
  - avh02 6y ago
    my interpretation is: 1) from the article: "And UK customers who received Amazon's email have told BBC News this was not the case." - i.e: non-US customers received the email (myself included) 2) "we started emailing devices registered in the US" (which has an untrue scoping, since i have a UK registered device in Berlin, i _may_ have registered it in the US intially, i'm not sure) - to me, this refers _only_ to the original email announcement and 3) still the spokeswoman talking, but no longer about the contents of the original email and not mentioning a follow up email: "This service will only be available in the US when it launches. We apologise for any confusion." all in all: The apology has been an article on the BBC via spokeswoman. Not an email to my inbox (yet), where the mistake occurred. so, while yes, they have apologised, it's not in the format you'd expect someone who sent out a mass email incorrectly.
sleavey 6y ago
I try to avoid this by writing the email before the recipient addresses. In theory it shouldn't matter but somehow when I want to write an email my brain is more concerned with putting my thoughts into writing and less about thinking who should receive it as I open the compose screen.
- bonestamp2 6y ago
  I do the same. I also write the body before the subject line... I usually have a much more concise and useful subject when I write that last.
  - astatine 6y ago
    I do the same. In fact, when replying to very important emails I compose the response in a new compose email window and finally paste it back into the reply.
    - bonestamp2 6y ago
      Hah, I do the same... well, I actually use a text editor to compose the new email. But, I like your idea to use a new email window better.

carlmr 6y ago

They still need to translate the service to Amazon Pavement.

waihtis 6y ago

What a fantastic opportunity for Amazon to divert the conversation away from the other glaring no-no's concerning this concept. For instance, absolutely nobody has every said "I want to share my internet connection with my strangers". Don't you US folks have fairly strict data caps on your home connections also? I would imagine despite Amazon making all assurances that they apply data minimization and other principles to consume as little as possible, this would be a psychological barrier that cannot be punctured through.

didibus 6y ago
You can opt out.
- qz2 6y ago
  Opting out is never a good solution. Opting in is.
  - didibus 6y ago
    I'd say generally I'd agree, but in this case I think opt-out is good, because it really requires a kind of universal momentum to get going, as the entire feature is only useful if there's mass adoption.
    - waihtis 6y ago
      Why does an individual customer care about Amazon gaining mass adoption? What use cases does this exactly help the user with? Why would I ever have an Amazon device operating outside the field of my home WiFi network?
      - didibus 6y ago
        Well, honestly I don't know, and I'm not sure they know either. I think it might be a kind of chicken and egg. No point in thinking of products that would leverage having internet access outside your home coverage if there's no way for them to do so. But once there's a grid of outdoor internet to be used, maybe there'll be many cool products I can't think of that get released. I think this is quite experimental in that sense. For now, they seem to say it could be used to find a lost dog or cat that would have a sidecar enabled collar. Or it could be used for controlling outdoor smart lights. Or to be able to check on your outdoor appliances, like say, how much gaz left in your lawnmower, etc. Things like that. It caps the amount of data it can use in a month from your WiFi to 500MB and caps the bandwidth to 80Kbs. Also, the neighbor thing is probably exaggerated. Basically, if you want say outdoor smart lights and your WiFi doesn't reach. You can use existing Amazon devices as an extender, like an Echo or a Ring camera. It'll use low frequency signals to extend it to the furthest possible (though limiting how fast it can go). The only thing is, this extended network won't be something you can set a password too and all that. Instead it'll form a mesh with like all other extended sidecar bridges. So those of your neighbors included.

gonesilent 6y ago

900mhz got destroyed in California by PG&E in the rural environment, now we get Amazon also entering 900mhz game....

Naac 6y ago

They didn't apologize for forcing an opt-out feature on their users, they apologized to British customers for sending them an email about a service only available in the US.

bonestamp2 6y ago

I'm not sure why this erroneous email is newsworthy. The thing that bothers me about sidewalk is that amazon is leveraging their favorable market position to share my internet connection with their devices that belong to other people to add more value to their products under the guise of promoting community safety. I'd be much more supportive of what could be a very helpful and generous service if they used their position to do something truly altruistic and still have the first mover advantage by making this service an open standard for all device that benefit personal and community safety. Amazon, please open this up.

snvzz 6y ago
Sharing with everybody? No, they need incentives for people to install the Amazon Microphones into their homes.