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"Alexa, I want to throw you in the garbage." is probably the phrase I say the most to that device. I use it as a kitchen assistant, and that is pretty much the

by oidar 4y ago

"Alexa, I want to throw you in the garbage." is probably the phrase I say the most to that device. I use it as a kitchen assistant, and that is pretty much the only thing I want to use it for. All the extra crap that amazon keeps pushing on to the device just makes it worse. My main uses cases are: grocery lists, listening to music, setting timers, viewing recipes, making meal related announcements to the house. I really don't want to see any advertisements or other content it thinks I might be interested in. Just stop doing it please. The only reason that I haven't moved to homepods is because apple can't figure out how to do shopping lists that any one in a family can access. "Alexa - Add bread" takes one second. "Hey Siri - add bread" takes upwards of twenty seconds for the homepod to figure out who you are, and if you have permission, and add it to the reminder list. I really would just throw away the alexa's if apple could get that one thing figured out.

Mistletoe 4y ago
I hope they never take it away though! They don’t make money from me with it but it is an amazing cheap and no subscription kitchen timer, tell me the weather, play my sleep sounds device. For once, we seem to be benefitting from a company’s bad decisions. She’s also pretty great at answering basic knowledge type questions I may have throughout the day. Certainly an Einstein compared to Siri.
- voakbasda 4y ago
  As soon as it becomes terminally unprofitable, they will kill her and brick everyone’s devices. It has happened before and it will happen again and again and again to every IoT device that relies on a cloud service. The only way to win this game is to refuse to p(l)ay.
Loughla 4y ago
The best use for Alexa is as a voice calculator for woodworking. She lives in my shop, so she can't listen to my regular conversations in the house. When I need to measure things, I can get a calculator out and do the fraction math (which I am not good at). OR, I can say things like, "Alexa, what is 23 and 1/16th minus 2.1625" And she'll spit it out as a decimal and clarify as a fraction if I want. It's amazing.
- nakedrobot2 4y ago
  I find it interesting that the culmination of so many amazing technologies result in a tool for americans to handle their crazy ancient measurement system more easily.
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Excuse me? I as European also use it to figure out their crazy measurement systems (US recipes…)
  - headcanon 4y ago
    For miles, pounds, and ounces, I have no defense, but I will say that having a base 12 length measuring system (in/ft/yd) is much nicer for carpentry than base 10 (m/cm), since it can be divided evenly by 2 and 3. It's the same reason why having 12 notes in a scale works for music.
    - mdorazio 4y ago
      I genuinely don't understand what you mean here, and I say that as an American who has done a fair amount of carpentry. I can't think of a single time I've thought to myself that using fractions was superior to measuring straight units in mm/cm/m.
      - throwway120385 4y ago
        Because the ratios are pleasing to the eye.
      - 22c 4y ago
        I think GP means if you have a 12ft piece of lumber, you can cut in half to have 2 x 6ft, or cut it in thirds to have 3 x 4ft pieces. It doesn't really follow though, I think what's more important is the length of wood you start with. It's easier to divide 3m into 2 x 1.5m or 3 x 1m than it is to divide 9'10" into 2 x 4'11" or 3 x 3'3.333333333"
vehemenz 4y ago
I kind of like iOS Siri's limitations. Unlike Alexa, which gives you the illusion that it can do everything, Siri fails spectacularly on certain tasks, and, if you use it enough, you can understand the demarcation between Siri-capable tasks and things that you'd be better off doing "manually."
- tsycho 4y ago
  With Apple, people consider even their failures as features :s
- criddell 4y ago
  I don’t like this limitations. I’d love to get rid of my Echo and get a HomePod but Siri is just too clunky for the thing I use frequently - AnyList for groceries. I can say “Alexa, add eggs” and eggs are added to my grocery list in AnyList. On Siri I have to say something like “Hey Siri, using AnyList add eggs to my grocery list”. The Siri prompt feels like I’m speaking a command line.
ipython 4y ago
I have many issues with Siri but adding things to the reminder list across the family works fairly seamlessly for me, now that my wife has given permission in the 'home' app to use personal requests. That said, my 11yo daughter said to me yesterday "why don't they just add AI to Siri" after failing to get Siri to tell her how long a timer was originally set for (Siri would only tell you how much time is left on the timer). Someone did build a crazy ChatGPT-to-Siri bridge through Automations which I haven't tried yet but plan to at some point...
- yellow_postit 4y ago
  As often is the case with Apple the lack of interoperability to other apps is what kills me. I do not want to use the apple lists app but third-party support is mostly a miss.
- thakoppno 4y ago
  > why don't they just add AI to Siri Has anyone interacted with chatgpt in a siri/alexa voice interaction for an extended period of time? I too have wondered when AI arrives in these platforms. It could be massively disruptive.
  - theshrike79 4y ago
    I'd be perfectly fine with voice assistants understanding context better so I could ask thing A and after the response I could ask a clarifying questions.
- physicles 4y ago
  https://matemarschalko.medium.com/chatgpt-in-an-ios-shortcut-worlds-smartest-homekit-voice-assistant-9a33b780007a https://matemarschalko.medium.com/chatgpt-in-an-ios-shortcut... if anyone's looking for the link to that ChatGPT-to-Siri bridge. Runs entirely on the phone too
janalsncm 4y ago
> My main uses cases are: grocery lists, listening to music, setting timers, viewing recipes, making meal related announcements to the house. The interesting thing is that with the new Whisper models these things can be done with minimal internet or no internet at all. I would pay good money for an offline only home assistant. Maybe it could receive updates if I specifically asked for them.

by oidar 4y ago

Mistletoe 4y ago

I hope they never take it away though! They don’t make money from me with it but it is an amazing cheap and no subscription kitchen timer, tell me the weather, play my sleep sounds device. For once, we seem to be benefitting from a company’s bad decisions. She’s also pretty great at answering basic knowledge type questions I may have throughout the day. Certainly an Einstein compared to Siri.

voakbasda 4y ago
As soon as it becomes terminally unprofitable, they will kill her and brick everyone’s devices. It has happened before and it will happen again and again and again to every IoT device that relies on a cloud service. The only way to win this game is to refuse to p(l)ay.

Loughla 4y ago

The best use for Alexa is as a voice calculator for woodworking. She lives in my shop, so she can't listen to my regular conversations in the house. When I need to measure things, I can get a calculator out and do the fraction math (which I am not good at). OR, I can say things like, "Alexa, what is 23 and 1/16th minus 2.1625" And she'll spit it out as a decimal and clarify as a fraction if I want. It's amazing.

nakedrobot2 4y ago
I find it interesting that the culmination of so many amazing technologies result in a tool for americans to handle their crazy ancient measurement system more easily.
- Semaphor 4y ago
  Excuse me? I as European also use it to figure out their crazy measurement systems (US recipes…)
- headcanon 4y ago
  For miles, pounds, and ounces, I have no defense, but I will say that having a base 12 length measuring system (in/ft/yd) is much nicer for carpentry than base 10 (m/cm), since it can be divided evenly by 2 and 3. It's the same reason why having 12 notes in a scale works for music.
  - mdorazio 4y ago
    I genuinely don't understand what you mean here, and I say that as an American who has done a fair amount of carpentry. I can't think of a single time I've thought to myself that using fractions was superior to measuring straight units in mm/cm/m.
    - throwway120385 4y ago
      Because the ratios are pleasing to the eye.
    - 22c 4y ago
      I think GP means if you have a 12ft piece of lumber, you can cut in half to have 2 x 6ft, or cut it in thirds to have 3 x 4ft pieces. It doesn't really follow though, I think what's more important is the length of wood you start with. It's easier to divide 3m into 2 x 1.5m or 3 x 1m than it is to divide 9'10" into 2 x 4'11" or 3 x 3'3.333333333"

vehemenz 4y ago

I kind of like iOS Siri's limitations. Unlike Alexa, which gives you the illusion that it can do everything, Siri fails spectacularly on certain tasks, and, if you use it enough, you can understand the demarcation between Siri-capable tasks and things that you'd be better off doing "manually."

tsycho 4y ago
With Apple, people consider even their failures as features :s
criddell 4y ago
I don’t like this limitations. I’d love to get rid of my Echo and get a HomePod but Siri is just too clunky for the thing I use frequently - AnyList for groceries. I can say “Alexa, add eggs” and eggs are added to my grocery list in AnyList. On Siri I have to say something like “Hey Siri, using AnyList add eggs to my grocery list”. The Siri prompt feels like I’m speaking a command line.

ipython 4y ago

I have many issues with Siri but adding things to the reminder list across the family works fairly seamlessly for me, now that my wife has given permission in the 'home' app to use personal requests. That said, my 11yo daughter said to me yesterday "why don't they just add AI to Siri" after failing to get Siri to tell her how long a timer was originally set for (Siri would only tell you how much time is left on the timer). Someone did build a crazy ChatGPT-to-Siri bridge through Automations which I haven't tried yet but plan to at some point...

yellow_postit 4y ago
As often is the case with Apple the lack of interoperability to other apps is what kills me. I do not want to use the apple lists app but third-party support is mostly a miss.
thakoppno 4y ago
> why don't they just add AI to Siri Has anyone interacted with chatgpt in a siri/alexa voice interaction for an extended period of time? I too have wondered when AI arrives in these platforms. It could be massively disruptive.
- theshrike79 4y ago
  I'd be perfectly fine with voice assistants understanding context better so I could ask thing A and after the response I could ask a clarifying questions.
physicles 4y ago
https://matemarschalko.medium.com/chatgpt-in-an-ios-shortcut-worlds-smartest-homekit-voice-assistant-9a33b780007a https://matemarschalko.medium.com/chatgpt-in-an-ios-shortcut... if anyone's looking for the link to that ChatGPT-to-Siri bridge. Runs entirely on the phone too

janalsncm 4y ago

> My main uses cases are: grocery lists, listening to music, setting timers, viewing recipes, making meal related announcements to the house. The interesting thing is that with the new Whisper models these things can be done with minimal internet or no internet at all. I would pay good money for an offline only home assistant. Maybe it could receive updates if I specifically asked for them.