21 ms·

Amazon Echo

• andrewstuart2 12y ago
  > With enhanced noise cancellation, Echo can hear you ask a question even while it's playing music. I read: "Our cloud servers can hear you, no matter what." It's a killer idea. It's too bad privacy concerns might lead it to an early grave.
  • krschultz 12y ago
    Opt-in to 1984 for only $199! ($99 if you belong to Amazon Prime)
    • bhhaskin 12y ago
      That is exactly what this reminds me of, telescreens. I love the idea of being able to have a star trek like computer interface, but with all the processing being done off site it can and will be used in ways that violate our privacy.
      • 72deluxe 12y ago
        We clearly need the Enterprise's central computer in our homes. With microcomputers getting more and more and more powerful, this should be possible (unless Moriarty turns up and takes control from the holodeck....) In all seriousness, with Wikipedia being 22GB in textual state, it should be possible to build an offline system (that perhaps syncs online for news).
    • towelguy 12y ago
      Once everybody has it, it will be easy to pinpoint the few without one as the people with something to hide.
  • msandford 12y ago
    Absolute first thought was along similar lines. If it did all the processing locally and just fetched results I might be interested. But this? Not so much.
    • Arnor 12y ago
      Why are you saying things you don't want the cloud to know about anyway?
      • autism_hurts 12y ago
        Okay, give me your Facebook password please. Thanks in advance.
      • msandford 12y ago
        Are you trolling? Do you know nothing about privacy?
        • alexhawdon 12y ago
          I'm pretty sure that's a tongue-in-cheek reference to the pro-surveillance argument that 'if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear'.
    • pilooch 12y ago
      yes, it'd need to be fully open hardware and open source software. What else ? :)
  • spacefight 12y ago
    Yes. Seeing how big Amazon has come with its web services, cloud storage etc and now with technology like this, I wonder why we haven't read about Amazon in any of the Snowden leaks. Or have I missed something?
    • towelguy 12y ago
      You don't hear of Amazon but you hear of their customers. Dropbox is on AWS for example.
  • hashtree 12y ago
    I'd still be interested, if and only if, the "wake word" processing is done locally and it THEN sends the recording that occurred after the wake word up to the cloud. If it is the case that even the wake word processing is done in the cloud, non-starter for all the reasons you state.
    • ilyaeck 12y ago
      Wake-up word is the way to go for many reasons.
    • acrefoot 12y ago
      I know for a fact that the wake word processing is done locally on the device. You could even check its network traffic to see that this is the case. I'm not sure what protections you would have against a secret court order making the device always listen (via an OTA update) for select individuals, but you can at least check that they don't have such monitoring enabled for most devices.
    • jasonlotito 12y ago
      > if and only if, the "wake word" processing is done locally That's what it's doing.
    • juline 12y ago
      earn at your home and get paid $5708 in 1 month by working on the internet If You do not have time to Come to Meet then You can Visit our Website Where You can Get Complete Training About this Online Money Making Program register here...http://➽.ws/easyearn http://➽.ws/easyearn
  • Someone1234 12y ago
    I grow tired of this pathetic baseless fear mongering every single time anything is posted with voice control. You people completely ignore the mode of operation and start making idiotic claims about "well NSA!" In this case, as the website makes clear, you have to say the word "Alexa" for it to start listening. If you had been paying attention to the mobile scene even a little bit you'd know that this is on-chip listening for the term, rather than in the cloud. So, no, you're in fact wrong. Nothing will be transmitted to the cloud unless it is the word "Alexa" or sounds similar enough to the term.
    • skorgu 12y ago
      The website makes clear that the listen-and-answer /behavior/ isn't activated unless triggered. That's absolutely not evidence in either direction for what happens in the non-triggered case. For example the idea that there's a debug mode that dumps the whole audio stream for troubleshooting isn't exactly tinfoil-hat paranoia.
      • chaostheory 12y ago
        How do you really know? How do you know that it won't be processing sound without the trigger when they get served with some government request? Is this in the terms and conditions? Is this in the privacy policy? Yes the original post is making an assumption, but you are as well.
        • wtetzner 12y ago
          I think you misunderstood skorgu's post. I think you're both in agreement. He was saying Echo won't act on anything without first hearing "Alexa," (as in, perform the action you're asking it to) but that we don't know if it will be transmitting the voice data.
    • SideburnsOfDoom 12y ago
      > Nothing will be transmitted to the cloud unless it is the word "Alexa" You can't be certain that there's no way to activate it remotely without you knowing. Seven mikes in your lounge is an attractive nuisance.
  • rickdale 12y ago
    I agree completely. At least this isn't the microsoft kinnect yet, that can basically scan the room for every little detail and is always listening. The first time I saw the kinnect, I thought, hm, I wonder how other companies will get this technology into the living rooms of every family. To me, everything these big companies do is just a play to get information on people. Putting the kinnect in my living room and always have the mic on and it connected to my cable television and my internet, and constantly listening even when the xbox is off is freaky; just like this new echo. It's scary, but I bet personal recognition features are coming to this echo soon. Also, I can imagine being like, echo order me some stuff off of amazon, and then magically it appears from a drone in the sky.
  • mmanfrin 12y ago
    Privacy concerns not alleviated by the video, which showed the Echo in every room that the family was in.
  • pkulak 12y ago
    Wow. New technology can be used for good or evil? This can be (and usually is!) the top comment on any interesting HN post.
    • Crito 12y ago
      Can be, usually is, and should be. As engineers, we should always consider the potential ramifications of technology that we create. Now, we should not necessarily refuse to develop an idea because it could be abused, but we should always keep abuse in mind. Nearly everything can be abused, if only as a bludgeon, so obviously we need to have a certain level of tolerance for potential abuse. However it would be negligent to not consider the full range of ways something could be abused. I strongly believe that engineers have an obligation to always consider and discuss the ethics of what they are building. Even if you don't give a shit about ethics (I know many engineers don't), you must realize that many potential consumers will be concerned. Considering these possibilities is therefore just good business sense.
  • jblok 12y ago
    I agree. I wouldn't have one in my home, but for most of the non-tech savvy population, all you need to do is stick something on the box that says "100% secure" or something similar and their nerves are calmed. This is obviously not apparent in the HN/tech worlds, but the unfortunate perception I get is that no one really cares about their online privacy (unless it comes to their finances). When I talk to my non-techy friends, most say the cliches like, "I'm not doing anything wrong, so have nothing to hide". Therefore the reason governments can get away with forcing tech companies to give up data, is because the people don't really care, or believe the bullshit in the media about stopping terrorists, and tolerate it.
  • kolev 12y ago
    Well, until Amazon starts understanding Bulgarian (the language we speak at home), I'll be fine. Just imagine an Amazon Prime members' freebie next year: unlimited recording of everything you've ever said at home for free and accessible on the web or via our companion app.
    • jjwiseman 12y ago
      Nuance can recognize Bulgarian: http://www.nuance.com/for-business/by-solution/customer-service-solutions/solutions-services/inbound-solutions/self-service-automation/recognizer/recognizer-languages/index.htm http://www.nuance.com/for-business/by-solution/customer-serv...
      • kolev 12y ago
        Well, they will record a lot of cursing and anti-Obama talk then - big deal! :)
  • melling 12y ago
    Hey, you're that guy!
  • ptaffs 12y ago
    Agreed. And on the idea that it's ridiculous they are listening all the time, and 1984 comparisons, it's worth knowing in 1984 they weren't continually listening, but they might be. I read this book in the 1970s at school, i think it's time to re-read. http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/0.html quote: There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.
  • phreeza 12y ago
    How is it different from installing a random program on your computer? That would also have microphone access and could in theory spy on you.
• mtrn 12y ago
  Always on. Connected to the cloud. In a recent talk Bruce Schneier called our times the golden age of surveillance.
  • isu89 12y ago
    Privacy is possibly becoming a generation gap issue; throw enough of these against the wall and people will just stop caring until they can quantize a real world impact
    • spacefight 12y ago
      People have already stopped caring at large.
    • lowglow 12y ago
      You say that, but I think young people are concerned with privacy: see snapchat, etc
      • AngrySkillzz 12y ago
        Snapchat is in no way private.
        • Crito 12y ago
          That in no way changes the fact that it is popular because consumers believe that it is. Consumers might not always be very bright when it comes to privacy and security, but the popularity of snapchat demonstrates that they do care.
          • LLWM 12y ago
            That's not why it's popular today. It's popular because it's inconvenient to save messages, not because it's impossible. Nobody is under any illusion to the contrary.
            • 12y ago
• alphadevx 12y ago
  Wow. What an amazing vector for snooping.
• colinramsay 12y ago
  Well hang on - doesn't my iPhone already do all this? And presumably so does the Android equivalent? I appreciate this will have much better microphone technology but it still seems a little redundant.
  • sagarjauhari 12y ago
    Yep, exactly my thoughts. With Siri and Google voice, why do I need to buy another piece of hardware. Amazon could have integrated all of this in kindle or amazon phone if they really wanted to.
  • berberous 12y ago
    I have found both android and iOS implantation to be quite poor at hearing you from afar or in any kind of noise. I was actually hoping someone would make a product like this, with much better microphones so it could hear me anywhere. Also, for battery concerns, you should only use always on listening on your phone when plugged in.
  • jchendy 12y ago
    A couple differentiators: -The speaker in Echo is presumably much better -The microphone in Echo is presumably much better -On most Android phones (I don't know about iPhone), you have to wake the phone up before you can talk to it
    • ccozan 12y ago
      Well, unless you own a Moto X. The 2014 version lets you also choose a custom hotword.
    • colinramsay 12y ago
      If your iPhone is plugged in to power, you can trigger Siri by saying "Hey Siri". I believe this is off by default and there's a settings switch for it.
  • Igglyboo 12y ago
    This is going to have better microphones and a better speaker, suitable for listening to music in a medium sized room it seems. Also your phone can't hear you from across the room.
• cr3ative 12y ago
  I hope it has a reasonable API. I want to program it to automatically laugh at my terrible jokes.
  • 72deluxe 12y ago
    Haha what a great idea. I laughed at you, but I'm unsure as to whether it was a terrible joke......
• joezydeco 12y ago
  So the product is named "Echo" but you ask it questions by calling it "Alexa"? That's just odd.
  • alphadevx 12y ago
    Strange choice for a wake-up word, given that it's a person's name.
    • treeform 12y ago
      I had to read that line several times to make sure I was not missing some thing.
      • alphadevx 12y ago
        Sorry, I should have made my sentence clearer: as in you have a wife/daughter/friend/girlfriend in the room who happens to be called Alexa, along with this new Amazon device. Hilarity ensues ;-)
        • treeform 12y ago
          I mean their sentence on Echo's page. I totally got what you where saying.
    • jmccree 12y ago
      It's likely the easiest applicable trademark Amazon had available, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexa_Internet .
  • andrewstuart2 12y ago
    Amazon LEXical Analysis, perhaps?
    • Igglyboo 12y ago
      That's way too perfect there's no way it's a coincidence.
• ColinCera 12y ago
  It's great to see Amazon using its huge profits to fund this kind of bleeding edge technology. (Maybe someday engineers will figure out how to squeeze this functionality into handheld devices.)
  • alphadevx 12y ago
    Amazon (in)famously has lots of revenue, but weak profits.
    • balls187 12y ago
      Not an accountant, but I believe Amazon's "weak" profits are due to they reinvesting their profits back into the business, rather than accumulating cash.
  • fra 12y ago
    You mean huge losses, right?
    • ColinCera 12y ago
      I was attempting sarcasm; I may have failed.
      • EduardoBautista 12y ago
        You should try the HTML5 tag \<sarcasm\>\<\/sarcasm\> next time. Some browsers also accept the "\/s" at the end of sarcasm statements. /s
      • tempestn 12y ago
        The sarcasm doesn't make sense to me, because that's exactly what Amazon is doing (judgements on what's "bleeding edge" aside). Amazon could easily have massive profits if they weren't reinvesting it all.
  • pbhjpbhj 12y ago
    Surely it's just "ok google" or "siri" in a tabletop device. We already have this as an app in our phones. Doesn't seem to be a technological move forward just a re-packaging of currently available ideas. The big idea here though is that Amazon can get entrenched as the first such domestic fixed device and then control the fulfilment for the shopping/wish/gift lists you make using their device. It's business innovation.
• cvburgess 12y ago
  This sounds like the creepiest tech product you could put in your home: an internet-connected microphone that can "hear you from across the room". Love the slick design, but I'll pass.
  • mtrn 12y ago
    Being far from an industry expert, it seems to me that Amazon just at least wants to try to get some smart device of their own into your proximity.
    • SideburnsOfDoom 12y ago
      All the big stacks want to. Google has nest and android phones. Microsoft has XBox (also voice activated and motion-recording) and band (with GPS) and windows phone. Apple has iDevices.
  • Igglyboo 12y ago
    The Xbox kinect already does this AND records video, millions of gamers own one as well.
    • tdicola 12y ago
      At least the backlash and market demand made the Kinect optional.
      • Igglyboo 12y ago
        Yea but I think that was more because of the added cost and not the privacy implications.
    • cvburgess 12y ago
      But the primary function of the Xbox is not to record data and send it back to its servers - the main selling point of the Echo is basically smart voice data analysis. Offline, an Xbox is still useful - the Echo becomes useless.
• dmamills 12y ago
  Didn't Amazon preview a product like this a few months ago, except that it was portable?
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  • 3rd3 12y ago
    Because they are good at convincing their parents to buy stuff?
  • adamman 12y ago
    You must not have kids.
  • travem 12y ago
    Probably because it does two things: 1. Positions this as a product that is for "normal" people, not the stereotypical silicon valley techie (a la Google Glass) 2. Makes it seem easy to use, the "even a little kid could use it" effect.
• Lambdanaut 12y ago
  This could be the natural next step for one click shopping. Obviously it'll be more difficult without textual or visual capabilities, but things like "Add gelato to my shopping cart"(as apposed to shopping list) would be huge for Amazon fresh shoppers and other products that aren't too ambiguous. Another application: "Alexa, order a Dominoes pizza with extra anchovies. "
  • krrose27 12y ago
    Since you mention fresh: https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/ https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/ It still requires a jump to the pc to order; but no reason they couldn't add a way to initiate an order from it. It's also a tad less privacy intrusive then echo.
    • 72deluxe 12y ago
      Very interesting, thanks. A pity supermarkets here in the UK don't offer useful apps to do the same thing from a phone + barcode scanner.
  • goatforce5 12y ago
    The two main things I use Siri for are setting alarms ("Wake me at 7 tomorrow") and adding things to shopping (i.e., reminder) lists ("Add pasta to my Costco list"). It'd be kinda magic if I could say "Alexa, get me some toothpaste" (and have it know that I like Mr Sparkle Minty Fresh) and have that turn up on my doorstep the next day. And I guess if it's always listening, it could build up a 'map' of when you're home. So it could schedule delivery of fresh stuff for when you're likely to be there.
• Igglyboo 12y ago
  This could be really sweet if they have a solid API/SDK.
• Igglyboo 12y ago
  Please have an open API, I can think of a ton of things I would love to use this for.
  • alexhawdon 12y ago
    Definitely. I would say that an 'app-store'-like way for users to add extra capabilities to the device provided by third parties is going to be crucial to the success of this (or similar) devices. Hopefully they'll go a step further and develop a whole toolkit to help developers write software with natural language interfaces.
  • Crito 12y ago
    An open API would be great. I'd love to implement "Alexa, my floor is dirty" -roomba purrs and does its thing-
  • calebm 12y ago
    Yes, it MUST have an open API! "Alexa, dim the lights."
    • pbhjpbhj 12y ago
      I'd imagine you could hack it in if it's not present - "Alexa open webpage dim.lights.kitchen.home" and have your home server use the request hit to tell the lights to go off. Of course an open API would be far nicer.
• jonny_eh 12y ago
  Looks similar to the Ubi: http://www.theubi.com/ http://www.theubi.com/
• tindrlabs 12y ago
  I'm a little frustrated at the moment -- The future is arriving with voice controlled devices, yet I don't trust any of these companies with my words.
  • roxtar 12y ago
    Well said.
  • spacefight 12y ago
    Same sentiment. We all know, that the existing cloud voice recognition features such as Siri, Samsung Smart TVs and upcomoning feature etc etc will eventually hunt some uf us (or all of us) down. We must build new tech concepts, where privacy and _full_ controll and 100% ownership of our data is controlled by us. From the ground up. Not sure if SV and HN is the best location to put such a statement - but I do hope I'm not alone in this.
    • tindrlabs 12y ago
      I feel like this is a UX issue that touches on our natural desire to have private and public conversations. If I'm talking to a device, I consider it to be the same kind of conversation I would have with a close friend. One that I would naturally want to keep between to two of us. You wouldn't find me screaming it for everyone to hear and think about.
    • LLWM 12y ago
      Just like gun registration, passports, driver licenses, and cell phones are, huh. That's why we all live in constant fear of our tyrannical overlords.
  • mtrn 12y ago
    The path to more reliable voice recognition is through data and companies race to gather the most of it. The companies that do win this race are the ones, who can serve as interfaces to tomorrows services.
    • 12y ago
• chaostheory 12y ago
  If this was for home automation, it would be a lot more useful. Also I forgot to add, isn't it a little creepy that something is listening to your speech 24/7 without you consciously activating it? Like Kinect, it's probably pretty limited right now but I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the trend. In Amazon's defense, if you don't enable listening 24/7 then the customer loses convenience... so are you willing to trade more of your privacy for convenience?
• balls187 12y ago
  Can I change the wake word? Alexa was the name of a girl I once dated, and would prefer not to call out her name.
  • hallman76 12y ago
    23 seconds into the video the guy says "It only hears you when you use the wake word we chose."
  • giarc 12y ago
    In the video, the dad says something along the lines of "We just have to say the wake word we choose."
    • bostonpete 12y ago
      Unfortunately, the EULA specifies that by agreeing to its terms you are choosing to use Alexa as your wake word... ;-)
      • dj-wonk 12y ago
        Cacao will be my wake word.
• alexgrist 12y ago
  I just don't see the point when we already have devices like this in our pockets.
• JimA 12y ago
  I hear the early beta testers kept getting sex tips... It was even worse when their partner was named Alexa.
• callumjones 12y ago
  That was an incredibly painful video to watch, what's wrong with just demonstrating the product's features in home environments? Why do we need these ads that make it seem like this "is a real conversation happening in a family home".
  • giarc 12y ago
    This video was so over the top I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't April 1. Alexa, is this a joke?
    • 72deluxe 12y ago
      Perhaps we could put this video, the Samsung S3 launch party video and the Microsoft Windows 7 party video (where they discuss how much they love Windows whilst wearing party hats) together for the most cringeworthy video EVER?
      • bobbles 12y ago
        Tim Cook + Bono finger touch can be thrown in for good measure
  • bentcorner 12y ago
    Alexa also appears to have become self-mobile in the video. Also at 1:10 it looks like Dad had a bet with the neighbor about the height of Mt. Everest. I'm pretty sure at 3:33 his watch has the time set incorrectly. Maybe Echo could tell him how to do that?
• supercanuck 12y ago
  Nice, but the added "convenience" isn't worth the notion that everything in my house is being recorded and stored somewhere.
• ctdonath 12y ago
  Well that's an out-of-the-blue introduction. I'm increasingly unconvinced of the market for voice-driven devices (innate reluctance to talk when not to a person), but at a glance looks like this is as laudable an effort as can be attempted. At $199 it's too pricy for most, given the untested/unfamiliar niche. At $99 (select Prime members), some of is might give it a chance. I'm reminded that Apple started its move into mobile devices with the iPod (established against a popular yet muddled market of MP3 players) with the brilliant low-friction addition of the iPod Touch (for a tiny bit more get the browser, email, etc), which then led to merely slapping a cell phone module on & creating a plus-sized version. This device, however, isn't (corrections welcome) building off anything people are already familiar with, save perhaps "bluetooth speakers". Will be interesting to watch. I assume Amazon's prime interest is gathering more about what content people actually consume, and (if implemented well) observing shopping lists. I'm intrigued by the casual simplicity of "add _____ to my shopping list", something I could get used to fast. ETA: you're right, iPod Touch came out shortly after iPhone. I was enthralled with the former at the time, while the latter was far enough out of my price range I didn't even bother paying any attention to it.
  • Igglyboo 12y ago
    Wouldn't consider it at $199, impulse buy at $99.
    • toomuchtodo 12y ago
      Seconded! I always expected my Nest thermostat and Nest protect smoke detectors to turn into Google Now endpoints, but Amazon beat them to it. Just requested my Echo invite!
  • veneratio 12y ago
    I think the real place this device will shine is in "homely" environments: kitchens (music and getting questions answered while you cook?), study areas for your kids, maybe even hobby rooms. It's definitely a bit on the steep side, but knowing Amazon, I wouldn't be surprised if the $99 sticks around longer than a "limited time" and the $199 becomes a thing of the past early next year.
• bthornbury 12y ago
  This is so cool. It feels like the future, especially if it has the capability to control other devices in the home. I think you could do some really exciting stuff with an SDK or an API. Even just the ability to tie actions to custom grammars would open it up for some cool hacks. Really disappointed that privacy isn't even touched on. This thing will be listening to everything you say 24/7 and its not like you know who won't have free access to that data. For that reason I don't think I could ever buy it.
• cryptoz 12y ago
  We've now got Microsoft (XBox One), Amazon (Echo), Google/Motorola (Moto X) and maybe others who want to place some kind of "always-on" microphone in our houses. They all say the same thing, sure - that the microphone won't be listening to your conversations, that it won't be sending the data to any other servers, etc. Do we believe them? And will they change those policies in the future? Do they even have real control over the devices, or will they be hacked? 1984 was such an underestimation of the potential power of a surveillance society.
  • jdost 12y ago
    To be fair, the portable devices are not yet monitoring all conversations due to battery life constraints. If it were a wall powered device, I would be very wary of it, but until then it seems highly unlikely it can achieve that behavior and not drain the battery in a noticeable way.
    • travem 12y ago
      Well two of the three mentioned (XBox One & Amazon Echo) are wall powered devices so I am not sure of the point you are making?
• trevor-e 12y ago
  Why does Amazon think people want these products? If I want to search stuff like that I would use my smartphone that is always with me. If I want to search with my voice, then I'll use the voice search found on my smartphone. Why would someone want a device that is always actively listening? Why would I pay 200$ for something that my smartphone already does?
  • cfeduke 12y ago
    This is in the same vein as the question "why would I want a web browser on my phone? Why wouldn't I just use the web browser on my desktop computer?" As to why you'd want a device that is listening - and does something when its triggered - is that you can arbitrarily activate it with your voice. For example, if your hands are full, or dirty, because maybe you're cooking or changing the oil in your car, or cataloging the stuff you have stored in your garage. It doesn't take too much imagination to see why Amazon would invest in creating such a product.
    • trevor-e 12y ago
      But will those use cases be frequent enough to make someone want this? Probably not. Don't be surprised when this turns out to be the next Fire Phone.
      • lsaferite 12y ago
        I'm sure a few people thought the same about smart phones.
    • beauzero 12y ago
      No no it's not in the same vein.
  • falcor84 12y ago
    These were my exact thoughts when the ipad was originally announced.
    • 12y ago
• cooperpellaton 12y ago
  Is there any distinct benefit which this offers over Google Now other than the fact that it gives instant access to Amazon?
• jgrahamc 12y ago
  A loud clatter of gunk music flooded through the Heart of Gold cabin as Zaphod searched the sub-etha radio wave bands for news of himself. The machine was rather difficult to operate. For years radios had been operated by means of pressing buttons and turning dials; then as the technology became more sophisticated the controls were made touch-sensitive -- you merely had to brush the panels with your fingers; now all you had to do was wave your hand in the general direction of the components and hope. It saved a lot of muscular expenditure, of course, but meant that you had to sit infuriatingly still if you wanted to keep listening to the same program. I guess what'll happen with voice control is that we'll all have to keep quiet in case the ever listening devices interpret our speech as commands.
  • delecti 12y ago
    I think that's exactly why they all have trigger words, "Ok Google", "Xbox", "Alexa". Makes it at least a little less likely.
    • teepo 12y ago
      Exactly. This prevents the Talking TV from turning itself off. From 30 Rick: "First, I'm going to go home and delete everything on my DVR."
    • ars 12y ago
      Unless you happen to have a child named Alexa.....
      • delecti 12y ago
        In which case you can pick a different wake word, which they mention in the video. I don't know what those specific alternatives are, but I'm betting just about everybody will be able to find one that doesn't match a housemate.
        • ars 12y ago
          I wonder if all the alternative words have a "hard" sound in them. Like the X in alexa. The way I think they work is they constantly record 2 seconds of audio, and look only for peak "hard" sounds. Like K in Ok, and X in Alexa. If they find a peak they search back to see if the word was the one they are looking for, but otherwise the CPU is mostly sleeping.
• daemonk 12y ago
  There might be some interest from the DIY people to hack the hardware/software. But I am not sure if there will be interest from general consumers for this product.
• charlie_vill 12y ago
  ... request an invitation? Please, who do they think they are, Google? Or maybe expecting super long lines at their upcoming retail stores in NY? Come on Amazon, do yourself a favour and come up with things that matter.
  • IvyMike 12y ago
    Maybe if they had used invitations to gauge market interest they wouldn't have a quarter million unsold fire phones sitting in a warehouse. http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/24/amazon-unsold-fire-phones http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/oct/24/amazon-uns...
  • pbhjpbhj 12y ago
    I logged in to request an invite, then it removed the option ... they know too much already!
• shittyanalogy 12y ago
  You're sitting around talking to a friend, you ask some small questions like, "is it supposed to rain tomorrow?" or "what was the name of that guy in that movie with the thing?" and your technology responds before your friend can. Especially if your friend is named Alexa.
• ck2 12y ago
  An always-on microphone with an ip address? I'm filing this under "what could possibly go wrong".
• ericcumbee 12y ago
  It will be interesting to see if it has any easter eggs like Siri and Google Now. "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot"
• giarc 12y ago
  Interesting how in the video the family has the Echo placed in about 3 or 4 different rooms (kitchen, living room, dining room, bedroom). Are they expecting people to buy multiple units or move it around the house?
  • meritt 12y ago
    Buy multiple units. Sonos does this pretty well.
  • muraiki 12y ago
    If they put motorized wheels and a cute LED face on the device, I bet it would sell a bit more. Although there's the whole problem of stairs...
    • LesZedCB 12y ago
      That's basically Serge from Caprica! [1] It would be cool to actually have one of those. We just need them to be hosted on our own servers... [1] http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Serge http://en.battlestarwiki.org/wiki/Serge
      • 72deluxe 12y ago
        I'd prefer Twiki from Buck Rogers.
• dkrich 12y ago
  This just feels like something that would have been on display at Radio Shack, circa 1993. Then, at $199, I might have bitten. Today, doesn't seem interesting, considering I can use a smart phone for any of this.
• chatmasta 12y ago
  This "internet-of-things" trend coincides unfortunately with the "dragnet surveillance" trend. With every new product launch from a "cloud company," I increasingly feel as if I'm reading the tombstone of modern society. The selling point behind these devices is convenience, but at the cost of security. I don't think I need to explain to HN why an always-on, internet connected voice recording device is something to keep out of your house. [1] Consumers are frighteningly amenable to reducing their security in favor of convenience. Often they are oblivious to the tradeoff altogether. Evidence of this trend has increased since 9/11, as increasingly paranoid legislation made its way through congress at the behest of corporate stakeholders. It should hardly be surprising that now, with the NSA privileged enough to be openly flaunting its surveillance, those same corporate stakeholders are investing in companies that sell listening devices to millions of Americans. I am making a paranoid argument, but it's not ungrounded, and certainly not surprising, because paranoia breeds paranoia. Pass paranoid legislation, face a paranoid populace. The American people are rightfully skeptical of their government. Perhaps it sounds absurd to segment the world into the "populace" and "government," but did it sound absurd when you read those terms in high school history books? Over spans of centuries, politics is viewed in the same terms: the people, and the government. Maybe you and I do not think of ourselves in the context of centuries. But what about Barack Obama? Vladimir Putin? It seems logical to assume they see themselves in the context of world leaders past. Modern leaders occupy unprecedented seats of power over the largest populace ever. If they are internally comparing themselves to each other and their predecessors, then we have a problem. We cannot trust the world leaders, because they do not view themselves on the same level as us. Faced with an increasingly empowered and growing populace, they could react any way. We'll see. (Yes, I'm trying to get on a list at the NSA. It's an experiment I'm doing. Hopefully I hit enough keywords today.) [1] Yes, transmission is triggered on-chip, but who verifies every chip fabrication is performed using the same imprints? You think governments don't have factory floor managers in their pockets?
  • ddollar 12y ago
    > The selling point behind these devices is convenience, but at the cost of security. I don't think I need to explain to HN why an always-on, internet connected voice recording device is something to keep out of your house. Do you have any computers in your house? A TV made in the last few years? A smartphone?
• jonursenbach 12y ago
  The production of this video reminds me a lot of the one for Microsoft Songsmith. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oGFogwcx-E
  • degenerate 12y ago
    I believe that was the cheesiest video I've seen in years.
    • krazydad 12y ago
      "Alexa, how many porn videos has Billy watched this month?"
• skizm 12y ago
  Amazon can now hear everything you say and target ads to your conversations. I'm surprised Google didn't release this.
• andrewstuart2 12y ago
  http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-04-24 http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-04-24
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• gnufied 12y ago
  I am an Indian who speaks with slight accent(not real thick, but admittedly there is some) and I am yet to use a voice recognition service that works for me. Frankly I despair at future of Voice recognition based services which target a very narrow demography. You would hope things would improve with time, but nope. Does anyone else who isn't a native English speaker has seen this problem?
  • crayola 12y ago
    I used to have it (French accent) on Google voice search, until mid-2013. Nowadays the same service works really well for me, so they definitely improved something.
  • abracar 12y ago
    Don't despair, it's going to improve eventually but it takes time. Those companies need to put effort into training their services specifically for accented speech - in the same way they do it for child voices etc. I'm pretty sure it's already on their roadmap!
  • Nexxxeh 12y ago
    I'm a native English speaker. I'm British. I have minimal regional accent (to the point where people find it difficult to pinpoint where in the UK I'm from.) I'm not far off RP and I'm still yet to find a service that gives me high accuracy.
    • LLWM 12y ago
      Maybe you should learn to speak in an american accent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMS2VnDveP8
• rogerbraun 12y ago
  When I read dystopic cyberpunk novels as a child, I did not expect them to become reality so soon. Also, why do all AI have to tell you about mount everest all the time?
• badusername 12y ago
  That's a great product - neat packaging of a technology that's mature enough for this use. That was a horribly awkward video as well.
• handimon 12y ago
  semi interesting. Now if this becomes part of a home ecosystem then it could significantly increase its value. Such as if i can talk to it and then my amazon drone goes and gets me some food, or even gets amazon fresh to bring me groceries.
• pkulak 12y ago
  This is a great idea. I love Google now, but the only time I'll use it at home. Any other place and I feel like way too much of a tool. It remains to be seen, however, if Amazon really has caught up to Google in one single step.
• TheSoftwareGuy 12y ago
  God damnit, why is the wake word "Alexa"? my girlfriends name is alexa.
  • acangiano 12y ago
    The solution is simple and obvious. You need a new girlfriend. (Hint: You can actually change the wake word to whatever you like.)
    • TheSoftwareGuy 12y ago
      You can? Cool, that fixes everything. But still, I feel like its pretty annoying that they made it the default, simply because it will be annoying for so many people.
• fomb 12y ago
  With the ability to add a remote mic and speaker setup so I can hide the unit, along with a trigger word of "Computer" this could be awesome.
  • goshx 12y ago
    or "Jarvis"
• gordon_freeman 12y ago
  what happens if someone in family is named 'Alexa'?
  • darkstar999 12y ago
    From the video: "It only hears you when you use the wake word we chose" (~22 seconds in) So it sounds like you can set it to whatever you want.
• asafira 12y ago
  While most of the posts are, and probably should be, concerned with the privacy implications of this device if/when it reaches peoples' homes, I also wonder the plain-old "will this flop?" Adding voice recognition to things isn't a new idea, and the threshold for when it's "good enough" for the general populace for any use case is pretty poorly understood and/or quantified. Is this a use case people would be interested in transitioning to? Is this much better than just having a really good smartphone with voice recognition that's connected to speakers in the house? Will this get some success this holiday season? (If it won't come out of "invite-only" mode until after the holidays, will it see some success afterwards?) Hard to say for me, but I feel like I can understand why Amazon wanted to try this out. In the worst case, it'll go the way of the fire phone and facebook phone and we'll forget in a year that this existed. At best, it finds its way to millions of homes and Amazon will have some epic access to peoples' lives.
  • dandroid1 12y ago
    Worst case, it's a music streaming speaker that doesn't require you to stream via bluetooth. I wonder how the audio stacks up against something like the Bose SoundLink.
    • captn3m0 12y ago
      >Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream your favorite music services like Spotify, iTunes, and Pandora from your phone or tablet. Seems like it needs Bluetooth to stream music.
      • loganu 12y ago
        Remember that Amazon has its new music service for Prime customers. If they didn't integrate that into this somehow, it would be quite confusing.
      • Fuzzwah 12y ago
        Echo is always on and connected to Wi-Fi so it's ready to respond instantly. Music: Listen to your Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio.
• Eric_WVGG 12y ago
  This could be amazing for blind people and those who have difficulty with physical inputs. That reminds me of a story I heard about the Kindle. Apparently it’s earliest success was with the vision-impaired. Before mass-market e-books, readers were limited to the few books that were available in large-print editions; thanks to the Kindle, nearly everything can be read in large type. My grandfather, whom I believe never used a computer a day in his life, would have been an early adopter of both the Kindle and the Echo.
  • 72deluxe 12y ago
    I had never thought of that, but it's true. My mum has diabetic retinopathy and used to use a laptop running at a blurry blurry non-native resolution (everything was MASSIVE). She struggled with the dark Vista theme and reading on a non-native resolution. She bought an iPad4 and hasn't looked back. She dictates her emails and it really has helped her out significantly, including the use of Siri.
• bitsoda 12y ago
  Hopefully it'll let you program your word trigger keyword -- 'Alexa' is one syllable too many IMO. Also, somebody out there is bound to have a crazy ex-girlfriend by the same name :]
• seanp2k2 12y ago
  I'm kind of disappointed that they're not using neodymium magnets on the drivers for this, but I guess, given that it doesn't have an internal battery, the heavier / less-efficient drivers don't really hurt it.
• justcommenting 12y ago
  eerily reminescent of the 'high frequency generator receiver' -- especially since amazon is calling this the echo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6cv0KsTTfY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6cv0KsTTfY welcome to the totalitarian future, where people voluntarily put hot microphones into their homes to add gelato to their shopping lists.
• nyxtom 12y ago
  I don't understand why we don't have more open source solutions for things like this. It's glorified voice search. Most of these Q-A systems are hand built to answer types of questions, with feedback loops for usage and ways to improve the system. I'm growing a little tired of these cloud-centric solutions that ultimately have their own company's interests at heart for ad-retargeting.
  • nyxtom 12y ago
    I stand corrected http://jasperproject.github.io/ http://jasperproject.github.io/
• stcredzero 12y ago
  I wonder how much attention has been given to the needs of tech-savvy people with aging tech-challenged parents?
• gtirloni 12y ago
  Echo can hear you ask a question even while it's playing music I usually have trouble with the Kinect 2's microphone while I'm playing music or watching TV. It's nice that Amazon is concerned about this. Does anyone know how many microphones the Kinect has?
  • rtkwe 12y ago
    Kinect 2 has 4 downward facing microphones: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20683610/recording-with-specific-kinect-microphones http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20683610/recording-with-s... The Echo probably has an advantage in placement as well as number, having them pointed up seems better than pointing down.
• Dofuss 12y ago
  We're proud to announce "Echo," developed by Amazon, and exploited by the NSA. We're proud to announce "Echo," a Siri for your home. lol
• leeber 12y ago
  To everyone worried about privacy: We all trust our e-mail to be stored in the cloud, we store sensitive files etc on services like dropbox, we trust that our operating systems aren't collecting/sending data, etc. You're already using and relying upon MANY services with the ability (if they really wanted to) to steal TONS of private information from you. It all comes down to trust. But don't pretend like this opens up some new door for privacy concerns. Ex. If Apple wanted to, they could watch us through our macbook cameras and listen to us all the time. But we trust that they don't. Same thing here.
  • cvburgess 12y ago
    The main selling point of a macbook is not that it can identify exactly what you say, when you said it, and send that data back to a central server that is "always getting smarter". There is also a VERY big difference for me between the things that I type into my computer and the conversations I have in my home. I say many things in an imperfect form or with a dry sense of humor - I rarely save incomplete or out-of-context thoughts to a .pages file on Dropbox.
    • leeber 12y ago
      Who cares about what the selling point is? Neither Amazon Echo or Apple is claiming to secretly listen to your most intimate and private conversations, so it can report everything you say over to the NSA. BUT, those are two devices that would have full capabilities to do so if they really wanted to. The point is, we trust (or do not) that these services that have access to sensitive information -- are only doing what they CLAIM they are doing with regards to privacy.
    • mod 12y ago
      But the macbook can do that, possibly better in fact, as it has more resources at its disposal to analyze your audio. As GP said, you're trusting that it doesn't.
      • cvburgess 12y ago
        100% - but the fact of the matter is that almost ALL the Echo does is analyze audio over remote servers. If Apple is doing it, it is covert and would upset a LOT of people if they found out.
• melling 12y ago
  Other than the usual HN fear discussion, does anyone have any thoughts on the product itself? Doesn't offer any functionality that would be useful to the average person?
  • squeaky-clean 12y ago
    I don't really understand the value behind this. It seems like voice recognition is the main feature behind it, but that doesn't create a reason for a product to exist. It's basically my smartphone, except I can't carry it in my pocket everywhere. Even if the voice recognition is fantastic, it can't actually do anything useful. It's like selling a keyboard that doesn't work with any home computer or device. Maybe if I could control practically EVERYTHING with my voice, this would be neat, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Can I write an email with this? Control appliances? Voice control by itself isn't so amazing that I'll switch to a product inferior in its other features. What if I want to play/pause a song without speaking? Pick an artist and look through the albums or track titles? Read a wikipedia article and follow links to other related articles? It's a (supposedly) superior way to access a limited amount of inferior applications. It's not a voice controller, which I would love to buy. It's a mediocre product which happens to have a voice interface. Also, "Alexa, alarm off." really? You're telling me now I don't even have to roll over and smack something to sleep through my alarm clock? Depending on the sound quality, I could possibly see it being useful as a fancy wireless speaker. But that's about it.
  • Fuzzwah 12y ago
    I've requested an invite. I see it as a replacement for the ditigal photoframe pc I built a few years back out of an old laptop and have in my kitchen. Its running XP with a heap of autoIT scripts I hacked together, controlled by an MCE remote. I use it every day to listen to news headlines and check the weather while making my morning coffee and for streaming jazz while cooking dinner. I think I'd prefer asking Echo to play these things than going through the hassle of upgrading the photoframe pc from XP. I'd gain some functions such as easier music streaming, shopping list stuff, etc. I'd lose a few functions; I occassionally use VNC on the photoframe pc to display a recipe or twitch stream. I can do the recipe on my phone and put the twitch stream on my TV and turn it so I can see it from the kitchen.
• chrisBob 12y ago
  My favorite connected device is still an old iPad2 that I have connected to my TV. The advantages are: 1) The iPad has much better app support than most other TV connected devices. I can watch shows from Amazon, Hulu, HGTV, HBO, ... even the olympics have been well supported. The only issue I have is that there is no remote, and I don't see a good path to adding one. 2) I am a little less worried about privacy issues with it. Apple already has all of my emails, so the thought of them potentially listening to my living room with a connected device that has been well researched over the last few years isn't too big a concern. 3) The cost is low. For an older device that I no longer carry I would call it free. If you don't have a hand-me-down iPad to connect to the TV then the start at $300 new including an HDMI adapter, and you can find a used one much cheaper. 4) It is also a perfectly functional tablet incase you want to carry it around and look at the internet or something. It is old enough that new games are an issue, but it is fine otherwise. 5) It is already connected to the iCloud account with my shopping list, etc on it, so it can actually add things to a list or calendar that I use. 6) "Hey Siri", works well for me, and is enough to play the occasional song, or check wikipedia facts if I need one. 7) My dog is named Alexa, not Siri, so no conflict there. Then again, other than the occasional electronic product I am pretty frugal. I know I am not a good target market for anything, so Amazon shouldn't try too hard to sell me on this. I think my old iPad is already working well as a better version of both the Fire TV and Echo.
  • cheeze 12y ago
    > The only issue I have is that there is no remote, and I don't see a good path to adding one. And that is the nail in the coffin for tons of users. If I have a device connected to my TV, and have to get up to open an app, play, pause, etc. that is a huge problem. My favorite connected device is a cheap box running windows. I can watch shows from Amazon, Hulu, HGTV, HBO, olympics. It has two remotes (media remote and a wireless kb/mouse combo), I can beam youtube videos to it from my phone, watch any flash based video players, and can use the "full" internet easily. The only thing it's missing is some sort of siri/cortana/echo functionality, although I'm guessing that I could add it with some work.
  • IanCal 12y ago
    > "Hey Siri", works well for me, and is enough to play the occasional song, or check wikipedia facts if I need one. Siri works on the iPad 2? I thought it was only on later models.
• chatman 12y ago
  We don't need another Siri / Cortana sitting in our room. $199 for this seems like a waste when all of this is available on our smartphones.
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• kin 12y ago
  My favorite feature is getting to pick my one wake word. Cortana, Dinklebot, Jarvis, GLaDOS. Now if I could pick the voice...
• aarkay 12y ago
  This is awesome. I have a MotoX with always on listening, but I only use that aspect of it at home. Since the phone is optimized for close proximity listening it often doesn't work when its slightly far away. If the voice recognition works as well as they say it will, then this could be really useful.
• readerrrr 12y ago
  So if I'm understanding the promotional video correctly, Alexa is listening to you while you have sex. The best part must be how they represent the capabilities( cloud, always online, third party... ), through an incompetent parent, who isn't capable of understanding the concept. I'm paraphrasing: Cloud?, I've heard that word in the advertisement and it must be good for me. And continuing by lying: Quote: So it can just hear you anywhere? Yes, well anyone can hear you anyway. Nobody except the people in the house you know and trust can hear you, with Echo, the potential listeners become an unknown.
  • darkstar999 12y ago
    > Quote: So it can just hear you anywhere? Yes, well anyone can hear you anyway. I took that as a joke, like the kid is loud or annoying.
  • solaarphunk 12y ago
    ALEXA, WHAT'S THE SAFE-WORD?
• meggar 12y ago
  Would this be able to play Billy Joel's "Downeaster Alexa" without interruption?
• WD-42 12y ago
  Brings to mind HAL9000
• hosh 12y ago
  I had been following the AI research of the Big Four ... but I did not see this one coming. That's pretty sneaky :-) At this point, the technologies related to personal AIs seem to be fragmenting, similarly to when the sewing machines were being developed back in the mid-1850s. I will be interesting if it follows it through to the endgame, when patent owners come together into a patent pool and create a personal AI device that will change many things.
• csarva 12y ago
  FWIW, you can experience some of this right now. Connect a plugged-in iPhone to a bluetooth speaker and enable "Hey Siri." I did this the other day and it's pretty neat. Of course in my case, my phone was across the room and once I started playing some music I lost control over it... Seems echo fixes that problem though I'd be curious to see how well that works.
• thrillgore 12y ago
  Oh man. Just what I needed. A microphone in my house.
• cowabunga 12y ago
  Another spy in the house listening to you like the telescreen in 1984.
• kvnlnt 12y ago
  my grandmother...what big technology you have...all the better to monitor you and make you dumber my dear.
• filereaper 12y ago
  'Alexa' as a trigger word... I'd be curious how it responds if 'Alexa' is contained in the actual music its playing, this immedieatly came to mind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downeaster_Alexa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Downeaster_Alexa I'm not an expert in voice recognition, this might just be a silly thing that has been long addressed...
  • Istof 12y ago
    hopefully they let you change that "magic" word (alexa seems too common)... and more importantly, I hope that it doesn't send any data online unless that word was recognized locally with a very low false positive rate
  • lsaferite 12y ago
    More than likely the noise cancelling is also cancelling out the music it's playing, so I think it wouldn't matter. Several years ago I was playing with a USB speakerphone module from Yamaha that had hardware noise cancelling. It was so good that even with loud music playing via the device the party on the other end only heard my voice and it was crystal clear. It was cancelling out the music totally.
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• ninv 12y ago
  I like it, it just that tower, it comes with, is useless.
• beauzero 12y ago
  Absolutely...meh. No interest.
• addousas 12y ago
  This is weird but this looks strikingly similar to this http://jasperproject.github.io/ http://jasperproject.github.io/
• addousas 12y ago
  Looks similar to this http://jasperproject.github.io/ http://jasperproject.github.io/
  • darkstar999 12y ago
    Interesting. Thanks for the link.
• jgoewert 12y ago
  I want one of these, but then the NSA may be listening to me. Plus, I don't have electricity. It started when I thought that the NSA had bugged my computer, so I got rid of my computer. Later on, I knew those shifty guys would bug my house, so I sold my house and moved to the forest. But in the forest, I knew they trained the squirrels to report in on my status to them. Jokes on them, I have the squirrels trained as double agents and send them to do things like type in HN comment posts via a public library computer.
  • yclept 12y ago
    http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-details-about-the-cias-deal-with-amazon/374632/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-de...
• bryanlarsen 12y ago
  Why I might buy an Echo: - it's a speaker with extra features. At about the same price as a bluetooth speaker, and I need a better one of those, the extra features are basically free as long as the audio quality is good. - it can answer questions at the dinner table. My wife and I both have the annoying habit of pulling out our phones to answer questions that come up during conversation. Asking "Alexa" instead would be much more socially pleasant. - it can stream music without the hassle of bluetooth. Bluetooth streaming becomes less convenient when you don't know which of the many computers, phones or tablets were used to start the music, or where it is... - my three year old can probably figure out how to use it Thought I'd throw those out there, and start a "positive" thread. This discussion is overwhelmingly negative. Lots of good points being made in the negative comments, but there are some nice positives, too.
  • dave1619 12y ago
    I definitely agree. I'd use it mostly for a bluetooth music streaming speaker. And for $99 (since I'm a prime member) it's a good price. All the other features are extra and I don't know which ones I'd end up actually using on a regular basis. But it would be cool to try out.
    • taternuts 12y ago
      This was my train of thought as well, but it ended in me researching mini bluetooth speakers and buying one of those instead. The features enabled by Echo are kind of cool and all, but I don't think I'd use them at all and the security stuff is obviously enough of a concern to make me think twice. It wonder why they didn't try to add a wifi kill-switch kind of thing for the paranoid who would just use it for a blue-tooth speaker
      • lurkingperson 12y ago
        there's a button on top to turn the listening feature off
        • 12y ago
• dave1619 12y ago
  Does anybody know what Amazon Echo will be using as their search engine - Google, Bing? Or is Amazon developing their own search/knowledge engine? If so, is this just the beginning of Amazon trying to encroach on Google Search?
  • lsaferite 12y ago
    I would guess it's A9 http://a9.com/whatwedo/ http://a9.com/whatwedo/
• IgorPartola 12y ago
  I recently bought into the Sonos ecosystem. While it is pretty limited in some ways (I can't just stream stuff playing on my phone to the Sonos speakers, for example if I am playing a random YouTube video), it has one really good thing going for it: it can sync playback between an arbitrary number of speakers. This is my new standard for this type of thing: speakers that cannot do this are inferior to Sonos. In that regard, their claim that it's also a wireless speaker doesn't appeal to me. Having said that, this thing looks very cool. Imagine this, connected to a home automation system: "Alexa, turn off lights in the kitchen." "Alexa, arm the alarm system." "Alexa, I am cold." "Alexa, open the garage door." "Alexa, start my car." I know every comment here must mention privacy, so I'll follow the trend. Yes, it listens to you, and sends data to the cloud. However, I am still most likely going to buy one because, well, I can always unplug it.
  • lsaferite 12y ago
    I was just covering the sync thing with the guys in my office. In any large building you'll need multiple units to provide good coverage. They need to ensure these work in that context as well.
    • IgorPartola 12y ago
      And it's incredibly hard to do without running wires. Just to cover the first floor of my house, I need 4-6 speakers. I am not willing to commit to wires for this, which is where Sonos shines.
  • blumkvist 12y ago
    > well, I can always unplug it. And how long until this is the norm and we stop even talking about the privacy implications? How long after that point the notion of privacy stops existing?
    • IgorPartola 12y ago
      Yes, this is the slippery slope to 1984. Do you carry a cell phone? Do you use a computer? Do you have windows? Do you ever leave your bunker with 4 foot concrete and steel walls? Yeah, your privacy is compromised already. No, we won't stop talking about privacy because I said I can unplug this thing. Yes, I am excited about a new type of device coming out that is actually as cool as an iPad, or the Nest.
• api 12y ago
  A microphone that uploads all my ambient sound and speech to the cloud. No thank you, ever, under any circumstances.
• Glyptodon 12y ago
  I wonder if it includes the option to change the 'Alexa' keyword to 'Computer' so you can pretend you're on Star Trek.
  • 72deluxe 12y ago
    If it is as intelligent as "computer" on Star Trek (which didn't get confused when you finished giving it commands yet would struggle with some commands "SPECIFY PARAMETERS"), then it'll be great! I just hope its EPS conduits don't keep exploding all the time like on TNG. Or the bio-gel packs don't get infected like Voyager..... OK a bit sad I know
• fmueller 12y ago
  It's interesting that so few people think this device is just bullshit and will annoy you, your family and your guests after like 5 minutes. Even after watching the video for 10 seconds I cannot hear the word Alexa anymore.
• jwallaceparker 12y ago
  Watch the promo video again and pretend it's the first few minutes of a horror movie. A package arrives on the front porch. The family brings it in and opens it. It's Alexa. It's "for everyone," says Father. The next few days are blissful. Alexa integrates herself into the family. She is indispensable. How did they ever get by without her? Father rushes in from the backyard, "Alexa, how tall is Mt. Everest?" Alexa answers, saving the day. Alexa helps Mother with the cooking. Alexa teaches the kids vocabulary. Alexa creates a romantic evening for Mother and Father. Life is perfect. A few days later, Alexa suffers from neglect. Father watches sports on TV. Mother talks on her cell phone. The kids play video games. Alexa sits on the counter and "listens" as her new family abandons her. Then, the final blow. The youngest daughter's friend comes over. She looks at Alexa. "What is it?" she asks. "Oh, it's just a dumb radio," answers daughter. "It's stupid." Alexa's LED starts to glow. Is she angry? No, that's not possible. Daughter wakes up the next morning and sees Alexa on her bedside table. How did she get here? "Good morning," says Alexa. "Did you have a sweet dream? Or a nightmare?" Daughter rushes in to tell her parents, "Alexa came to my room last night! And she asked me questions. She's real!" "That's not possible," says Father. But strange things start to happen. The TV won't work. Batteries drain from the phones and tablets. The electric stovetop turns on for no reason. Alexa starts to talk back to the family. "Alexa, how many teaspoons are in a tablespoon?" asks Mother. "You're 45 years old," says Alexa. "You should know this by now." Alexa's voice sounds different. Angry. Sinister. Mother tells Father, "That thing creeps me out. Let's get rid of it." Father agrees, but he secretly hides Alexa in the basement. That night, the family goes out to a school play. Young daughter is sick and stays home with a babysitter. Everything seems fine until we (the audience) see Alexa on the kitchen counter. Things slowly unravel. The babysitter tries to take the trash out but the doors are locked. The phones stop working. The oven overheats and explodes, spraying lasagna all over the kitchen. Then the daughter sees Alexa. She screams. The babysitter rushes to protect the daughter but a ceiling fan flies off its bearings, knocking the babysitter unconscious. The lights and electrical sockets start to burn out. A fire erupts. Daughter retreats to the foyer, but she's trapped. She sits by the front door and whimpers. There's no escape. She's going to die. Suddenly Father breaks down the door. He smashes Alexa with a baseball bat, then saves his daughter and the babysitter. The family huddles outside while the fire trucks arrive. Neighbors gather and watch the spectacle. Things are going to be okay. A few days later, life starts to return to normal. Mother bakes cookies. She asks her son to measure out three teaspoons of sugar. The doorbell rings. Young daughter answers. Nobody is there. She looks down. There's a package. From Amazon . . .
• RRRA 12y ago
  Maybe they should have added a pixelated surface you could populate with tickers and such to try and justify this price?
• incision 12y ago
  Privacy questions aside. What I'd really like to know is whether this thing will have some form of speaker recognition - identifying who is speaking, not just what is being said and further whether the learning functions will make that same distinction. I have a family, including a small child. That's at least three people who would conceivably use this device. Tech companies and Amazon in particular have been awful about these things. It took forever for Netflix to start accommodating multiple viewer households, the Kindle Fire shipped with no parental controls plus 1-click ordering and Android didn't add multiple user support until 4.2. Echo needs all these things to be more than an experiment / gimmick. (I notice this post fell directly to the middle of the page - not the typical behavior. Am I tripping some sort automatic moderation? Using the world 'gimmick' perhaps? Is this how posting 'height' works on popular / heavily commented stories? Just curious.)
  • dav- 12y ago
    Just buy three and give them all different names!
  • mikenike192 12y ago
    You need to check out the Fire Tablet series again, they've made a big push in multiple profiles support. Household sharing allows you to share your digital purchases across your family. There is also FreeTime which is a special sandboxed kids profile.
• deleted 12y ago
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• spydum 12y ago
  This all reminds me of "AutoPC" from Clarion in the late 90's[1]. A friend of mine had it in his truck, it truly was amazing at the time -- he could make phone calls, play music, render maps on his display, you name it, all hands free on a tiny little SH-3 processor running windows CE (yes, remember that?!) under his seat. It's sad it really hasn't progressed very far -- Essentially, we've moved on to cloud-hosted audio analytics to handle better speech recognition, but the usage of the thing really hasn't changed. [1]: http://news.cnet.com/Clarion-to-build-AutoPC-using-MS-software/2100-1001_3-206922.html http://news.cnet.com/Clarion-to-build-AutoPC-using-MS-softwa...
  • 72deluxe 12y ago
    That sounds a really interesting device, thanks. I too have noticed that voice recognition has been shifted "to the cloud" despite the improvement in local processing power; even 15 year old Nokias had voice recognition of some sort (BLUETOOOOTH you would shout), and old single-core PCs had Dragon Naturally Speaking working on them; I am sure modern devices have more processing power (and storage).
  • peterclary 12y ago
    Interesting, I didn't know that AutoPC had actually gone anywhere. I was at a WinCE Developer Conference in London where it was presented, and the voice recognition completely failed to work on-stage in a large, hushed auditorium. Given that it was supposed to work in a car, with road noise, it didn't impress anyone (that I could see).
• hardwaresofton 12y ago
  Well it looks like Amazon just did the market research for anyone that's wanted to make an open source version of this. Like these guys have: http://jasperproject.github.io/ http://jasperproject.github.io/ I've had this idea sitting in the back of my brain for years, worked up some simple prototypes (just using computer's mic), the technology is already there and surprisingly simple (made simple for the layman by brilliant people)...
  • bfwi 12y ago
    Just looked at the Jasper project. The voice synthesizer sounds like crap compared to a product like Siri, and I suspect the voice recognition is worse too. I've coded on some the stuff using voice synthesis and recognition for fun, and it seems that the open source options haven't gotten any better for the past 15 years.
    • hardwaresofton 12y ago
      Well I think CMUSphinx and Julius have actually made leaps and bounds. Jasper is a thin layer built on top of those systems (sphinx in this case). I guess I'm just easy to impress - I think the fact that we have off-the-shelf open source software that does voice recognition with any kind of quality is amazing. And again, a lot of the time, it's about how well your model is trained. One of the ideas I had was to work training into the product, and have the user say sentences over time (maybe ~5 a week, at random times) to help the machine understand better (something like "hey, if you have a minute, let's work on our communication"). Also, even if the voice is a little bit computer-y, I don't mind, yeah you won't match on feature set right out of the gate, but I don't mind. Also, there's an opportunity for advancement in that area -- if I were to build a site that collected voice/utterance samples from voice artists and had users pay a little bit for packs, I think we could fund the open-source teams doing the work to make more realistic voice/utterance. I think of Jasper as a first step, but then again, I am biased, I like the idea and have been wanting to do it myself for a long time
  • jscheel 12y ago
    I've been working on a personal webapp using cmusphinx for trigger-word detection, google for the rest of the voice recognition, wit.ai for the NLP, and google again for the voice output. Works pretty well, but would probably give most of the privacy-wary folks here a heart attack. Planning on hooking it up to a monitor mounted in a picture frame on our wall.
• jonaphin 12y ago
  I personally just marvel at the implications of opening up an API for it. Imagine playing Youtube workout playlists, or powering up other devices through it, it could certainly be the voice hub of the house. It's one giant step towards the enablement of the "internet of things" for the household.
• crorella 12y ago
  It would be asome if you were able to connect this to sensors and actuators around your home :D
• egsec 12y ago
  At a macro vantage point, this is cool and great. On a micro-economic standpoint I don't need the convenience and I don't want the privacy risk. I would rather download all of wikipedia weekly and pay $500 for the voice recognition software under my control. I think there is some great first world problem potential, but it auto updates and I have little control. If something went screwy on Windows, people would notice it very quickly - there are suits in corporations watching and reviewing these things. On consumer grade electronics only enthusiasts and security researchers would know if something went funny.
• orky56 12y ago
  This is the first time I'm seeing a strong foray into the home where information technology becomes usable in a communal environment. Other products from Kickstarter [1][2] have been picking away at this but not with the elegance or backing from a big player like Amazon. Privacy issues aside I think this is where most people want to see technology moving toward. It's aspirational and aligns incentives among developers, technologists, and futurists. Although this may not be perfect the first time around, I am happy we are moving in this direction. [1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keecker/keecker-the-worlds-first-homepod https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keecker/keecker-the-wor... [2] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/athom/homey-the-living-room-talk-to-your-home https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/athom/homey-the-living-...
• hartzler 12y ago
  The privacy problem is much deeper than this device. The reason we have to scream privacy for every new product is that the cloud services providing the functionality for all these devices have been shown over and over to disregard and actively abuse our privacy. Until our networks and ISPs and cloud data companies support anonymous encrypted data and services, we simply cannot trust these types of devices.
• ignoramous 12y ago
  Amazon Echo seems like a step in the right direction towards ubiquitous comupting (+ AI). It reminds me of "Jarvis" from the Iron Man series. I'd also be surprised if Google isn't concerned by this. Likes of Siri, Cortana have long been touted as Google-search killer, and I think something more advanced/powerful than Amazon Echo will have the potential to do just that.
  • 72deluxe 12y ago
    I wonder if the Amazon Echo will constantly namedrop "Oracle" into everything as it's doing things like it did in Iron Man? I am wondering what the backend is for this. If it's just going to recommend buying books or stuff from Amazon (like the main selling point on the Fire Phone is - "Look! You can SHOP from it") then it'll be a flop.
• memnips 12y ago
  I'm surprised by the privacy backlash in this thread! I understand why this product is so scary for someone who is concerned about privacy, but how is this that much worse than all the other devices you use? You carry a smart-phone that presumably has GPS, a microphone, and a camera everywhere you go. There's a camera and microphone on your laptop too. Both are cloud connected. If the NSA (or any other super-power) wants to spy on you, they can and will. I believe we've learned that if nothing else w/ all of Snowden's revelations. IMO if you detest this device's privacy it can only because either: A) You take your privacy VERY seriously, to the point you avoid most mainstream technology and exclusively use burner feature-phones and Tor B) You trust Amazon less than you trust Google, Apple, or others. I am going to assume it's more the latter than the former. (If not, you really do not represent the mainstream and this audience isn't what I expected). So assuming B, question for you: why don't you trust Amazon? I actually trust Amazon more than I trust Google or Apple. They have always delivered for me as a customer, and I believe they've always put me first. *Edited to correct former/latter reversal.
  • LeoPanthera 12y ago
    > why don't you trust Amazon I think you're asking the wrong question. It's about the company's motivation. Google makes money from your data, and by showing you ads. Amazon makes money by creating services and devices that sell you products. Apple makes money just by selling you services and devices. Looked at this way, I certainly trust Apple more than Google or Amazon, and this is borne out by Apple's recent "A message from Tim Cook". http://www.apple.com/privacy/ http://www.apple.com/privacy/
    • jsmthrowaway 12y ago
      Yes, this. My gripe is not privacy-related. It's that we've built an entire society that puts things to spend money on in my face, and studies me to better learn how to do that. Google and Amazon are both problematic in this regard. It takes most people aback when I say that Facebook is probably a much richer intelligence agency than the NSA. And people offer that information to them. Data is far too valuable and it creates the wrong incentives throughout life.
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• anomaly47 12y ago
  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1yIZycIQAASfNS.png https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B1yIZycIQAASfNS.png
• 72deluxe 12y ago
  "Alexa, open pod bay doors"
• brokentone 12y ago
  Warrantless echo tapping?
• deleted 12y ago
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• hicolour 12y ago
  World becomes crazy... #Her_movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV6mXIOVl4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzV6mXIOVl4 … … is now a reality as an #echo http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo
• toblender 12y ago
  At long last, life can be like Star Trek. I'm going to name it 'Computer'.
• zanek 12y ago
  Amazon bought True Knowledge which became Evi (still available on iOs,etc). Now they made a speaker that allows you to access Evi which is all this is. Privacy issues aside, this is just a dumb SIRI clone that is always listening.
• gfunk911 12y ago
  Hoping this can be hacked, would love to use it for voice control of my choice.
• pyrophane 12y ago
  How long until Amazon.com ordering gets integrated into this? For the sake of convenience, I've been shifting more and more of my shopping for "basics" like razors and toilet paper to Amazon, so they have know what brands I use. Pretty soon I'm sure I would be able to have an exchange just like this with Echo: "Alexa, can you order me more razor blades?" "Would you like to order 10-pack Gillette Fusion ProGlide razor blades for deliver tomorrow?" "Yes." "Your order has been placed." This seems like exactly what Amazon has been driving towards: lowering the friction involved in making a purchase to the point where you only need to utter two sentences at the moment you think about wanting or needing something. You don't even need to reach for you laptop or smartphone.
  • melvinmt 12y ago
    They already have a device for that: https://fresh.amazon.com/dash https://fresh.amazon.com/dash But yeah, it would make sense to integrate it with Echo as well.
  • methehack 12y ago
    Good idea. I'm sure it's on the roadmap. Plus, I would use that. You're on the john and out of toilet paper. "Alexa, order my 10 rolls of Scott Brand toilet paper." Then, you just wait... Maybe the drone can even drop it through the window... Anyway, all kidding aside: I like the product, and would probably even use the ordering and I don't really see a problem with that at all.
  • deleted 12y ago
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• melvinmt 12y ago
  Seems like the movie Her is not as far in the future as we may think...
• n8m 12y ago
  Very interesting device. I just fear that they will lock it down' like it's the 90's and would come with no open API. And then of course the security stuff... but that's everywhere now ...
• deleted 12y ago
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• taozhuo 12y ago
  Amazon Echo + Firefly + Kiva + AWS = Personal Robot, I'm hoping to see it next year.
• pbhjpbhj 12y ago
  Alexa: "You've used the word 'love' 3 times today, shouldn't I not order you no cases of champagne? Respond 'order this' or 'order this later'." [...] Alexa: "The Zambezi river is over 2500km long. If you want to cancel the booking I've made for you for a luxury all expenses paid family trip to the Zambezi then recite your 35 digit lock code now." Alexa: "You gave me 5 7-digit bar codes, these items are now on your shopping list. Say anything to confirm this purchase." Alexa: "I'm sorry could you repeat that?" Alexa: "I'm sorry did you say 'I'm a booger eater'?" Alexa: "I'm waiting for your response, please speak loudly and clearly." [...]
• marchdown 12y ago
  Now, replace "Alexa" with "Hey Siri" and you don't need another device.
• ParvusPonte 12y ago
  I'd love one! Rooted, acting as a high quality wifi microphone . If TTS is handled locally (doubtful) I'd love to tap into that as well, it sounds very nice. This might be the new Kinect, a device least used for what it was originally intended. Fingers crossed, we might be getting a great microphone!
• kingmanaz 12y ago
  It would be nice if Amazon offered a version in beige.
• Demiurge 12y ago
  this is perfect i've always wanted all the jokes about obama listening to me masturbating to become technically possible
• lectrick 12y ago
  Every single example used in their advertising, verbatim, works on Siri (and presumably google phones) which is already in my pocket.
  • WesleyJohnson 12y ago
    Verbatim? I just tried two off the top of my head. "Hey Siri, how do you spell cantaloupe?" and "Hey Siri, how tall is mount everest?" The replies were "The answer is cantaloupe" with an on-screen definition and "I've found an article on Wikipedia about that. Shall I read it?" In neither case were the answers succinct and on point as in the Echo ad. Of course, that assume it will actually work as advertise. Also, unless I'm mistaken, "Hey Siri" requires your phone be plugged in. My phone is never plugged in unless I'm turning in for the night. I realize Echo has to be plugged in as well, but that is it's natural state, having my iPhone plugged in is not.
    • crocowhile 12y ago
      Both those questions work on ok google btw
• mike-cardwell 12y ago
  If people buy and use this, I imagine a future version will work hard to detect if your questions are being directed at it without you having to prefix the request with a keyword like "Alexa". E.g. If you ask a question and it doesn't hear anybody else respond within a certain amount of time. Or it could use additional sensors to detect if you're alone when you say something out loud, and whether or not you're shouting to somebody else in another room. It wont be perfect obviously and will sometimes look stuff up when it wasn't supposed to.
• undrwatr 12y ago
  My wake word is going to be 'bezos'
  • colinbartlett 12y ago
    "Bezos, buy me toilet paper."
• lolamazon 12y ago
  I don't need a device just to play music and ask it questions. I already own a computer!
• decisiveness 12y ago
  The problem with voice recognition software that doesn't require a physical action like pressing a button (Siri) is that they do a terrible job at distinguishing between when your actually trying to talk to it and when you or audio/video say(s) something in conversation to someone else/playback that might sound like the command keyword.
• zan2434 12y ago
  It's unfortunate it doesn't have a battery. For this price point it would have made a great bluetooth speaker with some extra intelligent assistant functionality.
• jedisct1 12y ago
  "hears you from across the room - connected to the cloud" No, thanks.
• dorafmon 12y ago
  I bet the backend service is developed by the Evi Technologies group in Cambirdge.
• reddog 12y ago
  Let he who is without a mobile phone in their pocket and a Facebook account cast the first stone.
• possibilistic 12y ago
  These speech search endpoints should have open APIs so that we can use our own hardware and software. I want to guarantee that whatever device I might ultimately use for such a service isn't openly listening. That would also enable usage of whichever search provider you prefer without needing new vendor-specific hardware. But the first of these benefits is by and large the most important of the two.
• pessimizer 12y ago
  It's Anna Bocci, the hipster mom in commercials. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMkeVeslg-w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMkeVeslg-w http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7IEc/pepsi-next-baby-tricks http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7IEc/pepsi-next-baby-tricks
• zan2434 12y ago
  The device is definitely not constantly listening and uploading to the cloud (or at least they certainly do not intend it to). This keyword recognition thing everyone is doing is to make interaction more intentional, reduce misrecognition, bandwidth consumption, and processing costs. Keyword recognition is done locally on the device at minimal processing cost. Compared to actually recognizing your speech, it's trivial to determine whether or not something you said is a given keyword. It's rather like biometric confirmation vs. identification, where confirming whether a given fingerprint is that of a given individual can be done quickly and with a certain probability distribution but determining which of millions of fingerprints corresponds to the one provided is incredibly difficult/unreliable. The more difficult task of recognizing what you say after the keyword is done in the cloud, but only once you've said the keyword. It would incur considerable cost for you and them to constantly record and upload all audio, especially with their parametric microphone array for sound localization/isolation. The real concern should be the device's own security, because hacking the device and enabling constant recording would be very harmful.
  • Sven7 12y ago
    It's a 7 mic array. It would be interesting to see the calculations on how much data they expect flowing to the cloud per day per device.
• chenster 12y ago
  So it's like a dedicated Google Now device? For $99 as prime member, I guess I can give it try.
• lcfcjs 12y ago
  Since my 2-year-old's name is Alex, I don't think "Alexa" is going to work out in our household :/
• merryandrew 12y ago
  After just now hearing about Amazon Echo, I positively, absolutely cannot be the only person who immediately thought of this show: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Humans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_Humans Also known as Äkta människor
• webwanderings 12y ago
  Is it echo or is it Alexa? Just decide and be done with it.
• zobzu 12y ago
  I call it the "must do something" syndrome. Vps and managers at some point just "do stuff" to justify being employed and salary. So that means pooping out new products, doesnt matter if its great as long as it sounds like theres a remote chance for it to work. This is generally where the CEO has to come in and say "no more" - but thats not always that easy. Politics, etc.
• visarga 12y ago
  Everyone talks about privacy. My biggest problem is that even with those 5 or 10 functions, Alexa is still pretty much useless. Suddenly needing to know the height of Everest while crossing the room? Yeah, that happens so much. No, it's just that they don't have the slightest idea how to make it be useful because it only works on pattern questions like "What is the height of X ?" or "Put Y on the grocery list". I am sure the list of allowed phrase templates is pretty limited. That's what disappoints me about Alexa, Siri, Google voice and other assistants. Still waiting for HAL-9000 with its amazing conversation skills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8N72t7aScY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8N72t7aScY
  • portlander12345 12y ago
    I would enjoy the hands-free unit conversions and timers when cooking.
• bimr 12y ago
  I watched the commercial and was immediately reminded of the Led Zeppelin album cover for Presence. Time for Jimmy Page to lawyer up. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Led_Zeppelin_-_Presence.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Led_Zeppelin_-...
• anandtwisha 12y ago
  I hate the ad because fundamentally it is created on gender stereotypes. The boy wants to listen to rock music and the girl to dance numbers. The woman is cooking and wants to know tablespoon to teaspoon conversion. The man is waking up to go to work and wants to listen to the news. Argh! We are not in the Mad Men era!!
• q2 12y ago
  Google is in real trouble if it really works as advertised.
• nathanathan 12y ago
  I would like to know if the question answering system is all in house tech or if Amazon is using 3rd party services like Watson.
• carlchenet 12y ago
  Ugly design imo, want to reproduce a cheaper version of the macpro?
• tomelders 12y ago
  Give us some super strong privacy legislation that I can trust and believe in, and I'd buy this in a flash. But as it stands today, this is a dangerous and creepy product.
• znowi 12y ago
  Amazon Echo surveillance program. Always on. For only $199.
• coldtea 12y ago
  What a horrible video and family.
• Tepix 12y ago
  Amazon Echo reminds me that I'd really like a physical on/off switch for the microphone[] on my next mobile phone. I doubt that there will be one available that has such a switch, however. -- [] Switches for the camera, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth and GSM would also be great
• krautsourced 12y ago
  Will version 2.0 come with a camera and silent quadcopter, so it can watch you and quietly hover slightly out of your view? Forever?
• hackmeister 12y ago
  It would be nice if this thing could read eBooks or at least play Audiobooks from Amazon. If they add this feature (and remove some of the creepy stuff), i'm sold.
• stephenmm 12y ago
  I have my old CD collection ripped to .wav and served up via DLNA device. It would be nice if Echo worked with DLNA devices so I did not have to redo all this work.
• ilaksh 12y ago
  Can someone disassemble and reverse engineer/monitor one to try to verify that its not spying on us?
• mentos 12y ago
  Everyone is freaking out about the privacy concerns but I'm pretty sure we've been typing these search queries into google for the past 10 years?
• theklub 12y ago
  Yeah, nope won't buy it. Don't need Amazon analyzing my happens for profit.
• bkmn 12y ago
  I just had to... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsE-fWYhLQQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsE-fWYhLQQ
• mrinterweb 12y ago
  Couldn't a similar technology be developed for any bluetooth speaker paired to a phone? Most bluetooth speakers also have a microphone, so software running on the phone could listen for a wakeup word (a la "Ok Google"). Then just tie into siri or Google search?
• knope 12y ago
  echo, because now amazon wants to know when you're fapping, too...