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Wednesday, September 25th, 2019 09:24 pm
amazon brings us more devices to talk to us
It's that time of year again when Amazon expands their range of Alexa products and slowly but surely increases our personal paranoia about how many devices around us can also carry on a conversation. Some are Alexa-enabled--they can talk--and some are Alexa Voice Control compatible--they can't talk to you but use an Alexa-enabled speaker to do so.
Among offerings (not joking):
Echo Frames - it's frames for your glasses! No, really. Yes, including prescription glasses; they helpfully link to instructions on how to make that happen. Yes, you may now talk to your glasses and they will answer you. You will never, ever, be alone again.
Echo Loop, $179.99 - it's a ring for your finger! Yes, it's literally a ring. Anyone, anyone at all can now accurately portray more than one eighties supervillain! It is Alexa-enabled; you can talk to it and it will answer, just like every cursed object horror movie you've ever seen. Wear this shit with some Echo Frames and--I really don't know, but I want to find out. Do they need different wake words? Do they fight? Can they be integrated to play music together? Will they eventually turn on you? Only one way to find out!
Amazon Smart Oven, $249.99 - this baby is a quadruple threat. It's convection oven, microwave, air fryer, and food warmer and okay, I am feeling less like making fun of it and more like I could really use one. It is not Alexa-enabled--it does not talk to you--nor does it have speakers--so does not play music or any sound. It is Alexa-compatible, however, so you can use any Alexa-enabled device to talk to it and hear what it has to say, which sounds creepy instead of reassuring. No fear: right now, it comes with a free Echo Dot (Gen 3), and through that, your oven can tell you when the oven is preheated or the food is ready, and boy would I love my oven to tell me when it's preheated that instead of a tiny orange light going off because that's bullshit because the other tiny orange light means a burner is on and who hurt the person who designed my oven enough to want to do that?
Echo Glow, $29.99 - okay, this is goddamn adorable colored globe lamp. It is not Alexa-enabled (it cannot talk) and it does not have speakers (it cannot play music) but pairs with any Alexa device for voice control, has many colors, and this is a really good price. I totally want one; adding that to wishlist.
Echo Ear Buds, $129.99 - ear buds, because everyone's doing it. Can't lie, I'm kind of interested if the sound quality is good, but wireless buds and I have problems.
For one: In-ear anything never, ever fits (I think?) and work their way out, but (much worse) any pair that have been in my ears eventually make the entrance to my ears ache like a lot. Not volume related (I keep well below threshold); I mean literally the entire opening of my ear gets very sore to the point I have to take them out. I can't tell if the problem is my ear opening is too small (pain and slipping out) or too large (vibration from the headphones) or witchcraft.
For another: I'm not in any way an audiophile and know nothing of its ways (as my last post on audio probably displayed), but about a decade ago, my mother made the mistake of getting me some V-Moda headphones for Christmas when up until then, I'd been content with $20 Sennheisers and the ones you can get at Wal-Mart for $10 and you can see where this is going. Having made the shocking discovery music has way more sound than I ever imagined, it took off from there. So my ears have become moderately spoiled and also demanding, which is why my last pair were Sony WH1000XM2 after some very careful budgeting and a lot of worry about future ear escalation. Like, no I can't pontificate on the difference in bass between V-Moda, Sony, Bose, and Beats--they all sound different?--but a depressing foray into some well-reviewed Audio Technica taught me a very valuable lesson: while I don't know the technical terms, 'that ain't right' encompasses the general sound difference, sometimes followed by taking them off and throwing them far from me like they're plague-ridden. (I dare you to judge me without knowing what horror they committed on Rihanna's helpless voice; it was evil, that's all I can say.)
Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen), $119.99 - Cute, more powerful, and more compatible with more devices!
Echo Show 8, $129.99 - which gives us now three sizes of Echo Show (5, 8, 10.1). I can't lie, I'm on my second Echo Show (10.1) and love it. In addition to great sound and excellent video and all Alexa functions, I can turn the screen toward the rabbits before I leave and drop in to check at them every so often with the camera, and the video stream compression is way more friendly to mobile data than regular home security cameras. Right now, if you buy the Echo Show 8, you can add an Echo Show 5 (retail $89.99) for only $40 more.
Echo Studio, $199.99 - High fidelity smart speaker with 3D audio. It pairs with the Fire TV Stick 4K (Gen 1 and Gen 2), Fire TV (Gen 3) and Fire Cube so wireless music continues.
Echo Flex, $24.99 - plug in smart speaker with Alexa, or basically a third gen Dot that doesn't take up extra space and has a USB port for charging your phone or adding a night light. It's actually kind of cool if you have excess wall plugs and nothing to do with them, unlike some of us who have to make serious investments in surge-protecting power strips due to lack of. Not that I'm bitter.
Echo Smart Speaker (3rd Gen), $99.99 - yes, a new generation of smart speakers! Now with added Dolby 360 sound.
Echo Dot (3rd gen but different!), $59.99 - this baby comes with an LED display that show time, outdoor temperature, and your timers. Can't lie, it's kind of cool.
Note: I'm watching second season of Eureka while I write this and can't help but wonder if someone at Amazon is using S.A.R.A.H. as a template. Hopefully without the weapons of mass destruction linked to a secondary personality part.
One of the problems with the Alexa cottage industry (you know, other than privacy, corporations, plausibility of Terminator occuring, etc) is this: Amazon has many many Alexa devices and an order of magnitude more Alexa-enabled devices such as Sonos speakers, Bose speakers and headphones, some Sony speakers and headphones (like, oh, mine), Fitbit Smart Watch, the list goes on. As in, not things that just interface with Alexa Voice Control, but devices that, when you talk to them, they talk back.
There are only four wake words: Alexa, Echo, Amazon, and Computer.
Four.
In theory--and this does work, mostly--all the Alexa devices you own that use the same wake word are networked together and the one closest to you will be the only one to respond. That means if you have two devices in the same room that can both plausibly both hear you as 'near', you just name them different things. Example: my Sonos Beam and my Echo Show are in the same room so they have two different names.
However, 'closest' can be relative and acoustics are a thing, so generally, greater than two devices require some thought when assigning wake words.
Example: I have three dots, an Echo (smart speaker), an Echo Show, and a Sonos Beam with Alexa, and no lie, having all but the Show on single wake word does make life convenient; I can control any lights in any room, I always get notified when a package is delivered and if I forget the value of pi, Alexa is there for me
Also, something I don't think a lot of people realize: Alexa speakers are among the cheapest and easiest ways to create a multi-room (or in an apartment or small home, full house) music system for under $250 + tax (and less than that during sales, special buys, or buying refurbished). The Alexa app lets you add all your Alexa speakers to a group called Multi Room Music, so even if they have different wake words, they'll all play music together. Whil first and second gen Dots had terrible sound, the third gen are a big improvement, and if you add one Echo smart speaker to three 3rd gen dots, the overall sound is great. Perfect for when you're cleaning, showering, or just want some soothing background sound. (My system is three third gen Dots, one Echo smart speaker, and Echo Show: I love it.)
(Unfortunately, you can't integrate Sonos speaker--Amazon devices only at this time--but even without it, it's genuinely surprisingly good. If you want better sound, you can add an Echo Sub for $129 or wait for a sale when it drops to $89.)
However, it did take some time and trial and error to place all the Alexa devices so generally, no more than one would respond when I said "Alexa".
That was a stationary situation; the math changes when Alexa is going mobile on one or more human bodies in a given space.
Example: in Alexa glasses frames in a room with a Sonos Beam and an Echo Show or Echo Dot or Echo/Echo Plus...either all three need to have different names, good, provided you're not wearing your FitBit watch, but if you are, four. But you and two of those devices wander from room to room and your naming conventions for your Alexa devices are gonna need a decent floorplan of your house and a spreadsheet to get right.
Yes, you can turn off Alexa on your glasses and Fitbit while home, but if you are regularly using your glasses frames to chat with Alexa--I just stopped to imagine year 2000 me reading that sentence and thinking her future includes going utterly insane--you're generally not going to remember or simply don't want to because you're used to talking to your personal accessories and don't care what anyone says.
(If you're not using the glasses to chat regularly with Alexa--why on earth did you buy them?????)
Like, there is a reason my phone and my headphones are both Alexa capable and neither are enabled; I did it once--I was curious!--and realized immediately upon coming home that this wouldn't go well.
Right this second, it's only a minor annoyance and inconvenient if you happen to have a lot of speakers, but when Amazon thinks there's a market for Alexa enabled glasses, that implies there's no limit to how many items in your home will sometime in the future be able to tell you the value of Pi on demand as well as control any devices that interface with Alexa Voice Services. And if you tell me the Amazon Echo Robot isn't going to be sold in multiples when it shows up (and why on earth hasn't Amazon released one yet????), come on; I'll be skipping meals to get two I can send back and forth through the apartment while telling me the value of Pi for hours.
...yeah, I'm not over Alexa-enabled glasses.
Among offerings (not joking):
Echo Frames - it's frames for your glasses! No, really. Yes, including prescription glasses; they helpfully link to instructions on how to make that happen. Yes, you may now talk to your glasses and they will answer you. You will never, ever, be alone again.
Echo Loop, $179.99 - it's a ring for your finger! Yes, it's literally a ring. Anyone, anyone at all can now accurately portray more than one eighties supervillain! It is Alexa-enabled; you can talk to it and it will answer, just like every cursed object horror movie you've ever seen. Wear this shit with some Echo Frames and--I really don't know, but I want to find out. Do they need different wake words? Do they fight? Can they be integrated to play music together? Will they eventually turn on you? Only one way to find out!
Amazon Smart Oven, $249.99 - this baby is a quadruple threat. It's convection oven, microwave, air fryer, and food warmer and okay, I am feeling less like making fun of it and more like I could really use one. It is not Alexa-enabled--it does not talk to you--nor does it have speakers--so does not play music or any sound. It is Alexa-compatible, however, so you can use any Alexa-enabled device to talk to it and hear what it has to say, which sounds creepy instead of reassuring. No fear: right now, it comes with a free Echo Dot (Gen 3), and through that, your oven can tell you when the oven is preheated or the food is ready, and boy would I love my oven to tell me when it's preheated that instead of a tiny orange light going off because that's bullshit because the other tiny orange light means a burner is on and who hurt the person who designed my oven enough to want to do that?
Echo Glow, $29.99 - okay, this is goddamn adorable colored globe lamp. It is not Alexa-enabled (it cannot talk) and it does not have speakers (it cannot play music) but pairs with any Alexa device for voice control, has many colors, and this is a really good price. I totally want one; adding that to wishlist.
Echo Ear Buds, $129.99 - ear buds, because everyone's doing it. Can't lie, I'm kind of interested if the sound quality is good, but wireless buds and I have problems.
For one: In-ear anything never, ever fits (I think?) and work their way out, but (much worse) any pair that have been in my ears eventually make the entrance to my ears ache like a lot. Not volume related (I keep well below threshold); I mean literally the entire opening of my ear gets very sore to the point I have to take them out. I can't tell if the problem is my ear opening is too small (pain and slipping out) or too large (vibration from the headphones) or witchcraft.
For another: I'm not in any way an audiophile and know nothing of its ways (as my last post on audio probably displayed), but about a decade ago, my mother made the mistake of getting me some V-Moda headphones for Christmas when up until then, I'd been content with $20 Sennheisers and the ones you can get at Wal-Mart for $10 and you can see where this is going. Having made the shocking discovery music has way more sound than I ever imagined, it took off from there. So my ears have become moderately spoiled and also demanding, which is why my last pair were Sony WH1000XM2 after some very careful budgeting and a lot of worry about future ear escalation. Like, no I can't pontificate on the difference in bass between V-Moda, Sony, Bose, and Beats--they all sound different?--but a depressing foray into some well-reviewed Audio Technica taught me a very valuable lesson: while I don't know the technical terms, 'that ain't right' encompasses the general sound difference, sometimes followed by taking them off and throwing them far from me like they're plague-ridden. (I dare you to judge me without knowing what horror they committed on Rihanna's helpless voice; it was evil, that's all I can say.)
Fire TV Cube (2nd Gen), $119.99 - Cute, more powerful, and more compatible with more devices!
Echo Show 8, $129.99 - which gives us now three sizes of Echo Show (5, 8, 10.1). I can't lie, I'm on my second Echo Show (10.1) and love it. In addition to great sound and excellent video and all Alexa functions, I can turn the screen toward the rabbits before I leave and drop in to check at them every so often with the camera, and the video stream compression is way more friendly to mobile data than regular home security cameras. Right now, if you buy the Echo Show 8, you can add an Echo Show 5 (retail $89.99) for only $40 more.
Echo Studio, $199.99 - High fidelity smart speaker with 3D audio. It pairs with the Fire TV Stick 4K (Gen 1 and Gen 2), Fire TV (Gen 3) and Fire Cube so wireless music continues.
Echo Flex, $24.99 - plug in smart speaker with Alexa, or basically a third gen Dot that doesn't take up extra space and has a USB port for charging your phone or adding a night light. It's actually kind of cool if you have excess wall plugs and nothing to do with them, unlike some of us who have to make serious investments in surge-protecting power strips due to lack of. Not that I'm bitter.
Echo Smart Speaker (3rd Gen), $99.99 - yes, a new generation of smart speakers! Now with added Dolby 360 sound.
Echo Dot (3rd gen but different!), $59.99 - this baby comes with an LED display that show time, outdoor temperature, and your timers. Can't lie, it's kind of cool.
Note: I'm watching second season of Eureka while I write this and can't help but wonder if someone at Amazon is using S.A.R.A.H. as a template. Hopefully without the weapons of mass destruction linked to a secondary personality part.
One of the problems with the Alexa cottage industry (you know, other than privacy, corporations, plausibility of Terminator occuring, etc) is this: Amazon has many many Alexa devices and an order of magnitude more Alexa-enabled devices such as Sonos speakers, Bose speakers and headphones, some Sony speakers and headphones (like, oh, mine), Fitbit Smart Watch, the list goes on. As in, not things that just interface with Alexa Voice Control, but devices that, when you talk to them, they talk back.
There are only four wake words: Alexa, Echo, Amazon, and Computer.
Four.
In theory--and this does work, mostly--all the Alexa devices you own that use the same wake word are networked together and the one closest to you will be the only one to respond. That means if you have two devices in the same room that can both plausibly both hear you as 'near', you just name them different things. Example: my Sonos Beam and my Echo Show are in the same room so they have two different names.
However, 'closest' can be relative and acoustics are a thing, so generally, greater than two devices require some thought when assigning wake words.
Example: I have three dots, an Echo (smart speaker), an Echo Show, and a Sonos Beam with Alexa, and no lie, having all but the Show on single wake word does make life convenient; I can control any lights in any room, I always get notified when a package is delivered and if I forget the value of pi, Alexa is there for me
Also, something I don't think a lot of people realize: Alexa speakers are among the cheapest and easiest ways to create a multi-room (or in an apartment or small home, full house) music system for under $250 + tax (and less than that during sales, special buys, or buying refurbished). The Alexa app lets you add all your Alexa speakers to a group called Multi Room Music, so even if they have different wake words, they'll all play music together. Whil first and second gen Dots had terrible sound, the third gen are a big improvement, and if you add one Echo smart speaker to three 3rd gen dots, the overall sound is great. Perfect for when you're cleaning, showering, or just want some soothing background sound. (My system is three third gen Dots, one Echo smart speaker, and Echo Show: I love it.)
(Unfortunately, you can't integrate Sonos speaker--Amazon devices only at this time--but even without it, it's genuinely surprisingly good. If you want better sound, you can add an Echo Sub for $129 or wait for a sale when it drops to $89.)
However, it did take some time and trial and error to place all the Alexa devices so generally, no more than one would respond when I said "Alexa".
That was a stationary situation; the math changes when Alexa is going mobile on one or more human bodies in a given space.
Example: in Alexa glasses frames in a room with a Sonos Beam and an Echo Show or Echo Dot or Echo/Echo Plus...either all three need to have different names, good, provided you're not wearing your FitBit watch, but if you are, four. But you and two of those devices wander from room to room and your naming conventions for your Alexa devices are gonna need a decent floorplan of your house and a spreadsheet to get right.
Yes, you can turn off Alexa on your glasses and Fitbit while home, but if you are regularly using your glasses frames to chat with Alexa--I just stopped to imagine year 2000 me reading that sentence and thinking her future includes going utterly insane--you're generally not going to remember or simply don't want to because you're used to talking to your personal accessories and don't care what anyone says.
(If you're not using the glasses to chat regularly with Alexa--why on earth did you buy them?????)
Like, there is a reason my phone and my headphones are both Alexa capable and neither are enabled; I did it once--I was curious!--and realized immediately upon coming home that this wouldn't go well.
Right this second, it's only a minor annoyance and inconvenient if you happen to have a lot of speakers, but when Amazon thinks there's a market for Alexa enabled glasses, that implies there's no limit to how many items in your home will sometime in the future be able to tell you the value of Pi on demand as well as control any devices that interface with Alexa Voice Services. And if you tell me the Amazon Echo Robot isn't going to be sold in multiples when it shows up (and why on earth hasn't Amazon released one yet????), come on; I'll be skipping meals to get two I can send back and forth through the apartment while telling me the value of Pi for hours.
...yeah, I'm not over Alexa-enabled glasses.
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From:Like, that alone....
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From://HORROR
ACTUAL HORROR
....okay I cannot lie a voice-activated oven that would TELL ME when it is pre-heated does sound good. Possibly this is because I have an approximately 20-year-old electric stove (it came with the apartment) that got shifted in the Seattle earthquake so anything you cook in or on it slides slowly but inevitably to the right. But it does still work, just....eccentrically. (I just realized now I overidentify with this thing.)
GLASSES, OMFG WHAT. For one thing I just read Snowden's memoir, and I rewatched citizen4 for that, and remember when he talks about how some phones can be basically turned into a hot mic so they're on just as long as they're plugged in? and has them put their cell phones in the fridge? Well, most people keep their glasses fairly close by, right? Even if they switch out to contacts. People probably carry them to places they don't necessarily take phones! Or who's going to think, "I am going to unplug for the weekend, I need to disconnect my glasses"? Well I would because I'm fucking paranoid about what Google and Amazon and other "virtual assistants" are doing with not just the information people give them but what they pick up, but that means I wouldn't get the damn glasses in the first place. (Apologies if you don't like Snowden; I thought I was paranoid before seeing that documentary.)
That trick with setting up a cheap multi-room audio system is neat, though.
Amazon Echo Robot
//hides under bed
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From:I didn't really realize it either until I did the math after I set it up and realized hey, this really works; mine cost less than that because when I got the dots and the Echo, they were all $20 off and the dots had a special buy three deal on top of it, so it came out to like, $150. It's not TrueHD or Dolby 5.1 quality, but in an apartment, the acoustics would kill good sound anyway when going multi-room. Combining all of them, a very respectable stereo/DD 2.0 for your grooving to whatever needs.
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From:I am never, ever, ever going to have voice-activated items in my home that connect to the Internet, sorry Amazon, I don't care how hard you push your creepy surveillance technology. I do not need voice recognition in my glasses or facial recognition in my doorbell.
When the year 2050 comes, small children will cluster around my house and watch through the window with disbelief as I creak to my feet and manually turn on the stereo before shuffling into the kitchen to adjust the A/C by hand. :/
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From:For good reason. The entire idea disturbs me, just a little. Let's be honest, I'm quite happy with my Chromsecast and GoogleHome honestly not talking to each other (I can control both with my phone, but you certainly can't integrate the two. I like a bit of healthy seperation -- it makes me feel like I can delay Skynet for a while...).
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From:A woman wrote in for her husband, who had something like Parkinson's, and how the Echo had helped him regain a lot of independence with integration with other home automation devices like lights, and it could still recognize his voice for a long time. That was three years ago, and Alexa's voice recognition has improved by an order of magnitude since then; imagine how much longer people with degenerative disorders may be able to retain at least some independence with their voices as it gets better.
A few years ago for work I went to this tech conference where I found out about smart spoons and smart blankets and you'd think why? Nursing homes and institutions; to monitor food intake, to regulate body temperature. They're expensive, because consumers in general don't want them, so no mass production to bring prices down, so they're not common. But what if we could get the average consumer to want them? What if we can find something the average consumer would want that could do the same job? And that holds true with any device for assistance for disability.
JAWS that reads a webpage is expensive as fuck and buggy in the bargain, but know what you can use for much cheaper? An iphone. A blind person with an iPhone can now read most of the internet for the price of the cheapest iPhone. And this isn; me speculating; it's our ADA division who told me why specifically they wanted the iPhone voice tested again right then on our benefits website. That tiny, overpriced, pretentous asshole phone literally revolutionized a way for the blind and visually impaired and no one noticed becuse shiny! While I want to scream it from the corners DID YOU KNOW IT COULD DO THIS HOLY SHIT.
I mean, I can think off the top of my head a couple of kick-ass uses for the glasses--someone with paralysis, for example, or any degenerative disorder with limited mobility who wants to live/does live at home--and sure, I'm coming up with not much for the ring, but a part of me kind of wants to buy the glasses even if I don't need them but I can afford them.
The market gives no fucks about about the feelings of anyone who won't pay it to care. Fine. I will pay because I have enough excess income to allow some luxuries, and I am willing to buy any number of convenience products that I don't necessarily need that are within my budget just because I want them and they're cool, because the side benefit is if enough people do it, it creates a market, and lowers the cost for those who do need them. Which is pretty much the only working way in capitalism that we can make the market be socially responsible.
Like, the most useful thing I can imagine is a website where disability advocates make a wish list of tech that people with various disabilities and diseases need or could use, call the page Let's Make a Market, and be like "we need a consumer version of this to get it mainstream, any ideas on how to make that happen" or "this company released this thing that super helps [this group] but it's just a test product but we could take this mainstream. Here's what it does and how you can use it/tell your friends/neighbors to use it'.
Harness impulse spending, love of convenience items, fascination with tech, or have too much money to spend, pick one or all, to save the world; that page would be my shopping list.
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From:Huh. That is a good point. My organisation has houses specifically built for people with disabilities and I hadn't considered how smart homes are basically the same technology (voice controlled lights and appliances for people with limited mobility, etc). Hmmm.
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From:Seriously, we have the a prototype tech version of the One Ring; what's next? I make fun of it, but I mean, there's a reason I went immediately to see what Amazon was offering now; this stuff is amazing. Ten years ago, this was literally superrich science fiction and now we may literally be on the cusp of Amazon Echo robot butlers.
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