Amazon Echo Club

[ApK]

I just told Alexa to turn out my light, and instead of saying "ok" as she always has, she made some techno bloop noise. What's up with that? How am I supposed to maintain the illusion that I have a servant woman?! How do I change her back?!

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by ApK

I just told Alexa to turn out my light, and instead of saying "ok" as she always has, she made some techno bloop noise. What's up with that? How am I supposed to maintain the illusion that I have servant woman?! How do I change her back?!

She's been watching The Jetsons when you aren't home.

[tubemonkey]

The Echo From Amazon Brims With Groundbreaking Promise

Many of the world’s largest technology companies have spent the last five years searching in vain for the holy grail, a machine to succeed the smartphone as the next must-have gadget.

They have made digital watches and fitness trackers, all manner of computerized glasses and goggles, and more doodads to plug into your TV than there are shows to watch on it.

Yet at the moment, the most promising candidate for the Next Great Gadget isn’t made by Apple, Google, Facebook or Microsoft. Instead, it is the Echo, a screenless, voice-controlled household computer built by Amazon — a company whose last big foray into consumer electronics, the Fire Phone, was a humiliating flop.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Has anyone accessorized their Echo with skins, sleeves, holders, etc?

Kind of like this?

[wodin]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

She's been watching The Jetsons when you aren't home.

Oh, I thought it was Star Trek TNG.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by wodin

Kind of like this?

Well, who could argue with

let Echo be more Dazzling

I kinda like it, actually. Don't need it, though - nothing short of an explosion or a major quake is going to rock my Alexa off her perch.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wodin

Kind of like this?

Yep, like that. Do you have one?

[wodin]

Nope, not my style. Besides, the Echo is stable enough without it.

[Blossom]

Mine took a tumble last week when hubby was in a tantrum. She's okay though but my heart went boop when it happened. My Echo wears a collar that hubby made. It's actually a plastic lacing bracelet that glows in the dark. It was her Christmas present.

[ApK]

So far our cat has only muted our Echo, but knocking it off the end table can't be far behind.

Our cat is really into energy savings. In the last few weeks, she's shut down the UPS on our entertainment center, turned off the power strip that charges my phone, and turned off our home answering machine, so I'm not surprised she tried to turn the Echo off.

And lest you think I'm inappropriately anthropomorphizing her intentions, note she has turned those things off several times, but she never turns them back on, even though those same actions would toggle both ways!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by ApK

1. The point of the feature is so it can be voice controlled without needing the user to touch anything. I understand not wanting that, or wanting it optional, but it is certainly a key feature for the Echo and the Dot. Virtually the whole point for some of us.

Except in the case of people with a physical handicap, it doesn't seem too onerous to bop the device when you want it to do something.

2. I want to repeat this question just once more because I'm curious: Why do you think think the Echo/Dot tracks or stores anything you say before the wake word? Amazon says it doesn't. If you don't trust what Amazon says about how the device works, why would trust that a device like the Tap isn't constantly listening and tracking you? Maybe all that button does is tell the device to stop pretending it can't hear you?

I don't necessarily believe that it is tracking and storing information, but it may be. If it's listening, it could be tracking. I just don't want something listening all the time. If you had a personal servant, would you want him shadowing you all the time, waiting for instructions, or would you rather have him farther away so that you have to put in some extra smidge of effort but retain more privacy? I'd opt for slightly greater privacy.

I just returned to this thread and saw a few posts about Alexa responding when not being called. I don't want that either. I don't want a device to respond to my TV or radio, or to my cats' meowing, or whatever.

I hope this doesn't sound too judgmental or argumentative or whatever the right word is when you argue against someone's perfectly valid preference. I don't mean it to. I'm just trying to understand the reasoning.

There's no deep reason. As I think I said originally, if I were really dazzled by this device, I wouldn't NOT get it because of privacy concerns. When the Echo first came out, I ordered it, but reconsidered during the long delay before it was supposed to ship. Despite the cool factor, I realized I'd actually only use it as a speaker, so why bother? Now it seems that it has more functionality, but still nothing that I absolutely have to have. Price is more of a factor than privacy.

I still don't even have a tablet, so I am not exactly an early adopter of tech gadgets.

[WT Sharpe]

That acrylic speaker guard is not the prettiest thing I've ever seen. In fact, it strikes me as kind of tacky. As I've never had a problem with the Echo in its present location, I'll pass.

Originally Posted by ApK

So far our cat has only muted our Echo, but knocking it off the end table can't be far behind.

Our cat is really into energy savings. In the last few weeks, she's shut down the UPS on our entertainment center, turned off the power strip that charges my phone, and turned off our home answering machine, so I'm not surprised she tried to turn the Echo off.

And lest you think I'm inappropriately anthropomorphizing her intentions, note she has turned those things off several times, but she never turns them back on, even though those same actions would toggle both ways!

It may well be intentional. I've seen videos of cats jumping up to wall switches to turn on the lights in darkened corridors. And my grandmother told me they once had a cat that taught itself to ring the doorbell whenever it wanted to come in. At first they thought mischievous children were ringing the bell and running until they actually witnessed the cat doing it.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

That acrylic speaker guard is not the prettiest thing I've ever seen. In fact, it strikes me as kind of tacky. As I've never had a problem with the Echo in its present location, I'll pass.

+1...

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Except in the case of people with a physical handicap, it doesn't seem too onerous to bop the device when you want it to do something.

You could just not be near it, like across the room, or across a King size bed with a person in between, or you're hands could be busy, like cooking or carrying something, or doing...well...anything.

It's really not the touch so much, as the need to be near enough to touch it, and turn your attention to it to touch it.
Not having to do that is part of what it's all about.

But MOST importantly, having to touch it is way, WAY less cool. They don't have to touch the computer on the starship Enterprise!

I just returned to this thread and saw a few posts about Alexa responding when not being called. I don't want that either. I don't want a device to respond to my TV or radio, or to my cats' meowing, or whatever

They really could use some less common wake words. It's hard to watch Castle in the room with the Echo. His daughter's name, Alexis, is close enough to set her off.
But, then, she does have that mute button, which, as my cat has shown, is quite easy to tap if you want.

But seriously, I think the Echo is overpriced at $180 for what it does, and I'm not likely to recommend it to most folks at that price. They'd have to REALLY want it. Or really not miss the money.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It may well be intentional. I've seen videos of cats jumping up to wall switches to turn on the lights in darkened corridors. And my grandmother told me they once had a cat that taught itself to ring the doorbell whenever it wanted to come in. At first they thought mischievous children were ringing the bell and running until they actually witnessed the cat doing it.

We have books about intelligent computers taking over, and aliens, and zombies and apes. What about cats?