Apple entering the Home Assistant Fray

[tubemonkey]

I want Echos with always on cameras. Feeds would be uploaded to Homeland Security servers and analyzed through a series of algorithms to ensure that proper societal behaviors are being conducted within the home. If not, then the men in black will come a knockin'

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Echo is the Altair of the new age.
The harbinger of a true new paradigm for consumer electronics.
Things are about to go crazy. Yet again.

The future where people are so dependent on their gadgets that life without them becomes practically impossible.

[Apache]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

The future where people are so dependent on their gadgets that life without them becomes practically impossible.

You mean things like washers, Dryers, Refrigerators, cooktops and ovens?
Apache

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Apache

You mean things like washers, Dryers, Refrigerators, cooktops and ovens?
Apache

Exactly.

and don't forget electricity, plumbing and sewer systems.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Apache

You mean things like washers, Dryers, Refrigerators, cooktops and ovens?
Apache

Don't forget cars, trains, boats, airplanes, ...

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Apache

You mean things like washers, Dryers, Refrigerators, cooktops and ovens?
Apache

No, I mean using gadgets in such a way that your own skills in information retrieval suffer. I've actually seen people stuck at train stations because their phone's battery was empty, and now they didn't know how to get from X to Y by using the information boards.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

No, I mean using gadgets in such a way that your own skills in information retrieval suffer. I've actually seen people stuck at train stations because their phone's battery was empty, and now they didn't know how to get from X to Y by using the information boards.

We once met a couple that was begging for gas because they assumed their "smartphone" would always lead them to a gas station.
Note: their "smartphone" might as well been a brick in the area they were traveling.
No one had any extra gas but since they had enough to go about 30 miles, everyone gave them directions to the nearest town. They hadn't wanted to get off the interstate.
Oh and they even got a paper map. Which promptly showed them, the nearest interstate gas station was over 100 miles away.

[fjtorres]

Here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/penmanship-a-dying-art/

Once upon a time most everybody knew just how to cut a feather to make a quill pen.
Most knew how to chop a tree safely.
Or how to evade a hungry lion.

Times change.
Survival criteria change with them.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/penmanship-a-dying-art/

Once upon a time most everybody knew just how to cut a feather to make a quill pen.
Most knew how to chop a tree safely.
Or how to evade a hungry lion.

Times change.
Survival criteria change with them.

You want fries with that?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Once upon a time most everybody knew just how to cut a feather to make a quill pen.

I still can. And I still use fountain pens, and can even disassemble them for cleaning (if the pen makes that possible... but I don't buy pens that cannot be disassembled).

Most knew how to chop a tree safely.

I can do this as well. My father taught me, because we had a fireplace (and he still has it, as he still lives in that house).

Or how to evade a hungry lion.

Uh... yeah. You got me there. Haven't been looking into that lately...

Times change.
Survival criteria change with them.

I understand that. However, using gadgets to get tasks done that you *should* be able to do yourself is stupidity.

- People using ONLY their smartphone for an agenda... no go.
- People using ONLY navigation systems without learning how to read a map (and bring it, obviously)... no go.
- People using a calculator for calculations that should be easily possible on the top of your head... no go.
- ... and many more.

In my book, Echo and all other similar devices/gadgets (Siri, Cortana...) fall into the category of gadgets that do things you should be doing (should be able to do) yourself.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

What can such a home assistant do that I cannot already do now, in one way or another?...

It can prevent my wife from having to crawl into her wheelchair and wheel herself across the room to turn off the light, only to wheel herself back and crawl back into the bed.

Granted, my use case might be different than yours, but for Susie it's a Godsend!

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by wodin

It can prevent my wife from having to crawl into her wheelchair and wheel herself across the room to turn off the light, only to wheel herself back and crawl back into the bed.

Granted, my use case might be different than yours, but for Susie it's a Godsend!

While I understand the usefulness of such a device such as Echo in this situation, there are already many possibilities to do things like this; remote control (you can even make wall sockets remote controlled), activated by a remote, sound, or light.

If Echo can help you out in the described situation, there have been systems available for many years that can do so as well. Still no need for an internet-connected, voice-activated device.

[wodin]

Yes, but then I've been hobbying (at great expense) with home automation for years, well before IoT was around, and I've yet to find something that works as well and is as convenient as Alexa. And even she has her problems.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

However, using gadgets to get tasks done that you *should* be able to do yourself is stupidity.

.

Do you get up from the couch/sofa/chair everytime you want to switch channels on your tv?


Again, tastes vary.
Convenience matters. Convenience is as much a product as anything else. In fact, convenience is the principal reason Amazon dominates the ebook marketplace in those markets where ebooks have broken out into the mainstream. The convenience of buying direct from the reader, of downloading directly to the reader, no PC required, was key when no other reader could do it. If convenience didn't matter, Whispersync wouldn't be the key to Kindle's ascendancy that it proved to be. Just ask Sony.

But this is not about specifics; just the principle that people will pay for as much convenience as they can afford. If efficiency and self suffiency were all that matters everybody would raise chickens and have rooftop gardens and collect rainwater atop their 30 square meter (900 square feet) micro home.
And that is without factoring in the people to whom Echo is no convenience but a godsend that gives them a measure of control over their environment because they don't have the mobility to do it themselves.

Now, maybe its value added features will migrate to other products (very likely) and maybe one of the other products will supercede the cloud speaker model as the preferred way of delivering those features. Maybe the category will eventually die. All that happened to PDAs. But PDAs were never a fad and neither are cloud assisted speakers.

No product fits the needs of everybody.
All a product needs to do is fit the needs of enough people to justify its existence. Echo passed that test with flying colors and then some. Which is why we're seeing follow-ups like Tap and Dot and me-too imitators. There is a real market for it. It's not going away just yet.

Now, if you want a candidate for a real fad, look to the boom in adult coloring books.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Or how to evade a hungry lion.