Amazon Echo Club

[wodin]

It showed up in my Alexa app, but I can't figure out how to use it. I think it's in the Amazon shopping app though.

When I pressed the mic in there and asked "what time is it", it showed me a bunch of books with "What Time is it" in the title.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Will someone please yell at me when this happens? I have the perfect tablet for it.

My Amazon app still doesn't seem to have Alexa on board, but the Reverb for Alexa app still works a treat.

[ApK]

So...wait..Amazon is adding ALEXA to the AMAZON app, but NOT to the ALEXA app?

Originally Posted by ApK

So...wait..Amazon is adding ALEXA to the AMAZON app, but NOT to the ALEXA app?

It wouldn't surprise me. In Amazon's eyes, it is all about selling things.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by ApK

So...wait..Amazon is adding ALEXA to the AMAZON app, but NOT to the ALEXA app?

Yup, But if you want to use Alexa calling and messaging... it's the Alexa app. Confusing? Yea buddy!

[ApK]

They do make some wacky decisions over there.

[Tarana]

Very weird. I ordered the Amazon Bluetooth wireless speaker (blue) using Alexa. Needed it for audiobooks (it reaches the livingroom). The price was $31.99. Ordering through Alexa was supposed to be $27. Instead, the price ended up being $18.41 through Alexa. So, good deal if you need an additional speaker for your Dot (or your phone). Typically, you can go one room over with a bluetooth wireless speaker with no loss.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Very weird. I ordered the Amazon Bluetooth wireless speaker (blue) using Alexa. Needed it for audiobooks (it reaches the livingroom). The price was $31.99. Ordering through Alexa was supposed to be $27. Instead, the price ended up being $18.41 through Alexa. So, good deal if you need an additional speaker for your Dot (or your phone). Typically, you can go one room over with a bluetooth wireless speaker with no loss.

I can pretty much go anywhere in my house with a Bluetooth if I centrally locate the device except for one corner in my bedroom. Wifi is iffy there at times too.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by wodin

Amazon Android App Will Have Alexa After This Week’s Update

That sounds cool as all get-out, but I wonder what it will do to the bloat factor of the app? It's already the slowest opening app on my Android phone. So much so that I've downloaded Todoist and linked it via IFFF to Alexa so I can view my grocery list in the supermarket without waiting forever each time the phone goes to sleep for it to reappear on my screen again.

I also wonder if it will hurt sales of the Echos.

Amazon has a one day sale on the Echo for $129.99, a $50 savings. Sale is for today, July 24.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01E6AO69U...4C75H1XKQ&th=1

TM, Before you ask or comment, no I didn't check the deals thread as I don't have it bookmarked.

[Catlady]

Roomba maker may share maps of users' homes with Google, Amazon or Apple

... iRobot, which made Roomba compatible with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in March, could reach a deal to sell its maps to one or more of the Big Three – Amazon, Apple and Google’s Alphabet – in the next couple of years. None of the three commented on this story.
...
Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group, concurred, saying: “This is a particularly creepy example of how our privacy can be undermined by companies that want to profit from the information that smart devices can generate about our homes and lives.
...
“Maybe that doesn’t unnerve you, but it probably should,” says Rhett Jones of technology site Gizmodo. “This is all part of the larger quest for a few major companies to hoover up every bit of data about you that they can. Now, they want to know all about your living space."

This report makes me very happy that I paid more for a non-wifi, non-Alexa-connected robot vacuum than for the wifi version a few months back (my brand--Neato--wasn't mentioned in the article, but it has mapping technology). Sometimes the trade-off of privacy for convenience is worth it, but here the benefit seems to be to heavily weighted to the data collectors, not to the consumers.

[wodin]

I don't need you to have a Roomba to get a floor plan of your house, just your address. Unless of course you have an un-permitted addition. Permitted floor plans are public record and on line (at least in my state). I found that out when I bought my house, I had the floor plans before I ever saw the house.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by wodin

I don't need you to have a Roomba to get a floor plan of your house, just your address. Unless of course you have an un-permitted addition. Permitted floor plans are public record and on line (at least in my state). I found that out when I bought my house, I had the floor plans before I ever saw the house.

Here, too.

I can be kind of paranoid about what some of these things share, but I'm trying to think of a reason why I'd care of someone knew the internal layout of my furniture.

"Alert! Alert! Coffin-shaped area being avoided during vacuuming process! Request a search warrant right away!"

Maybe if someone hacked the system and used it to figure out I'm using the front bedroom as a home-office? I don't know.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by wodin

I don't need you to have a Roomba to get a floor plan of your house, just your address. Unless of course you have an un-permitted addition. Permitted floor plans are public record and on line (at least in my state). I found that out when I bought my house, I had the floor plans before I ever saw the house.

Sure, all these bits of information are out there, but they're scattered. Now they could be integrated with all the data about my spending habits, reading habits, etc., etc. If the info weren't valuable, iRobot wouldn't be so excited about selling it and the investors wouldn't be chortling about it.

[tubemonkey]

Benchmark reveals that the Echo Show is Amazon’s most powerful device

Ever since Amazon discontinued their Fire HDX line of premium tablets and began focusing on more affordable tablets, the Amazon Fire TV has been the most powerful device they produce. That’s not surprising since it’s the closest thing they have to a game console, so it needs the horsepower to run demanding games. What is surprising is that, according to an internal benchmark, the Fire TV has been dethroned as the most powerful Amazon device by the Echo Show.

Benchmark results for the Echo Show have surfaced on GFXBench, a graphics benchmarking utility commonly used to test the gaming capabilities of phones and tablets. The test results aren’t explicitly labeled as being that of the Echo Show, but the hardware specifications listed for the “Amazon AEOKN” device match the Echo Show perfectly.

Benchmarks aren’t necessarily a good indicator of a device’s real-world performance, but these scores do show that Amazon has packed their flagship Alexa device with components that seem to be overkill for what the Echo Show can do today. Amazon could have big plans for the Echo Show that would necessitate the horsepower they’ve packed in, or perhaps they just want it to be ready for whatever direction 3rd-party developers take it.