Amazon Echo Club

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ApK

They're TV shows, not movies, but have you tried:
The reimagined Battlestar Galactica
The Expanse
Firefly
(and for that matter, the Firefly movie, Serenity).

All indisputably and unarguably awesome on all fronts.
(So don't dispute or argue.)

Battle Star Galactica from a few years back, yes. The original BSG season 1 was okay but I was a teenager, so what did I know 45 years ago! Season 2 was horrible. The newer one from a few years ago wasn't that great. Haven't tried the others. Firefly bit the dirt after one season I think. None of the modern SciFi I've seen seems to be very science oriented nor cerebral IMO. Just a bunch of stupid comic book characters from Marvel, and I didn't even read that stuff way back as a kid in the 1960s.

But we should probably move on to another topic or move this to another thread because we are way off topic for this thread. Like Wodin mentioned, somehow this accidentally wound up in this thread instead of another thread that was more appropriate as it covered topics from way back when.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by OtinG

That is why I like the older Star Trek series and movies, but not so much the newer stuff. After Roddenberry died the Star Trek enterprise quickly lost its way. (Pun intended!) Now a days nearly all action-adventure and SciFi movies rely on computer graphics and they no longer seem to care about dialog or plot.

Well I was talking strictly about “The Motion Picture", the first of the original cast movies. That movie just spends waaaaaaaay too much time showing things and showing the characters reacting to things, etc. Its slow and monotonous IMO. Usually when I’m going to do a marathon I skip TMP and go straight to Wrath of Kahn.

I would agree that the modern franchise focuses way too much on action, forgetting that Star Trek is supposed to be about people and stories. That’s the main reason I prefer The Orville to Discovery.

As for Roddenberry, I feel he had much the same strengths and weaknesses as George Lucas. Both are wonderful world builders who crafted beloved franchises with the aid of a talented cast and crew. However when either one’s ego got in the way and they stopped listening to said talent (Lucas with the prequels, Roddenberry with TMP and first-season TNG), the product suffered.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by OtinG

That is why I like the older Star Trek series and movies, but not so much the newer stuff. After Roddenberry died the Star Trek enterprise quickly lost its way. (Pun intended!) Now a days nearly all action-adventure and SciFi movies rely on computer graphics and they no longer seem to care about dialog or plot.

I always thought that was especially the case with Avatar. They spent many millions of dollars on special effects and CGI and, as far as I can tell, about 27 cents on the script and storyline.

[OtinG]

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I see that the Fire TV Cube is currently on sale for $69.99. That is $50 off of normal price. A 42% discount. Not my cup of tea, but if you are interested then check it out.

Dave: "Alexa, please play [something of interest to me].

Alexa: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't find that. Would you like to watch any of these expensive alternatives which have little, if anything, to do with your choice?"

Dave: "[Bleeping censored...]"

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by OtinG

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

I see that the Fire TV Cube is currently on sale for $69.99. That is $50 off of normal price. A 42% discount. Not my cup of tea, but if you are interested then check it out.

Dave: "Alexa, please play [something of interest to me].

Alexa: "I'm sorry Dave, I can't find that. Would you like to watch any of these expensive alternatives which have little, if anything, to do with your choice?"

Dave: "[Bleeping censored...]"

Knowing Amazon, they'll be out of support before "Prime Day" rolls around...

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Knowing Amazon, they'll be out of support before "Prime Day" rolls around...

The Cube was released 11 months ago on 21 June 2018 in the USA. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have a gen 2 coming out soon and are trying to liquidate gen 1 stocks. Knowing Amazon, that would mean gen 2 for same price but reduced specs! My Fire TV is still the best spec-ed of them all, because they have been reducing the specs with each new generation. They did the same with their Fire tablet line too. Current models are cheap junk with lower specs than the typical tablet of 5 years ago. Heck my 2013 Nexus 7 gen 2 still blows away any current Fire tablet, and it is 6 years old!

[wodin]

Amazon Is Getting Closer to Building an Alexa Wearable That Knows When You're Depressed

It looks like Amazon is working on a new Alexa-powered gadget that can listen to you and decide how you feel, and make recommendations based on your human emotions. Citing internal documents and an unnamed source, Bloomberg reports that the company has designed a device that you wear like a wristwatch and beta testing is apparently underway. “Eventually the technology could be able to advise the wearer how to interact more effectively with others,” reads the report.

Sounds creepy, though, doesn’t it? Imagine if you plugged in a brand new Echo, sniffle, and then Alexa recommended you buy some Kleenex. That’s actually a fairly quaint application for the emotion-detecting technology that Amazon is working on. One could easily imagine a future in which Alexa devices could be used to monitor people’s mental health state and, potentially, make errors. We know from countless reports of Echo errors that Amazon’s artificially intelligent assistant isn’t always as smart as it’s supposed to be. And we certainly know that Amazon isn’t as good at paying attention to user privacy as it should be. Maybe more than anything, it’s just deeply unsettling to think that technology could soon be surveilling our physical existence while also monitoring our emotions and mental health.

[wodin]

Then there are the Amazon Alexa Earbuds

It looks like Apple's AirPods 2 could have yet another challenger, as Amazon is planning to release Alexa-enabled wireless earbuds as early as the second half of this year. As reported by Bloomberg, the Alexa earbuds would look similar to Apple's AirPods 2, but Amazon is working on delivering better audio quality. And, of course, you'd have instant access to Amzon's assistant.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wodin

Then there are the Amazon Alexa Earbuds

Alexa, count me out

[John F]

Now if the Amazon Echo could tell how my wife is feeling and tell me through the Amazon earbuds (I am wearing)... I'd pay good money for that.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by John F

Now if the Amazon Echo could tell how my wife is feeling and tell me through the Amazon earbuds (I am wearing)... I'd pay good money for that.

John: Alexa, how's my wife feeling?

Alexa: She has a headache, John.

John:

[John F]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

John: Alexa, how's my wife feeling?

Alexa: She has a headache, John.

John:

Alexa, set a notification for when my wife doesn't have a headache.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by John F

Alexa, set a notification for when my wife doesn't have a headache.

[OtinG]

Considering psychology is more pseudoscience than anything, I wouldn’t even trust those bozos to guess what someone is feeling. Psychologists tend to disagree with each other quite a bit and come to different conclusions. If they cannot get it right, I’m pretty sure Amazon’s bozo programmers won’t either.

Do we really want a watch with Alexa that tells us to jump everytime we cross a bridge?

On the other hand, I would perhaps go with a good health watch that can monitor my heart rate, oxygen level, and sleep times correctly, but didn’t cost as much as an Apple Watch, and didn’t focus on fitness exercise like most of them do. Maybe Amazon could make an “old fart” watch that focuses on health concerns. But I don’t want one that is connected to their cloud servers.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Considering psychology is more pseudoscience than anything, I wouldn’t even trust those bozos to guess what someone is feeling. Psychologists tend to disagree with each other quite a bit and come to different conclusions. If they cannot get it right, I’m pretty sure Amazon’s bozo programmers won’t either.

Do we really want a watch with Alexa that tells us to jump everytime we cross a bridge?

On the other hand, I would perhaps go with a good health watch that can monitor my heart rate, oxygen level, and sleep times correctly, but didn’t cost as much as an Apple Watch, and didn’t focus on fitness exercise like most of them do. Maybe Amazon could make an “old fart” watch that focuses on health concerns. But I don’t want one that is connected to their cloud servers.

I'm getting right fed up with my TicWatch telling me "It's time to get active!"