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Amazon Built An Echo Simulator You Can Use In the Browser (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the a-thing-to-do-over-weekend dept.

Jordan Novet, writing for VentureBeat: Amazon today announced the availability of Echosim.io, a website that simulates the capabilities of the Amazon Echo speaker, which employs Amazon's Alexa voice assistant technology. The thing about Alexa is that many people who don't own the Echo -- or its smaller siblings, the Tap and the Echo Dot -- haven't been able to see what Alexa is capable of. The new tool -- which was inspired by the Alexa in the Browser application that Nexmo developer advocate Sam Machin came up with during a hackathon last year -- solves that problem. All you have to do is head to the website, sign in with your Amazon credentials, and start holding your mouse down over the microphone button to see what Alexa can do. It's nifty for anyone to use, but it's also potentially useful to developers. "Developers worldwide can use Echosim to experience Alexa," Amazon Alexa developer marketing manager Glenn Cameron wrote in a blog post.Interesting move, especially for people who either do not want to -- or can't -- purchase the device (unavailability being one reason). You will need to login with your Amazon account in order to test Echosim.

54 comments

  1. Not a chance I'll go anywhere near it... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 0

    The thing about Alexa is that many people who don't own the Echo -- or its smaller siblings, the Tap and the Echo Dot -- haven't been able to see what Alexa is capable of.

    What is it capable of? Its primary purpose is to collect huge amounts of personal data on you, your family, and your friends, so that Amazon can monetize that data to pay for Jeff Bezo's flying car.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    1. Re:Not a chance I'll go anywhere near it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      JavaScript is like being molested by your uncle. There's something off about him, but everyone regards him very highly, so you trust him, and then on a family camping trip out at Montauk Point he takes advantage of you. Years later, you accept and acknowledge what happened, but you still refuse to believe that he's scarred you, because that would put him in control, not you, and the last thing you want is a molester in control of your life -- but your denial doesn't make it the truth. You want to believe that deep down inside, JavaScript is a good person, and you see that JavaScript has very redeeming qualities, but you sit down to try and program JavaScript and all you can think of is that rhino's hard, throbbing cock

    2. Re:Not a chance I'll go anywhere near it... by DragonTHC · · Score: 1

      unlike google, this doesn't really work very well.

      --
      They're using their grammar skills there.
  2. Ãoe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    à Ãoe à Ãoe à Ãoe

    1. Re:Ãoe by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 0

      Ãf Ãfoe Ãf Ãfoe Ãf Ãfoe

      The Slashdot Overlords are aware of this issue, you the so-called "editors" are apparently so incompetent that they are incapable of actually "editing" and article to switch out the offending chars. Hell, you could write a simple script to do it. BUT NOOOOOO................

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:Ãoe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      â" WTF is that? Are%20these%20edited%20by%205%20year%20olds?

    3. Re: Ãoe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like most of the previous staff and all of the editors were canned. I'm basing that on CmdrTaco's Twitter feed. I'd say he's a reliable source. What is going on? They've replaced a lot of people but I really don't see any improvement to the site. I've also noticed a stark difference in the tone of the management. At first, whipslash was very enthusiastic and receptive to feedback. Now he seems to be pretty negative in his comments. There have been positive changes, especially to Sourceforge, but it seems like there's less of an interest from the new management now.

    4. Re: Ãoe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems like most of the previous staff and all of the editors were canned. I'm basing that on CmdrTaco's Twitter feed. I'd say he's a reliable source. What is going on? They've replaced a lot of people but I really don't see any improvement to the site. I've also noticed a stark difference in the tone of the management. At first, whipslash was very enthusiastic and receptive to feedback. Now he seems to be pretty negative in his comments. There have been positive changes, especially to Sourceforge, but it seems like there's less of an interest from the new management now.

      I knew something was different. It seems like comments are much more likely to get hidden behind the "Load All Comments" button.

    5. Re: Ãoe by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 0

      Timothy is still around, but that seems to be it. And yes, Whipslash was very enthusiastic and receptive to feedback - initially, but apparently the management is stressing over the fact that they are unable to monetize Slashdot to the degree they had hoped.

      Servers cost money, staff costs money, but thinking that Slashdot would ever be a "cash cow" indicates mental illness. Break even? Perhaps.

      Slashdot CAN be a part of a money making enterprise, but only as a accessory, a "value added" component to a bigger picture.

      Given how bad Dice fucked up with Sourceforge, I'm not sure they can ever recover that, and Sourceforge is really the "diamond" they need to work on. Slashdot is the "social network" for people using Sourceforge, but first you have to have people come back to Sourceforge.

      Remember how CNet was once the place for average computer users to download stuff, and than what happened to CNet? Nobody will ever go back. Eve

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    6. Re: Ãoe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but apparently the management is stressing over the fact that they are unable to monetize Slashdot to the degree they had hoped.

      I don't think they accounted for most people in the SJW Flamepit using adblock, making every single godforsaken 800+ comment thread cost more to transmit than is made up for in ad impressions.

    7. Re: Ãoe by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Interesting how all comments, no matter how constructive, that are in any way negative to Slashdot get modded down...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    8. Re: Ãoe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree with your post. Timothy actually was canned, though. My source is Malda's Twitter feed: https://mobile.twitter.com/cmdrtaco/status/715934402648219648. Timothy made a few comments about it on his Twitter account, too, which is @timothylord. I've noticed that about the comments getting modded down even when they're constructive. It's a much smaller scale but it reminds me of a long time ago when sllort made a post about moderation and it got hundreds of replies. The editors model every post in the thread to -1 and rtbl'd anyone who posted in the thread or model it up, which actually brought far more attention to the thread than if they had simply ignored it.

      I think you're right that the new management hasn't been able to find a way to monetize the site. I assume that if Slashdot had much value, there would be no reason to keep the sale price secret. I also don't see why the staff would have been canned, unless that's a way to cut costs. As I understand it, the old editors like Soulskill knew the site sucked but DICE wasn't supportive of them improving things. It wasn't the fault of the old staff; the ownership was to blame. They were competent and so I assume letting the staff go was a cost cutting measure.

  3. hard of hearing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All I can get it to do is repeat the phrase, "Sorry, I didn't understand the question I heard."

  4. Great by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Now you can voluntarily give up even more privacy in your browser. Why would anyone use this? Why are people bashing Apple because Siri isn't storing such data in the cloud? Screw Cortana, Echo, and Google Now.

  5. Slashvertisement by DatbeDank · · Score: 0

    Not so subtle there. I'll pass, Amazon knows enough about me. No need for them to know what odd things i'd ask it.

  6. Product launch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have several vaguely tech related products I would like plastered over the front page of /. under the guise of "news"

    Who do I contact and can you give me some indication of price?

  7. Casual Readers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...will want to know what the fuck this is.

  8. webmater forumu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://bilgilazim.net son dönemlerin en popüler en zengin içerie sahip olan sosyal forum sitelerinin banda gelmektedir. Her gün yüzlerce kiinin giri yapt forum üzerinde sizlerde aradnz birçok sorunun yantn tek tk kolayl ile kolayca bulabilirsiniz.
      Farkl uzmanlk alanlarna sahip olan binlerce kii her gün bu özel forum sayfas üzerinde bulunuyor. En çok merak edilen konulara en basit ekliyle açklk getirmekte olan alannda uzman kullanclar.

    Webmaster, konularnn her biri dier forum sitelerinde aradnz popüler alanlarndan olumaktadr. Kendi sitenizi kurabilmek için izlemeniz gereken yollar hakknda bilgiler alabileceiniz ikinci el satn online olarak yapabileceiniz her telden konunun sizler için konuulduu bilgilazim.net üzerinde oldukça aktif bir konua trafii bulunmaktadr.

    E-ticaret, yapmann en basit ve pratik yolu olan forum sitemiz üzerinde sizler için birbirinden parlak fikirler bulunuyor. Ayrca firma reklamlarnz kolayca yapabileceiniz bu özel platform sizlere snrsz müteri potansiyellerini de beraberinde getirmektedir.
    Teknoloji, hakknda merak ettikleriniz en son teknoloji ürünleri almak isterseniz sizlerde her konuda fikir ve öneri alabileceiniz kapsaml ve donanml forum sitesine giri yaparak evinizden çkmadan güzel paralar kazanabilirsiniz. Sadece para kazanmak amaçl deil günlük yaamda ihtiyaç duyabileceiniz en özel bilgilere de yine bu özel forum sayfas üzerinden kolayca ulaabilirsiniz.
    Teknolojik gelimeler, eitim hakknda bilgiler. Webmaster nasl olunur ve daha birçok deerli bilgiyi tek hamlede, yorulmadan, kolayca edinebilirsiniz.

  9. NIGGER SIMULATOR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    http://www.amazon.com/SHOE-GOO-BLACK-3-7-OZ/dp/B002CXVG10

  10. Flattened right out by chuckugly · · Score: 2

    The server is flatter than a pancake, the /. effect is still a thing I guess.

    1. Re:Flattened right out by antdude · · Score: 1

      Now, I'm hungry. Thanks. :P

      Also, it is back up now but "Amazon account is required, please login."? :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    2. Re:Flattened right out by chuckugly · · Score: 1

      Hey, pancakes are delicious, and once they stood her back up she didn't cope with background noise much better than any of the other voice gizmos. Maybe dedicated hardware can help w/ that but I'll not be finding out.

    3. Re:Flattened right out by antdude · · Score: 1

      Yep. Same for french toasts. Too bad I can't eat their syrups. My exposed teeth are too sensitive. :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  11. Slashdotted by feranick · · Score: 1

    Internal Server Error The server encountered an internal error and was unable to complete your request. Either the server is overloaded or there is an error in the application.

  12. What is Alexa capable of? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 0

    The thing about Alexa is that many people who don't own the Echo -- or its smaller siblings, the Tap and the Echo Dot -- haven't been able to see what Alexa is capable of. The new tool [...] solves that problem. All you have to do is head to the website, sign in with your Amazon credentials...

    Oups, it requires an Amazon account. No demo for me, then.

    Alexa doesn't exists!

    1. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by Pulzar · · Score: 1

      Oups, it requires an Amazon account. No demo for me, then.

      Alexa doesn't exists!

      I'm glad you felt the need to tell us that. It's very important to the discussion about a new toy that us geeks like to play with and understand.

      --
      Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
    2. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Oups, it requires an Amazon account.

      Of course. How else are they supposed to tie the questions you ask Alexa to your real identity for advertising and law enforcement purposes?

    3. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      And why should I care what fucking tech demos Amazon can comes up with if it requires an account to test them?

    4. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It tells us that Amazon won't let anyone approach their toys without an account. That's as bad as Facebook.

    5. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      It's so simple and powerful that TFA, TFS, and self-righteous pricks can't even mention what it does.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    6. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      No-one said you should. But we don't care that you don't care, because it makes you sound a bit like that guy.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    7. Re:What is Alexa capable of? by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 1

      Wow, I also don't own a television! ... wait, does a computer monitor connected to a Roku count as a TV?

  13. A microphone and video camera in every home by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The STASI would be proud. If they could only have stuck around another 25 years, they'd be living the dream with smartphones and these gadgets.

  14. Characters, indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    None of the broken shit got fixed, either. The mobile app still signs you out in a heartbeat, doesn't reflect feedback, and doesn't show replies to your comments (but it's fucking EXCELLENT at dumping spam ads on you, I'll give them that much); moderation is still just as broken as it ever was, with unaccountable mods sneaking around and downmodding people they don't like repeatedly, moderators locked out of conversations because "anonymous" (which they shouldn't be anyway, that's exactly how you encourage mod abuse), the site is still mostly blind to any characters that weren't in ASCII, though a few exceptions stand out (and they're the same few that've worked since before the takeover), the "don't show ads cuz we love ya" thing basically shits itself and falls in it soon after it is checked and the ads are back, you still can't edit a fucking post (what is this, 1982?) and the whole subscription / see your history thing is still broke as fuck. And of course the "firehose" is still no more than a busy box, where your votes are utterly meaningless - highly "hosed" stories don't show up, stories that are clearly of little interest to anyone do.... it's Slashdot just as it always has been.

    I didn't exactly have my hopes up, but those few posts right after the takeover sure did seem to be claiming there was going to be an attempt to fix some of the metric fuckton of crap that's wrong around here. Oh well. More of the same, then.

    1. Re:Characters, indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why should you be able to edit a post? As soon as you edit it, any previous moderation is dubious. Why would anyone spend their karma to moderate a post you can change to say "First Post!!!" afterwards? If you make it "free" to moderate a post to encourage moderation even though the post can change, then you have an infinite downmod problem where trolls bury everything, which is bad unless you really want a true SJW takeover.

    2. Re:Characters, indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know why they even bother with Slashcode anymore. At this point they've let it grow so obsolete they might as well just switch to Disqus and be done with it.

    3. Re: Characters, indeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree that the code running this site is obsolete and should be abandoned. The best option would probably be to run the site with the Soylentnews code. Soylentnews was forked from Slash long after that code was abandoned. I'd imagine Slashdot would want to fork the code again because Soylentnews seems to have their own priorities for how the site should work. It would be a good start, though. They should also open source whatever software they use. If Soylentnews proves anything, it's that there are people who have an interest in seeing Slash maintained and are willing to donate their time to make it happen. I think one of the best gestures the management could make would be to open source whatever code is running Slashdot now and host it on Sourceforge. They could do that right now, but I don't think there's any interest in making it happen.

  15. No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by Pulzar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Readers here used to be interested in nerdy toys and discussed how they worked, and how to hack them and get the most of out them... Now it's a bunch of people with tinfoil hats complaining about Amazon is trying to track them and feed their data to the cops of Jeff Bezos.

    Aren't there some nerds in the crowd that wanted to play with an Echo but didn't want to buy one just to try it out, and are happy that they can now see what it does? Doesn't anyone appreciate the engineering challenge of this?

    --
    Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.
    1. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Readers here used to be interested in nerdy toys and discussed how they worked, and how to hack them and get the most of out them... Now it's a bunch of people with tinfoil hats complaining about Amazon is trying to track them and feed their data to the cops of Jeff Bezos.

      Aren't there some nerds in the crowd that wanted to play with an Echo but didn't want to buy one just to try it out, and are happy that they can now see what it does? Doesn't anyone appreciate the engineering challenge of this?

      I'm sure that many more nerds would love to play with something like this if it didn't track them. It certainly kills the fun for me.

    2. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by linuxguy · · Score: 0

      Agreed. The intelligent people have left Slashdot. The remaining are mostly griefers. I swore off Slashdot a couple of weeks ago, but accidentally visited today. An old habit that will take some time to kill I guess. Comments on this story and all others on this site are a strong reminder of what the remaining crowd here is. Whiny crybabies and paranoid schizophrenics.

    3. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not really, no. I had programs for voice-control of my PC back in the late 90's. They were more trouble than they were worth: voice commands work wonderfully on Star Trek, because television demands dialogue rather than silent typing, but in real life it's generally easier to use a keyboard and mouse than to talk your way though most tasks. Things like Echo can control your lighting or tell you the weather, but you can flick a switch or click a mouse and get the same (and, for the weather, without having to take the time to listen to a spoken statement). Echo doesn't really solve a problem.

      It does, however, give Amazon a $200 beachhead (and microphone) inside your home. For some people, the faddishness of pretending to be on Star Trek and talking to the computer (or the cylinder that sends your commands off to some server in Utah to process) is worth having a microphone that could always be triggered by mistake or be backdoored to listen for conversations of interest.

    4. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by Locutus · · Score: 1

      Sure seems that way doesn't it. FYI, I recently built an AlexaPi using an old rPi B+, a old logitech USB webcam for the mic and headphones. Getting started with it asking about weather, appointment/calendar events, etc. Will start building todo's and see about getting music working. The browser version is pretty cool as it lets me do the same when at the computer. And also used AlexaPi to reorder a few things. I hear the Dot and Echo have such good noise cancelling and voice pickup it can recognize commands from across the room.

      Now if I can get Max Headroom into my rPi and working and sync'ed to Alexa's voice then the AlexaPi would make it to the living room.

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
    5. Re: No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People are what they are. The editors post a lot of whiny paranoid stories. That tends to attract whiny paranoid people. What you see is the culture cultivated by the management of Slashdot. I agree that the real nerds have left, but I think you have the management to thank or blame for this.

    6. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      What's nerdy about fellating Amazon? Wouldn't it be nerdier to talk about an Echo replacement that's FoSS?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

      Aren't there some nerds in the crowd that wanted to play with an Echo but didn't want to buy one just to try it out, and are happy that they can now see what it does? Doesn't anyone appreciate the engineering challenge of this?

      I'm pretty sure my boy is going to be playing with this all weekend. He hasn't lost the spark! (he's nine)

      Grumpy old men are grumpy.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    8. Re:No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :( by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pst. The intelligent people went to hackernews.

  16. ELi5 by citylivin · · Score: 1

    This speaker creates excellent echos? no. This speaker is some kind of voice recognition technology like google voice and siri? maybe.

    It would be nice if someone could explain wtf this thing is and why i should care that its now available in website form. Article and summary are identically hollow.

    People cant see what its capable of. Fine, but unless you have an amazon account you cant summarize it either? we have to "see" it, it is so great that it cannot possibly be put into words?

    --
    As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
    1. Re:ELi5 by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Go to amazon.com

      Type "echo" in the search box.

      Press enter.

  17. Not On Safari by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesn't support Safari on Mac

  18. Requires an account just for a demo? by marcle · · Score: 1

    I don't think so. Why would I give up a bunch of personal data, or alternately jump thru a bunch of anonymizing hoops, just to try your new product (which aside from the gee-whiz factor isn't something that I would use much)?

    If they want to suck me in for purposes of peddling my data, they've got to sweeten the bait a little better than that.

  19. So adverting it on TV by Stan92057 · · Score: 1

    Whats wrong with TV adverting?lol infomercials.or any adverting.isn't that what good companys that make great product do. Or are they scared?

    --
    Jack of all trades,master of none
  20. Chrome plugin... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Chrome already has a very nice Echo Detector plugin for their browser.

  21. BEWARE: Phony website! Credentials in Danger! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want to know why this site is hosted on a .io domain -- it's because it's not really Amazon. It's an attempt to get at your Amazon account information and access your credit card. I presume this is supposed to be some osrt of coup for someone to prove Slasdot users are dumb enough to buy into it.

  22. Not long ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    near from where I live (I'm in Berlin, I just have to look out of the window), people got this kind of thing as a present from the state: while out shopping (you had to invest some time into that, back then), some friendly state agents came into your flat, deployed one or several small Amazon Echos -- uh -- bugs, fixed the wallpaper (those were wired back then: no WiFi), left.

    All paid by the State! Ahhh, socialism.

    Nowadays you have to pay yourself for those bugs. O tempora.