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Amazon Said to Plan Premium Alexa Speaker With Large Screen (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the change-in-plans dept.

Amazon's Echo speakers have garnered a lot of interest over the past few months. Many people believe that they like Amazon Echo because of how easy it's to operate -- there is no display, you talk with Alexa, Amazon's digital assistant, which is reasonably good at understanding your queries. But in what seems like a deviation from the idea that made Echos so popular, Amazon is reportedly working on an Echo-like speaker, only this time it is more premium and has a 7-inch display, too. From a report on Bloomberg: The new device will have a touchscreen measuring about seven inches, a major departure from Amazon's existing cylindrical home devices that are controlled and respond mostly through the company's voice-based Alexa digital assistant, according to two people familiar with the matter. This will make it easier to access content such as weather forecasts, calendar appointments, and news, the people said. The latest Amazon speaker will be larger and tilt upwards so the screen can be seen when it sits on a counter and the user is standing, one of the people said.

84 comments

  1. yea what could possibly go wrong??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You have a crazy CEO that has eugenics on his brain, wanting to come into your living room. yep nothing to see here, move along.

    1. Re: yea what could possibly go wrong??? by backslashdot · · Score: 1

      Funny. We know that it's you guys in the alt right that pretend to work yourselves up about eugenics even though you want basically the same thing but through genocide. Bezos has never favored eugenics -- you know it, I know it. What's your game man? About surveillance, why don't you ask your soon to be government not to expand surveillance like many in the incoming cabinet have said they lwant to do.

    2. Re: yea what could possibly go wrong??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Perhaps you should reorganize your thoughts on what keeps life from happening, and what kills it, then go back and look at the bezo's family donations. Then ask how he got to be a VP so young in walstreet, then how he managed to keep Amazon afloat while it lost money hand over first for 10+ years.

      Then link it back to where he is poluting the news with fake news with WPO, then perhaps look at the other ones around him he is standing with, your lack of imagination and only in the box view seems to limit you. Your thinking way to small, ask why bill gates was banned with vaccines in Russia for example? What is his game plan, also another eugenics guy?

      This isn't one guy doing it, this is organized crime at the elite level.

      Good luck, I suggest you start with googling Pizza gate and Haitian orphanages.

      You are thinking to small.

    3. Re: yea what could possibly go wrong??? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Where do you get that the anonymous coward is alt-right?

      It's usually the left worried about corporations over-extending and abusing the rights of its consumers.

      Or now that a republican is back in office is it corporations evil than government?

    4. Re: yea what could possibly go wrong??? by tripleevenfall · · Score: 1

      alt-right is just a generic insult that doesn't mean anything anymore. It's a way to play certain cards while avoiding the stigma of being someone who pulls those same cards in every discussion.

  2. What could I possibly use it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Like all Alexa, utterly pointless.

    1. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by ickleberry · · Score: 2

      The idea is that you use it for giving Jeff Bezos more money

    2. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by slaker · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've bought pretty much all my audio CDs from Amazon (well, CDNow, originally) since about 1997. I buy a lot of music on disc. Turns out it's kind of hard to pirate contemporary classical music. In any case, I had a massive library of content available through Amazon's Cloud starting from the day they announced that everyone's music purchases would be put in there. That stuff just plays through the Dot. That's kind of great, really. I say "Alexa, play Kevin Puts And Legions Will Rise" and Kevin Puts plays. "Alexa, play Pandora; Alexa and set a sleep timer for 30 minutes." and I get a half hour of music random music.

      Something else that's great? "Alexa, give me a news briefing" No more timing my shower so I catch the news at the top of the hour while I'm getting ready for work.

      I can do that stuff about 10 different ways in my house, but the voice activation is legitimately handy. Especially since it's one step closer to getting to be Deckard in the middle of Blade Runner. Easily worth $50, anyway.

      --
      -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    3. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by Nchantim · · Score: 1

      Like all Alexa, utterly pointless.

      Like all "Telephone" products, utterly pointless.

    4. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      I thought the same, and worse. Until I started caring for someone who is a quadraplegic. Dragon works on his laptop, but there are times where a "Heh, Alexa" fits in nicely.

      --
      I come here for the love
    5. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      I've bought pretty much all my audio CDs from Amazon (well, CDNow, originally) since about 1997

      That's the problem with this. It's only useful if you put your eggs in one basket. If it could connect to my NAS and index my ID3 tags and stream my own local library, that would be truly useful - I don't want to pay them to store music far away just to cost me more bandwidth.

    6. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by geekmux · · Score: 1

      I've bought pretty much all my audio CDs from Amazon (well, CDNow, originally) since about 1997. I buy a lot of music on disc. Turns out it's kind of hard to pirate contemporary classical music. In any case, I had a massive library of content available through Amazon's Cloud starting from the day they announced that everyone's music purchases would be put in there. That stuff just plays through the Dot. That's kind of great, really. I say "Alexa, play Kevin Puts And Legions Will Rise" and Kevin Puts plays. "Alexa, play Pandora; Alexa and set a sleep timer for 30 minutes." and I get a half hour of music random music.

      Something else that's great? "Alexa, give me a news briefing" No more timing my shower so I catch the news at the top of the hour while I'm getting ready for work.

      I can do that stuff about 10 different ways in my house, but the voice activation is legitimately handy. Especially since it's one step closer to getting to be Deckard in the middle of Blade Runner. Easily worth $50, anyway.

      A high-quality microphone that is always listening and voice recognition are useful right up to the point where they are used against you.

      Oh, what's that, version 2 of this hardware will give you video calling support? Gee, an always-on video camera...can't think of a better thing to pair with an always-on microphone.

      And people wonder why I still buy CDs to play in my old "dumb" hardware...

    7. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      Like all Pet Rocks, utterly pointless.

      / Pet Rocks are great for throwing at home invaders.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    8. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by NineNine · · Score: 1

      Wow. That's neat. In return for those cute little gimmicks, Amazon has a complete recording of everything that happens in your house. And, then they sell that to other companies. You're OK with that? Really?

    9. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by I4ko · · Score: 2

      You must be half deaf then, because the quality of the Alexa speaks for playing music is horrible. And you know what - the brain needs to have some rest. The instant gratification of doing 10 things at a time is nothing more than addiction. There is this concept called mindfulness, check it out, it really improves your life, though I'm afraid if your only spare time to get some news is in the shower, you may not have any. Stop giving in to all this BS all the corporations are trying to put you into. Take your time, think about what you do, live in the moment, not in 10 difference places in 10 different days somewhere in the next 6 months. Those corporate bastards can really do without the greed of ever increasing profits. The world will not end if there isn't "growth" for a day, for a month, or for a year.

    10. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The dot connects to your home entertainment center. Read before you insult asshat.

    11. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      He said he had a Dot, which can connect to external speakers.

    12. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by I4ko · · Score: 1

      It is interesting that after you mentioned it I had to scroll practically to the bottom of the Amazon product page to find that indeed the dot has 3.5mm jack. Definitely outside of the area I would look for that.

      It is not in the product photos on the top, but still there is no information for the DAC or if there is a toslink integrated into the 3.5mm jack. Amazon really failed marketing this properly at least to me.

      I've interacted with the original tall echo speaker and was really disappointed by that.

    13. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by kuzb · · Score: 1

      That's why I won't get an echo. I'll get a google home. This way I can cloud save my entire music collection without having to expressly buy it from google.

      --
      BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
    14. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      They actually do have sane free limits. However, they seem to "match" to deduplicate and use their own copy unless you manually make exceptions for each song...individually. And that's no good if you meticulously correct your metadata and add high-quality album art (or your preferred cover for an album with multiple releases).

      This problem also exists with Amazon and Apple, but at least with Google it's free.

    15. Re: What could I possibly use it for? by slaker · · Score: 1

      I pay $2/month on top of Prime for functionally unlimited (250,000 tracks) music storage. I'm ok with that. I also have a 144TB file server in my spare bedroom that has all the music I could ever dream of hearing on it and a bunch of Kodi devices where I can play content. But you you know what I can't do with that stuff? I can't talk to it and have it do something.

      --
      -- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
    16. Re: What could I possibly use it for? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      But you you know what I can't do with that stuff? I can't talk to it and have it do something.

      And that's because Amazon won't support that, not because they can't. And paying money to store something I already have stored is not something I will do no matter how cheap. I also have my own metadata entered and don't want it replaced with Amazon's, since they do matching and de-dup (maybe won't matter as much on a device with no GUI).

      I'm glad you have something that works for you and no one is taking that way from you. But most people don't want disparate walled garden silos. I would much rather buy things and have them work together via some sort of interoperability standard. For music, that can be as simple as standard file formats, ID3 tags and SMB. Or even DLNA support.

    17. Re: What could I possibly use it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can get the thing that works right now and hope for the bright future where I can just tell my A/V system to play the .FLAC files on my file server, or I can twiddle my thumbs and miss out on convenient music listening in places where I wouldn't normally have it, like my bathroom and my kitchen. I've been messing with Kodi and Plex clients and it sure is neat that I can direct output to one of those from my smartphone (e.g. through Music Pump remote for Android), but that's a long shot from having instant access to anything I can properly, verbally name.
      $2/month is barely a rounding error in comparison.

      People love walled gardens. Look at Apple and Facebook for all the examples you'd need.

      Metadata is an even sorer spot for me than it is for almost anyone, since I encounter "authoritative" sources (Discogs et al) with tons of incorrect data about the music I like, but as long as my personal files are correct and I have some idea how Amazon maps it in their system, I'll cope. This is not an argument we can win on anything but a personal level regardless; if Amazon or Discogs wants to credit an Album Artist to a conductor or ensemble instead of a composer and won't use a composer tag for anything useful, there's not a single damned thing I or we as consumers can do to change that. They aren't going to go back and fix those schemas when they're already working OK for 90% of the music they offer.

      slaker posting anon because public terminal

    18. Re:What could I possibly use it for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Dot's output is pretty much always going to be MP3 audio. It's not a high fidelity device. At the $50 price point, I don't care if it has optical output or not. I put them in my bathroom and kitchen, and another in my bedroom, where I often spend time reading. I connected all of them to moderately nice speaker systems that are appropriate for the space in question (my bedroom Dot is just run in to the line-in for my Desktop PC, which assuredly is connected to a quality AV system). In all cases, not having to haul out a mobile device or look at a screen to control audio is the enriching part of Amazon Dot ownership.

    19. Re: What could I possibly use it for? by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      They couldn't afford to offer the service at the price they do without de-duplication. That's what makes it feasible to offer so much storage for so little money - they're not actually storing anywhere near the number of bits that they appear to be storing.

  3. A tablet? by OzPeter · · Score: 1

    Did Amazon just invent a tablet?

    --
    I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
    1. Re:A tablet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They invented a telescreen. Smith! Yes, you! Bend lower!

    2. Re:A tablet? by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Did Amazon just invent a tablet?

      Sounds more like the tablet equivalent of an old fashioned console TV.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
    3. Re:A tablet? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Did Amazon just invent a tablet?

      A future version promises the ability to call people, and be small enough to fit in your pocket.

  4. speaker with screen by l3v1 · · Score: 1

    So it will be a 7" tablet with a huge speaker bulging at its back :) great design choice :) So, just thinking here, if you were to release a 7" regular tablet with all Alexa functions that could connect to a bluetooth speaker, so you could put the tablet and the speaker wherever you please, now, by all means, that would be the most revolutionary product ever :)

    Now the only thing left to try to decode is what the freaking hell "this time it is more premium" means. Maybe they will make a less premium, a premium, a more premium and a supremely premium version, and maybe the latter will have a 60" screen with speakers on it that you could watch from your couch.

    Gee, so many possibilities for innovation here, your head just keeps spinning :P

    --
    I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
  5. Another spam ad by 110010001000 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The Amazon Echo is not popular, even though all these fake "articles" obliquely claim that it is (always in passing of course). Of course some guy will say "oh I have seen tons of them in peoples houses". Sure you have. Just like the Microsoft Surface is supposedly everywhere, but no one has actually seen one outside of a store.

    1. Re:Another spam ad by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      If you notice fewer and fewer relevant stories are making it onto the front page of slashdot and the firehose is largely full of shit (Not that it hasn't always been). I think we're starting to see the beginnings of SlashDot's death spiral

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    2. Re:Another spam ad by garcia · · Score: 1, Informative

      I am not a shill and I have a Tap because a friend of my had an Echo and I loved it, mostly b/c I use Prime Music a ton and my young kids can easily interact w/the device to play what they want. Several of my friends have purchased the devices after using mine.

      I mean, popular? No, not nearly as much as Amazon may like you to believe; however, they are pretty great devices for what they are and I think the recognition software is world's better than Siri (which, IMO, is completely and utterly useless and I never use on my Mac or phone).

      By all means, be skeptical, however it doesn't mean they're not being used by people and they're not any good.

    3. Re:Another spam ad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you know how many times I've heard about how /. is failing.... since nearly the beginning.

      stfu and foad.

    4. Re:Another spam ad by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Don't be "that guy".

    5. Re:Another spam ad by garcia · · Score: 1

      So very sorry that as an active user of the devices my experience is counter to your opinion.

    6. Re: Another spam ad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those surface books are everywhere. Stop by a college campus. They're about as popular as MacBooks.

    7. Re:Another spam ad by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Nah, there is always "that guy" who has one and knows "lots of others" that has them too. I mentioned that in my OP.

    8. Re:Another spam ad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know two people with Echo's in their house and just ordered one myself. Not sure I will like it but the $140 was low enough I was willing to risk getting it to find out.

      I have two guys with Surface tablets sitting within 10 feet of me while typing this in my cube. They both have company issued iPads available but use Surface devices they paid for themselves instead.

      Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they don't exist. Just as I can't assume they are prevalent because I know people with them.

    9. Re:Another spam ad by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      Uh, well, from what I've seen iPhone is not popular, Android users outnumbering em at least 15:1.

      Or maybe anecdotal, personal samples are not representative? I've seen a Surface and an Echo up close outside a store.

    10. Re:Another spam ad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've seen them start popping up in conversations; I see them on countertops. Vaguely considered it a few years ago when the 99 echo was offered to prime members. Didn't bite, definitely didn't bite at the final retail price. Didn't consider it before the dot, but now that I can integrate with existing stuff. I am tempted. Not yet sold, but tempted. Almost picked one up for $40 yesterday.

    11. Re:Another spam ad by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      I have seen plenty of Surfaces in the wild. I even recently spotted a DJ using a Surface Book rather than a computer with a glowing fruit on the back.

    12. Re:Another spam ad by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      15:1 is not accurate overall, though I can't say what your personal sample looks like. Worldwide Apple has about 15% of the smartphone market, which makes it a bit less than 7:1 Android. In the US, Apple has about 40% of the market; 52% is Android and the rest is all other platforms (Windows Phone, people still hanging on to their BlackBerry).

    13. Re:Another spam ad by Shane_Optima · · Score: 1

      That's my entire point. I knew the correct figure was somewhere between 1/2 and 1/3 in America, but since my circle of friends and family is mostly a mixture of Apple-hating geeks and relatively poor people (and also I told my family early on that they are getting zero tech support from me if they choose to buy Apple products), my own personal experience is skewed.

      So, if the binary guy (10010110 whatever) wants to smugly pretend that the world revolves around his own personal life experience instead of looking for sales figures for the Surface or Echo, that's his prerogative, but he should be called out on it.

  6. Kitchen device by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OK, so I get some of the ridicule I see here on this. I have a feeling Amazon is going for that "kitchen" market. (I don't know whether that market actually exists BTW but people do keep trying to target it). This is the market for people who want to see recipes on a screen but whose fingers are dirty from working on said recipe and can then say "Alexa, next page please" or something. Again, not sure this market exists but it seems to be the target.

    1. Re:Kitchen device by jabuzz · · Score: 1

      Right so how exactly is this different from a Fire 7" tablet, and perhaps a Bluetooth speaker nearby? Well other than having a bigger speaker in an integrated unit that is.

    2. Re:Kitchen device by omnichad · · Score: 1

      There IS a kitchen market. I currently have speakers in my kitchen that I connect to an iPod, with the eventual plan of a Pi with a touch screen taking its place. Cutting vegetables or stirring a pan can get boring. I do hate using a phone for research/recipes because I constantly have to unlock it and turn the screen back on.

      However, their product is not going to catch on. They're making yet another walled garden in a post-AOL world. If it doesn't connect to your other gadgets and the home tech ecosystem, it's just not as relevant as it could be.

    3. Re:Kitchen device by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Screen stays on, wall power. Always-active voice control. I can see a use for something like this, but I can't see a use for the way Amazon wants to do it.

    4. Re:Kitchen device by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      Alexa DOES connect to your home tech ecosystem. There are Alexa skills for controlling a lot of home automation products. Currently, it is the most capable of the voice assistant products in that regard, though Google intends to catch up.

    5. Re:Kitchen device by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Key word being products. Not DLNA / SMB / HLS or any standard streaming / file access / media sharing standards. Only if it's a retail standalone product.

    6. Re:Kitchen device by omnichad · · Score: 1

      And also, it's hard to call cloud-based hardware "home tech." Amazon's devices aren't connecting to devices on your LAN directly at all.

  7. Good Digital assistants? by Script+Cat · · Score: 1

    I haven't tried them. Are any of these particularly useful? Will they act as hands free interfaces while driving? Can they truly parse human language? If I ask it how much a ten inch by ten inch by ten inch cube of water weighs, can it put together an answer?

    1. Re:Good Digital assistants? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Siri and Cortana work. Alexa not so good.

    2. Re:Good Digital assistants? by Script+Cat · · Score: 1

      Or better yet, ask it whether there's a way to reduce the total entropy on the universe.

    3. Re:Good Digital assistants? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty much the opposite, you shill

    4. Re:Good Digital assistants? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Android's combined with Android Auto (in a car that supports it, or now with your phone if you have it mounted) is pretty good. No, it can't parse human language at all. It's like playing King's Quest by voice. There's a dictionary of set commands and some variation in syntax allowed. It's not without its bugs, but it's really useful in the car. One physical touch to play a voicemail/text/hangouts/facebook message, and you can reply by voice, including punctuation (if you want), and verify before sending. Navigating, finding a stop along a route, are nearly hands-free - but often still require a single touch to verify the correct choice on the screen.

      The tech you want is barely available in something like Watson, but it's here. It's just a matter of cost to give it to the consumer for a reasonable price. What we have now is finally useful, at least.

    5. Re:Good Digital assistants? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      Cortana and Siri work. Alexa not so good. Better?

    6. Re:Good Digital assistants? by RoccamOccam · · Score: 1

      My question is - is the task of making a digital assistant so difficult that only large corporations can do it? I'm really amazed that there isn't a reasonably powerful, speaker-independent, non-cloud-based, digital assistant program available for a PC where the audio is processed locally.

    7. Re:Good Digital assistants? by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      There is things like Dragon Naturally but you need a big database on the "cloud" to get any useful replies to queries.

  8. Non-native English? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So is msmash one of them furriners? He literally posted "because of how easy it's to operate".

  9. And after that.... by tekrat · · Score: 1

    The next iteration after that will feature a keyboard and a pointing device! Amazon will eventually take us back to using a desktop computer.

    --
    If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
    1. Re:And after that.... by TheFakeTimCook · · Score: 1

      The next iteration after that will feature a keyboard and a pointing device! Amazon will eventually take us back to using a desktop computer.

      No, the next iteration will feature a CAMERA.

      Think about it.

  10. Echo is a top 5 Electronics Purchase In Our House by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm surprised by the negativity in these /. posts. Do you all own an Amazon Echo? I can honestly say that the Echo in our kitchen gets more use than our TV's and and Stereos. So if I were to rank our non-work related tech usage by hours each day:

    1) iPhones (of course)
    2) Laptops and iPads
    3) Amazon Echo
    4) TV's
    5) Various CD/MP3/Radio/Stereo players

    We use the Echo for music, news, kitchen timers, weather, podcasts, jokes, etc. I probably use the "flash news briefing" the most, followed by playing music. When you are cooking, the hands free control over your media is really important. e.g. "Alexa Pause", "Alexa set a timer for 10 minutes", "Alexa Louder", "Alexa Skip", "Alexa Play Pandora Fallout Boy", "Alexa how many tablespoons are in a cup", etc.

    The Echo gets things "right" where Siri doesn't because Amazon focused on specific use cases and made sure they worked properly. I haven't had a single house guest who did not want an Echo after seeing it in action while we cooked dinner.

  11. A Speaker? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's call it what it is. A microphone.

  12. Re:Echo is a top 5 Electronics Purchase In Our Hou by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    Straight out of the marketing materials. Seriously, who needs to do that while cooking? You marketing people need to join the real world.

  13. Big Brother is watching you! by Daetrin · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I like how this got posted right next to the article about UK legalizing mass surveillance. Between the government on one side and consumerism on the other we may yet get to 1984!

    --
    This Space Intentionally Left Blank
  14. I'd love to know the point of these things by DrXym · · Score: 1

    It's basically a glorified bluetooth speaker costing 5x as much as some others. Oh and it does a bunch of other things that can be done much better by other means.

    1. Re:I'd love to know the point of these things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's basically a glorified bluetooth speaker costing 5x as much as some others. Oh and it does a bunch of other things that can be done much better by other means.

      I bought one for my bedroom to replace a bluetooth speaker. I was so impressed I bought another one for the kitchen. If you listen to radio streamed from the internet or music from the cloud then it is worth it to not have to screw around with finding your phone, pairing a speaker, opening the right app and tapping until it plays what you want. I just ask and it does it.

      To answer your question, the point is it makes finding information and listening to media much more convenient. The bunch of other things that can be done much better by other means can still be done by other means.

    2. Re:I'd love to know the point of these things by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      You must really like hearing about Trump. WTF is with this need to be updated on 'news' every few minutes when it's the same shit that the media has been chomping on for the past month?

      Or perhaps you're just an Amazon marketing bot. In which case, carry on....

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    3. Re:I'd love to know the point of these things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You don't have to listen to the mainstream media, there are many other news sources available. Being ignorant of what is happening in the world is a choice. But hey, it's up to you.

  15. So boring. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just put Alexa in a fucking TV and be done with it.

  16. Not a problem by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    That's the problem with this. It's only useful if you put your eggs in one basket

    Nope. Amazon is perfectly agreeable with you downloading the music you buy as well as making it available for you to stream via the dot and sister devices. They make it trivially easy.

    You can do whatever you like with your music as purchased from Amazon. I download everything I buy. There's even a bulk-download capability. it's awesome.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Not a problem by omnichad · · Score: 1

      They make it trivially easy.

      If you pay for the storage and put it in their basket. If you own CDs or MP3s from elsewhere, you must pay to store it with them - you can't stream it locally.

  17. Test... tickle. Is this mic on? by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    A high-quality microphone that is always listening and voice recognition are useful right up to the point where they are used against you.

    Oh, you mean that smartphone you've been carrying in your pocket for years now? That high quality microphone? That voice-recognition? That always-on connection to the world?

    The Echo and Amazon brethren are the least of our problems here. Also, as currently implemented, these devices recognize their names locally, and then talks to the world. I have watched the network traffic quite carefully -- that's how it works. For now, anyway.

    I'm considerably more concerned with the smartphones. They're much more powerful, and the concern I have isn't so much what a corporation might do with my speech (try to sell me somehting?), but what the government might do with it. Because generally, a corporation can dangle temptation, but a government can do you direct and consequential harm.

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Test... tickle. Is this mic on? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not everyone feels the need to carry a cell phone with them. I use one for work, and that's it.

    2. Re:Test... tickle. Is this mic on? by dpidcoe · · Score: 1

      The thing with phones is that if they start doing something they're not supposed to (e.g. running GPS or listening to the microphone when not asked), the limited resources of a phone make it pretty obvious pretty fast. Anyone who's accidentally left a navigation app navigating or a streaming app streaming can attest to this. An app on your phone acting badly will stick out like a sore thumb in the form of higher than normal resource usage. Even real-world cases of malware have had this problem out in the wild. Remember that one blackberry virus that was supposed to be able to spread by proximity during the olympics a few years back? If my memory serves me correctly, it basically amounted to the infected persons phone dieing in a matter of hours due to the radio constantly transmitting, and spread to a number of people counted in the double digits despite being released into a crowd of millions.

      The problem with a plugged in device is that it has no such limitations. It can suddenly decide to start logging all audio and you'd never notice the increased power draw. Most peoples home internet is unmetered and much faster than they'll ever need, so it could upload data without anyone noticing. It's large and not in contact with your body 16/7, so it could be running its processor full blast to farm bitcoins using your electricity and you'd be less likely to notice the increased heat. And even if you do pay attention, it's in a consistent enough environment and has enough spare processing power that it could probably monitor things like network traffic and local activity in order to perform nefarious acts only when you're not liable to notice.

    3. Re:Test... tickle. Is this mic on? by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      Corporations can also do you direct and consequential harm. #1 on the list is credit bureaus. Putting a bit of disinformation in your credit report can make it impossible for you to open a bank account, get a credit card (which also blocks you from doing a bunch of things like renting a car), or get a job. Max Headroom (the TV series) predicted it back in 1987 - episode 4, "Security Systems".

  18. Here's the best use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What they should put on this device is an avatar. Like the naked news, everything is better when spoken by a sexy avatar. Real or otherwise.

    And a touchscreen... well, the use is obvious, isn't it?

  19. Re:Echo is a top 5 Electronics Purchase In Our Hou by sexconker · · Score: 1

    "Alexa Play Pandora Fallout Boy", "Alexa how many tablespoons are in a cup"

    I'm struggling to figure out which of these two is the more retarded request.

  20. Re:Echo is a top 5 Electronics Purchase In Our Hou by Gilgaron · · Score: 1

    I do all that with my phone while I'm cooking... but I don't need another device because I do all that with my phone.

  21. Why Not a Larger Screen Kindle Instead? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would pay up to $500 for a larger screen (e-ink) Kindle from Amazon or Oreilly Safari Books Online.

    Tablets just aren't as easy on the eyes, especially for those of us staring at LCD all day.

    The current Kindle screens are too small for textbooks.

    1. Re:Why Not a Larger Screen Kindle Instead? by Shirley+Marquez · · Score: 1

      The main obstacle to making such a thing isn't Amazon. It's that there isn't a big enough market for large e-ink displays to create a mass market for them. As a result, the displays are very expensive, and the result is that such an e-reader is too expensive to be popular.

      Another problem is the lack of color. Many current textbooks use a lot of it.

      Finally, there is the competition from tablets. If a large e-reader costs as much as a Microsoft Surface, most people will buy the Surface instead because it does more. People can justify an additional $100 device like a Kindle Paperwhite, but fewer can justify an additional $500 or $1000 device.

      My guess is that a large e-reader would have to sell for $250 or less to have a chance of widespread success. Currently it is impossible to hit that price point because the display costs too much. And until a large e-reader or some other product creates significant demand for large e-ink screens, the display will always cost too much.

  22. Intgeration of Alexa and FireTV softwares instead by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They should work on improving the integration of Echo and FireTV instead. As noted during first release exclusively to prime customers, the device is not worth more than $99 and had Dot have an HDMI out to play HD content on 5.1 speakers, it would have been worth $50 or FireTV stick had the mic integrated into the device instead of the remote and then no need to use the remote.

  23. IoT Prank by kackle · · Score: 1

    Oh man, have I been waiting for something like this... Guys, if you're at someone's home with one of these gizmos, try to get alone with it, then: "Hey dumb box, order me 50 pounds of cat food, overnight it...every month, from now on..."