Windows 10 'Home Hub' Is Microsoft's Response To Amazon Echo and Google Home (mashable.com)

Microsoft's response to the Amazon Echo and Google Home is Home Hub, a software update for Windows 10's Cortana personal assistant that turns any Windows PC into a smart speaker of sorts. Mashable reports: Microsoft's smart digital assistant Cortana can already answer your queries, even if the PC's screen is locked. The Home Hub is tied to Cortana and takes this a few steps further. It would add a special app with features such as calendar appointments, sticky notes and shopping lists. A Home Hub-enabled PC might have a Welcome Screen, a full-screen app that displays all these, like a virtual fridge door. Multiple users (i.e. family members) could use the Home Hub, either by authenticating through Windows Hello or by working in a family-shared account. Cortana would get more powerful on Home Hub; it could, for example, control smart home devices, such as lights and locks. And even though all of this will work on any Windows 10 device -- potentially making the PC the center of your smart home experience -- third-party manufacturers will be able to build devices that work with Home Hub. You can read Windows Central's massive report here. Do note that Home Hub is not official and individual features could change over time. The update is slated for 2017.

Comments

your privacy for some magic beans

[rmdingler]

Yes. You can turn on the sprinkler system without a valve, a time clock or even the effort of a button push.

Those old ways were completely exhausting.

Re:your privacy for some magic beans

[thegarbz]

Not exhausting, expensive, and sometimes bad.

I replaced my sprinkler system with a smart automated one after the second time I flooded the neighbour's yard due to forgetting to turn it off. It also paid for itself in not wasting water or killing plants that shouldn't have been submerged. Something doesn't need to be exhausting to be replaced. How about smart thermostats that turn the heating off when they know you're not home? How about lights that you can turn on anywhere preventing you from either rolling your ankle in the dark or spending lots of money to put in a dual switch?

The only thing exhausting is people's attitudes.

Re:your privacy for some magic beans

[Xest]

I thought the Echo Dot would be a fun thing to play with so I got them whilst they were cheap during Black Friday fortnight or however long they've managed to drag it out for now. I read that you can even order food through apps like Just Eat, but when I first used it I didn't really know you had to ask specific Just Eat commands.

So imagine how disturbed I was when I said "Alexa, I'd like to order some food", and she replied "From your order history, I can see that you have ordered 12kg Dog Food. Is this what you want?". I shouted no, and I she repeated the same thing (I guess because we ordered the dogs different flavours they were treated as different products).

This is what they think of us, they think we should eat dog food, their path to making us subservient has already begun. I hope you like dried chicken and rice smooshed into brown dry kibbles, because it's all we're apparently going to be eating when they take over given that they apparently already view us as mere dogs.

Re:And it will be indtalled and enabled automatica

[jfdavis668]

All your appliances will stop working until you locate the latest driver.

First question ...

[fahrbot-bot]

Microsoft's smart digital assistant Cortana can already answer your queries, even if the PC's screen is locked.

Cortana. How do I break into this locked PC?

Honestly

[Anonymous Coward]

These devices are totally not going to be spying on you 24/7.

Re:Honestly

[youngone]

I wouldn't be worried about this anyway. Microsoft are just going through the motions with this.

Amazon and Google have put a bit of thought it, even if the idea is totally creepy if you really think about it, but Microsoft have just panicked (as they do) and announced a thing which won't work properly and no-one wants.

Actually, as I wrote that the thought came to me that maybe it's someone at Microsoft who remembers the days when if Microsoft announced their version of something that another company had already produced, the other companies' product died completely.

I mean those days are long gone, but it's a thought.

Re:Honestly

[WaffleMonster]

And do you know why MS is so successful? It's because users do not run OS's they run applications.

The vast majority of people have no problem with MS automatically pushing bug and security related fixes to their machine.

Interesting contradiction. The OS isn't important. Then comes assertion people have no problem being constantly harassed to update and then reboot their operating systems when all they care about is their applications? How does this even make sense?

Updates are widely seen as an annoyance or even harmful hence Microsoft's misguided attempt to strong arm people into having no choice. Especially as they turn the screws on transforming their customers into products we can't have people making their own decisions.

They have no problem with the anonymous telemetry being sent to MS.

In the same way people have no problem when criminals covertly case their homes without their knowledge.

I still don't see why people are upset with anonymous telemetry being communicated back to MS. Maybe they don't know what "anonymous" means.

Here is a little thought experiment for those who don't "get it". Would you accept someone sitting in a parked car in the morning waiting for you to leave your house then following you to work. When you walk across the street they are right behind you following your every move and recording everything you do? I have a feeling the response from most people would be either to call the police or get into a fist fight. The only difference between that and what tech companies are doing to users enmasse is stealth.

The top search engines use your online presence in order to feed you customized adds and links. To do this they need to capture and store enough information on me in order to target my user Id. Every corporation and telecommunication firm are in possession of quite a bit of your personal information of one type or another and to me that is a worse than anything MS might be doing.

"They do it too" isn't a justification it is an excuse. No more coherent an argument than attempting to justify a speeding ticket before a judge by pointing out the guy in front of you was going much faster asserting you shouldn't have to pay because he got away scott free.

What is even worse about this argument is that it is 100% backwards. People can chose to visit a website or not. They can elect to run software to mask their activities, encipher their communications and take other measures to protect themselves. If your own computer is always actively working against you even when you are not doing anything "online" then your fucked no matter what. It is a much more serious matter than any big content/advertising company or telecom.

There are some very intelligent people who work for MS and underestimating them is nonsense. In the beginning IBM grossly underestimated MS and ended losing control of an OS that earned MS billions in sales.

It doesn't matter how intelligent you are. The only thing that matters is what you accomplish. Technology is driven by hard work way more than it is driven by intellect.

Wow are people this transparent?

[GodfatherofSoul]

Do people have no concept of privacy anymore? It's bad enough my DVD player wants my wifi password and my TV wants to be "smart" e.g. piping my conversations out ot the internet, but now people are actually BUYING devices solely for the purpose of eavesdropping?

Years back the government withdrew the concept of Total Information Awareness. Really, all they did was figure out a surreptitious way to accomplish the same thing.

Clippy + Roomba

[Tablizer]

...what could possibly go wrong?

Re:Clippy + Roomba

[Opportunist]

Now you can have something that annoys you while freaking out your cat at the same time.

Great...

[Drethon]

how do I permanently disable it?

Re:I want a personal AI assistant without internet

[Opportunist]

What I recommend? Get off your lazy ass and turn on the fucking light the old fashioned way, dammit!

Re:Amazon Echo

[lgw]

You guys should really get more easily distinguishable UIDs. 110010001000 does nothing but troll, while 0100010001010011 seems innocuous enough.

I'll stick with 1001001 myself (possibly the most clever Rush lyric).

Re:Microsoft for the win!

[hyades1]

Get a lobotomy and buy a gun.

All will become clear.

Home Hub? That name will change

[duguk]

Yeah, that name will be changing.

BT (British Telecom) in the UK already make a Home Hub.

Also "Home Hub" is allegedly already trademarked by Apple.