Slashdot Mirror
Amazon Just Announced the Touchscreen Echo Nobody Asked For (gizmodo.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Amazon just announced a new grandmaster Echo gadget with the company's voice-assistant technology built in. It's called the Echo Show. It's got a touchscreen. It's got wi-fi and Bluetooth. It costs $230. And it's even creepier than its siblings. At its core, the Echo Show is just a regular Echo with a 7-inch screen. That screen lets you watch YouTube videos and see the weather forecast after you've asked for it. The new gadget also lets you make calls, video calls, and send text messages to other people using Echos or to mobile devices with the Alexa app installed. Thanks to Alexa integration with gadgets from Arlo and Ring, you can also see what your nanny cam sees. But check this out: the Echo Show also has a 5-megapixel, front-facing camera. So now, instead of your Echo just listening to your commands, it can watch you as well. The Echo Show joins the screen-free Echo Look as the second Amazon Echo device to feature a camera. On a sidenote, Amazon said it will bring the voice-calling ability to all other Echo devices.
We need a TV sized Echo with display so we can call it Telescreen.
Everyone needs one, at least all party members.
It's funny, Back as far as the 1960s we saw previews for video phones, but reaction has almost always been flat. Initially it certainly would have been expensive, but had video phones become popular the sheer economy of scale probably would have brought prices down.
The only time I've seen video phones regularly used has been in the workplace, and basically as a test/pilot. Instead of conventional VOIP voice-only phones, a few employees were provided with models that could also do video. Even with this capability though, it's pretty rare that video conveys any additional useful information compared to just audio. Both callers are acquainted with the other so it's not like it's some kind of get-to-know-you exercise, and often the brief phone call is there to clarify something that was discussed by e-mail, where it's simpler to have the back-and-forth exchange to quickly clarify the matter.
The home might actually be a better medium for video chat, especially for loved-ones that are long-distance to each other and rarely get to see each other, but in the home the use of the video call requires the parties to maintain the level of decency that they feel is appropriate for being seen, while audio-only doesn't have that restriction. That's before even considering the privacy issues.
We've had laptops with the capability for a decade, we've had broadband market penetration for fifteen years, but apparently people don't want to appear on-camera to other people or else they want control more than the vendors are willing to provide.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
I suspect the people who think it's a great idea to have an always-on microphone in their house will not suddenly start objecting just because a camera is added to the device.
#DeleteChrome
My 12 year old son thinks talking computers are the bomb. He always asks if we can get an Echo or a Google Home whenever he sees the commercials. If he gets ahold of an iPhone, he will go to town asking Siri questions. It's his default method of looking things up.
(No, he doesn't have his own phone, and no I don't encourage and actively discourage it so much my wife thinks I'm an asshole about it).
I always explain that these things are always listening and it's like having a stranger in our house listening to everything we say. Totally not OK.
But I think their real goal isn't adults who were raised reading 1984 in school. It's kids, who think that talking to corporate electronic systems is normal and have no sense of electronic privacy.
I'm pretty sure the primary motivation for putting in a touchscreen is that the Echo is really limited with a voice-only interface. For anything complicated, it tells you to use their linked App.
For example, it can add something (approximating what) you said to a shopping list or to-do list, but it cannot remove them. for that you need to go to the App.
It can't handle questions or requests with more than one result. For example, it can play a song by name, but God help you if the library contains multiple covers, different songs of the same name, or just lacks the song altogether. ("No, I do not want the Rockabye Baby interpretation of 'Stairway to Heaven'; no one wants that.")
It is also incapable of introspection, since everything goes out to a server. You'd think it would be able to answer basic questions like "Alexa, what's your MAC address" out of the box, at least enough to get you a connection to said server. (It still can't answer it once you connect to a server.)
Adding a screen could in theory fix these problems. It also demonstrates a willingness to completely ignore everything that's wrong with the product's signature feature, voice control. If Amazon can't actually fix those problems at some point, it will lose big to Apple and Google. For that matter, since it's nothing more than a crappy command line interface, I'm surprised the Microsoft hasn't killed it already.
It just fits with Slashdot's history of technology predictions.
iPod: The MP3 player nobody asked for.
iPhone: The phone nobody asked for.
Amazon AWS: The server service nobody asked for.
Amazon Echo: The device nobody asked for.
Tesla: The electric car nobody asked for.
that nobody asked for
Actually, the CIA asked.
Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a 747 filled with CD-ROMs.