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Slashdot Asks: Which Smart Speaker Do You Prefer?
Every tech company wants to produce a smart speaker these days. Earlier this month, Apple finally launched the HomePod, a smart speaker that uses Siri to answer basic questions and play music via Apple Music. In December, Google released their premium Google Home Max speaker that uses the Google Assistant and Google's wealth of knowledge to play music, answer questions, set reminders, and so on. It may be the most advanced smart speaker on the market as it has the hardware capable of playing high fidelity audio, and a digital assistant that can perform over one million actions. There is, however, no denying the appeal of the Amazon Echo, which is powered by the Alexa digital assistant. Since it first made its debut in late 2014, it has had more time to develop its skill set. Amazon says Alexa controls "tens of millions of devices," including Windows 10 PCs.
A new report from The Guardian, citing the industry site MusicAlly, says that Spotify is working on a line of "category defining" hardware products "akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles." The streaming music company has posted an ad for a senior product manager to "define the product requirements for internet connected hardware [and] the software that powers it." With Spotify looking to launch a smart speaker in the not-too-distant-future, the decision to purchase a smart speaker has become all the more difficult. Do you own a smart speaker? If so, which device do you own and why? Do you see a clear winner, or can they all satisfy your basic needs?
A new report from The Guardian, citing the industry site MusicAlly, says that Spotify is working on a line of "category defining" hardware products "akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles." The streaming music company has posted an ad for a senior product manager to "define the product requirements for internet connected hardware [and] the software that powers it." With Spotify looking to launch a smart speaker in the not-too-distant-future, the decision to purchase a smart speaker has become all the more difficult. Do you own a smart speaker? If so, which device do you own and why? Do you see a clear winner, or can they all satisfy your basic needs?
She's the only one that delivers me booze, food and any stuff I want.
The others just change the channel, change the volume and turn off the lights.
Don't need speakers that eavesdrop on me. If I want that I'll use a microphone.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Why the hell would I want something so Orwellian in my home? Cellphones are bad enough.
NT
Hi wiretap! Here's everything about my life!
These devices do not "satisfy your basic needs". That phrase makes absolutely no sense for new technology. That implies we were all not able to survive before the advent of "smart" speakers.
Now, get off my lawn.
Personally, I am a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Any moron that cannot figure out you could buy a solar panel and battery bank for the amount they spend on this frivolous shit...it is just mind boggling how people cannot truly understand the worth of things in relation to how it improves your life and well being of yourself and your family.
Do you know how much food you could get for that amount? Do you know how long you could go paying your rent with what 1 of these idiotic speakers cost?
What the holy hell is wrong with peoples brains that they would do something so insanely stupid. The value to cost ratio is beyond out of whack.
And for what? A speaker? You can get almost the exact same sound quality for 50$ from a pawn shop, most of the people who are doing this are doing it to show it off as a set piece for socializing other than that it probably just collects dust. The waste....
I remember a sci-fi story where earth is devastated, aliens arrive to help and deliver technology to help around the house and improve their lives. The people tear it apart in secret out of the aliens eyes so they can build little miniature replicas to show off to each other while their children starve. The aliens eventually just stop sending shit because they realize they are just furthering the existence of a bunch of morons.
'nuff said.
-Chris
I'm not as stupid as I look. I refuse to let Google, Amazon, Apple, or anyone put a smart speaker into my home without a FISA warrant. Christ, are people really dumb enough to pay any of these dick companies to spy on them?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Every sound I make in the privacy of my home instantly recorded and stored in perpetuity on both Amazon servers and Bluffdale Utah.
I can do without the rather trivial QoL features it offers.
Explain why I would want to replace my current speakers with a smart speaker.
Normally I would say none, but I was impressed by the voice interface for my Amazon fire stick (although it fails on my accent every now and again). At least with this device you have to press a physical button in order to activate it. (Of course I could be paranoid and think that the button really does nothing at all)
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
Seriously, I'd prefer all my output devices be as stupid as digitally possible.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Richard Dawkins is certainly one of the best smart speaker.
Apple finally launched the HomePod,
Beau's italicized finally makes me think she waited in breathless anticipation, got all wet when it arrived, and took a dump when it wasn't all she expected.
Or maybe it was msmash. I care not.
The decision is as easy as it always was: Don't!
Seriously, after talking about the dangers of eavesdropping and the big brother, having the computer's camera covered, who would possibly pay money to have a permanently-connected microphone installed in their dwelling?
You may think, you can turn it off, but you can not be certain. If the criminals and intelligence agencies manage to break into your computer, why would they not break into your "smart speaker"? Police too may find it much easier to gain the cooperation of the device's manufacturer to listen on you, than to get a warrant and then wire your house without you noticing.
Just say no and control your music the old-fashioned way — as we all did only a few years ago.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
I like the technology and theoretically the sound quality of the HomePod and trust Apple more than other companies not to do anything with the audio from the device, and to treat security seriously enough it probably will not be hacked.
I like Alexa because it would be possibly useful for quick orders of random things that I don't need soon but end up forgetting to order. I also like they've opened the skill development SDK.
Google stuff I generally do not trust enough and it doesn't have enough benefits over the other two options to warrant consideration.
A last option I'm seriously considering though, is just getting a really nice set of speakers to put wherever I'd put a smart speaker, and then buy a box to make them AirPlay compatible (if they did not come that way already). Smart speakers are just over that line for me of a convenience I'm not sure I really care about, also why I do not have a smart thermostat yet (because I know how to program the existing older one to be about the temp I want at various times). The new set of nice compact speakers would probably be a lot cheaper than a stereo pair of smart speakers...
I'll probably try to hear all of the options in person somewhere before I make a choice on this one, I'm really particular with speakers as I don't care as much about about the low end as many people seem to.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I hate all voice command systems, and basically won't ever use any of them. I don't use them on phones, don't use them in cars, and sure as hell don't want one in my home. I imagine they might be useful or fun to some people, and that's great, but not to me.
None is the best by far! Clearly superior to having one.
... it's the smart microphone that is always listening the one I don't like.
It's just a matter of time until somebody gains unauthorized access to the microphone on one of those devices and starts recording every sound in your house. No way they are getting my secret lasagna sauce recipe.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
Keep your surveillance devices out of my house.
Can we mod articles troll? Asking THIS audience THAT question? Come on!
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
There's an OSS variant (probably several) which aren't given due attention in the article.
The Mycroft project currently listens locally for the watch word, and aggregates ALL of the subsequent queries as audio through a single source to the online engines like Google, Wolfram or others. This anonymizes a lot of what the engines could learn about individual users.
Their next stage is to expand on the local processing even more, so they will only be sharing plain text to the online engine third parties. This version is due in the first half of this year.
For me, the benefit is simple local Linux-based Python-based skill development. When my kid was young I would make a family computer into a sort of daily-schedule-keeper, announcing the daily tasks like bathtime or bedtime. I would ssh into the machine when my kid started having "conversations" with the computer. So now I can rebuild a little bit of that in my own personalized smart speaker.
[
I prefer a speaker that doesn't listen in my every conservation in the house. Shades of Big Brother.
I like putting smart speakers up my ass. The only problem is, I once ended up ordering a double ended dildo from amazon one time when I farted. Normally that wouldn't be a problem, but that dildo was just too small.
Cue ~ 100 posts modded to at least 4 about Orwell, dumb speakers, spying devices etc.
Most slashdotters probably want an OSS version(s). Ideally the hardware, OS, and answering software could be sold and installed separately. Otherwise, you'll probably end up with talking & snooping spam.
Table-ized A.I.
I created an skill to use a smart speaker to turn on/off my TV, what I found is that the Alexa is a lot better in this apartment,
Alexa has a SDK for entertainment devices, so Is possible to create an skill to do more than just "switch" function, is possible to control the volume, change channel, change input, the problem is the documentation is very bad, Amazon doesn't listen the suggestion from developers like me. publish the skill is really easy.
Google Home, here are the actions, create an action is a little more easy, but right now is only possible to turn on/off a TV, google doesn't support other functions, and publish the Action, is a very long process, and third party need to test it and approved first, The third party service is free for the basic/easy certification.
Both are far from perfect, the bigger problem for me, is when a user ask for support, most of the time the problem is with smart home and not with my Remotsy product and is very hard to probe it.
Any "dumb" speaker hooked up to a computer under your own control is going to wipe the floor with these silly toys that you're talking about. How the fuck are Apple/Amazon/Google even in the running?
A speaker with no microphone and no internet connection. My living room conversations are not any company's business.
I am considering backing the Mycroft 2. I am not about to pipe all my audio to Google, Apple, Amazon, et al., but this seems like a fun toy. I passed on the v1 because it used Google's STT, but this one apparently has 8 different STT options, one of which is Mozilla-developed and can run on local hardware.
According to Fast Company, their business model is framed around selling voice services to major companies who are similarly wary about sending client data to Big Tech firms. (The for-example is Land Rover-Jaguar.) This seems reasonable, and it provides incentive for Mycroft (which is open source; in part? in full? I can't quite tell) to continue to play honest or risk the cash from the privacy-conscious corporate partners that they hoped to attract.
I'm not totally sold, yet. I'd be interested in /. views one way or the other, or anecdotes from anyone who has a v1.
Yes, I would please like to be victimized by cyber stalking malware devices you actually have to pay money to own.
please stop with the madness of it being a listening device! You carry a microphone in your pocket everywhere you go. If you were really worried about that you'd stop carrying that device.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
I have both Echo and Google Home. Though, because of the cost, I have Echo Dots in every room, and just an Echo and one Google Home in the living room.
I have many Smart Home devices, mostly Z-Wave and Zigbee (SmartThings controller, Philips Hue bulbs/light strips, Harmony hub & Kodi). By far the Echo's have worked better at controlling my smart home, but Google Home is (very very) slowly catching up, and does have a "few" features that make it better in general, but the price (per room) means it's not enough of an edge to switch out the Echo Dots. Google Home generally wins hands-down with a voice search, Alexa relies on Bing, so it's got both cables tied behind it's back.
The Amazon Echo still has a way to go on music control, unit grouping, and some other functionality, but it's been leading the pack since it's introduction, and nothing is close to it as yet. Hopefully, Amazon and Google will get over their spat, so that I can get Google Search instead of Bing.
Give a hand, not a hand-out.
Having some brand collect on all talking via a live mic is not a "speaker".
The basic need of a speaker is for music, tv, movies, games.
No big brand mic for ads and spying needed.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I do not own one of these. Trusting any corporation too much will be the downfall of humanity. We might as well just have trusted Hitler to govern our lives.
And it's not really because I'm worried about somebody spying on me, as I realize as a user of a smartphone, it's happening anyway (to some extent). But I have come to understand that there's some things I just don't need technology to do for me. I can pick up my phone or sit at a computer and order something. I can get up and turn on some music. The house has a programmable thermostat to turn the heat up and down and teenagers I can tell to turn the lights off when they go to bed.
need reminders? nobody is better at nagging, and no snooze or dismiss button to tap. and you got questions? she's definitely got the answers.
upkeep is a little high (not to mention, insanely expensive to 'recycle'), and there's no mute button, but they got uhhh.. 'abilities' and features, that even the combined power of siri, alexa, cortana and google cannot possibly do.
Speakers should be dumb devices, not smart
I have an Amazon Echo for Alexa and will get an Apple speak for sound quality.
I see no reason to upgrade.
My cell phone stays in a pelican case when I don't use it.
You fucking facist troll cunts
It would be a speaker that automatically plays Donald Trump's voice into the smart speaker, with the appropriate command word. Have him ask for stupid things, repeatedly.
Fill the spies ears with enough false information and they should lose money.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Even my dumb-phone stays at home most of the time.
How about the microphone on your computer? Or your XBOX? Or your tablet? Or any of hundreds of other devices you probably have with microphones on them? Have you expunged your home of those?
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
My cell phone has no data plan. I connect to wifi only to download apps.
I have a portable Bluetooth speaker that is on wheels and have a handle like a suitcase that I can take all over the house or tailgating even. That's smart enough for me.
We'll make great pets
Very sneaky and mostly skanky question. Why is the question framed as "which smart speaker do you prefer"? That's kinda like asking "when did you stop beating your wife"?
First off, they aren't so much speakers as microphones. Second, I'm going out on a limb here but I'm guessing not many /. readers would ever consider putting a microphone in their house and allow google/amazon/ms/apple/whoever unfettered access to it.
I have 3 echo dots each with a $100 pair of bose speakers. ($450 total.) The reason for this arrangement is each room cost $150 and all 3 rooms play music in sync. Other speakers support multi-room. But I prefer the mic array plus the combo of spotify and multi-room. People don't know that alexa features are crippled on non-amazon devices. Alexa on any speaker other than an amazon echo of some kind does not support spotify and multi-room together.
Wow, so that's how it happened!
please stop with the madness of it being a listening device! You carry a microphone in your pocket everywhere you go. If you were really worried about that you'd stop carrying that device.
When your getting beat up by a girl please stop with the madness of asking her to stop. She already punched you. It's not logical to worry about being punched again.
My god some people are out of touch. Of course companies will do everything they possibly can do monetize audio they pick up.
You are pretty out of touch off you think Apple will, since it would kill a lot of valuable goodwill built tip around a message of consumer privacy. I don't think you have a full grasp on intangible value or the profits that generates.
They also all will inevitably get hacked, even if it's never publicly disclosed.
Yes, but Apple will at least treats device security seriously so a hack is much less likely than a Google or Amazon device would be. That's why HomeKit has been slower in support, since Apple requires more security from device makers that add HomeKit support.
The "sound quality" stuff is nonsense too. These are NOT quality speakers. They're not even stereo for fucks sake.
For someone who chides others at being "out of touch" it's kind of humorous you do not know that the > Google Home Max and HomePod speakers can operate in a pair to act as true stereo speakers. Or rather in the case of the HomePod, they will - stereo speaker support is scheduled to be activated later this year.
It is incredibly naive to think that profit-motivated companies will not behave like profit-motivated companies.>
The difference between us is, I understand the full range of what "profit" entails. Apple profits substantially by consistently not abusing customer privacy.
I agree that profit-motivated companies will try to maximize profit. But there are many different ways of doing that.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My computers don't have microphones and I have no tablets, as these are useless. I have a security camera, but the only connection it is allowed to do is to my AWS ftp storage.
... Music Player Daemon.
I don't trust these preconfectioned "smart speakers". Don't trust them. For obvious reasons.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
They're all dumb speakers connected to microphones which transmit a recording of your voice to some Internet-based server.
A true smart speaker would have the voice recognition built into it. If a PC in the 1980s could do it, surely a modern ARM processor can. Then based on what was spoken, it would turn a light on/off, turn on the TV and start a movie, use your Spotify account to play a song, etc. It would only send your query for cloud processing if you specifically asked. e.g. Convert "what time does the closest Panera close?" to a text-based Google search query, get the answer back, and speak the answer. It would never send a recording of the audio in your house to the Internet unless you specifically asked for it (e.g. "what's the name of this song?").
Such a product doesn't exist yet. Because everyone is tripping over themselves to harvest data from users.
thanks.
We use an Echo Dot: nice minijack on the back, plugged it right into our theater system. Sounds very good, likewise images perfectly, etc.
Those little Sonos / Alexa / etc. speakers don't offer much bass capacity - turning up an EQ won't help beyond their limits, which are very near and not very deep. A good system with significant woofage and/or subwoofage is the way to go if you actually want things to actually sound good.
Of course, the generation that grew up with earbuds may have an entirely different perception of what "good" means, which is to say... well, never mind.
--fyngyrz*
* Anon due to mod points, because Slashdot moderation rules are stupid. Soylent News does it better. A lot better.
Oh crap. There go my moderations. Thanks for nothing, Slashdot.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
NONE of them.
And you don't think uncle sam has access to those?
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
That wasn't my point at all. But then you already knew that.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
I do T impressions when telemarketers call. If I can automate a T-bot to keep them busy and waste their time, that would be great! Sample script:
Marketer: "Hi Fred, this is your friendly local telecom provider. We'd like to offer you a special deal on bundled phone, cable, and Internet. Are you interested?"
T: "I make the best deals, believe me! If you have a great deal for me, that would be fantastic."
Marketer: "The three-service bundle is only $119 a month for one year and comes with HBO."
T: "HBO is for total luuuzers."
M: "Okay, but the bundle is still less expensive than purchasing all 3 services separately. You don't have to watch HBO."
T: "Your competitor made me a better deal."
M: "Fubar Co.? That's the only other competitor in your area, we bribed...I mean out-competed the rest. What did they offer you?"
T: "I won't say, that would spoil my negotiating position."
M: "We know what they offer, we follow them closely. Our deal is better."
T: "Fake news!"
M: "So you really want to pay more?"
T: "They are nicer to me; I reward loyalty."
M: "How were we mean to you?"
T: "You gave me fake news. Totally unacceptable."
Etc...
Table-ized A.I.
I don't want the NSA in my house, thanks.
The Echo Dot, primarily because it has:
a. A hardware button that supposedly turns off the microphone
b. A standard stereo jack to connect to an AVR and use better speakers
I keep the echo dot's microphone turned off all the time save for a couple of hours in the evening.
The echo dot is connected to a denon AVR which is connected to some nice speakers.
I don't want to talk to my speaker(s). I don't want or need for my speakers to order pizza for me or to tell me the capital of Montana. I don't need or want my speakers listening to me and sending data back to some monolithic infotech company who thinks what it's learned about me through eavesdropping on what takes place in my home is fair game to be sold to its business partners. All I want my speakers to do is faithfully reproduce the music I send to them. That's it.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
This is the type of question you'd ask on a news for nerds site. A tech site where people would be interested in having gadgets.
Slashdot hasn't been that since back when Linux got USB support. That was the pinnacle of all technological advancement. It's now a site for dissing all mobile phones, being proud of keeping your old battery replaceable phone working, celebrating Apple supporting ancient iPhones, praising laptops that are 7+ years old, questioning why anyone would wear a watch, and wondering why wireless headphones even exist.
In what world did the submitter and more importantly the editor who approved the submission think they'd get any kind of a positive response to this question on THIS site.
Spotify is doing what?
Why are they wasting resources developing more crap when they don't even have their own bread-and-butter core functionality even up to a basic level?
There are so many simple bugs/missing features in their bug tracker/forum that are "will consider" going on *years* now.
How hard is it to have a "play one song then quit" feature?
How hard is it to rename a playlist?
How hard is it to make reordering a playlist simple?
How hard is it to allow someone to simply follow/listen to exactly what a friend is playing--giving them "dj" mode?
Basic, basic stuff that they still don't do.
Ignore the argument about the speaker manufacturer listening in, these are still computers that have vulnerabilities that can be exploited. Next thing you have someone who is not the manufacturer listening to you, or using the speaker for other purposes. The less devices you have the less attack surface you present.
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.
You're right on, there is zero chance Apple (or Google, or even Amazon) would risk the kind of high profile controversy (and the cost of lawsuits) that misusing the data would provoke.
Further, going with what many people seem to think it the "least" trustworthy of the three, Amazon:
1. Echo Dot not only works with but is pretty much INTENDED to be used with an external speaker or stereo system via either Bluetooth or analog. You can pick your own, better quality bluetooth speaker, or connect it to your existing system very simply and easily.
2. The wake word is processed locally, only when the device detects the wake word does it send what you say next to the cloud for further processing. The rest of the time I believe it's essentially just ring buffering and overwriting in memory.
3. There's also a prominent mic mute button. That makes a super noticeable red-ring light up so you can easily tell the device isn't listening. And before someone says "how do we know it's REALLY not listening" refer back to the above. They wouldn't risk it, especially these days.
I have real speakers and have no use for tinny little "pretend" speakers.
It is worth noting that absolutely NONE of the so-called "smart speakers" have any specifications at all. On the other hand, if all you are going to play is 4 kilobit/sec MP3's, then a couple of pop-cans is entirely adequate ...
None at all.
By a strange coincidence “None at all” is exactly how much suspicion the ape-descendant DontBeAMoran had that one of his closest friends was not descended from an ape, but was, in fact, from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. DontBeAMoran’s failure to suspect this reflects the care with which his friend blended himself into human society - after a fairly shaky start. When he first arrived fifteen years ago, the minimal research he had done had suggested to him that the name ‘Ford Prefect’ would be nicely inconspicuous. He will enter our story in thirty-five seconds and say “Hello, DontBeAMoran.” The ape-descendant will greet him in return, but in deference to a million years of evolution, he will not attempt to pick fleas off him; Earthmen are not proud of their ancestors and never invite them round to dinner.
#DeleteFacebook
I see a lot of comments of people bitching and moaning about their precious privacy and giving big brother another way to spy on you. Wah, wah, wah! Believe me Big Brother doesn't need a smart speaker to spy on you. Most people these days carry around a portable computing device that has multiple cameras, multiple microphones, a GPS receiver... Oh and the newest iPhone recognizes your face! Ohh! Now if big brother truly wants to spy on you do you think that your not having a smart speaker is going to make any difference for them whatsoever? I don't think so! They will get what they are looking for one way or another.... The only way you might be able to evade surveillance is to not use an kind of electronics, communication devices or computing devices at all and then live in a Faraday cage underground. And sure if you're a paranoid Luddite then please put on your tinfoil hat and feel free to go ahead and do that.
On top of that most people are utterly boring as shit and likely say mostly nothing of real interest to anyone much less the government. At this point Google and Amazon probably know more about you than the government does anyhow. Hell, Amazon knows what I want before I do!
In fact if you really want to stump big brother the worst way to go about it is trying to evade them! You just make yourself more conspicuous by your absence. So please saturate them with superfluous data! Information overload is likely to be far more effective. All of those meaningless Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter postings should keep them busy for a while. They can't even find enough analysts to analyze all of the millions of hours of drone video footage that they collect.... How are they going to sort through all of your stupid, pointless social media rantings and cat pictures on top of that!
Uncle Sam? I thought Bob was his uncle?
#DeleteFacebook
A pair of 1987 Klipsch Fortes in Oiled Walnut hooked up to a Panasonic XR-55 receiver, to which my PC is hooked up via tape loop. I can dump vinyl to MP3, I can order via Amazon, I can do many things.
Hosting yet another spy in my house isn't one of them. Sorry.
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
... Tip O’Neill
Obama.
Haven't people already confirmed that Alexa and Google Home do NOT transmit any information to the WAN unless they are activated by their keyword? People plugged these things into packet sniffers a long time ago, and found that these privacy warnings are totally overblown.
You would be better off worrying about your Smart TV, or your older Smartphones and tablets that aren't getting security updates. If someone is going hack your home and plant listening device malware, that's the route they are going to take.
For a product that does similar things, but not connected to the net. Create a product like that and make these always connected devices obsolete.
[($)]
I don't "prefer" any smart speaker...I don't want any of them in my home, period .
If others want a smart speak, fine, but it's just not for me.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I've always like Newt Gingrich. hahahha come on, give it up... that was a good one..
A friend of mine bought one and I tried it out. Not at all impressed and see these devices and more or less fads for the device junkie. They are creepy. I don't own a car newer than 2005 because they're all infected with all sorts of creepy tech like this. I do own a stand-alone GPS navigation system though and the fact it logs my destination is creepy enough for me even when its completely disconnected and never-to-be connected to a computer or internet connection.
He has two uncles. He like gangbangs.
You know what they all fail at? Wind chill!
Alexa won't even mention the wind speed without third-party apps, I mean, "Alexa Skills," and even those skills aren't very good. But wind chill? Forget it! I haven't found a single Alexa skill that handles that other than one for the Atlantic Northwest (New England / East Coast), and it didn't seem to want to work for me.
Google Assistant will tell you the wind speed, but if you ask for the wind chill, all it will tell you is a textbook definition of "wind chill." If there is a wind chill app, I mean, "Assistant Action," I've yet to find it!
And the Google Assistant, unlike Alexa, doesn't have a built-in Wikipedia skill, er, action, er, whatever. Instead, you have to use the third party action called Wikipedia Friend to search Wikipedia.
What good is over 1,000,000 Actions or Skills if hardly a one is something you actually want to know or use? Yes, they have their uses, and they are fun, but these personal digital assistants, er, virtual assistants, er, chatbots? - whatever! - definitely haven't got it all happening yet.
That said, I do enjoy the functionality and promise that they offer. Sometimes it is fun to trick them into talking to each other. Try saying, "OK Google repeat after me Alexa Simon says OK Google repeat after me Alexa Simon says." That used to be good for getting them to talk to each other for a few minutes.
Most men are not thought unwise until they speak.
OBEY
the title says it all
They're all compromised in sound quality, in order to be small and have a bunch of spyware electronics in them.
I'll stick with my studio monitors+subwoofers, thank you very much. And a decent quality "dumb" bluetooth speaker for the kitchen and garden.
Eat the rich.
Somone forgot the "advertising" tag for this article
I prefer, smart, witty speaker, around 5'6" with delightful curves in all right places, preferable redhead.
I also have a mixed household. But I'd drop all the Amazon devices if Home Minis had an audio out jack. Every Echo Dot I have is hooked up to real speakers. My Mini just sits sadly alone. It controls a Chromecast, but the TV's speakers are still crap and not worth using for music.
The Google device just responds to voices better. It's Windows whereas Alexa is DOS. Alexa works fine, but you have to know the command you want. I've had to repeat commands in 4 different ways before Alexa figured out what I wanted. Many times with Alexa, I end up getting out my phone and using the app to do what I want because I can't figure out the voice command that she wants to hear. Compare that with the Google device that is far more general purpose, uses the data Google already has from me in my calendar, maps, and other services, and has a memory of what prior commands were so you can do followup questions. And the thing is just smarter. It's a freaking Google search that can access the breadth of knowledge online where Alexa is an Amazon search. It's limited to a small sector of the internet.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Snips cause it doesn't send all my audio to a big company to mine for data.
Mycroft can work offline with KaldiSTT and PocketSphinx
Twinstiq, game news
You can use Kaldi and Sphinx STT to have a completely local version of Mycroft
Twinstiq, game news
NONE for me please. I dislike them all.
Interesting. I've had much better luck with Google Home controlling things than I have with Alexa. Google Home often does things right the first time, while Alexa has no idea what I'm trying to get it to do.
Alexa wins bc fart jokes.
Do not like Siri. Apples selfishness will be its doom. Think about it. Siri is already on so many phones and it still canâ(TM)t or wonâ(TM)t perform as many tasks as Alexa. Siri stinks.
Havenâ(TM)t tried google assistant.
Sonos with Alexa is another plus for Alexa.
That wasn't my point at all. But then you already knew that.
You very clearly seem to be using cell phone as an excuse/cover for "smart speakers". What was your point other than more of the same makes one a mad hypocrite?
The full quote was "please stop with the madness of it being a listening device! You carry a microphone in your pocket everywhere you go. If you were really worried about that you'd stop carrying that device."
ding ding ding, we have the winner of idiot of the year!
I don't need or want any 'so-called' smart device that requires net connectivity. Not only do they steal information and violate my privacy, they will most assuredly be bricked when the next best thing pushed by the manufacturer comes along. I can do without something designed for someone basically so lazy that the remote control is too much work.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
I shouldn't be surprised--it is the Internet after all--but I am a little shocked at the number of Luddites here on Slashdot. A plethora of posters rail against smart speakers as if they only serve as Trojan horses for a Big Brother conspiracy. Newsflash: your webcam, PC, smartphone, all have the potential to, and to degrees already are, capturing your data. The potential for abuse exists in all connected, embedded computer systems. Guess what, they're not going away; they're only going to proliferate. The challenge, and the obligation, with smart tech, and any tool for that matter, is to harness the benefits while vigilantly squelching any abuse.
I prefer this Zelda, Ocarina of time, inspired one;
https://youtu.be/glZnkpIDWSE
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
Only smart speaker you'll ever need.
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