I want someone to tell me what the appeal is of being able to talk to AI for stupid home chores which have relied on knobs, switches or typed computer commands...forever, for as long as knobs, switches and computers have existed.
Why is VERBALLY instructing a home computing device BETTER?
And, is it really THAT MUCH better?
It's a stupid gimmick. And even once it is perfected, it will STILL be a stupid gimmick.
As a Prime member, I pay $4 per month for the ability to listen instantly to any musical recording I can convey the title, performer, or lyrical snippet of. I have the option to listen on the Echo device in my bedroom
or via the Echo Dot on the dashboard of my car transmitting via bluetooth through the stereo system of my car. I have an internet hot spot in my car that provides unlimited LTE data for $22 per month. If I pull up
to my residence in the dark, a brief command turns on individual indoor or outdoor lights. Another strategically placed Echo Dot on our second floor and two on the first floor provide access to music on demand
played through bluetooth speakers and take the place of hands on light switch controls on both floors, A Wink Hub and inexpensive Osram smart bulbs interact with both Alexa and smartphone apps. If a basement
light is left on, I can use the phone app to view its status from anywhere and turn it off without having to fish for the phone at other times, via Alexa.
I use the alarm and timer features for waking or cooking nearly daily. I frequently ask for outside temp. or weather forecasts. Wikipedia resources, recipes, calories of common food items, are instantly available without
the use of my hands. A running shopping list for local stores or for instant oral Amazon ordering are also options.
I originally became interested in 2016 because a close relation was bedridden often due to a serious medical condition. Alexa offered the option to contact help from a contact list via a simple voice command.
The internal microphone of Echo or Echo Dot is voice activated only via the word Alexa or an alternate word if Alexa is commonly spoken for other reason. If the device is listening, the ring around the rounded top glows an
obvious blue color. I recall that there was a problem with Samsung TVs surreptitiously recording.
My experience is that a simple risks vs benefits inquiry makes the concerns expressed in the posts on this thread preceding mine, mostly unfounded. I have an IPhone 8 only since late last year.
I transitioned from a circa 2010, 4G android smartphone. Recent internet connection challenges with my bedroom Echo device drove me to use Siri for two weeks to monitor outside weather and
for cooking timers and wake up alarms. I realized I am spoiled by the more convenient and more musical, hands free Alexa devices.
I apologize if all that read like an advert., but it is my anecdotal reaction to what I had read in posts in this thread.
I always watch what I text and what I say or am willing to listen to on phone calls. In everyday life I am a quiet, cautious, low profile individual. I don't consider myself an early adapter of tech, but
I am curious and willing to kick the tires of the popular new thing. I did not purchase a flat screen TV until late 2012, but I had a cell phone from the early 90's, home desktop from 1991,
self taught and managed a small office Novell network throughout the 1990's, and subscribed to home internet from early 1995, first registering a domain name in 1998. I leased a plugin hybrid car
from 2013 to 2016.
Trump came on the scene in 2015 and impressed me as a Luddite by the end of that year. He actually has frighteningly few years of age, on me, but he is of a different generation, socially and technologically.
My advice is to be curious, be an informed embracer of popular recent technology, relax, live. I manage what I have described on a very limited budget, less than $40k annually in a household of two. I lived
in Manhattan 20 years ago and I am certainly aware how much further limited income will take you, here in the sunbelt. In Manhattan, though, it is easier to feel more alive and to assume those you encounter
are of reasonable, secular politics and social awareness and empathy. There, the term, "War of northern aggression," was an unfamiliar one.
