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Google mini, Amazon echo, etc

Superfly said:
I keep thinking of adding the smart thermostat to my A/C, but it's usually hotter than the 9th circle of hell around here, so the A/C is rarely changed.
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Isn't the 9th the last?
 
Superfly said:
I keep thinking of adding the smart thermostat to my A/C, but it's usually hotter than the 9th circle of hell around here, so the A/C is rarely changed.
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I live on the second floor of a house and my landlord controls the heat, (no thermostat) but it's like an attic up here in the summertime, so it's nice to be able to set the timers to turn on automatically by 3 PM or if I forget to turn them on, I can always do it manually from where I am via my iPhone. I need two A/C units in my one bedroom apartment to get it to a comfortable setting.
 
MaggieD said:
I love my Echo, have two extension Dots as well. But I think there probably are, or easily could he, privacy issues. I just don’t happen to care. Not sure how the Google One works, but Amazon’s has a “wake word.” I use Echo” for the one in for the other two scattered around the house. That means it’s always listening. Always. Is it storing what it hears? Don’t know. Don’t care.

It’s awesome. Great speakers for music. A library of thousands of songs. How old is... how tall is... when did whoever die... it’ll play trivia, ask it how to spell a word, the date, the time. It will automatically ring your phone until you find it. Even give you the address it was last noticed at. Ask it what day of the week any date fell on past and future. Accesses and reads from Wiki, News, weather anywhere in the world, outside temperature. Shopping list, to-do list, reminders, timers. And sooo many more things I can’t even think of. I use it all. Absolutely adore it.
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Wow!

I guess I can see the appeal.

You made a great sales pitch, there!
 
I do make it a habit to tell Alexa to go F*** herself, but she stopped responding to me when I requested that of her.
 
Chomsky said:
True.

But the correct answer to your question was, "yes".

Ergo my reply!
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The correct answer was, "that's very insightful, eco, thanks for reminding us that the 9th circle is cold. You're so smart and cool". But I guess 'yes' is okay.



:D
 
Superfly said:
That'd be nice, but I don't live alone and we all have different tastes in music. I'd come home and my husband's throat would be parched from requesting 5,000 different Elvis songs.
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Don't get me started on the crazy stuff kids are able to find!! Ever heard the song "Poop and Pee on the Toilet Seat?" I have! Sometimes Alexa needs to go bye-bye.

You can of course break things up in a million ways, too. Play 50's music. Play popular songs from 1999. Play soothing music. Play progressive R&B. Etc.
 
ecofarm said:
The correct answer was, "that's very insightful, eco, thanks for reminding us that the 9th circle is cold. You're so smart and cool". But I guess 'yes' is okay.



:D
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Yes! ;)
 
Taylor said:
Don't get me started on the crazy stuff kids are able to find!! Ever heard the song "Poop and Pee on the Toilet Seat?" I have! Sometimes Alexa needs to go bye-bye.

You can of course break things up in a million ways, too. Play 50's music. Play popular songs from 1999. Play soothing music. Play progressive R&B. Etc.
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Oh good grief, no, I've never heard that. When my girls were small, they were all about the Teletubbies.
 
Taylor said:
Don't get me started on the crazy stuff kids are able to find!! Ever heard the song "Poop and Pee on the Toilet Seat?" I have! Sometimes Alexa needs to go bye-bye.

You can of course break things up in a million ways, too. Play 50's music. Play popular songs from 1999. Play soothing music. Play progressive R&B. Etc.
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I think I can see what I've been missing, then!

Tonight I could have heard, "Don't ever pass gas again at the dinner table"! What a joy, I bet!
 
So I just read a review comparing the two on CNET and I am even more confused than I was.

I don't really need anything for SmartHome stuff because I have nothing like that yet.

If you wanted to get like an Amazon Echo Dot, is it a slave to an Echo? Do you have to have the Echo, then just add Dots to other rooms to pull from the Echo? Or are Dots stand alone?

I am really leaning towards getting one. Everybody keeps asking me for a Christmas list and I don't know what to ask for, so I thought about this. I just don't know which one would work better for me.

I want something that I can make lists with (and does it send it to my phone?)
I want something that I can ask random questions (like who played Deadpool)
I want something that can play music, etc

Plus other cool stuff like trivia games or whatever.
 
Superfly said:
All places do this anyway. Ever noticed on Facebook that the things you've looked at online always show up on the right hand side of your feed? Makes it frustrating around Christmas, that's for sure.
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And I reject being a product for their profits. I'm certainly not going to help them to screw me without compensation.
 
beefheart said:
I do make it a habit to tell Alexa to go F*** herself, but she stopped responding to me when I requested that of her.
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I like to think that’s what she did. ;) Tried it this morning. She did the same thing. Then told her I loved her, and she said, “That’s nice of you to say.” Hahahaha!
 
Chomsky said:
Argh,

With all the data currently recorded on us, why add more?

We don't do anything particularly nefarious, but I do have an active and busy family, and we have many visitors, guests, parties and get-togethers. Why have our and our guest's privacy invaded? I just don't see it for us, at this time.
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The Amazon echo is not constantly recording your voice. It only listens for the "Alexa" word, wakes up, send your request to AVS, once the query is complete, it does not record anymore.
 
MaggieD said:
I love my Echo, have two extension Dots as well. But I think there probably are, or easily could he, privacy issues. I just don’t happen to care. Not sure how the Google One works, but Amazon’s has a “wake word.” I use Echo” for the one in for the other two scattered around the house. That means it’s always listening. Always. Is it storing what it hears? Don’t know. Don’t care.

It’s awesome. Great speakers for music. A library of thousands of songs. How old is... how tall is... when did whoever die... it’ll play trivia, ask it how to spell a word, the date, the time. It will automatically ring your phone until you find it. Even give you the address it was last noticed at. Ask it what day of the week any date fell on past and future. Accesses and reads from Wiki, News, weather anywhere in the world, outside temperature. Shopping list, to-do list, reminders, timers. And sooo many more things I can’t even think of. I use it all. Absolutely adore it.
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It is not. It listens for the alexa word then records and sends what you request to the AVS, and then responds accordingly and stops recording.
 
I have an echo dot. So far I've only used to stream music, set reminders - "Alexa, remind me to take the clothes out of the dryer in an hour" - reorder things, like garbage bags, that I normally buy from Amazon and listen to news/weather in the morning. It does all of those well.

Longer term I want to use it with home automation but that project hasn't really progressed past the "it's something I want to do" stage yet.
 
Superfly said:
If you wanted to get like an Amazon Echo Dot, is it a slave to an Echo? Do you have to have the Echo, then just add Dots to other rooms to pull from the Echo? Or are Dots stand alone?

I am really leaning towards getting one. Everybody keeps asking me for a Christmas list and I don't know what to ask for, so I thought about this. I just don't know which one would work better for me.
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The Echo Dot does everything that the Echo does, it just has a small speaker. That's the only difference. It's like playing music on your cellphone. You can use a headphone cord to plug it into something else, or (i believe) connect with Bluetooth.

The dot is good if you don't care about sound quality, or if you care a lot about sound quality and want to hook it up to something better than what comes with the Echo.
 
Taylor said:
The Echo Dot does everything that the Echo does, it just has a small speaker. That's the only difference. It's like playing music on your cellphone. You can use a headphone cord to plug it into something else, or (i believe) connect with Bluetooth.

The dot is good if you don't care about sound quality, or if you care a lot about sound quality and want to hook it up to something better than what comes with the Echo.
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The Echo Dot is blue tooth enabled so it can stream to a set of blue tooth speakers or, in my case, a soundbar.
 
ReverendHellh0und said:
The Amazon echo is not constantly recording your voice. It only listens for the "Alexa" word, wakes up, send your request to AVS, once the query is complete, it does not record anymore.
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That's what they tell you anyway. But the ability to record is always there.
 
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