TRL Helpdesk - Alexa/Echo

[Shadow]

Mrs Shadow bought me an Amazon Echo thingy for my birthday and I'm struggling to like it.

It won't play my music because it's on iTunes, access to the Amazon Music service is an additional charge on top of Amazon Prime, it wants access to all my contacts and seems to exist only so you can ask who played Captain Kirk or what the weather is like in Rekyavik.

Is there a more pointless piece of technology? What do they actually do beyond harvest my data and send it to Jeff Bezos? 
 

[ckn]

In the 1960s, people were terrified that the government were bugging their homes. Today, we pay for that service. 

[Farmduck]

1 hour ago, ckn said:

In the 1960s, people were terrified that the government were bugging their homes. Today, we pay for that service. 

In years of reading Americans posting about the Gubmint getting all their information I was always stunned by the lack of reaction to corporate information-gathering. If the Govt wants info about an American they can just ask Google or Facebook.

[gingerjon]

2 hours ago, Shadow said:

 

Is there a more pointless piece of technology?
 

Yes.

Those buttons which exist so you order more bog roll.

[JonM]

Alexa/Echo is yet another example of a British tech company being bought by a larger American one. The guy who started it has taken his millions and moved onto something new, but there's a couple of hundred very well paid folks in Cambridge working on Alexa/Echo (plus a load of people working on drones.)

[Dave T]

3 hours ago, Shadow said:

Mrs Shadow bought me an Amazon Echo thingy for my birthday and I'm struggling to like it.

It won't play my music because it's on iTunes, access to the Amazon Music service is an additional charge on top of Amazon Prime, it wants access to all my contacts and seems to exist only so you can ask who played Captain Kirk or what the weather is like in Rekyavik.

Is there a more pointless piece of technology? What do they actually do beyond harvest my data and send it to Jeff Bezos? 
 

We only use it for Spotify, RadioPlayer and asking what the weather is like if we are too lazy to open the curtains.

I like it for those three things, the rest is a novelty.

[Shadow]

4 minutes ago, Johnoco said:

I wouldn't have one given.

Except perhaps if I develop dementia, then I might use it to keep posting on the Brexit thread.

 

Too easy. You are capable of better than that. 

[heartofGold]

I do find it quite funny when my daughter goes upstairs or into the garden and her 6 year old quick as a flash says "Alexa add Smarties to the shopping list"

[DavidM]

The little person in my iPhone who you talk to doesn’t understand my accent anyway