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back to article Amazon crafts two more voice-controlled gizmos in its Echo chamber

Amazon is putting its full weight behind its surprise tech success, the Echo voice system, with the release of two complementary products. The Amazon Tap is a smaller, portable version of its $180 standalone Echo that costs $130, and the Echo Dot is a cut-down version of the Echo that costs $90. In both cases, Amazon's hope is …

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  1. JEF_UK

    Creepy Tech

    I kind of think any "thing" that’s listening to me is creepy....

    Unrelated

    I have at home some OM2Ps; they are cloud managed Wi-Fi and are OK enough. They have creepy also, they VPN back to base so they can be fixed.

    They run on a separate VLAN, with the TV and Blue-ray, and ALCs prohibit them communicating with my desktops etc.

    CREEPY....

    4 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ""I'm sorry I didn't understand your request""

    "I'm sorry Dave I can't do that"

    FTFY

    4 0 Reply
  3. Electron Shepherd

    But in the future..

    As I understand it, these things communicate back to the Bezos mothership primarily for the voice recognition engine. Sure, a request to play an internet radio station or tracks from Spotify requires an internet connection, but for tasks like setting a timer, controlling the lighting and so on, it isn't necessary apart from the remote processing.

    Once it becomes commercially viable to package the required processing power into the device itself, I can see them really taking off. I'd be delighted to have one central device that responded to voice commands and could do things like set an alarm, turn on the lights and draw the curtains*, but only if I could be sure that nothing, and I mean nothing, was leaving the four walls of the house.

    *additional hardware sold separately

    6 0 Reply
  4. Dr. Mouse

    Simple solution

    There is a simple solution to the creepiness factor, IMHO: Make a Star Trek style beep when it starts listening (i.e. it hears "Alexa"). Or, for a more human interaction, maybe say "Yes?" or something.

    Personally, I would also prefer it if it illuminated an LED whenever it was listening and kept a log, too.

    And include the ability to change the hotword and voice: Imagine using "computer" and becoming captain of a starship, or "Yoda" and having a reply in yoda's voice.... Some serious geekiness would be possible!

    1 0 Reply
    1. You aint sin me, roit
      Reply Icon
      Big Brother

      Re: Simple solution

      The problem is that it has to be constantly listening to hear "Alexa". Everything you say is sent into the cloud for voice recognition processing.

      Imagine the FBI approaching Amazon... "We want records of all conversations you process. Just in case someone is talking about doing something they shouldn't.".

      0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In the UK?

    But when (if ever) will these be available in the UK?

    2 0 Reply
  6. Aaron 10
    Big Brother

    I wonder if Amazon will have adverts about the new Echo family on TV. It would be funny if they pull a Microsoft and say on the commercial something with the Alexa keyword. (Microsoft did this with adverts that said, "Xbox On".)

    0 0 Reply

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