You know that silly fear about Alexa recording everything and leaking it online? It just happened It's time to break out your "Alexa, I Told You So" banners – because a Portland, Oregon, couple received a phone call from one of the husband's employees earlier this month, telling them she had just received a recording of them talking privately in their home. "Unplug your Alexa devices right now," the staffer told the couple …
My wife bought a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/aux jack micro-USB-rechargeable speaker. It's not Amazon-brand, but it claims to be Alexa-compatible. We ONLY use Bluetooth mode and keep it completely off otherwise -- NOT enabling Wi-Fi on it, ever! (Not inviting Alexa in by any means.)
@My other car
Your Alexa-compatible speaker is most likely just using it as a marketing ploy.
It's a bluetooth speaker and the echo devices can connect to bluetooth speakers as an output. Doesn't mean it has any smarts of its own. It fact, it probably doesn't even have a microphone.
I bought an Alexa as I have a disability and need it to remind of things I had to do and remembering medical items.
It has totally failed me I just use it to get the temperature outside and the weather. Otherwise, it is a rock on a table because It can't do things I need it to do, despite asking many times at Amazon and was assured it could. Do not believe anything you hear about it on Amazon. After my many complaints, they updated the descriptions, but I am stuck with it.
This will be that bit in the comments section where a bunch of folk who carry a mobile/cell phone next to them all day proceed to proclaim loudly that they'd never allow a listening device in their home.
Well, considering when at home I keep my cellphone on the charger in the kitched, while I work in my office on the opposite end of the house, it's not going to do much. I don't have the voice-command function enabled for Google (don't even have one for Amazon or MS), and on top of that there's pretty much no cell signal at my house anyway. Might have a "listening device" in my home, but with all it's gonna do fuck-all here.
Oh, and the microphone ports on my laptop? Covered by the same tape that covers the webcam. THAT'S going to have a crap signal too.
If I can't order something, or send a message, by TYPING it, it's not happening at all.
"a bunch of folk who carry a mobile/cell phone next to them all day "
Mine's a Nokia.
Maybe a Nolia 6310, from the time when men were men and cellphones weren't smart.
Or maybe a Nokia E71. From the time when phones and their users hadn't dumbed down as far as they appear to have now.
But definitely not a modern Nokia 3310 thank you.
The S in IoT, like the S in Android, is for security.
Anyone seen Peter Thiel recently?
If a wife says something,
and no man is listening,
does Alexa still hear "right"?
fido,
I suspect this is the same as climbing Everest, because it is there. In this case buying this stuff is much easier then climbing Everest so you can be the first on your block to tell your lights to turn off. There are some people who also do need the technology but they are probably not the ones who will typically buy it.
I'm not against a 'smart' home, I'm against these damn devices that permanently connected to the Internet and which work primarily for their manufacturers rather than for the consumer who bought them.
I wouldn't mind being able to issue commands to a *local* computer in the manner of 1970s sci-fi dramas and have it carry them out.
It's the same with self-driving cars. I'm looking forward to the day when I call up a car, it'll arrive and take me to where I want to go *but without the slurp*. I know we have taxis now. I'm hoping that the self-driving cars will be cross between (and priced between) taxis and efficient public transport.
@deadlockvictim You have put your finger on it. When I was a child I dreamed of owning a computer - the whole thing - and doing whatever I pleased with it. I would have been horrified at the prospect of that being beholden to giant corporations that could invade my privacy, because I had lots of other dreams, not all of them I was yet brave enough to describe to others.
I'm not against a 'smart' home, I'm against these damn devices that permanently connected to the Internet and which work primarily for their manufacturers rather than for the consumer who bought them.
Quite. There's a few things to be said for having heating, cooling, lighting and presence controllers communicate with each other so that for instance heating is not going full blast because there's a window open and cool air is wafting in. But there's no need to involve external systems for that, and so there is no such connection.
And if I need to order something I'll do so by visiting the appropriate website (which rarely has the A-word in its URL), not by yelling at a stupid box.
I thought I was in a minority. I cannot see any benefit for "smart" devices in your home. I see washing machines that have apps on your phone (why would I care?). Self ordering fridges (I like to buy stuff when it is on offer, not blindly re-order the same thing each week). Home heating that can be changed over the internet (I get in the house, switch heating on and it is warm 5 minutes later at the most. If I put the fire on the room is warm in under a minute). Dont get me started on Alexa devices, sure a box that continually listens to you isnt going to barf, even more hilarious if you have friends name Alexa.
I do admit that I have a bluetooth speaker in the bathroom and I bluetooth sync my phone to the car. However, the car is really promiscuous and it is even more hilarious when the car bleeps that it has bonded to a random phone; the car used to pick up a phone at a particular junction, process of elimination would guess it was for the garage on the corner. It always needed a pin number ("please input the pin code on your device shown ont he display") however one day it did not and simply bonded. I didnt phone for pizza for them (who doesnt love pizza?) although very funny I imagine just about any other car would be doing the same....
bad bad idea.
You don't need to have friends called Alexa. You might just like the Billy Joel song "The Downeaster Alexa" (one of hist best, in my personal opinion). I don't have any such device, but I am very curious to see what would happen if you repeatedly played that song to 'Alexa'. They should have chosen a rarer name, like Hig Hurtenflurst, or a nice word like "ekki-ekki-ekki-ekki-ptang-zoom-boing-mrow"
Sorry, I'll get me coat
Exactly, I asked Alexa one time to play music by Bread. Alexa came up with nothing close to "Bread". last night I asked her to play music from 2001 a Space Odyssey and nothing close to it came out. Do not believe it will understand 50 percent of what you ask. I have a nothing accent, I am from the Midwest so nothing unusual. I pity anyone that has an accent.
My "favorite" Alexa gaffe was when asking about some relatively unusual jewelry, I think it was some amber or turquoise. You would think it's optimized to sell you things, but the first half-dozen replies all had to do with "Jewry." This was shortly after it was first released so I hope they've tweaked the voice recog.
@ Michael H.F. Wilkinson "I am very curious to see what would happen if you repeatedly played that song to Alexa"
Well, listening to the song, it would chart you a flight to the Vineyard, then another to Nantucket for that same night, would place an ad on the local newspaper to sell your home, and would then order some delicious bones from the local butcher for you to chew on. Bon apetit! :)
I don't get it. Even George Orwell, when he wrote 1984, would never have guessed that people would VOLUNTARILY put those spying cameras into their own homes. Oh what a world we live on! lol
"They should have chosen a rarer name, like Hig Hurtenflurst, or a nice word like "ekki-ekki-ekki-ekki-ptang-zoom-boing-mrow""
Gyro Gearloose DID try that approach for his new Gizmoduck suit in picking an obscure word like "blatherskyte". But as it turned out, Scrooge McDuck's new accountant, Fenton Crackshell, actually used that very word as part of his clean curse "blabberin' blatherskytes". The rest...was history.
IOW, Murphy's Law can well be in effect. Pick something rare and it turns out someone close to you routinely uses it.
'I cannot see any benefit for "smart" devices in your home'
Personally I'm only temporarily abled and practicing now for when I can't reach the radio to turn over from BBC Radio 2. I'm not lazy I'm thinking ahead.
More seriously bringing down the cost by commoditizing this technology for assisted living is fantastic. As soon as my Mum could remember it was called Alexa she wanted one for the radio/music options alone. Try handling discs and buttons and screens with hand morphology issues.
"More seriously bringing down the cost by commoditizing this technology for assisted living is fantastic."
Yep, a lot of people say "I can't see any point to this rubbish", but a lot of it is really helpful for people who are disabled or elderly.
(The constantly-connected-to-the-cloud, uploading-your-conversations bit is bollocks of course).
For some people, just walking to the other side of the room is difficult. Being able to shout and have a computer turn the heat up, or change radio stations is a life changer.
...a lot of it is really helpful for people who are disabled or elderly....
No! For God's sake DON'T provide such a system to anyone who isn't a capable techie.
1 - It will work for you, but not work well for the elderly disabled relative, who won't understand how to interact with it and will probably treat it like a person.
2 - After a week, it will stop working with a bug, or exhibit some other problem. We know what we would do, but what will the elderly disabled relative do? The sensible thing for us to do would be reboot it - the sensible thing for someone born in the 1920s to do with a strange machine is to put it in a bucket of water....
Yep, a lot of people say "I can't see any point to this rubbish", but a lot of it is really helpful for people who are disabled or elderly.
I would hope such a device would be more configurable/customizable, in order to meet the particular needs of the person it's being set up for. I don't expect your bog-standard Alexia/Siri/Cortana/Orac (well, maybe Orac) would be properly helpful in it's standard configuration. And you'd probably want a local management host, not something subject to internet lag and connectivity issues. Again, I doubt the commercial snoopmeisters want the lowly consumer to have that level of freedom.
I'm not sure that you are in a minority; these gadgets appeal to techies, whose numbers may be over-estimated. I know many people who can't even figure out how to pair a Bluetooth speaker (and still more who have no idea what Bluetooth is).
For me, they are solutions in search of problems. So far, I have not found any problems for which they are more effective than older tech.
Your car may indeed be promiscuous, as I have never experienced what you report. BT pairing with a phone is genuinely useful technology in an automobile, as I can take calls while driving with no more distraction than listening to the radio (which shuts off during a phone call). If a technology improves my life I will use it; if it doesn't, I won't.
...Home heating that can be changed over the internet (I get in the house, switch heating on and it is warm 5 minutes later at the most. If I put the fire on the room is warm in under a minute).
We have that in one house, but that's because it's only occupied on weekends, and the heating system is ancient. It's not so much for the convenience of turning the heat up, as much as for making sure the furnace doesn't die in the middle of a cold snap.
And I had thought of getting something similar for my own house when I wasn't working from home, to keep other family members from cranking up the heat during the day (I would have run a cron job on my jumpbox to check the heat every 10-15 min, and push it back down to the default). Of course, that latter function would have required a locally controllable API, and I doubt the manufacturers want to allow mere CUSTOMERS that level of control over devices the CUSTOMER bought and paid for.
"for instance heating is not going full blast because there's a window open and cool air is wafting in."
A change is gonna come.
I seem to recall that the latest round of EU room heating efficiency standards will have that as part of the spec. Clarification welcome.
It's something to do with EU EcoDesign regulations and in particular with Lot 20.
First search engine hit leads to an outfit whose prime purpose is sales of electric radiators. I have a quick glance, and move on.
Skip a few equally blatant commercial sites and spot something on the IET website, maybe they'll have something more informative and relevant.
And yet, the wording sounds remarkably familiar, and for good reason: in the small print at the bottom of the page, "This article was provided by xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx, the UK’s leading retailer electric heating solutions." (the same shop whose blurb I'd just been reading).
Wtf, IET? Come the end of this year, I will be an ex-member. It's been on the cards for a while, but...
http://www.lot20.co.uk/ might be more helpful.
In my road warror days I actually used to have a remote-controlled mains plug (a WeMo switch) so I could start warming up the flat before I arrived home (electric heating, no gas). And then the WeMo stopped responding and wasn't diagnosable let alone fixable (as with a lot of modern tech stuff). Fortunately I'm spending a lot more time at home these days.
@ gbru26060
""I'm hoping that the self-driving cars will be cross between (and priced between) taxis and efficient public transport."
...and not prone to racist rants.
"
Hey! That's Organism talk! Machines aren't racist (although some may be Species-ist, and I certainly have my suspicions as to why my toast keeps coming out burnt...)[*]
[*] actually, it's nothing to do with dodgy hardware at all - it only seems to happen after my Better Half cremates her toast before I get to the toaster
I'm not against a 'smart' home, I'm against these damn devices that permanently connected to the Internet and which work primarily for their manufacturers rather than for the consumer who bought them.
Not just devices, but applications/apps as well. REALLY despise those programs that just want to sit in the background and want to check if there's an update available every five minutes like some digital version of an OCD child. No, stupid software, I will *TELL* you when you can go check for updates, and not a moment before, so shut down and shut up.
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