from Hacker News

Amazon Echo Spot

by VirtualAirwaves on 9/27/17, 10:25 PM with 54 comments

  • by nateguchi on 9/27/17, 11:26 PM

    Ah, this reminds me of the Chumby (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chumby) from 2008, I'm sure with voice recognition and video call capabilities, the Echo is hopefully a bit more useful.

  • by bigethan on 9/27/17, 10:47 PM

    The speed of iteration on the Alexa product line is really impressive. Nine months ago, Alexa and Google Home seemed like two sides of the same coin. But now it feels like there's almost no comparison, Alexa is gonna do more and get the skills and features that fit my needs faster.

    I'm a Google Home owner, so perhaps it's a case where the grass is always greener :-)

  • by Zhenya on 9/27/17, 10:56 PM

    Two questions:

    1) These look like (horrible) renders. Do they not have working ones to show before announcing?

    2) None of the photos show a power cord, are these battery powered or just trying to make them look "sexier" than they are?

  • by ldonley on 9/27/17, 10:49 PM

    Maybe I'm just wearing a foil-helmet, but the presence of a front-facing camera on an always-on device is concerning to me when there is no real good reason to have it.

  • by ProfessorLayton on 9/27/17, 11:37 PM

    I snagged a free Echo Dot when Amazon accidentally had a 100% discount a few weeks ago (Which they honored!).Its an interesting piece of hardware (I wish I could say the same of the required setup app).

    Ultimately, I'm not too interested in using voice interfaces as they currently are. I'm not trying to knock the product, I feel the same about Siri and Google's assistant. Lots of improvements have been made, but its just not for me yet.

    At least it makes a good bluetooth receiver for my car, though it does whine to me about not having an internet connection at the beginning of every drive.

  • by qmarchi on 9/27/17, 10:45 PM

    Too bad it won't have YouTube.

  • by ben174 on 9/27/17, 11:22 PM

    I'm thinking this is the answer to the Echo Dot - for the Echo Show lines. The name makes it pretty obvious, as does the price point.

    These actually fill my needs better, since I don't need the fancy speakers and these look way slicker. The Echo Show is amazingly ugly. And this is a full $100 cheaper.

  • by bluthru on 9/27/17, 11:44 PM

    This is much more aesthetically pleasing than the Show. I like it: a cute alarm clock from the future.

  • by mkempe on 9/27/17, 11:07 PM

    What is the quality of the screen? exact circle, resolution, colors? and what is the angle of the camera?

  • by lewisj489 on 9/27/17, 10:54 PM

    Those echo buttons look super fun, I loved Buzz!