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Amazon Reveals $230 Touchscreen 'Echo Show' Launching in June

Apparently some of you either do not own an Echo, or have not used it to its fullest capability. I use the echo to fire up my home theater system, turn lights on and off, lock doors, and much more! An iPad sitting on a table with Siri is NOT the same experience.

I've got one of these on pre-order and looking forward to see what it does. If I don't like it, I can always send it back or cancel the order. I figure it's at least worth a look.
 
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oneMadRssn said:
This is sort of why I hate Amazon's, Facebook's, and Google's ad-tracking. Every time I seek to buy a product, I want to be presented with all the options and all the details. I don't want my options to be limited by a database of preferences and demographics. I know Amazon doesn't hide anything from me, but putting it on page two or at the bottom of a list is basically the same thing.
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Meh, it happens with any kind of advertising or lookup. Even the old paper Yellow Pages depended on bigger paid ads to catch our eye first :)

When I search for a tool on Amazon, yes I think sometimes it first shows me ones from a company I've used before. And/or from one having a promotion. If so, that makes perfect sense. My local hardware guy would do the same!

I still have plenty of options though, which includes sorting by price and rating instead. Or going shopping somewhere else. (I often compare prices between eBay and Amazon, for instance. When they're close, of course, Prime shipping is often the winner. And gawd I love having same day delivery to my tiny town sometimes! )

As I've always said, it's no different than back when we all shopped in the same neighborhood (as many people still do). In my small town, the deli knows what sandwich I want (so it's ready almost as soon as I walk in), the pharmacist knows all my ailments and allergies by heart (and gives extras if needed), the local stores know my brand and price preferences (and keep my favorites around), and our local restaurants know what I like (even if it's no longer on their menu). These are all huge benefits because my shopping is not all private.

This latest fad towards absolute "privacy" seems to me to just be another result of the non-social behavior of today's device-raised generations. Kids don't even call anyone any more. Grump grump etc :p
 
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An Apple version of this would be something I would like for the kitchen counter.

An always-on Today view for the Home Screen, showing events, weather, etc..
 
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DotCom2 said:
Siri does not work as well as Alexa. Believe me! If Apple can just fix Siri and come out with a similar device, with me entrenched in their ecosystem...I'd be all on it!
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For my use case I disagree I bought an echo dot and barely use it. Siri is better at controlling my philips hue lights in so many ways
 
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cwwilson said:
I'm sorry but I just don't trust these kind of products. Why would I let an always listening device into my home? So corporations can eavesdrop 24-7 and market me even further than they already do? Same with those "security" companies that set up cameras and sensors all over your house. Only with those not only can they hear but they can watch you in the privacy of your residence at all times. Might as well leave your doors unlocked and windows open so everyone can check out what you're up to, or just invite the NSA or whatever other 3-letter agencies to set up shop inside.

This day and age, nobody cares enough about their privacy anymore, and the higher-ups are taking notice and taking full advantage of the situation to exploit us in efforts to further their own ends.
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I assume you own a cellphone, or a laptop, right? Both devices with cameras and microphones, batteries and persistent wireless connections...

I understand your concern, but from a technological standpoint we already have a ton of devices that could be used to collect data on us already in our homes. It is more about whether you trust a specific company and their security practices than anything.

You can even go deeper though, do you trust your router to not be sniffing your local network data?
 
PeterL111 said:
Looks like Amazon is throwing spaghetti to the wall to see what sticks...
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You say that like it's a bad thing.

Apple obviously has the potential for doing great things but their profits and prestige is based off the success of Jobs. So some spaghetti is exactly what Tim Cook needs to put on the menu.
 
Can't believe Apple is rumored to be coming out with their own version of this. Such a silly product.
 
AppleFan360 said:
Apparently some of you either do not own an Echo, or have not used it to its fullest capability. I use the echo to fire up my home theater system, turn lights on and off, lock doors, and much more! An iPad sitting on a table with Siri is NOT the same experience.

I've got one of these on pre-order and looking forward to see what it does. If I don't like it, I can always send it back or cancel the order. I figure it's at least worth a look.
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I agree with your sentiment regarding the Echo as I do much of the same though I've admitted never been in love with the device as the need to manually discover and then add skills is a bit of a PITA. Since Logitech and Lutron now support Google Home, I've made the transition away from Alexa and prefer Google's implementation and capabilites (i.e. casting to other Chromecasts or Cast enabled devices---still perplexed how I can't tell my Echo Dot to play something on our Fire TV devices :confused:)

I haven't read through the 6 previous pages of posts so my apologies if my opinions have already been expressed but I don't see the goal/purpose of an Echo with a display. The beauty of the Amazon Echo and Google Home, IMO, are that you don't need to be standing in front of it to use it, that it allows you to accomplish tons of tasks from anywhere in your home. Adding a screen and any associated functionality just mirrors exactly what we've been doing for years on devices we already own (smartphones and tablets) and with an inferior experience. We now have to be in a very specific location vs. having the ability to call out a command or at least still have mobility/flexibility when using a smartphone.

And before someone says..'what about those people who don't have a smartphone?' First, that target demographic is miniscule at this point and second, if it's an issue of affordablility, those customers aren't likely to spend $220 on this device either.
 
chelsel said:
I've got a router that can show how much bandwidth an individual device is using on my network. The Echo only ever uses bandwidth when you ask it a question. The rest of the time it is extremely idle. Now, that doesn't mean that it can't be remotely activated to start sending data up to the cloud, but for the most part it is not doing that all the time.
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Well that's good to know.
 
sockdoggy said:
Why would someone use this over an iPad with a stand and enable 'Hey Siri?' (or a competitor equivalent tablet)?
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Because functionality.

Alexa is insanely more useful than Siri could ever hope to be under apple's hands. Siri is retarded compared to Alexa and even ok google.
 
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that's great, for US people, .. the rest of the world here can't use even 2% of the device, let alone order it.
 
cwwilson said:
I'm sorry but I just don't trust these kind of products. Why would I let an always listening device into my home? So corporations can eavesdrop 24-7 and market me even further than they already do? Same with those "security" companies that set up cameras and sensors all over your house. Only with those not only can they hear but they can watch you in the privacy of your residence at all times. Might as well leave your doors unlocked and windows open so everyone can check out what you're up to, or just invite the NSA or whatever other 3-letter agencies to set up shop inside.

This day and age, nobody cares enough about their privacy anymore, and the higher-ups are taking notice and taking full advantage of the situation to exploit us in efforts to further their own ends.
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You most likely already own several such devices.
 
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yea, unfortunately nobody uses homekit and everyone makes their products for alexa. Apple has already lost the home automation market and just needs to make siri compatible with alexa.
 
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Got two on preorder, since there's a $100 discount for a pair.

Gonna set one up for my mother. If even she can work it to make video calls, then my other four brothers will have to get one too :D

Then so will the grandkids, and then later the extended family across half the globe. Just wish it was cheaper.

Does anyone know if the video calling is specific to it? Or will they have a smartphone app as well? I have no time to research right now. Thanks!
 
rpat701 said:
Isn't this thing just an iPad propped-up in landscape orientation?
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No because an iPad is actually useful and costs just a few bucks more. It's also a much better home automation system thanks to Home. They should copy Apple's handoff feature and push visuals to people's tablets and smartphones which is how I imagine Apple will do it.
 
KittyKatta said:
The same reason people use Alexa in a Cylinder rather than Siri on the phone.

Logically we shouldn't need these "Ladies in a Can" products since every single one of us own phones. But there's an intangible convenience of having a standalone home product like the Echo or Google Home. So this screen version of Echo is a natural evolution of the product.

I'm sure people out here will be bitter about its existence but If this had FaceTime support I'd be all over it
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I'm actually with you here, but I can't get past this logic either. You say that FaceTime would be a big hit, and I can see that too, but I can't get past the fact that I ALREADY HAVE FACETIME IN MY HANDS! Why does FaceTime on a table beat that?
 
EM2013 said:
Can't believe Apple is rumored to be coming out with their own version of this. Such a silly product.
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I can't believe that people have not comprehended that just the other day Phil Schiller made all sorts of public comments about this product category...which completely invalidates any possibility of them coming out with something similar any time soon.

Apple doesn't comment on products so specifically right before it launches one.
 
rpat701 said:
Isn't this thing just an iPad propped-up in landscape orientation?
Click to expand...

No because an iPad is actually useful and costs just a few bucks more. It's also a much better home automation system thanks to Home. They should copy Apple's handoff feature and push visuals to people's tablets and smartphones which is how I imagine Apple will do it.
 
Jett0516 said:
Looks like the same function can be done with an iPad and a stand.

I think we should all buy a cheap iPad stand from amazon just to piss them off.
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I bought a replacement battery for my 2011 Mac Air from Amazon and got a free cheapo ipad stand in the box! :D
 
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