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what's the point, everyone has a smartphone that can handle this. echo was dead on arrival

You're missing the point. This is all about home automation without having to pull out your phone or press a button. It's not just about search, but control of all devices.

Instead of whipping out my phone to turn on the phillips hue app to change the light, I can just say. Hey Siri, or Hey Google, turn the lights on in the bedroom.

And btw, I'm well aware you can just say the same thing while your phone is in your pocket, but I never leave my phone that unsecured.
 
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You notice he said lately.. and yes.. lately Apple has been playing catchup

<--- joint date. i love when people on here who have been around for three years act like experts and accuse me of not knowing what im talking about. i dont claim to know everything, but what I do have is memory. if apple was a start-up they would be getting torn apart in the tech press for some of their antics these days.
 
One thing I wish the Echo would do is allow me to call it "Computer". Yeah, just like in Star Trek. If Apple allows me to change the wake phrase then I am in.

Don't bet on the word "computer". It's no longer Apple Computer. But they might agree to allow the phrase "Apple, what is the...."
 
Ugh, I hate to be so negative. But yep, it's a little too late.

Not to mention, Siri is just so tainted to me. It fails at everything from playing music to simple queries to understanding me when I'm speaking perfectly fine. I just wish the Echo wasn't on constant backorder.

Too late?! Amazon most definitely hasn't shipped very many Echos and it only supports US English. It is very early days.

I'm not sure why anyone that uses Siri regularly would have trouble with the cited queries, but you might see if your case is at fault if it is garbling the transcription.

I use Siri on iPhone throughout the day for messages, phone (FaceTime audio) calls, playing music, timers, alarms and the only issue is when I have to say Hey Siri more than once.

However, The lifeproof case for my iPad ruins siri and makes me wonder why reviewers don't do a better job of highlighting these downsides.
 
Too late?! Amazon most definitely hasn't shipped very many Echos and it only supports US English. It is very early days.

I'm not sure why anyone that uses Siri regularly would have trouble with the cited queries, but you might see if your case is at fault if it is garbling the transcription.

I use Siri on iPhone throughout the day for messages, phone (FaceTime audio) calls, playing music, timers, alarms and the only issue is when I have to say Hey Siri more than once.

However, The lifeproof case for my iPad ruins siri and makes me wonder why reviewers don't do a better job of highlighting these downsides.

Probably because they don't use Siri either.
 
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Again, when has Apple been first? What they do is take existing tech. make it simple and more user friendly for the masses

that's the thing - they are only arguably delivering on that. you used to be able to count on them hitting it out of the park, or at the very least, fixing it quickly. 2016 Apple everything feels like a permanent beta test.
 
Because they were first to which product or market exactly?

But they are way too late to this game. They had the opportunity to do something like this with the Apple TV4, but let's be honest, SIRI is NO WERE close to have that capability to do something like this and Siri is so far behind it's embarrassing! Google now completely surpasses Siri years AGO!

Don't believe those Siri commercials.. they are lies! Only reason I harp on Apple is because many people expected the Apple TV4 to come with this capability at that price point years ago!
 
The article said Apple's been working on it since before the Echo was even released. As usual, Apple takes the time to get the product right and then releases it. When I tried an Echo, I was unimpressed. I hope to be impressed by another Apple product.

"Takes the time to get the product right". Maybe true 10 years ago, but today, a statement like that is laughable. What's the last product Apple got right?

FWIW, everyone is hoping to be impressed by another Apple product, but the odds are against that. They're batting average is pretty poor lately.
 
Siri for 3rd party is a great step ... And will increase the usability quite a bit; if really flexible be done.

Now testing can be a nightmare depending on how languages are mapped to commands/codes.
 
Because it's always listening and you don't have to push a button first. Also, the phone is usually in your pocket so you have to take it out first.

I bet it would be integrated with the APPLE TV. You can sit down on the couch and just say turn the tv on and navigate by voice. No need to use the remote at all.

The downsides are essentially the lack of mobility, but once you make a stationary box you can improve everything about the experience. Adding a microphone array for example will allow you to perform on receive beamsteering to isolate noise. Not needing to worry about battery drain being another.
 
Too late?! Amazon most definitely hasn't shipped very many Echos and it only supports US English. It is very early days.

I'm not sure why anyone that uses Siri regularly would have trouble with the cited queries, but you might see if your case is at fault if it is garbling the transcription.

I use Siri on iPhone throughout the day for messages, phone (FaceTime audio) calls, playing music, timers, alarms and the only issue is when I have to say Hey Siri more than once.

However, The lifeproof case for my iPad ruins siri and makes me wonder why reviewers don't do a better job of highlighting these downsides.
Only shipped over 3 million of them as of last month, and 37k pluse 4.4 average reviews. Not sure how you define "very many".
 
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