So was given an Amazon Echo Dot for Early Xmas ...

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LoneRanger

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1. the Alexa app needed every single permission on the phone, contacts, gps, wifi connection info, you name it. If there were a permission for what size underwear I own, it would have snapped that up as well. 2. The Alexa app took my phone battery down to 30% from 60% in just over an hour of diddling around with it. 3. The license agreement seems to hint at Amazon taking ownership of all your interactions with Echo Dot (Alexa) like voice records etc, as well as everything te app gleans from your phone. But then Google and Apple do that with phone voice activation data too so oh well. Not sure the thing will be that useful, I like gadgets-- have to see. Time will tell. Kind of feels like I've willfully installed a form of 24/7 surveillance eavesdropping in my house that reports my every utterance to Amazon !! I guess I did ... LoL !!! George Orwell would've probably had something to say about all this ... laugh
 
I hear you on all that.. I use mine for music, my nest thermostat, weather, sports scores.. and random other things.. Plan on installing 2-5 smart outlets for lights etc as well. still debating the privacy thing but ... is it any worse than google and gmail?
 
Thought about getting one but I talk in so many dialects out of order that it wouldnt pick it all out. Reminds me of 17 time zones in Russia and everyone struggles to understand and revert back to English or French.
 
It's an evolving technology. Every month they add new functionality. I use mine for music in the shower. In the kitchen while cooking, helps me a lot (Alexa how many tablespoons in half a cup?). I use the grocery list (Alexa add milk and bread to grocery list) Or text the wife and ask when she will be home.
 
Not sure if the Echo Dot can do as much as the full featured Alexa. It does have these things called skills I can add from the android app, I just added a news feed besides the default Reuters. Wasn't showing on my router's dhcp client list until I set up an IP reservation for it by MAC id, now it shows as amazon-98****a56 connected. Hoping the app will lighten up on my phone's power reserves a little, I'd like to use the thing some but don't want my battery having the life sucked out of it so bad.
 
You know it will be weird when you start talking about getting a new bbq grill next spring and a minute later a bbq grill commercial comes on your Amazon tv.
 
I find it most convenient in the kitchen too. Easy to set multiple timers, easy to figure out measurement conversions. Music is good on low volume. Some annoying settings I haven't been able to figure out.
 
It's a Trojan Horse, and I mean that in the traditional sense of the phrase, not the invented sense of computer malware. You invite it into your home, and the payload then emerges. The entire purpose is to get you to buy stuff from Amazon that you would normally just get at the local retail store (bathroom tissue, maybe?), which, if you leave the thing in your home, sooner or later you will. Secondly it wants to amass data about you and everyone else (anonomyzed? so what?) to further that commercial dominance over any and all resellers of anything and all.
 
Technology is begining to give me the creeps. Monday I was AT TSC looking at the clearance filters. Pulled 2 ph3614 off the shelf and a ph8172. I decided to wait till after the holidays and I put them back. Later that day, an amazon add for Fram tough guard filters shows up in my facebook news feed. I never googled anything or snapped a pic or even uttered the words oil filter.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
George Orwell would've probably had something to say about all this ... laugh
We're probably closer to Aldous Huxley's vision. Throw the Echo in the garbage. Even gizmodo, a website which exists to make money from gadget recommendations, has published an editorial against the privacy abuses of these little $50 internet microphones.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
The license agreement seems to hint at Amazon taking ownership of all your interactions with Echo Dot (Alexa) like voice records etc, as well as everything te app gleans from your phone. ... Kind of feels like I've willfully installed a form of 24/7 surveillance eavesdropping in my house that reports my every utterance to Amazon !! I guess I did ... LoL !!! George Orwell would've probably had something to say about all this ... laugh
Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope
 
Originally Posted By: PimTac
You know it will be weird when you start talking about getting a new bbq grill next spring and a minute later a bbq grill commercial comes on your Amazon tv.
Yes, that's the whole idea. SMART TV"s SEND INFO ABOUT YOU OUT AS WELL!!!
Originally Posted By: Soggydog
Later that day, an amazon add for Fram tough guard filters shows up in my facebook news feed. I never googled anything or snapped a pic or even uttered the words oil filter.
That was just a coincidence, but maybe because you visit BITOG
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
1. the Alexa app needed every single permission on the phone, contacts, gps, wifi connection info, you name it. If there were a permission for what size underwear I own, it would have snapped that up as well. 2. The Alexa app took my phone battery down to 30% from 60% in just over an hour of diddling around with it. 3. The license agreement seems to hint at Amazon taking ownership of all your interactions with Echo Dot (Alexa) like voice records etc, as well as everything te app gleans from your phone. But then Google and Apple do that with phone voice activation data too so oh well. Not sure the thing will be that useful, I like gadgets-- have to see. Time will tell. Kind of feels like I've willfully installed a form of 24/7 surveillance eavesdropping in my house that reports my every utterance to Amazon !! I guess I did ... LoL !!! George Orwell would've probably had something to say about all this ... laugh
:o) AS you know I have a lot to say most times, but rushing to work. I work with technology everyday, I love it, love electronics, networks, routers etc. BUT, I am anti google this, google that, google everything. I think its all crazy, people EVERYDAY turning their entire LIVES AND PERSONAL information over to google, apple, etc. 1. People allow google to scan all their emails (so they can get free email) in gmail so google can make money off selling you ads. 2. People allow google to track EVERY SINGLE movement and location they travel to so Google can make money selling ads to you based on your location. Many people do not know, google has a history of EVERY SINGLE PLACE YOU TRAVELED since you signed up for your gmail account on your andriod device, EVERY signal location you have been to with your phone is available to ANYONE who knows your gmail address and passwork (or hacks your account) Went to dinner last night, your location and time is right there on google. 3. Through "free" google services, google now knows how much you spend on energy for your home, it knows who is home and when, EVERY SINGLE aspect of people lives is now on line and available to google and anyone who hacks it. 4. Its much like prostitution. People give away every single aspect of their personal lives to google and in return google gives you free services. ( I could go on and on, but lucky for you all, I have to get to work*LOL*) I truly wonder how many people know, if they go into ANYONES gmail account, they can look at every single place you have traveled to for the last few years with your cell phone, every place! Time, date and location!!!! Geez!!! E-V-E-R-Y place your phone has been to. Time, location complete with map! You can even search the map for dates and times! Google is now the parent and you are the dog on a leash! Looking at some of these comments, people are ok with it, because instead of setting a kitchen timer, they can have google do it! *LOL*
 
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RESISTANCE IS FUTILE...WE WILL ASSIMILATE YOU AND INCORPORATE YOU INTO OUR COLLECTIVE. Remember that phrase? Truer words were never spoken. Amazing the way people will just roll over, squirting on the floor, these days. Even worse, they allow the same to be done {freely} to their kids. Disgusting.... Be as serious about protecting your privacy as THE BORG are at invading and collecting it.
 
Give it a show! Start talking about really weird kinks and fetishes and other explicit, yet legal topics. Throw the AI for a loop and start filling your 'record' with weird and unusual stuff for the laughs. If it's going to be there, might as well have some fun with it LOL
 
So after one day of having it, apparent it's mainly a pimp for Amazon Prime. You want to do that? That's only available for Prime members, shall I sign you up? You see, I have one of the Amazon VISA's that's tied to my acct for "one click" ordering. I gotta be careful when talking to the thing. Sneeze at the wrong moment and it'll sign me up and charge me for Prime.
 
Originally Posted By: LoneRanger
So after one day of having it, apparent it's mainly a pimp for Amazon Prime. You want to do that? That's only available for Prime members, shall I sign you up? You see, I have one of the Amazon VISA's that's tied to my acct for "one click" ordering. I gotta be careful when talking to the thing. Sneeze at the wrong moment and it'll sign me up and charge me for Prime.
LOL LOL LOL hooked
 
You need Prime to take advantage of Prime Music. The echo connected to a cheap speaker system is a great music setup. That's its #1 use. #2 - kitchen timer. #3 "tell me the news" #4 Jeopardy (pretty fun) I know it does more, but that's our main use. I also hate that this and our phones are recording everything now. We don't have a smart TV at least, so Samsung isn't listening to us.
 
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