>
> >
> >> Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote
> >>> Yes very funny Its what happens when the population have rumbled that
> >>> people want to sell them stuff but they don't really want it.
> >>> Advertising does not work any more.
> >>
> >> Corse it does, currently with google home devices and alexa etc. > >
> > you're not wrong there
> >
> > who the **** is buying this tat
>
> I have for starters and it isnt tat, its very useful indeed.
>
> > and why FFS
>
> I find them very useful and I have two google home minis
> and one echo dot. I find them very useful when cooking,
> much more convenient to tell it to set a 10 minute timer than
> use a manual one. And easy to have multiple timers too.
I wonder if chefs find them as useful, not seen them used in high end kitchens or on masterchef type programs, not sure I'd find a use for them, a timer or two is fine for me.
> Google home currently does a much better job with
> forecasts, telling me when it will rain between which
> hours. Siri and Alexa just tell you that it will rain that day.
I just look at a weather app on my phione which gives more info.
> I have one google home mini in the bedroom
> where its very convenient for the forecasts and
> given that I always wake in the dark, much more
> convenient to ask it the time than to put the
> glasses on and use a physical clock.
I use a` projection clock which also gives me in/out temeratures.
I also use it
> to turn the house lights off before going to sleep.
I'm quite happy using a switch.
> The echo dot has a much better mic system that
> allows you to tell it what to do right across the very
> large main room stuffed with sound absorbing junk.
>
> Google does a much better job of multi questions
> that are related so you don?t have to repeat the
> basics that were in the first question again.
Seems strange having to tell things what to do. I started using such a system in early 2000 on my iMac. I used to say computer open photoshop etc... but after a week I got bored with it.
And I don?t have to cart the phone around with me
> all the time. And Siri doesn?t work with the phone
> in your pocket so those non phone devices are much
> more convenient around the house. They would also
> work well if I happen to have a fall and can't move,
> I would be able to call 999 while lying on the floor etc.
If you were conscious it's an advantage.
Handy to be able to tell it to play the latest podcast
> of the ones I listen to routinely. Google does that
> very well. Much more awkward with Alexa.
It is interesting to here the advantages and comparisions, I still don;t think I have a great need for them.
> Alexa is much more prone to false recognition of that
> word and is so stupid that if you play a youtube
> showing you how to use it, it obeys those commands.
Southpark did an episode around that. you an getv google to tell alexa to add big hairy balls to yuor shopping list and them have it repeated like a chior. You could have a lot of fun with a dozen of them all responding to each other. :-)
> Siri uses pattern recognition of your voice so it only
> works for the voices you train it with.
>
> Interesting to watch how they evolve too. I turn do
> not disturb on when sleeping because those who
> call me find it hard to know when I am sleeping.
I just turn things off.
I used
> to be able to turn it off just by saying 'hey siri disturb'
> Then for a while it used to play some music with that
> name. Its now gone back to working the way I want.
Seems a lot of effort.
I guess with all those products to talk to it gives the impression of conversation and perhaps a sort of friend like illusion and the feeling of interaction something you don't really get with on/off switches.
I've yet to feel a need for any of them, I'm predicting that soon advertisers will be taking advantage listening in and suggesting products like google/amazon do currently with emails.