Smart speaker, who has/uses one? What for?

[AndyRM]

View: https://youtu.be/TqAu-DDlINs?si=uTa1q5bSKQr1k0-A


They don't do Scottish accents.

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

I understand your view though it isn't something that concerns me. I would disagree with your last point. Advertising in any form has no impact on me whatsoever.

Something which always amuses me and gives me some tiny satisfaction is online advertising. Take CC for example. Someone, somewhere is paying the site money for a banner, with an element of personalisation. Most recently my banner has shown Restrap and Cervelo both of which I've already bought.......but hey carry on suckers, nothing is going to persuade me to click through as I've already purchased. Chuck your money down the drain.......of course it's our money as the consumer pays for advertising! ☹️

Bit off-topic (sorry) but advertising affects us all. Advertisers have to pay and that affects their costs and somebody has to pay and it's the conusmers who pay through higher prices to cover the costs of advertising.

 

[PaulSB]

Bit off-topic (sorry) but advertising affects us all. Advertisers have to pay and that affects their costs and somebody has to pay and it's the conusmers who pay through higher prices to cover the costs of advertising.

Hence my final line "drain.......of course it's our money as the consumer pays for advertising" It would be interesting to know just how much WE pay to have products advertised to US.

 

[Dave7]

My eldest granddaughter received a smart speaker for Christmas. I'm not sure I approve but that aside it didn't understand my accent - I presume. Granddaughter is broad Lancashire, I'm RP. Granddaughter was showing me how to use it. I tried simple topical commands like "Alexa play Jingle Bells" - every request failed. Granddaughter just said silly Granddad. 🤣

We have Alexa on our TV. Mrs P and I have avoided enabling her for fear we will never be able to change channels again.

My SiLs Mum is broad Oldham. She was asking bus times back to Oldham. Unfortunately it was coming out as "what time is the buzz " and it couldn't understand her.

 

[markemark]

It is possible that these companies are not honest in their recording. But then that could also be true for any smart device (TV, phone, cars etc). And of course (tin foil hat time...) so can innocuous devices potentially be used by a state (routers, security systems, smart meters etc).

If you are really paranoid that you are being recorded and you think massive corps and states are not to be trusted, then it won't be from the obvious things like smart speakers. Not having a modern phone or smart speaker will not stop anyone who wants to know what you're up to.

 

[derrick]

shopping list, reminders, time.plus all the music, alexa tells jokes, have a silly conversatio,++++++

 

[cyberknight]

We have the alexa with the screen so we can drop in and check thats mrs ck dad is ok as he has about 3 dotted around his house.

 

[Donger]

Compiling favourite songs lists and letting me discover music acts I have only just heard of, weather forecasts, reminding me when to take the spuds out of the oven etc. I've discovered that programming it to play "Skin Deep" by the Stranglers is my perfect wake up alarm music.

Our broadband has been out of action for a week, and I was surprised just how much I missed Alexa.

 

[oxoman]

Alexa is just a version of a smartphone that actually answers your questions or responds to your requests and switches things on etc. Smartphones can do the same but tend to do it slyly, PC,s also listen or watch in a similar fashion. In someways I miss the days when things were a lot dumber and didn't listen or answer back. Let's face it buy a new washer or fridge or other household items the chance are its connected to the WiFi in the background without you realising.

 

[accountantpete]

Echo Dot owner which I rarely use as the music quality is awful compared to my Soundcore X600 bluetooth speaker.

 

[presta]

nothing is going to persuade me to click through as I've already purchased

If you've already paid for it, you might just as well watch it.

It would be interesting to know just how much WE pay to have products advertised to US

Compare the price of premium branded products with supermarket own labels.

 

[AndyRM]

Hence my final line "drain.......of course it's our money as the consumer pays for advertising" It would be interesting to know just how much WE pay to have products advertised to US.

If you've bought anything, from anywhere, it's probably about 70% advertising/marketing, 20% manufacturing, 10% profit for the company.

These are just rough estimates but I am not far wrong.

The earlier post about trusting Apple but not Google made me laugh. They're as bad as each other.

 

[Cycling Labs]

I have an Echo Show and use it for loads of stuff:

• I upload pictures to Amazon Photos and the device works as an electronic phoro frame.
• I have WiFi / Alexa enabled light bulbs around the house so can control them using my voice or via the app if I'm away from home.
• I use it to keep tabs on my shopping list - I tell Alexa to add items to my list as I find I need them. This then syncs with the App on my phone so I have the list when I go shopping.
• I have a Ring doorbell so the Echo will show me who's at the door when the bell is pressed.
• I use it to play music and podcasts
• I use it to tell me the news and weather every day when I wake and am going through my morning routine.

In short there are a myriad of things you can do with it once you have it set-up and running. The longer I've had mine, the more I find to do with it.

Neil