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Comment by snarf21 | Hacker News Reader

I don't get this rant. Alexa is still bleeding edge. It does some things really well. It does some things really poorly. There are lots of things it can't do. So the main complaint is that Alexa could be better, your point..?

To me, right now it excels as an interface when you are busy doing something else. Ours is used most in the kitchen and living room. Timers, streaming music/audio and basic facts all work great. Home automation is improving and will get there as systems learn to play nice. That seems like a lot for $50, but maybe that's just me...

The killer app hasn't been created yet (and possibly not even envisioned). I can't wait until they are connected and I can issue a command to move streaming from one device to another one in another room ("Alexa, pause for Jim", "Alexa, continue for Jim").

I think the biggest downside of voice UI right now is a lack of authentication. Someone outside the window could yell "Alexa, open the door".

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> I can't wait until they are connected and I can issue a command to move streaming from one device to another one in another room

Google Home can do this to a degree today. You are capable of saying things like "Play X on my TV." if your TV is wired up with a ChromeCast.

In general, Google Home is very far ahead of Alexa. I agree with the opinion that Alexa is a glorified radio, but I don't believe that opinion extends to all devices in that class. I think its just because Alexa is overrated and not very powerful.

Alexa plus Plex just got this a day or two ago. I'd imagine that it'll happen with other services too.

You give a really vanilla use case and than suggest Google Home is superior. Can you give me a use case where it actually demonstrates it is far ahead.

The Chromecast example isn't supporting your claim in my opinion.

Entertainment is the biggest use care for these devices IMO; Music and TV. I haven't used an Echo in a while, but it had nothing for TV and wasn't that great at music at the time. Does it have good support for both now?

I always try all these things as I am a junky like that but these things seem to have such limited use cases. Looking up and playing things on chromecast, for me, is faster using my phone than speech will ever be. So is controlling things in the house and with a phone I can open the catflap without waking my wife talking to Alexa. Switching on and off things is okish (phone or even a normal lightswitch are still faster and less hassle imho), but trying to look up what that great song from that obscure Norwegian black metal band was, of which the name is something Alexa does not parse and will take me 10 minutes to properly explain while it makes me sound like robot doing it; while via my phone I google it in seconds. I am really not convinced if this is not just gadgets because of gadgets. Or maybe I am just weird. Which is fine too.

Where it really shines for me is playing the latest podcast on YouTube or continuing a Netflix show where I left off.

Being able to say "Watch Breaking bad on the living room TV" and have Netflix pop-up and start playing right where I left off, or being able to say "play the latest off topic podcast on the bedroom TV" and have it startup right away is really nice.

I've also got a lot of home automation stuff so that combined with telling it to turn lights on/off is fantastic.

My nightly routine is to tell it to turn the bedroom lights on, get ready for bed, tell it to play the show I'm watching, then when I'm in bed and comfy tell it to turn all lights off.

I don't think it's fully there yet, but I really disagree that it's more convenient to use a phone app than a Google Home. Alexa is worse here since skills are clunky, and while I agree that voice isn't the best setup in bedrooms with multiple people, it's definitely easier to say "Hey Google, open catflap" than futzing with a phone.

For me, simply being able to turn my TV + soundbar on/off with Google Home + IFTTT + Harmony Hub, while being a stupid amount of duct tape, has made me no longer need to hunt for where the TV or sound bar remote are any more. Being able to pause/resume shows on my Roku with the same setup avoids me having to get my phone out, unlock it, open the Roku app and press the pause button. It's pretty convenient. Is it life changing? No. Could I just stop losing the remotes? No :p

I have also found myself listening to a lot more music with the google home since I can just turn it on with my voice when I crawl out of bed. Not sure if that's a good fit for metal of any kind though.

I don't think it's truly life changing, few things are, but well executed voice control is truly convenient.

A really vanilla use case that Alexa can't do yet.

Keyword being yet. Recently Plex announced integration with Alexa. Nvidia Shield recently saw Amazon Video app. It is really just a matter of time before skills to play video on devices like the audio is available.

I don't get this rant. Alexa is still bleeding edge.

But it's being sold to relatively unsophisticated consumers, on the front page of the world's largest e-commerce site. This is not a bleeding edge release like Google Glass; this is a broad market release to all kinds of users.

Like I said in my other comment, I do like mine, and I think the article goes overboard. But I don't think Amazon has the luxury of saying "hey, it's bleeding edge!" when it's a top selling item for them, and front and center when you go to their site.

How about if it already knows you're Jim? I think understanding context is holding it back. Azure Cognitive Services has a speaker recognition service. I'm hopeful that Amazon will get there.

> I think the biggest downside of voice UI right now is a lack of authentication. Someone outside the window could yell "Alexa, open the door".

I think this is the most overlooked use case that needs to be addressed. Even in a secure residence, if you leave a 2nd story window open it might be possible to get the audio to Alexa. Though I suppose these skills could add a 2-factor to the unlocking mechanism.

"Alexa unlock the door."

"Ok, what is the passcode."

<get's out phone, retrieves token>

"123456"

"Thanks, unlocking door."

The problem I see is I don't want 2-factor on everything.

I mean people can already bump most locks, or break a window, or in your case just climb in the window...

No house is really secure, and I'm not going to spend my time trying to secure it against non-existent threats.

That's not to say I don't want security. The threat of someone finding a loophole and being able to enumerate and unlock all smart doors is very real. But I'm not going to care if someone can come up with a scheme where they megaphone their voice to unlock the door, then somehow prevent the notification going to my phone letting me know someone is home, avoiding or destroying the few security cameras we have, and avoiding being caught by someone else during all this ruckus. Especially when they could just break a window...

Well, if it was

"Alexa unlock the door."

"Ok, what is the passcode."

"123456"

"Thanks, unlocking door."

Now that I think of it, as someone that has 3 different 2f tokens.. smart watch integration would actually be useful in general... If I had a smart watch.

A smartwatch as simple as a Pebble can run such an app already. For example, I authenticate with 2FA with e.g. Google & Facebook w/my Pebble.

The problem is that I don't want to use my voice for commanding that much. It has privacy implications. First, obviously there is data being transmitted to a US corporation such as Google or Amazon. Second, there is analog audio data being transmitted. For example, that TOTP token generally stays valid for 30 seconds. In this window, an attacker could open the door right after you entered. I live in an apartment, and anything I say in the hallway can be heard by other people living on the same level as me while they are within their house (yep, terrible design).

I do admit that in the privacy of your home such analog audio data works better than say in public via your smartphone. But then again, smartphone is a can of worms with more privacy implications such as screen easily being seen by bystanders and cameras (a smartwatch has the very same issue; Google Glass wouldn't!). For the phone, Google Home is an interface, and certainly not (yet) the primary interface. For Amazon Echo, Alexa is the interface.

Bottomline, we need to think of these disadvantages (share our thoughts about them), and understand when they're too big to be a valid use case.

That's all just going the long way around. Why not just have the door (or Alexa) be able to talk Bluetooth to the watch to verify that it's there?

I'd like to be personally involved in some transactions. I think this will be a major use case for smart watches and a major feature of home interfaces (phone, smartwatch, or whatever has the totp) in the future.

> I can't wait until they are connected and I can issue a command to move streaming from one device to another one in another room ("Alexa, pause for Jim", "Alexa, continue for Jim").

Too much overhead. It should be able to identify you by voice, so you can just ask it to "pause" and "resume".

While I think this is necessary, I don't think it's sufficient. Sure, when your smart home device is just hooked up to some lights and maybe your thermostat, it's fine. But pretty soon (and/or possibly now, I haven't kept up with the news), your smart home device will be connected to things that warrant a little more security, e.g. door locks. It's not that hard for someone to get a recording of your voice.

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