They must have high hopes. Alexa is not something I can ever imagine using. I like Amazon's web store, but Alexa doesn't seem to offer anything I would ever want. Do others find it useful?
This is why I will never understand the appeal of these "smart assistants". All of the above can be done with simple voice command recognition that has existed for decades. Why do I need to send my commands through a third party selling my data and tracking me?
In order to watch video from my Dropcam over in the next room, that video stream gets uploaded through my internet connection to some backend, then downloaded back through that same connection to my viewer. Madness.
These are the average things my wife and I use ours for at the moment.
Edit: Hey, and just to be clear, yes, we find it useful enough we have several devices.
Compare this to: "What's the point of remotes? If I want to change the station, I get up and walk to the TV". Once you get used to being able to turn lights off by voice, you get lazy and happy.
And it's not just one light, BTW. Suppose when I go to sleep, I want all lights except the porch lights off. I don't have to walk around the whole house[1] switching them off, when instead I can just say "Sleep mode lights" or something equivalent.
[1] You know, the 3000 sq ft houses people outside of SV have.
Also, maybe I'm the outlier here your proposed situation is particularly accurate (and funny) to me- a couple of years ago a dog chewed up our TV remote and I have still yet to replace it. I get up and physically go to the TV to turn the volume up or down or to turn it on/off.
I'm really not trying to sound like a luddite, I just really don't care enough to adopt this stuff, at least not for the foreseeable future...I don't see the purpose of life as an endless march towards total comfort and ease, though. I will concede that these devices and smart home technology makes life much easier for those with disabilities, and I ultimately support it's development for this reason alone.
But on the flip side, it's a poor assumption that if someone is not turning off the lights manually, that the primary goal is comfort or ease. I used to think manually doing all chores was a virtue in itself - I had a dishwasher in my apartment for years before I started using it. I no longer think that way. Now for me, if I can eliminate mundane stuff like dishes, lights, etc - it is because I want to spend the time on more quality stuff.
As an example, too many older people say they wish they had just paid the money to repair stuff in the house, rather than spending the time to repair it themselves. They took pride in their work, on top of also saving money. But later in life, they wished they had used that time better.
And the benefit is, I don't have to remember my phone. It can be sitting wherever, and I can still do these things.
> I really don't see much of a benefit to having an alexa or similar device.
So? I like having a remote car starter, too, despite being able to walk out and start the car manually.
I like GrubHub, even though I could call up and order from places on the phone.
I enjoy streaming video over DVRing shows.
I value convenience. Maybe you value other things. That's fine.
So then...
> I dunno.
What? What don't you know?
They have sold tens of millions of Alexa devices, is it really surprising that people find them useful?
Also the facts that they keep bringing out new devices and are hiring extremely heavily would lead you to believe they see a very bright future in the product.
I envision pick and place robot arms that swing around your kitchen grabbing things and preparing meals too.
Or stamps. Or shoelaces. Or umbrellas. Or wallets. Or lipstick.
All useful things to millions of people.
One fundamental difference with fidget spinners: they have already peaked and faded in popularity, Alexa continues to grow year by year. That's the true difference between something tens of millions of people (soon to be hundreds of millions of people) find useful, and something people temporarily find amusing.
The example of fidget spinner is to highlight a counter example to the belief that selling well is an indicator for usefulness. It isn't.
Being able to make a sound when an action occurs (e.g. garage door opens alerting you that someone has arrived home) is nice.
Not sure what else. But satisfaction seems to be high. I think it falls squarely into the category of "Seems not worth the expense, but once I have it, it is kinda convenient".
(I do not own one).
I challenge you to provide a single shred of evidence in support of this claim.
What I do know is that, to my knowledge, there has never been a single verified publicized breach of any AWS systems that were due to a vulnerability in AWS itself. Care to provide a counterexample?
I am a super curious person by nature as also a couple of my kids and do get a lot of use out of the Google Homes. Often times during family discussions.