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Google Chirp To Rival Amazon Echo 100

Posted by msmash from the mission-echoing-echo dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Google is working on a competitor to the Amazon Echo, the smart speaker that has proved to be a sleeper hit for Amazon. The device, which will resemble an OnHub router, has not been officially named yet but is internally known as the Chirp. It has long been suspected that Google was working on a voice-controlled speaker that could integrate with Nest, since Google acquired Nest two years ago. While the Chirp isn't ready for release at next week's Google I/O developer conference, it will most likely receive honorable mention as the conference will highlight voice control, personal assistance, and virtual reality.
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Google Chirp To Rival Amazon Echo More

Google Chirp To Rival Amazon Echo

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  • Sleeper hit? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BitZtream ( 692029 ) on Thursday May 12, 2016 @09:28AM (#52097981)

    What? Sleeper hit? I don't know anyone that owns one outside of my office, the one we have in the office is for testing and it sucks. I hear them talking to it all the time and continually repeating themselves trying to get it to figure out what they actually mean.

    Voice 'activation' or 'recognition' SUCKS currently. These types of devices ride a VERY SHORT hype train just like Siri did, and then no one at all cares. I suspect that the general public doesn't give a flying fucking about any voice recognition anymore.

    Now tell me ... WHY DO I NEED a voice controlled speaker to integrate with my thermostat and fire alarm ... two things that I NEVER touch. You set the temp and you leave it, it heats or cools the house as needed, if you have a good thermostat (note, the Nest devices are actually pretty shitty as far as 'smart devices' go.) it has sensors in each room that detects occupancy and temp and adjusts the temp based on the rooms people are in.

    No one cares about voice recognition in its current, almost absolutely useless state. Its nothing more than a broken toy. The only people who are telling you Amazon has a 'hit' is Amazon.

    Stop slashvertising and get a cluepon. Echo isn't impressive, if you can find anyone with one of these 'sleeper hits' for more than a week, ask them how much they use it ... and then I dare you to find me the person who doesn't regret wasting the money after the first month is over.

    • Exactly. These "stories" are posted by people trying to hype up amazons Echo. There have been a couple of them posted here, disguised as "news". The Echo has failed miserably in the market, along with the FireTV/Fire Tablet lines.
      • I really hate anything amazon for some reason, with the exeption of ordering items from their website.

        • I really hate anything amazon for some reason, with the exeption of ordering items from their website.

          You're the type of consumer where once a company fits if your mind as doing "x" you only allow them to do "x". You don't want a company to be good at multiple things; it doesn't fit into the boxes in your brain where you store things.

          • it doesn't fit into the boxes in your brain where you store things.

            Wow, you should become a neurosurgeon, so you can rearrange all the contents in the boxes in peoples brains.
            Then Amazon would really have a hit!
            Get busy.

      • It has? Is that why they've introduced two more models, and other companies are licensing the tech? Interesting definition of "failed miserably."

        • Companies are desperate these days and do not want to miss on new fads because those fads climb hard and die fast.

          • Amazon has sold more than 3 million echos. I have one, several of my neighbors have them, and so do some of my co-workers. Mostly people seem happy with it, and when they complain about something, it is usually in the context of hoping it will be fixed in the next version, rather than something that will make them stop using it. Since I have bought mine, several features have been fixed or added via free over-the-air software updates.

        • Introducing more models just means "we messed up on the previous models. I hope you like this one better". Failed miserably is means NO ONE IS BUYING IT and they have likely lost tens of millions of dollars on developing it. Ridiculous. Do YOU know anyone that has one? It is the same with the Microsoft Surface. Ever seen one outside of a store? No. And they keep introducing "new models". I think they are up to the 4th now and the still aren't selling.
        • You'll find that a lot of people here are driven by their emotions. People get their hate on for something, and will insist it's a failure, even when an item is so popular that there's a wait to get one. Echo, Dot, and Tap are all useful products, but some people would rather shout at clouds, and pretend they're a failure for personal emotional reasons, rather than even trying to come to a rational conclusion.
          • I don't hate it. I own a Fire TV and Fire Tablet myself which I use frequently. It doesn't change the fact they are market failures. The Echo is something that is "useful" for 6 months until the shiny new wears off.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      Actually I have one and I am getting a dot for my workshop.
      I have a smart plug on my bedroom lamp and it is really handy to open the door and tell the lamp to turn on when I get home at night. It is also handy to turn off the lamp by telling it to turn on.
      I also find it nice to check the weather and news as well as use it to play music and as a BT speaker.

      • It is also handy to turn off the lamp by telling it to turn on.

        Is this a typo? Or did you mean to write this?

        Except for the novelty, how is this better than a clapper? or a motion sensor attached to a light?

        • Maybe it's like Microsoft Windows, where you have to click on "Start" to be able to select "Shut down".

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

          A motion sensor will turn it on day or night and I may not want to have the lamp turn on when I get up to go to the bathroom.
          The clapper could work but it is not a bluetooth speaker, it does not play music or audio books, and I can not have more than one in a room and have individual control over both.

          I find it very handy and have been using it for a few months. You may not but I find that it works well and it is a good bt speaker and audio player.

      • Great. 2 sales. Give me a break. You won't be using it in 6 months.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

          I have had it since launch. I got it for $99 and I do find it useful. What I find interesting is the active hostility to a person that actually find use out of the product. From your attitude I take it that you do not have one.

    • Re:Sleeper hit? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jerk ( 38494 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {trebrehc}> on Thursday May 12, 2016 @09:49AM (#52098141)

      Echo isn't impressive, if you can find anyone with one of these 'sleeper hits' for more than a week, ask them how much they use it ... and then I dare you to find me the person who doesn't regret wasting the money after the first month is over.

      Okay, I'll bite. My girlfriend and I use Echo several times a day, every day. Whether it's to ask the forecast for that day or the next, to set a timer for tea, to turn the lights on/off when we walk into the kitchen (where our Echo lives), or for the latest news brief from NPR and BBC (though you can set different ones). I've also used it for unit conversions while cooking or baking and it's used fairly frequently for playing Pandora stations or something from Amazon's music service since it's actually got a very nice speaker built into it.

      I find it much, much more reliable than Siri (which is disappointing, being an Apple user) and fairly close to Google's Now as far as speed and accuracy. They're constantly adding new features and send an email every Friday letting you know what's new and how to use it.

      • You also own 5 Nest devices. You aren't normal. You just like shiny tech. That is fine, but don't pretend there are many people like you.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jerk ( 38494 )

          You also own 5 Nest devices. You aren't normal. You just like shiny tech. That is fine, but don't pretend there are many people like you.

          Six now, since adding a thermostat to the bedroom (its heating/cooling system is separate from the rest of the house.) I got quite a chuckle out of the thought of you searching my history for that little nugget of information; you're taking this very personally.

          And we're discussing this on slashdot, where I'd argue that most readers have an interest in shiny tech, though I know two other people (who are not gadget nerds like me) that own Echos.

          • Your situation is interesting, and probably a precursor of things to come.

            The IoT lobby is powerful and as Millenials get older and buy homes, condos, etc they will embrace this sort of thing.
            My problem with this sort of thing is the loss of privacy, the management of maintaining IoT/cloud enabled devices with security, patching, etc;

            I imagine there are benefits to this tech, but the trade offs don't make it worth my time or money.
            To me much of this "convenience tech" is a solution looking for a p

      • If you even have a system able to turn off your lights programmatically, you are so far outside the norm as to be an alien being.

        I find Siri pretty reliable for the other things you mentioned, I use Siri white a bit to check weather or play a song...

        • If you even have a system able to turn off your lights programmatically, you are so far outside the norm as to be an alien being.

          Lol, I've always wondered about that... I love my Insteon system [insteon.com]. It's really nice when the lights in my office turn on when I enter the room, or when the living room lamps come on at sundown. I also have a handy little remote that I can use to control devices instead of using the app on my phone. The system can also be controlled programmatically by sending HTTP requests to

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mlts ( 1038732 )

      I am not impressed with Bluetooth speakers. If I try one during a conference call, it either has 0 volume or KISS concert, deaf-in-5-seconds volume as the next step up. Even then, people say that one can't be heard.

      Now, add IoT stuff to the mix, which would allow any blackhat who manages to find the device now has a dedicated microphone to record what is going on 24/7? Not worth the cash or the bother. Especially with the state of IoT where security updates are talked about, but rarely done, just becaus

    • How else are you going to watch your house burn down [rt.com] from 300 miles away unless you've got it crammed to the gills with the latest home automatation gimcrackery?!

      These internet-connectimacated micropaphones are obviously the latest HOT product from the NSA. They also are handy for Russian & Chinese haxx0rs to steal your precious secrets.

      Now instead of the local miscreants ringing your doorbell and running away, bored global jackaninnies can sonically assault you with Ministry at 3 AM, flick your
      • > Ministry at 3 AM

        Is that really considered an assault? Sounds like what I'm normally doing around this time.

        • > Ministry at 3 AM

          Is that really considered an assault? Sounds like what I'm normally doing around this time.

          "Connect the God Damned Dots!"

    • No one cares about voice recognition in its current, almost absolutely useless state. Its nothing more than a broken toy.

      Users are supposed to "train" their Echo devices to get the voice recognition feature to work properly. My friend got upset because his Echo understood me without any training from me whatsoever. The Echo is nothing more than speaker with a microphone. I'm familiar with speaking into a microphone and annunciating each word clearly. Most people don't realize that the training is for them and not the Echo.

      • Mine didn't require any training, and can understand me, even when I'm sick and can just croak at it. It's a lot more than a speaker and a microphone. It's a cluster of microphones, with the processing power to reject noise, and pick up on your voice, along with the computing power to connect to the Alexa voice service.

    • Voice 'activation' or 'recognition' SUCKS currently. These types of devices ride a VERY SHORT hype train just like Siri did, and then no one at all cares.

      I have an Echo as do several people at at my work. The voice recognition is far better than any other device I've ever used and often is able to be activated from the other room. The only issues I've had is figuring out the exact phrasing Amazon's servers are listening for to listen a particular artist, album, or podcast, but the device is incredibly accurate for detecting the words I'm saying (you can read back what Echo hears you say to it using the app).

      I know it's popular to bag on Echo and Amazon for

    • What? Sleeper hit?

      It does sound like a term the NSA/CIA would use. It would be like an always-on surveillance device, but it would be an all-in-one solution that could also take out an entire living room and all its occupants should someone ever try to fast-forward through an FBI copyright warning on a movie.

    • I brought my Echo into the office, and it's been able to recognize at least 5 separate people with no issues from across the room. At home, it recognized everyone's voice, kids and adults. Three people in the office have bought one after using mine.

      So your anecdote, like mine, means nothing overall.

      I had to bring my Echo in because my kids were continuously asking Alexa for jokes, which gets unbelievably annoying.

    • WHY DO I NEED a voice controlled speaker to integrate with my thermostat and fire alarm ... two things that I NEVER touch. You set the temp and you leave it, it heats or cools the house as needed, if you have a good thermostat (note, the Nest devices are actually pretty shitty as far as 'smart devices' go.) it has sensors in each room that detects occupancy and temp and adjusts the temp based on the rooms people are in.

      If your thermostat can detect when you're home, great. It would meet my needs. I travel a lot. On occasion I am gone for 2 or 3 weeks straight. Sometimes I forget to adjust the thermostat while I am gone. I love being able to tell my thermostat I'm away after I've already left. I don't always get home at the same time, either. So I don't really have a schedule for adjusting the temperature when I get home. I typically just kick the thing on when I am walking out of my office and it starts cooling as

    • Voice recognition on the Echo is excellent as long as you don't have more than one person talking at a time, and most of us do not regret getting one. It can even understand me when I have a bad cold and my voice is just a croak.

      It seems like you just resent being advertised to on Slashdot, so you're pushing back with misinformation.

    • WHY DO I NEED a voice controlled speaker to integrate with my thermostat and fire alarm ... two things that I NEVER touch.

      You need them because you're narrow minded and need to wakeup to the fact that just because the word "Nest" was used doesn't mean that Google is spending millions of dollars introducing voice activation just to change the room temperature.

    • The only thing I really want (apart from better recognition, obviously) is voice commands for casting.

      Today, I can go "OK Google, play Iron Maiden on Google Play Music" and it'll start playing a random playlist. But after that, I have to manually cast it to my stereo. If I could tack on "cast to living room" or "cast to multiroom", it would work so much better.

      The idea of ubiquitous always-on voice control is cool in a sci-fi way, but also slightly worrying, as it will always be listening. At least the voic

  • There's already "chirp" (Score:3, Interesting)

    by tekrat ( 242117 ) on Thursday May 12, 2016 @09:29AM (#52097993) Homepage Journal

    Chirp is software to program Ham Radios.

    When will these oversized companies with their own army of lawyers actually CHECK to make sure they aren't stepping on someone else's toes?

    I'm sure Google will sue the programmer of the other software.... even though he had it first.

    • Re:There's already "chirp" (Score:5, Informative)

      by pr0t0 ( 216378 ) on Thursday May 12, 2016 @09:38AM (#52098063)

      has not been officially named yet but is internally known as the Chirp

      Easy there ham-cowboy, it's just a code name, not the official name. Companies use IP stuff for internal names all the time.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • ... Chirp is a pretty generic name used by hundreds of different products.

      Unless you happen to know someone that makes a voice activated speaker that spies on you and sends it all back to Google, then there isn't really anything to sue for.

      I promise you I used the name 'Chirp' for sonar software before the HAM project was a glimmer in someones eyes, so if you want a law suit, I'll sue them for a start. I have proof via multiple public web archives and revision control systems such as google code. Sound li

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      Probably not.
      I worked a company that produced a program called Eclipse for Court reporters to translate and edit their transcripts. The Eclipse IDE came out many years latter. You can have more than one produce with the same name and as long as they do not compete or confuse the market it is not an issue.
      For example Eclipse the mini computer from DG, Eclipse the car, Eclipse the IDE.
      So a smart speaker named chirp and a program to work with HAM radios called chirp should not be a problem.

    • I'm sure Google will sue the programmer of the other software.... even though he had it first.

      Please calm down and put that pitchfork away.

      Chirp is a cutesy name that is only used internally. Besides, I doubt very much that even Google would officially market that device under a name that reminds people of a smoke detector running low on battery.

    • I'm sure Google will sue the programmer of the other software.... even though he had it first.

      Are you sure? Maybe cite an example of Google doing this in the past before you make such wonderful claims.

  • The telescreen barked: (Score:3)

    by Thud457 ( 234763 ) on Thursday May 12, 2016 @09:31AM (#52098003) Homepage Journal

    Winston Smith! You can do better than that. Your hands are barely reaching your knees.

  • Echo Owner Here (Score:3)

    by ohieaux ( 2860669 ) on Thursday May 12, 2016 @09:48AM (#52098137)
    I got in early on the Echo and we've yet to find a good use case for it. It's a decent speaker for playing Amazon Prime music and will answer SIMPLE questions. But for the most part, it cannot answer the questions we throw at it. We use Google or Siri in those cases.

    Since it listens to everything said in the room, I'd be less comfortable with Google eavesdropping on my life than I am with Amazon.

    • Re: Echo Owner Here (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If the Echo also functioned as a good speakerphone I'd have one already. I don't quite understand why they decided not to include that.

    • There's also a lot of Internet radio it can receive now, including local radio stations. The only two stations I care about, my favorite NPR affiliate and a certain rock station that likes to bill itself as "world famous" come right up when I tell Echo to play them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

      "Since it listens to everything said in the room"
      Kind of but not really.
      Echo uses a simple local voice recognition system that listens for the key word Alexa. It does not digitize everything you say and send it to Amazon. The bandwidth would be too high as would the cost of processing all the speech for the key word.
      BTW here is the source for the echo https://www.amazon.com/gp/help... [amazon.com]

      • It's clear that not everything is reported back, but it is listening and could report back.

        I'm not going to open the source code and try and determine if there are other keywords beyond "Alexa". And, it is listening and I would expect somehow digitizing all of the sounds to match the keyword "Alexa"

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by LWATCDR ( 28044 )

          And your TV could have a mic and a cell connection in it and could be reporting everything you watch on TV and say in your home...
          And your computer could be doing the same thing for all you know. How do you know that the nic does not have a mic and is sending audio right now to the NSA? Do you packet sniff everything that goes out?
          It actually looks for Alexa or Amazon. or Echo.

  • So what happens in a few years when they kill the product and leave everyone who bought one out in the cold? Yea, no thanks. Google is has a bad rep for killing anything that isn't an instant hit in the market. Their online products are bad enough but at least there you usually don't pay for it, and you can migrate to something else. Hardware you're just screwed, especially if it relies on a backend service.

  • I know the world is streaming, but why, oh, why don't they include a radio receiver? Many stations stream, but almost universally that doesn't include sports broadcasts. My wife uses a radio to listen to baseball when she's doing other things and can't watch the TV.

    If not for that one shortcoming, we would probably get one.

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