Slashdot Asks: Which Smart Speaker Do You Prefer? 234
Every tech company wants to produce a smart speaker these days. Earlier this month, Apple finally launched the HomePod, a smart speaker that uses Siri to answer basic questions and play music via Apple Music. In December, Google released their premium Google Home Max speaker that uses the Google Assistant and Google's wealth of knowledge to play music, answer questions, set reminders, and so on. It may be the most advanced smart speaker on the market as it has the hardware capable of playing high fidelity audio, and a digital assistant that can perform over one million actions. There is, however, no denying the appeal of the Amazon Echo, which is powered by the Alexa digital assistant. Since it first made its debut in late 2014, it has had more time to develop its skill set. Amazon says Alexa controls "tens of millions of devices," including Windows 10 PCs.
A new report from The Guardian, citing the industry site MusicAlly, says that Spotify is working on a line of "category defining" hardware products "akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles." The streaming music company has posted an ad for a senior product manager to "define the product requirements for internet connected hardware [and] the software that powers it." With Spotify looking to launch a smart speaker in the not-too-distant-future, the decision to purchase a smart speaker has become all the more difficult. Do you own a smart speaker? If so, which device do you own and why? Do you see a clear winner, or can they all satisfy your basic needs?
A new report from The Guardian, citing the industry site MusicAlly, says that Spotify is working on a line of "category defining" hardware products "akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles." The streaming music company has posted an ad for a senior product manager to "define the product requirements for internet connected hardware [and] the software that powers it." With Spotify looking to launch a smart speaker in the not-too-distant-future, the decision to purchase a smart speaker has become all the more difficult. Do you own a smart speaker? If so, which device do you own and why? Do you see a clear winner, or can they all satisfy your basic needs?
I like my dumb speakers (Score:4, Insightful)
Don't need speakers that eavesdrop on me. If I want that I'll use a microphone.
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I also like a stereo image, and Apple's speakers promise that, but not out yet. Sorry, I'm happy with a pair of Yamaha monitors that work, don't need updates, don't phone home, and have a real flat response for mixing. If I want bass, I'll boost that on my EQ.
Plus, wires can do better sound quality than any Bluetooth protocol.
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Re:I like my dumb speakers (Score:5, Insightful)
I too prefer dumb speakers, but for different reasons than you:
1) For the sound quality, they're almost assuredly cheaper.
2) In the tech industry's timescale, they essentially never become obsolete.
Most of the smart speakers either sound like crap or else sound far worse than comparably priced dumb speakers. Even if you buy into the HomePod hype, unless you're hopelessly technologically illiterate or you have no way to fit a stereo set in your home, why pay $350 for a device that simulates stereo when you can have actual stereo from better speakers for the same price? Toss in a wireless receiver with a wired output and you'll have better wireless compatibility than what the HomePod has, without any of the lock-in to AirPlay or Apple's ecosystem.
On the other side, my parents have had the same speakers since before I was born (34 years ago). The speakers still work just fine. The dumb speakers I have today will—barring an accident—still be working just fine when the kid I have on the way is as old as I am today. Even if the world were to switch entirely to wireless or those wireless protocols were to change, I could simply swap out the aforementioned wireless receiver with a different one. Meanwhile, if I had bought into the HomePod or Alexa or whatever, I'd have to scrap the entire speaker to get on the new protocol.
No thanks.
If nothing else, the ones that are staking their name on sound quality at least need to give me a line in jack. Until then, so far as I'm concerned, they're smart accessories, not smart speakers.
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The reddit post on which I presume you’re basing your claims about response and distortion has been thoroughly debunked. You don’t need to be spending that much per speaker. Not even close.
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I like my dumb speakers
Don't need speakers that eavesdrop on me. If I want that I'll use a microphone.
In that case surely you mean you like your deaf speakers.
None (Score:5, Insightful)
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Was about to post the same thing.
Smart speakers are a novelty and it's fun to yell out "Alexa, Fire Photon Torpedoes" and get a response but I don't want or need a smart speaker. I've got bluetooth through my AV reciever - connect to it and bada bing, I'm controlling my smartphone music through it and I don't need wifi access or an Amazon/Apple/Google account for it.
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Orwell got so many things right in 1984, the only thing he really got wrong were the size of the screens...
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Orwell was an optimist [fyngyrz.com]
--fyngyrz [slashdot.org]*
* Anon due to mod points, because Slashdot moderation rules are stupid. Soylent News [soylentnews.org] does it better. A lot better.
Slashdot... sigh (Score:2)
Oh crap. There go my moderations. Thanks for nothing, Slashdot.
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It's been done but needs work I'm sure. A raspberry pi and Mycroft is just a recipe /.ers love. https://mycroft.ai/ [mycroft.ai]
I have no plans on get a smart speaker or make one. I'm not that worried about privacy. I just don't see a real benefit from having one. I like my terminal when using a computer. I like my wireless keyboard/mouse combo for controlling the computer attached to my TV. It's a bit more raw and I prefer it that way.
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I had a quick look at Mycroft and it looks as if it needs to phone home to some third-party server. If I were to build such a thing, the primary requirement would be no network connection from the process that did speech recognition - it should trigger other actions in other processes that might connect to the network, but no process should be both network connected and able to access my microphone.
CMU Sphinx makes it easy to write something that listens for phrases and performs actions based on them.
Mycroft (Score:3)
Mycroft can work offline with KaldiSTT and PocketSphinx
I'm a fan of NdGT (Score:5, Funny)
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Personally, I am a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson.
This wins the comment section.
Re:I'm a fan of NdGT (Score:5, Informative)
Ok, I'm going to need someone to explain this to me. (posting anonymously cuz I hate admitting I'm an idiot)
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: speaker n 1: someone who expresses in language; someone who talks (especially someone who delivers a public speech or someone especially garrulous); "the speaker at commencement"; "an utterer of useful maxims" [syn: {speaker}, {talker}, {utterer}, {verbalizer}, {verbaliser}]
"Smart speaker" -> someone who speaks publicly and is also intelligent. Neil deGrass Tyson is wellknown for both his intelligence and for his public speaking.
I know that the headline was asking about the new gadgets for the home, but I was feeling snarky and decided to take advantage of the word sense ambiguity to be a little bit funny.
The one that's not in my house (Score:3)
'nuff said.
-Chris
Nope. (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not as stupid as I look. I refuse to let Google, Amazon, Apple, or anyone put a smart speaker into my home without a FISA warrant. Christ, are people really dumb enough to pay any of these dick companies to spy on them?
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I refuse to let Google, Amazon, Apple, or anyone put a smart speaker into my home without a FISA warrant.
You don't have a cellphone then, right? It's way more insidious to carry one in your pocket than to just have one in your house.
I don't have a smart speaker either, but let's face it. Your phone can already be listening in on you. Have you analyzed whatever is being sent to play services recently?
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You mean my burner phone? My latest one is registered to a "J. Assange".
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You can stop trying to recruit me. I will not accept the GOP nomination to run for congress.
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I don't have a smart speaker either, but let's face it. Your phone can already be listening in on you. Have you analyzed whatever is being sent to play services recently?
The nice thing about Android is that it's more or less just Linux. iptables and tcpdump work just the same on Android as they do any normal Linux system.
The other nice thing about Android it works just fine without any Google malware installed.
Re:Nope. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes. I am a double-naught spy, and an agent in the service of my homeland, San Marino. You don't realize it, but we meddled in your last election by placing subversive classified ads in the back of your Local Shopper.
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Yes. I am a double-naught spy, and an agent in the service of my homeland, San Marino. You don't realize it, but we meddled in your last election by placing subversive classified ads in the back of your Local Shopper.
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Hey, stop copying me.
First... (Score:2)
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Not only that, but think about tasks like turning on the lights. You can't do that right now, can you? Well, if you had a smarter speaker, you could just tell it to turn on the lights for you, and poof, they'd be on.
X10 doesn't need to talk to the mothership in the cloud. You control it all from within your house. It even works when internet is down.
Why, exactly, do home control need to talk outside the home?
The Dumb One (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, I'd prefer all my output devices be as stupid as digitally possible.
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Re: The Dumb One (Score:2)
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Analog too like 3.5mm type. :P
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[Sigh] I miss my 1/4" headphone jack.
A corporation-controlled microphone in my home (Score:5, Insightful)
The decision is as easy as it always was: Don't!
Seriously, after talking about the dangers of eavesdropping and the big brother, having the computer's camera covered [theguardian.com], who would possibly pay money to have a permanently-connected microphone installed in their dwelling?
You may think, you can turn it off, but you can not be certain. If the criminals and intelligence agencies manage to break into your computer, why would they not break into your "smart speaker"? Police too may find it much easier to gain the cooperation of the device's manufacturer to listen on you, than to get a warrant and then wire your house without you noticing.
Just say no and control your music the old-fashioned way — as we all did only a few years ago.
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Police too may find it much easier to gain the cooperation of the device's manufacturer to listen on you, than to get a warrant and then wire your house without you noticing.
After all, the mainstream news said they already did it with OnStar, a few years back, using it to bug the cars of some suspected crooks with the assistance of the company. (They got in legal trouble for it - not because of the bugging, but because it interfered with the emergency service coverage that OnStar was selling.)
At least with
I'm on the fence (Score:3)
I like the technology and theoretically the sound quality of the HomePod and trust Apple more than other companies not to do anything with the audio from the device, and to treat security seriously enough it probably will not be hacked.
I like Alexa because it would be possibly useful for quick orders of random things that I don't need soon but end up forgetting to order. I also like they've opened the skill development SDK.
Google stuff I generally do not trust enough and it doesn't have enough benefits over the other two options to warrant consideration.
A last option I'm seriously considering though, is just getting a really nice set of speakers to put wherever I'd put a smart speaker, and then buy a box to make them AirPlay compatible (if they did not come that way already). Smart speakers are just over that line for me of a convenience I'm not sure I really care about, also why I do not have a smart thermostat yet (because I know how to program the existing older one to be about the temp I want at various times). The new set of nice compact speakers would probably be a lot cheaper than a stereo pair of smart speakers...
I'll probably try to hear all of the options in person somewhere before I make a choice on this one, I'm really particular with speakers as I don't care as much about about the low end as many people seem to.
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A last option I'm seriously considering though, is just getting a really nice set of speakers to put wherever I'd put a smart speaker, and then buy a box to make them AirPlay compatible (if they did not come that way already).
While it's questionable whether Apple is going to update the hardware... I've used the Airport Express for this sort of thing. Alternatively, if you want optical audio out, you could do the same thing with a cheap third-gen Apple TV (probably cheaper than the Express).
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I've used the Airport Express for this sort of thing. Alternatively, if you want optical audio out, you could do the same thing with a cheap third-gen Apple TV (probably cheaper than the Express).
The Airport Express also has optical out built-in.
Yaz
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I'd forgotten those were optical out, since they also handle analog (and that's how I've generally used them). The Express is certainly more flexible in that regard. If you can get them from Apple's refurbished store, and if you're in the Mac ecosystem, they're worth grabbing for $65 or thereabouts.
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If you can get them from Apple's refurbished store, and if you're in the Mac ecosystem, they're worth grabbing for $65 or thereabouts.
They're great little gadgets -- I'm rather sorry that Apple hasn't really done anything with them for some time (while I can understand they want to differentiate, would it have killed them to release an 802.11ac version). I have two -- an 802.11n model acting as an AirPlay server connected to my surround receiver and as a second access point for my WiFi network (for better coverage in the living room and back yard -- this is where 802.11ac would be nice, as my main WiFi access point is 802.11ac), and an o
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trust Apple more than other companies
Google stuff I generally do not trust enough and it doesn't have enough benefits over the other two options to warrant consideration.
It's interesting that Google Home Max offers you a physical microphone disable button, and a detachable power cable, a line in and a USB port. Google also differentiates users by voice, unlike Apple that allow random people to read your text messages, calendar, order stuff etc.
I'm not saying Google respects your privacy more than Apple, but they certainly offer more privacy enhancing features.
Oh, and Google Home Max has real stereo.
They will be stereo in pairs (Score:2)
My god some people are out of touch. Of course companies will do everything they possibly can do monetize audio they pick up.
You are pretty out of touch off you think Apple will, since it would kill a lot of valuable goodwill built tip around a message of consumer privacy. I don't think you have a full grasp on intangible value or the profits that generates.
They also all will inevitably get hacked, even if it's never publicly disclosed.
Yes, but Apple will at least treats device security seriously so a hack
I don't mind a smart speaker ... (Score:4, Insightful)
... it's the smart microphone that is always listening the one I don't like.
It's just a matter of time until somebody gains unauthorized access to the microphone on one of those devices and starts recording every sound in your house. No way they are getting my secret lasagna sauce recipe.
Wouldn't have one if you GAVE it to me (Score:3)
Troll? (Score:5, Funny)
Mycroft on Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Interesting)
There's an OSS variant (probably several) which aren't given due attention in the article.
The Mycroft project currently listens locally for the watch word, and aggregates ALL of the subsequent queries as audio through a single source to the online engines like Google, Wolfram or others. This anonymizes a lot of what the engines could learn about individual users.
Their next stage is to expand on the local processing even more, so they will only be sharing plain text to the online engine third parties. This version is due in the first half of this year.
For me, the benefit is simple local Linux-based Python-based skill development. When my kid was young I would make a family computer into a sort of daily-schedule-keeper, announcing the daily tasks like bathtime or bedtime. I would ssh into the machine when my kid started having "conversations" with the computer. So now I can rebuild a little bit of that in my own personalized smart speaker.
Facebook's Aloha smart speaker (Score:2)
Yes, I would please like to be victimized by cyber stalking malware devices you actually have to pay money to own.
If you have a cellphone you are already bugged... (Score:2)
please stop with the madness of it being a listening device! You carry a microphone in your pocket everywhere you go. If you were really worried about that you'd stop carrying that device.
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please stop with the madness of it being a listening device! You carry a microphone in your pocket everywhere you go. If you were really worried about that you'd stop carrying that device.
When your getting beat up by a girl please stop with the madness of asking her to stop. She already punched you. It's not logical to worry about being punched again.
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That wasn't my point at all. But then you already knew that.
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Haven't people already confirmed that Alexa and Google Home do NOT transmit any information to the WAN unless they are activated by their keyword? People plugged these things into packet sniffers a long time ago, and found that these privacy warnings are totally overblown.
You would be better off worrying about your Smart TV, or your older Smartphones and tablets that aren't getting security updates. If someone is going hack your home and plant listening device malware, that's the route they are going to tak
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How about the microphone on your computer? Or your XBOX? Or your tablet? Or any of hundreds of other devices you probably have with microphones on them? Have you expunged your home of those?
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And you don't think uncle sam has access to those?
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Uncle Sam? I thought Bob was his uncle?
Echo/Alexa clear winner (in general) at the moment (Score:3)
I have both Echo and Google Home. Though, because of the cost, I have Echo Dots in every room, and just an Echo and one Google Home in the living room.
I have many Smart Home devices, mostly Z-Wave and Zigbee (SmartThings controller, Philips Hue bulbs/light strips, Harmony hub & Kodi). By far the Echo's have worked better at controlling my smart home, but Google Home is (very very) slowly catching up, and does have a "few" features that make it better in general, but the price (per room) means it's not enough of an edge to switch out the Echo Dots. Google Home generally wins hands-down with a voice search, Alexa relies on Bing, so it's got both cables tied behind it's back.
The Amazon Echo still has a way to go on music control, unit grouping, and some other functionality, but it's been leading the pack since it's introduction, and nothing is close to it as yet. Hopefully, Amazon and Google will get over their spat, so that I can get Google Search instead of Bing.
A live microphone is not a speaker (Score:2)
The basic need of a speaker is for music, tv, movies, games.
No big brand mic for ads and spying needed.
No thanks. (Score:2)
And it's not really because I'm worried about somebody spying on me, as I realize as a user of a smartphone, it's happening anyway (to some extent). But I have come to understand that there's some things I just don't need technology to do for me. I can pick up my phone or sit at a computer and order something. I can get up and turn on some music. The house has a programmable thermostat to turn the heat up and down and teenagers I can tell to turn the lights off when they go to bed.
I would like a smart speaker neutrilizer (Score:2)
It would be a speaker that automatically plays Donald Trump's voice into the smart speaker, with the appropriate command word. Have him ask for stupid things, repeatedly.
Fill the spies ears with enough false information and they should lose money.
None (Score:2)
Logitech Speakers + Woofer + Rasberry Pi + ... (Score:2)
... Music Player Daemon.
I don't trust these preconfectioned "smart speakers". Don't trust them. For obvious reasons.
There are no smart speakers (Score:2)
A true smart speaker would have the voice recognition built into it. If a PC in the 1980s could do it, surely a modern ARM processor can. Then based on what was spoken, it would turn a light on/off, turn on the TV and start a movie, use your Spotify account to play a song, etc. It would only send your query for cloud processing if you specifically asked. e.g. Convert "what time do
None (Score:2)
How about "None"? (Score:3)
Why is this on Slashdot? (Score:3)
This is the type of question you'd ask on a news for nerds site. A tech site where people would be interested in having gadgets.
Slashdot hasn't been that since back when Linux got USB support. That was the pinnacle of all technological advancement. It's now a site for dissing all mobile phones, being proud of keeping your old battery replaceable phone working, celebrating Apple supporting ancient iPhones, praising laptops that are 7+ years old, questioning why anyone would wear a watch, and wondering why wireless headphones even exist.
In what world did the submitter and more importantly the editor who approved the submission think they'd get any kind of a positive response to this question on THIS site.
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Feel free to fuck off back to gizmodo if you don't like it here.
I didn't say I don't like it here. I live for the kind of high quality discussions we are having right now.
*Posted on a 6 year old pc while listening to music through a fucking cable.
No Smart Speaker. (Score:2)
Which smart speaker do you prefer? (Score:2)
None at all.
By a strange coincidence “None at all” is exactly how much suspicion the ape-descendant DontBeAMoran had that one of his closest friends was not descended from an ape, but was, in fact, from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse. DontBeAMoran’s failure to suspect this reflects the care with which his friend blended himself into human society - after a fairly shaky start. When he first arrived fifteen years ago, the minimal research he had done had suggested to
A pair of Klipsch Fortes, Oiled Walnut (Score:2)
A pair of 1987 Klipsch Fortes in Oiled Walnut hooked up to a Panasonic XR-55 receiver, to which my PC is hooked up via tape loop. I can dump vinyl to MP3, I can order via Amazon, I can do many things.
Hosting yet another spy in my house isn't one of them. Sorry.
None of the aboe (Score:2)
I don't "prefer" any smart speaker...I don't want any of them in my home, period .
If others want a smart speak, fine, but it's just not for me.
Wind Chill Failures (Score:2)
You know what they all fail at? Wind chill!
Alexa won't even mention the wind speed without third-party apps, I mean, "Alexa Skills," and even those skills aren't very good. But wind chill? Forget it! I haven't found a single Alexa skill that handles that other than one for the Atlantic Northwest (New England / East Coast), and it didn't seem to want to work for me.
Google Assistant will tell you the wind speed, but if you ask for the wind chill, all it will tell you is a textbook definition of "wind chil
None, obviously (Score:2)
They're all compromised in sound quality, in order to be small and have a bunch of spyware electronics in them.
I'll stick with my studio monitors+subwoofers, thank you very much. And a decent quality "dumb" bluetooth speaker for the kitchen and garden.
Re:Alexa, obviously. (Score:5, Insightful)
And..if I want to listen to music at home, I'll play it on my more than capable stereo/AV set up through real speakers, amps etc...and get the full pleasure out of the situation.
Ok, sure, I might have to get up...and go over to configure the playlist, but hell, I have to get up from time to time to get a beer anyway, so, what's the problem?
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There's something to be said for not getting out of my nice warm bed to shut off the lights in the rest of my house. Or, for that matter, telling the house to turn up the heat.
Amazon has 20 years of my purchase history telling them that I like classical music. I use my smart speakers to listen to classical music. Are they getting new information? I don't think so.
I do have my smart home stuff sitting on a VLAN so I can see what it's doing separate from the rest of my computers. Some of it phones home quite
Re:Alexa, obviously. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Alexa, obviously. (Score:4, Insightful)
Pfft. This is Slashdot. Who in the hell has sex with a partner?
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i am sure its legal somewhere to marry your doll.
Re:Alexa, obviously. (Score:5, Insightful)
Your purchase history is yours to share. Every conversation you have, too -- that's your choice. But please, do warn me when/if I visit your house, so I know that no talk is private there.
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There's something to be said for not getting out of my nice warm bed to shut off the lights in the rest of my house. Or, for that matter, telling the house to turn up the heat.
I have one that does that. "Darling, can you turn the lights out when you come to bed? And perhaps turn the heat up a bit?"
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Re:Alexa, obviously. (Score:4, Insightful)
What are they going to find? That I talk to my cats?
This is the type of attitude that undermines privacy for those who actually need/want it.
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Wharfedale Diamond 10.6's. I need a "smart" speaker like I need a "smart" TV. A reasonably-priced good-sounding speaker has all the smarts I need already present in it.
And the sound quality is provided by fucking physics, not by trying to fake it with DSP processing.
Re:Alexa, obviously. (Score:4, Insightful)
Because I'm monitoring traffic on the relevant VLAN. It's pretty easy to tell what's going where. Unless you think that magic spying is happening on my network that I can't see for some reason.
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I don't want to voluntarily "bug" my house
Do you have a cellphone? If so, then worrying about Alexa monitoring you is silly. A cellphone has far greater capability to track and eavesdrop.
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Do you have a cellphone? If so, then worrying about Alexa monitoring you is silly. A cellphone has far greater capability to track and eavesdrop.
This is like telling the victim of a drive by shooting not to worry about a second car because they only have small caliber pistols.
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It seems more like telling a person who constantly has someone else by their side pointing a gun at their head, that said person probably doesn't need to worry about drive-by shootings for the time being.
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Actually it's more like the first car might take a potshot but the second car is full of guys with machineguns ALREADY FIRING as they accelerate to pass.
Mycroft (Score:5, Interesting)
I am considering backing the Mycroft 2. [mycroft.ai] I am not about to pipe all my audio to Google, Apple, Amazon, et al., but this seems like a fun toy. I passed on the v1 because it used Google's STT, but this one apparently has 8 different STT options, one of which is Mozilla-developed and can run on local hardware.
According to Fast Company, [fastcompany.com] their business model is framed around selling voice services to major companies who are similarly wary about sending client data to Big Tech firms. (The for-example is Land Rover-Jaguar.) This seems reasonable, and it provides incentive for Mycroft (which is open source; in part? in full? I can't quite tell) to continue to play honest or risk the cash from the privacy-conscious corporate partners that they hoped to attract.
I'm not totally sold, yet. I'd be interested in /. views one way or the other, or anecdotes from anyone who has a v1.
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I have the non-spying Sonos, and love it for the fact that the same music can be playing in every room at reasonable levels rather than the living room speakers blaring. I also like the fact that while my wife is sleeping, I can turn off the bedroom and adjacent bathroom speakers easily and keep listening myself.
While functionally you could do this long before Sonos, not having to pre-wire the house based on what you might want in the future is a huge plus.
I'm sure better things can or will be out there...
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I don't want to voluntarily "bug" my house, sending audio and possibly even video to strangers out in the cloud with these always on products
Get an Alexa Tap. You have to press a button to activate it and it is rechargeable too.
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It's like 1984, except people actually pay for the pleasure of having Big Brother in their home. If the NSA hasn't infiltrated these devices, it's only a matter of time. Even if the NSA couldn't get to these things, it's evil enough that these companies are working to have profiles on huge swaths of the population so they can monetize it in whatever way possible.
It's crazy that there are people on here defending these things. If the /. community isn't sufficiently paranoid, then society really is doomed to
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The Apple Homepod is probably the best "technical" speaker, but even that I don't want.
AirPlay only, no line-in, no bluetooth, no thanks.
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Alexa has the biggest ecosystem, but she listens about as well as my 3 year old.
Google is 'smarter' and has better STT, but we really don't use that one as much.
Both integrate just fine with home-assistant.io
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Google Home already has an app for ordering stuff from Walmart now, right? Perhaps they need to team up with someone like Albertsons or PeaPod to get voice activated grocery ordering working on that platform as well.
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For what amount? I paid $19 for a Google Home mini and $25 for a Chromecast audio (both on Black Friday) to use my existing speakers with the Google Home mini.
For $45, I don't think it's that big a waste.
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That's my beef with the Google Home Mini... Why not an audio jack Google? $45 on a Black Friday deal to get the same functionality as I can get with an Echo Dot for the non-sale price. Why the hell would you limit it to Bluetooth audio? Just so frustrating because the Google device is far better than Amazon's, but since I use most of mine for playing music, I'm going to go with the crappier device that works with every speaker in existence without an adapter.
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Nope, that's just Amazon already knowing you had smart speakers up your ass and decided that a smaller dildo would be needed because a lot of room was already taken.
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You mean those things that Winamp did in 2001?