Re:Ask HN: What is an open-source alternative to Google Home?
by _RPM on Friday May 20, 2016 @02:46PM
(#11740421)
I'm only 25. Maybe I'm too old, but talking to a device/machine has always seemed very unnatural to me. I don't think I'll be buying one of these.
Re:Ask HN: What is an open-source alternative to Google Home?
by forthefuture on Friday May 20, 2016 @09:00PM
(#11742644)
To me it's the fact that Amazon / Google is already making more than the cost of these things in the data they extract from every sound in every house they're in. They should be paying people to use them, not the other way around. I'd be interested in a free alternative even if it's just to say "what time is it" when I wake up and "weather" before I leave every morning and not have to press anything. The technology itself seems very easy to integrate into life. I'm just not trying to pay someone to eavesdrop on me just so they can be there to say it's raining outside.
Re:Ask HN: What is an open-source alternative to Google Home?
by mcintyre1994 on Sunday May 22, 2016 @11:47AM
(#11748997)
They don't listen/transmit until you say the hotword right?
My own experience though has pretty transformative. My mother, father-in-law, even my wife approached the device with extreme caution. However as they watched me naturally interact with it, they all gradually warmed up to it.... and now it's a must have. The other day I walked into my kitchen, asked Alexa what the weather was outside, but she was unplugged. It was weird... kind of like calling your grandma only to realize she's not alive any more.