Electronics

[mima]

On 12/1/2014 lovescats said:

On 12/1/2014 mima said:

On 12/1/2014 lovescats said:

On 12/1/2014 mima said:

On 12/1/2014 lovescats said:

On 12/1/2014 mima said:

On 11/30/2014 jordan2 said:

On 11/29/2014 gardenman said:

On 11/29/2014 jordan2 said:

I'm still holding out hope that I'll get the "invite".

I'm cautiously optimistic that Monday/Tuesday more invites will go out. So far the buy option has gone live on Monday before the invites go out, so if you can suddenly buy one on Monday, you'll know the invite is coming. The good news is you don't have to wait for the invite to arrive, just find that "add to cart" button and you're good to go.

I don't understand. Do you mean that you can buy it but for the $199 price without waiting? I'm a prime member and am not paying $199 for it when others have bought it for $99.

No, you can't buy them without an invite at any price. At least for now. If you are a prime member and get the invite it is $99. If you aren't a prime member and get an invite, you can buy it for $199.

For others reading this....you have to request an invite. They don't send invites out without a request. This is the dumbest thing I've run across in retail sales. Very frustrating.

I thought maybe they would be for sale for either Black Friday or Cyber Monday. No such luck!!!!!

I think it's pretty smart of amazon to do it this way because people are going to think about buying one if they get the invitation. Remember when gmail was by invitation only. If you're not a prime member and you get the invitation and want to buy one why not just become a prime member? amazon is creating a demand for it.

If you read their discussion boards it is making people mad. They are not going to renew their prime if they don't get an invitation. I requested an invite, so I already know I want one. I don't think too many people would request an invite unless they were already wanting one.

I don't understand the bolded.

my original reply doesn't include anything bolded wasn't done by me.

I bolded it so that you would know the part I don't understand. I am already wanting one so I requested an invite. You don't get an invite unless you request it. I didn't get what you meant.

But didn't people get an email to request an invitation? or how did people first know about it? I just think amazon is doing a slow or test rollout of this product. My point is if amazon just brought this out in mass would people want it right now or just think or that's something I can buy later. Low supply equals high demand. Amazon is creating their own buzz.

Yes you are right. I forgot about the original email which I never got. I found out about them here probably on this thread.

It just looks like they better hurry and roll them out (large quantities) before Christmas. I would think this would be the best time to make them available.

[gardenman]

"But didn't people get an email to request an invitation? or how did people first know about it?"

Actually they announced it on Twitter (which is where I first learned of it) and had it posted on their home page. I got the Tweet about it and followed the link. It was also featured on their home page for several days, maybe a week? They made a pretty broad, general announcement about it that wasn't targeted to any specific group. If you visited Amazon during the period they were featuring it, you would have seen it and could sign up for an invite. They didn't cherry pick people for the announcement. You can still sign up for an invite even now, and the Echo is anything but featured on their site now.

[lovescats]

forbes http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2014/11/11/amazon-echo-what-you-need-to-consider-before-... When I read this article it sounds like amazon could be big brother

This is really just the tip of the iceberg and outlines some of the capabilities Echo has today or could have today. The Echo technology, which sports seven (YES SEVEN) microphones, Amazon’s massive cloud back-end and army of data scientists should also be able to determine the following:

Unique home occupants: Echo should be able to distinguish between the number of unique voices and, if it hears those voices a lot, Amazon could determine that you live in the house. Do you care if Amazon knows this?

Home visitors: Because Echo should know who lives in the house, it seems like it should know who are the visitors. Do you care if Amazon knows this?

Gender and age: Our voices carry distinct patterns and there’s no reason to think that Echo couldn’t determine this. Do you care if Amazon knows how old you are?

Happiness, sadness, anger: Like gender, our voices carry distinct patterns when we are happy, sad, or angry. Do you care if Amazon knows if occupants are happy, sad, or angry?

Who is home: Because Echo can create pseudo profiles and should be able to determine the sound of a door opening and closing, it shouldn’t have a hard time determining who his physically home and who is not. Yes, it would be hard if no one is talking, but over time, Echo should be able to pattern match against what that unique person does after they walk through the door. Do they drag their feet, clod around, or do they barely make a sound? What does their gait sound like, a determinant of stride length? Do they first hit the fridge? Walk upstairs? As humans, we are creatures of habit and Amazon is great at finding out those patterns. Would you be comfortable Amazon knowing if you are home, away or who is home?

What we watch and listen to: If Echo can hear the TV and music, it knows what’s playing. Do you care if Amazon knows what you watch on TV, podcasts or music?

Yes, Echo could do a lot if left unsupervised. One things Amazon has done to quell some of those fears is to add a “wake word”, which is “Alexa”. But do we know if Echo isn’t listening outside those times? No, we don’t know that yet. We have one web page to go on so far with a standard privacy notice at the bottom of the page.

I am hopeful that Amazon provides this information front and center on their web site as they don’t need Echo sullying their reputation of trust thtoo expensive, buggy and self-serving, Amazon really needs to watch Echo. It is low priced for sure to Prime customers at $99, but if it comes off as too self-serving and too invasive to privacy, Amazon will be in learning mode again as they are with the Fire Phone. My hunch is that Amazon is going down that same Fire Phone path.

[kcladyz]

I am not a prime member and i got that same email over a month ago

[KJPA]

First of all, if anyone is not sure what this might mean in the long run, think of Star Trek and all the times they said, "Computer!" Just substitute "Alexa!"

I agree that there may be some privacy issues but LONG ago I remember discussing the ability for TVs to actually do the same thing. It was my understanding decades ago that the technology already existed for a signal to be carried FROM your home TV to another location and it was just a matter of making/selling the hardware that would capture the information. In other words, once TVs were "smart" enough to record it the information could be sent back through cable.

Perhaps I don't totally understand but I would imagine Echo is no more dangerous than the TVs most of us have. Oh, and you better be careful with these computers, smartphones, and tablets. Most of them are also recording devices containing microphones and are advertised to contain FRONT-FACING cameras. Oh yeah, big brother has probably been watching us for a long time.

[gardenman]

Cable and satellite companies know what we watch and when we watch it. Phone companies (both land-line and cellular) know who you call, where you're calling from, and when you call. Hackers can hack into laptops/tablets and activate the microphones and webcams to eavesdrop on us and watch us. Websites monitor where you came from and where you go when you leave them. Baby monitors are extremely easy to be hacked. ISP's know way too much about most of us. Drones are flying all over the place these days. I don't see where Echo is any worse than any of those and unless you convert to being Amish you're likely to already have multiple devices already doing, or potentially doing, everything they fear Echo could do. I'll take my chances with Echo. Call me crazy, but I trust Amazon more than the government, cable TV companies, phone companies, etc..

[lovescats]

Someone put this link on youtube. http://echo.amazon.com/#welcome

I recommend watching joe7377 videos

[gardenman]

Dang! Another Tuesday and still no opportunity to buy an Echo. Oh well, each day they wait gives me more incentive to spend the money elsewhere. I suspect they're either out of Echos or delaying the announcement this week since no one's been saying they can now get one. Each Tuesday before this we've had a stream of new buyers shouting with glee, but nothing today. We'll see what happens as the week goes on.

[mima]

On 12/2/2014 gardenman said:

Dang! Another Tuesday and still no opportunity to buy an Echo. Oh well, each day they wait gives me more incentive to spend the money elsewhere. I suspect they're either out of Echos or delaying the announcement this week since no one's been saying they can now get one. Each Tuesday before this we've had a stream of new buyers shouting with glee, but nothing today. We'll see what happens as the week goes on.

We can have a pity party together gardenman! I didn't get mine yet either.

[Sooner]

OH good! A device to spy on what is said in my house!