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So, "fill the sink with hot water" wouldn't be something that could be accomplished it seems. I guess that really eliminates "give me a skootch of lukewarm" then.
How does it respond when someone says "where's the handles on this damn thing?"
No thanks, call me a dinosaur...or even "okay boomer."
The fact that you need to turn on Alexa 24/7 to listen to your every word spoken at home is already frightening. We really have no idea what's is done with all the data harvested at your home. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...ons/642852002/
The fact that you need to turn on Alexa 24/7 to listen to your every word spoken at home is already frightening. We really have no idea what's is done with all the data harvested at your home. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/...ons/642852002/
Thank you, but no thank you!
That's how I feel too. Who knows who is listening to your conversations. Maybe if I was older and alone it would be useful in case I had a home accident and didn't have my cell but right now, I'd never own one.
Here is the article you linked so people can see what happened to a family in Oregon due to their Alexa. Apparently something they were talking about used one of the key words that woke Alexa up. It was either far away or Alexa's voice was turned down so they did not hear Alexa asking questions after she woke up.
SAN FRANCISCO — A Portland family's private conversations were recorded by their Amazon Echo smart speaker and emailed to a random phone contact of the father.....
....the recorded audio was sent to the phone of someone in Seattle who was in the father's contact list,......
Amazon confirmed the event and said an unforeseen combination of random words in a conversation the family didn't realize was being overheard by Alexa triggered the action......
When it's turned on, Amazon's voice recognition program is constantly listening for its "wake word," the word that tells the system to pay attention. Alexa has four — Alexa, Echo, Amazon or Computer, but the default is Alexa unless the user changes it.
After it hears the wake word, it starts sending the conversation to cloud-computing servers, where it's recorded and translated for Alexa to respond to.
At first, they didn't believe it when the colleague called to tell them he'd received recordings of their conversations. But when he told them they'd been talking about hardwood floors, they realized he wasn't joking.
Voice-activated digital assistants have become better at discerning human speech amidst background noise, and as the speakers that listen for that speech have gotten better at hearing words spoken even a room or two away.
In the case of the Portland family, there were many false positives. First, according to Amazon, the Echo woke up when someone in the home said something that to it sounded like “Alexa.”
Next, the subsequent conversation included something that, to Alexa, sounded like a “Send a message” request.
At which point, Alexa said out loud, “To whom?”
It's quite possible the family had their Alexa's volume set low enough that they couldn't hear the response, or they were far enough away or there was enough other noise in the room that they didn't notice.
Next, Alexa interpreted something said in the background conversation as a name in the customers’ contact list, which he must have allowed Alexa to access when he set it up.
Alexa then asked, again out loud, “(Contact name), right?”
No one heard or answered, but Alexa then interpreted something in the background conversation as confirming with the word “Right.” Alexa then sent the message along to the contact — without the family realizing it.
Funny. When I started talking about extensive monitoring and datamining a few years back, I was handed my tinfoil hat. I'll go add this to the "But Everybody Knows That!" File now.
One concern that I have is whether or not it will work with our tankless water heater, which requires a minimum flow rate in order to activate and stay on. I called Moen and they said it should, with the calibration of the faucet adjusting to the optimal settings for your home. Hopefully they are correct about this.
Take something that requires 20 minutes of maintenance every 10 years or so to replace a washer, and replace it with a complex assortment of consumer-grade electronics made in China by the lowest cost bidder, which requires a constant replenishment of batteries, and which is guaranteed to malfunction in interesting and undiagnosable ways.
Hey, OP. There are phone activated
Smart Toothbrushes. Maybe even in pink...
Just in case you need that gadget too... https://www.engadget.com/colgate-hum...120049179.html
There’s a gyroscope that helps determine where its position is in your mouth , plus an accelerometer that helps detect the speed and the overall motion of the brush.
You might have to hold your phone front camera pointing at your teeth and the data might be collected and sold to third party.
If you don't brush as they say, you might get punished by higher dental insurance plans (just kidding, or maybe not?)
Hey, OP. There are phone activated
Smart Toothbrushes. Maybe even in pink...
Just in case you need that gadget too... https://www.engadget.com/colgate-hum...120049179.html
There’s a gyroscope that helps determine where its position is in your mouth , plus an accelerometer that helps detect the speed and the overall motion of the brush.
You might have to hold your phone front camera pointing at your teeth and the data might be collected and sold to third party.
If you don't brush as they say, you might get punished by higher dental insurance plans (just kidding, or maybe not?)
I have the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart in pink.
I just ordered the U by Moen Arbor in Spot-Resist Stainless Steel from Lowe's, since I was able to get $100 cashback from CouponCabin in their exclusive offers. I am pretty sure this will beat any Prime Day or Black Friday deal, and I think my odds of getting a similar cashback deal on Prime Day or Black Friday will be much more difficult. In fact, I failed in my previous attempts to get a similar deal from CouponCabin for Amazon and Home Depot, but got lucky for the Lowe's offer. Those exclusive offers from CouponCabin are all gone in less than a second.
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, plus an accelerometer that helps detect the speed and the overall motion of the brush.
