jonny (good kind)

My neighbors have an Alexa and it is the defining feature of when they have people over. The alley is all plaster and concrete so we hear basically everything in each others apartment. I try to tune out but the yelling at Alexa is so intense its hard to ignore.

They are in the middle of a 10 minute command session trying to get it to play a song from an album, and this happens maybe once every hour on average. They are arguing with each other about how to command the Alexa, interrupting and ruining each command. If they just had a Bluetooth speaker hooked up to their phone it would be done in 10 seconds without yelling, but here we are.

Voice interfaces are misery makers

Jul 28, 2024 at 5:33amWeb
Show threadjonny (good kind)Jul 28, 2024
"Alexa can you turn it up a bit"
"Turn it up a bit"
"Alexa volume up"
"Volume up"
"Alexa turn that volume up"
"ALEXA VOLUME UP"
"Alexa please turn the volume up"
"ALEXA"
"ALEXA....... VOLUME.... UP"
(silence for 5 seconds)
(The music becomes audible)
Show threadArne BrasseurJul 28, 2024
@jonny it is quite damning of a technology when you're beaten by bluetooth in ease of use
Show threadAccordionBruceJul 28, 2024

@jonny
My kid’s college friend was named Alexa by their parents in 2001

Now they set off phones when people greet them as they walk into a room

Show threadLaura OrchidJul 28, 2024
@jonny luckily in my house I don't have any voice assistant>:)
Show threadUncleCharlieAJul 28, 2024
@jonny I don’t have an intentional Alexa or Google whatever for voice commands, and don’t even use the capability of voice typing for emails or texts or doing Google searches….
Show thread🌻 PlentyNuff 🌻Jul 28, 2024
@jonny
An opportunity to repeat a favourite aphorism: Spoken language is for human beings to communicate with each other. When we want to communicate with computers, we have keyboards for that.
Show threadPam CJul 28, 2024
@jonny I have an Echo Show which comes with the Alexa wake work as default, but there are five options for the wake word. Mine is Computer after Star Trek and 99% of the time, it responds first time. I'm currently listening to Radio Caroline Flashback through it now. If I wanted anything else, I would just use the bluetooth through my DAB+ HiFi
Show threadfluffy 💜Jul 28, 2024
@jonny I have HomePods that I use solely for controlling lights and setting timers and I’ve lost count of all the times Siri thought she was being addressed by a random conversation or TV show. Often resulting in a long lecture about how to subscribe to Apple Music, a service I do not want and have never wanted.