Do you have/use a smart speaker?

What smart speakers do you use (or plan to use)?

  • Apple's HomePod

    Votes: 3 1.8%

  • Amazon's Alexa

    Votes: 23 14.1%

  • Google's Home/Nest

    Votes: 43 26.4%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 1.8%

  • None - the only voices in my head should be mine

    Votes: 91 55.8%
  • Total voters
    163
bwana

bwana

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Do you have smart speakers in your home? If so which brand and what made you choose it?

Do you worry about privacy issues?

We've got Amazon's Alexa situated around the house and it's all down to winning the first one from MyBB. Fortunately Alexa does a reasonable job and ties in nicely with the small amount of home automation we've embraced.
 
Amazon Echo.

I’m disappointed that she can only respond to certain “names”

Regarding privacy, I have found her listening when she shouldn’t be.
 
abzo said:
Amazon Echo.

I’m disappointed that she can only respond to certain “names”

Regarding privacy, I have found her listening when she shouldn’t be.
Click to expand...
It would be nice to be able to rename Alexa to something other than Computer or Echo.
 
No. Fkin. Way.
While I'm earthbound, I prefer to have at least a modicum of agency over my ability to do things for myself.
 
bwana said:
Do you have smart speakers in your home? If so which brand and what made you choose it?

Do you worry about privacy issues?

We've got Amazon's Alexa situated around the house and it's all down to winning the first one from MyBB. Fortunately Alexa does a reasonable job and ties in nicely with the small amount of home automation we've embraced.
Click to expand...
Sony 1000xm3

That's the smartest speakers I have
 
Have echo's around the house. Recently bought off plan and hope to engage with the developer as much as I can to install as much smart stuff as possible. It's all a bit overwhelming choosing which products to buy but hopefully will nail it down soon.
 
Just ordered an Echo Dot yesterday which will be the first one in my house.

Would much prefer the HomePod Mini announced last night, but until we have official Siri support in South Africa that will be a paperweight.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Just ordered an Echo Dot yesterday which will be the first one in my house.

Would much prefer the HomePod Mini announced last night, but until we have official Siri support in South Africa that will be a paperweight.
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You can set Siri's language to SA English and give it a SA voice - what else would official support entail? Adding all official languages?
 
Nope - not yet, been looking at an echo dot, or a Google mini, but both sound not great, - tho I do suppose they might do well enough to read an audio book or two for me. Tho from reviews neither are awesome, either, but I get the idea, if both could be combined - that would border on awesome.
 
Ive won an Alexa and a Google one here on the forum and have given both to my brothers kids as xmas presents.
It just felt way to weird to be talking out loud alone, the only time i talk alone is when i hurt myself, then it's usually afrikaans profanity that comes out at 118db
 
bwana said:
You can set Siri's language to SA English and give it a SA voice - what else would official support entail? Adding all official languages?
Click to expand...

You misunderstand.

There is no Siri support for tvOS devices (which HomePod is part of) in SA.

You cannot use Siri at all, which is why the HomePod isn’t sold here as it relies entirely on Siri.

Maybe with the newer cheaper one that will now finally change.
 
None - stream country radio from internet through Android TV box to attached amp and speakers. Don't need so minimum wage employee of Amazon, Google, et al listening to my day to day conversations.
 
Dairyfarmer said:
None - stream country radio from internet through Android TV box to attached amp and speakers. Don't need so minimum wage employee of Amazon, Google, et al listening to my day to day conversations.
Click to expand...
What a weird thing to say. 99% of what these devices hear is processed by AI only. A tiny sample is listened to by skilled devs to improve the algorithm - not minimum wage people by any means.

And I guess a small percentage is flagged by yet another AI belonging to the NSA and some of that may be listened to by a human analyst - again, an NSA analyst is not a minimum wage person.

But, crucially, humans almost never hear what you say. Until a data breach and some cracker gets a hold of all those recordings...
 
never really understood the appeal of smart speakers,
won a amazon echo dot a few times, and couldn't understand why you would actually want it?
whats its "killer app", seemed more like a fad to me.

maybe its the lack of an always on internet connection in my case.
 
eg2505 said:
never really understood the appeal of smart speakers,
won a amazon echo dot a few times, and couldn't understand why you would actually want it?
whats its "killer app", seemed more like a fad to me.

maybe its the lack of an always on internet connection in my case.
Click to expand...
That, and if your syntax when speaking to it is anything like what you type here, it will never understand what you are asking anyway.
 
pinball wizard said:
That, and if your syntax when speaking to it is anything like what you type here, it will never understand what you are asking anyway.
Click to expand...

well with my accent, I could make a Scotsman jealous.
not to mention those voice control thingies never work around me,
still remember clearly what it picked up when I said "faces"
and the brown stuff it typed.
 
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