[Electronics-Talk] Amazon & Google Assistant devices

Wed Nov 30 16:14:46 UTC 2022

I’d like to provide some useful insight to this as someone who work for their data service at Amazon and only left because the temp agency contract ran out, and the company wanted me to work for them full-time under the section 14 C for subminimum wage, which I refused. I refused to make less with my equivalent of two masters degrees working for Amazon, then with the temp agency, but I digress…
Anything that will help them save money they won’t care if they cut the service off but that’s highly doubtful. I worked in a department where we listened to audio recordings to confirm whether or not the device behaved correctly, which is a feature you can do on your device through your Amazon Alexa app.
Another requirement was to read the data translation, for example, when you ask your device to do something how does it match. If you ask it to play a song by Florida Georgia Line does it correctly make the association that Florida Georgia Line is a music group or does it take something literal about the Florida Georgia state lines on maps?
We confirmed if the device behaved correctly as people used it to reorder things, or make new purchases. Through the Amazon account. This is when they started offering subscriptions like Amazon, music, unlimited, and prime video. This could go either way I don’t think they would charge you for paying to ask your device questions. Amazon hosts the service there’s a lot of third-party IT companies internationally that create the AI algorithms to accommodate the utterances then they are fed over the web internally through a system, called atea or a dsCentral…. And utterance is classified as a bit of data, like one of us, asking the device to turn on the light. Lots of the devices like fire tablet. An echo shows have built-in advertising. I suspect this would continue.
Also, in the fine print in your user manual booklet that comes with your device it tells you that the device records you, and that data can be tracked, so I’m not giving out information that’s hidden from the public.
I hope this helps. Keep asking questions…

On Nov 30, 2022, at 09:46, Sarah Clark via Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I don't expect it to disappear - they've invested a lot in it and judging by its popularity, it is a successful product, even though they're not making money from it right now -  but I would not be a bit surprised if they start charging a monthly fee for using it. And, honestly, I think this is a reasonable thing for them to do, because I think its a great service that is certainly worth at least a small monthly fee. After all, everytime you ask Alexa something that requires her to go to the servers for the info (i.e. getting the current news or even just asking for the weather), it costs Amazon money. Multiply doing this several times a day by probably millions of users, and no doubt it costs them a fortune to keep the service running.
> 
> 
> I had forgotten that they sell their echo devices at cost, so they could also simply increase the cost of those. However, millions of people already have those devices and continue using them so the company would still be behind with those customers. Therefore, it makes more sense that they would charge a monthly fee, perhaps tiered depending on the types of usage.
> 
> 
> Sarah
> 
> 
> 
> 
>> On 11/30/2022 6:09 AM, David Waybright via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>> I think clarification is needed.
>> 
>> When Amazon made Alexa, they did not do it for audio, they did it to have customers sign up for prime and buy stuff straight from the speaker without logging in to their phone, tablet, or computer. They were banking on this sure-fire sales increase so much so that they sell every Alexa device at cost. This is where they made a mistake, now they're reporting billions of dollars in losses since sales via the Alexa devices have not gone up to the levels they were expecting. No one is sure rather they'll pull the plug or try charging a monthly fee but be warned, the writing is on the wall for either to happen. They're not going to sit there and bleed money.
>> 
>> What users don't think about in this IoT (Internet of things) world we live in is that every cloud connected IOT device has a service that lives on the cloud basically a server or servers out there somewhere. The company behind these cloud connected IOT devices have to keep the lights on and if they don't wrap that fee into the price of the device or with a service fee then the lights will go off.
>> 
>> I've been in the Home Automation industry now for several years both DIY & Pro. The most recent IOT cloud outage due to poor financial management was when the company Smarthome went bankrupt a few months ago and shut all their servers off which left thousands of Insteon users without any automation control over their devices. Luckly some enthusiasts of the Insteon tech jumped in to buy the company's assets and bring the servers online. At this point the future for the new company is bleak since lots jumped ship but the company is trying to forge a new future under different management. This included them apologizing but stasting that they must issue a monthly service fee to keep the lights on. Yes some people left after this fee started, others moved their insteon devices into Homeassisant or Homeseer, and others moved away from Insteon all together.
>> 
>> I didn't bring the alexa story up to be pessimistic or to burn them at the stake. I more wanted to shed the light on the subject since if it does disappear there will be many people in our community who will be without their devices.
>> 
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>> 
>> David Eugene Waybright
>> CompTIA A+, NET+, & Security+ Technician
>> Crestron Certified Masters Technology Architect; Core, Flex, DMC-D-4K & E-4K, SCT-R & C, DCT-R & C, TCT-R & C AVMM Engineer; and Audio & Shades Technician
>> Extron Certified A/V Associate
>> 
>> IT Operations & Secure Infrastructure Specialist
>> 
>> 
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>> ________________________________
>> ------------------------------
>> 
>> Message: 9
>> Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2022 22:32:02 +0000
>> From: Christopher Chaltain <chaltain at outlook.com>
>> To: "mattchao at verizon.net" <mattchao at verizon.net>, Discussion of
>>         accessible home electronics and appliances
>>         <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Amazon & Google Assistant devices
>> Message-ID:
>>         <PH0PR14MB429673FE800C7CD06AAAAD89C8129 at PH0PR14MB4296.namprd14.prod.outlook.com>
>> 
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>> 
>> True, but Amazon is already losing money, so doing nothing is only going to make things worse. In other words, they really have nothing to lose.
>> 
>> --
>> Christopher (AKA CJ) =>?
>> Chaltain at Outlook, USA
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Matthew Chao <mattchao at verizon.net>
>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 4:09 PM
>> To: Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Christopher Chaltain <chaltain at outlook.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Amazon & Google Assistant devices
>> 
>> Of course, if they try to monetize this market, as they've done with music and movies, the whole thing could backfire on them and they could start to lose money.  If they do that with their smart speakers, I'm outa here.--Matthew Chao
>>> On 11/29/2022 4:43 PM, Christopher Chaltain via Electronics-Talk wrote:
>>> I'm not so sure the smart devices landscape won't change quite a bit. I think David is on to something when he talks about paying for this service. I'm not worried they're going away any time soon, but I'd also never say they'd never be shut down. For me, what will happen will happen, and since there's nothing I can do to prepare for it, I'll just wait and see.
>>> 
>>> I'm also not sure what other smart speakers Amazon wants to compete against. I know Google has their smart speakers out there, but I don't know if they're generating a lot of revenue for Google either. If Amazon is losing money with their smart speakers, and they've been doing this for years, why would they want to compete over a market where there's no profit to be made? Like I said above, I'd be surprised if Amazon doesn't do something to try to monetize this service more.
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Christopher (AKA CJ) =>?
>>> Chaltain at Outlook, USA
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf
>>> Of Amanda Lee via Electronics-Talk
>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 10:11 AM
>>> To: 'Discussion of accessible home electronics and appliances'
>>> <electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
>>> Cc: Amanda Lee <amandainparadise777 at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: [Electronics-Talk] Amazon & Google Assistant devices
>>> 
>>> Wow how pessimistic!
>>> 
>>> Amazon will likely never shutdown these devices.  After  all, they want to continue to compete with the other smart speaker technologies out there.
>>> 
>>> Amazon also released new devices this year.
>>> 
>>> It's a very different time in terms of the financial scene right now and I personally would say that in some respects, that the market may be reaching more saturation as well.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Electronics-Talk <electronics-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf
>>> Of David Waybright via Electronics-Talk
>>> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2022 7:18 AM
>>> To: electronics-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> Cc: David Waybright <link at pt-solutions.org>
>>> Subject: [Electronics-Talk] Amazon & Google Assistant devices
>>> 
>>> I was wondering if people are concerned about the recent news reporting how both the Amazon & Goggle Assisant devices have been considered a 'Colossal Failure' with reports Amazon is losing 10 billion a year. Should we expect these devices to start shutting down or be put behind a pay wall?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> David Eugene Waybright
>>> CompTIA A+, NET+, & Security+ Technician Crestron Certified Masters
>>> Technology Architect; Core, Flex, DMC-D-4K & E-4K, SCT-R & C, DCT-R &
>>> C, TCT-R & C AVMM Engineer; and Audio & Shades Technician Extron
>>> Certified A/V Associate
>>> 
>>> IT Operations & Secure Infrastructure Specialist
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Tesla Referral Code: https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fts.la%2Fdavid55244&data=05%7C01%7C%7Ce322661a0fe04b73d76a08dad256495d%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638053565288311779%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=L1JmTfNgiDt2DlhTEvABGLUbtQ5tbMQVzZ14hv3poSs%3D&reserved=0 6,000 Credits from Solar Roof or Solar Panel purchase!
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