
Amazon Echo Loop - ssully
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JPK4XJ6
======
harshalizee
Is this an early April Fool's joke? The video showing people interacting with
the ring does not remotely look appealing or cool. I'm surprised this went
through all the way to actual production.

~~~
reaperducer
_Is this an early April Fool 's joke?_

It's yet another SV bubble "innovation" that's only useful on the west coast.

It's not going to work in half the world for half of the year. Winter.
Pockets. Gloves.

See also: Apple EarPods, with the cords that get brittle in cold weather and
become useless tangles that fly up in your face.

See also: Every iPhone I've ever owned which has gone into emergency thermal
shutdown just because I dared to use it in Arizona or Nevada.

~~~
dmix
I've lived in places that were cold for a decent period each year and I wasn't
wearing gloves all the time. Even 2-3% of my time would be a stretch.

Even in cold countries we spend ~90% of our time inside and much of the ~10%
outside in decent weather. The average American spends 7% of their day outside
with some obvious outliers push that upwards. The world average is 87% inside.
[1]

Plenty of products are only used a few times a day. I don't think the downtime
spent walking around outside shopping or commuting is the killer.

The question is are there enough of those uses to justify wearing it all the
time. Not if it works in 100% of situations.

1\. [https://www.creditdonkey.com/time-spent-outdoors-
statistics....](https://www.creditdonkey.com/time-spent-outdoors-
statistics.html)

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zknz
I am amazed that this got green lighted.

you know - who is out there saying - what i am missing in my life is a really
ugly ring, that i have to charge daily.

~~~
reaperducer
_I am amazed that this got green lighted._

It's what happens when a company has so much money it can make things without
doing any actual market research.

"More dollars than sense" is the appropriate expression.

~~~
txcwpalpha
I think it's more that Amazon has so much money that their version of market
research looks much different than what you typically think of as market
research.

Producing a new device, throwing it up on their website to sell, and seeing
how well it does _is_ Amazon's version of market research. It's "move fast and
break things" brought into the hardware space. They actually even say as much
in their description of the "Day 1 Editions" program, of which the Echo Loop
is part of.

~~~
gtirloni
Expect they're not breaking anything at all.

~~~
txcwpalpha
The "move fast and break things" motto doesn't mean actually "breaking"
things. It means not being afraid of mistakes, because things that are
"broken" or "wrong" can be fixed down the line.

In this case, Amazon is exhibiting not being afraid of releasing a possibly
unsuccessful product, because they know they can iterate on it (or pivot, or
exit entirely) later on.

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oflannabhra
It is clear to me that Amazon has doubled down on the only foothold they have,
after missing mobile.

I think that Voice Assistants will always be a feature, though, and not a
product. And as a feature, first-party ones will always have an inherent
advantage.

Especially with this event, it seems that Amazon is going with a feature and
trying to back into products, which to me seems like the opposite way to
approach a market.

~~~
webwielder2
Amazon is under the (mistaken?) assumption that the Echo was popular for any
reason besides the fact that it makes playing music super easy.

~~~
justapassenger
I've owned Echo for 4 years (switched to google home now), and used it to play
music only once. It's purely assistant to me.

~~~
riantogo
You are in the minority. Most of the queries by far are for music use case.

~~~
delecti
Do you have a source for that claim? Because I also rather rarely play music
through mine. Most people I know who have one use it mainly for smart home
control.

~~~
jamesponddotco
Yeah, I would love to have some data on that too. We have a few HomePods
around the house, and even though that is more of a music player than a smart
speaker, we use the voice assistant for everything BUT music.

Music is usually controlled with our phones or computers, casted to the
HomePods.

~~~
yellowapple
For some additional anecdotal data points:

\- I use mine exclusively for music.

\- My mom uses hers for a mix of home automation and music, but seems to be
heavier toward the latter. Sometimes she'll play Jeopardy with it.

\- My grandparents use theirs exclusively for home automation.

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canadianwriter
My main thing with this is it kind of works well for digital minimalism - no
need for notifications or tracking of my body but get the benefit of adding
to-dos or looking up quick things without looking at a screen.

I hate smart watches cause I wear a normal watch, you know, something i never
have to charge and is always on, amazing concept and I don't want to
constantly be pulling out my phone, I prefer to keep it in a bag. This kind of
gets that middle ground of answering quick one off questions (which I use my
Google Home for now, but not out and about) as well as add to-dos and other
things. Connecting this with Ifttt can probably do other cool stuff to.

Though, this is not a mass market need, it just happens to fill my specific
need.

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abvdasker
The linked video is priceless. One of the first examples is a guy asking the
ring-Alexa "What's on my grocery list?" to which ring-Alexa replies
idiotically, "You have five items on your grocery list." This is almost Google
Glass levels of tastelessness and bad design. Did none of Amazon's product
managers see someone talking into their cupped palm, pausing, and then moving
their hand to the side of their face and think, "this looks stupid and weird"?
Yikes.

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mc32
Oh damn! They should have made it in the shape of tiny angels and demons micro
drones which hover over your shoulder. You ask a question and you get an
assortment of positive and negative responses from them as they flutter and
follow you around your shoulders.

~~~
reaperducer
I guess all the down-voters never watched a Looney Tunes cartoon. Sad.

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sacheendra
I don't know how to feel about this. On one side are the privacy implications.

On the other hand, 16 year old me would have loved this. This is the pervasive
computing of sci-fi made real. All information is just a tap away. Control
lights or run a compute job using a custom Alexa Skill.

~~~
LinuxBender
Sci-fi also showed us the risks of such things, if not implemented properly.
STtNG had several episodes where the U.S.S. Enterprise was commandeered via
voice hacks.

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guptaneil
What is the advantage of this over a smart watch?

~~~
JimiofEden
I would sooner wear a ring than watch. Anecdotally, I have plenty of friends
who agree with me

(Granted I wouldn't wear this for privacy reasons, but I really dislike
wearing watches)

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lasereyes136
The Echo Loop might be a dud or it might be a winner we don't expect but I am
glad they are trying it. We have no idea what form factor of wearable will end
up winning and being in the set of things people use and like.

Good for Amazon for trying something new and having the resources to
experiment with a new form factor. I have no idea of a ring with a voice
interface will stand the test of time but I would like to know if it has any
merit.

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aymeric
Currently I use a ring that allows me to pay like a credit card: I love it (I
live by the beach so I prefer not to have a wallet with me).

Being able to query google from a ring is attractive to me.

I am surprised by the fact the speaker is in the ring, but it means you can
potentially receive “private” information from the ring without other hearing.

I imagine people whispering to their rings in the bus. I think the hand motion
you have to do from speaking to listening might make you look like a fool
(google glass)

~~~
scarejunba
Hey, which product are you using? I googled and the McLear came up top. Do you
like it? The contactless payment thing sounds fucking amazing.

~~~
thoughtpalette
That looks pretty cool. I have not joined the contactless payment game yet,
but I'd consider wearing this.

Too bad it looks to be UK only.

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the_watcher
I can see the appeal of everything else Amazon announced (even the glasses,
which have value in that they're basically headphones you don't have to take
off when having a conversation). But cannot figure out the target market of
this. I'm even someone who is interested in the idea of a smart ring, but the
feature it needs is sleep tracking (since I haven't ever been able to sleep
with a watch or band).

~~~
elheffe80
Sleep tracking is the _only_ thing I can think of that would be usefull.

~~~
the_watcher
I could see some use in fitness tracking when playing a sport where you'd be
asked to take off a watch (pickup basketball, for example). But that's why I
think there could be a market for it - its value prop is simply that it's both
extremely low profile and connected. The Oura ring is simply too expensive for
me, but I _think_ I'd pay $130 for a wearable sleep tracker that integrates
with Apple Health that provided me high quality data about my sleep quality.

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mark_l_watson
I give credit for an interesting product idea, but requiring a nearby
cellphone makes it much less compelling than an Apple Watch with a data plan.
Something like Amazon’s ring but with its own cell data plan and a lot of work
put into voice only UIs might be a great product. Still, for now, a watch that
can be a replacement for carrying a phone hits the sweet spot for me.

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mitasu-hachi
trying not to imagine what'll happen if the battery starts swelling

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acroback
Only one question - Why?

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dreamcompiler
Oh FFS this is ridiculous. If Amazon can build it into a ring, they can
install it subdermally and power it with the Krebs cycle. We're all just
aching for a way to have a more intimate, always-on relationship with Amazon.
_Amazon what are you waiting for???_

</sarcasm>

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noelsusman
This feels like one of those bad Kickstarter projects that get made fun of on
YouTube.

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echelon
The only things I ask Alexa to do are

\- Turn on/off the lights

\- What time is it?

\- What's the weather (today, this week)?

Literally that's all I've done since the thing came out. I find other
interaction patterns to be inferior to just waiting to use by phone.

I hate using Alexa as a speaker since my Sonos system is far better than even
the top tier Alexa hardware, and I want to use non-Amazon music services
anyway. Alexa really wants to play music though as it frequently
misunderstands me and tries its best to get me to like it. I wish I could
disable music outright, but the product people at Amazon will never allow it.

Alexa is such a toy. It'll never be much else despite Amazon trying their
damnedest. It gets things wrong frequently and isn't really life changing.
They missed the smartphone boat and this will be their second fiddle.

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artur_makly
this takes “talk to the hand” to a whole new level. i pray this madness stops

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rad_gruchalski
I do wonder what else does it pick up. This seems to be a voice version of
facebook scanning faces of all random people on pictures taken in public and
posted to facebook.

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eschneider
That...could be quite handy for the elderly. Spend some time as a caregiver
and you see that a lot of these oddball form factors are quite handy for some
folks.

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blorenz
I'm usually enthusiastic about Echo products but today's announcements should
have included Henry Winkler, a motorcycle and a shark tank.

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gok
I was in a group of ~a dozen people recently and somehow it came up that over
half of our wedding bands were from Amazon.

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huangc10
I actually like this a lot tbh. I only wish it looked better but worth a try.

Been looking to try some new IoT stuff.

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dmitrygr
A curved LiPo battery being shipped in a real device! cool! This has been a
long time coming

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jdlyga
It's basically what the Apple Watch already does.

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elheffe80
This is one of the saddest things I have ever seen.

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legohead
maybe work on making the Alexa phone app more user friendly instead...

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teddyh
One ring to bring them all…

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davidw
Java Ring 2.0

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markstos
I'll pass for now, but keep me in the loop.

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kempbellt
One ring to rule them all?

All that is missing is an Amazon Echo Loop Nose Edition. Bear with me...

It's mounted right above your mouth, so you never have to raise your hand to
your face - pfft, how exhausting right? You tap it with your tongue to
activate (if you're flexible enough). And, it just vibrates, making your nose
itch, when you have a notification.

To charge it, along with your ring, eyeglasses, ear pods, watch, phone,
laptop, and smart socks, you will need another usb port. But luckily, you can
charge this one in your sleep. Just mount the magnetic charger right to your
face. So convenient! Battery lasts all day! (6 hours)

