
Amazon Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush - sillypuddy
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-21/amazon-sells-out-of-echo-speakers-in-midst-of-holiday-rush
======
GuiA
Clearly, people love these things. I have a few friends who own it and say
it's an amazing product; and commenters on HN have expressed their enthusiasm
for it as well.

There is a question that's been bothering me for years now, to which I still
don't have an answer, which is: does modern technology suck just for me, or am
I just less tolerant of defects than most people are?

I am currently typing this from a 2016 macbook that for some reason won't keep
disconnecting from my WiFi router. Last week, iOS decided to randomly delete
all of my saved locations in the Maps app. I've never had stable, fast
internet anywhere I've lived in the US in the past 8 years - every few days or
so, shit just doesn't work for a bit. I've owned things like a Nest or Philips
Hue in the past, and they randomly reset to factory mode or desync'd from my
phone . Half the time I try to play my PS4, some stupid patch fails to
download, or PSN is down, etc.

The more things like the Amazon Echo I would have in my house, the more
irritating my daily life would be - because I don't want to deal with the 5%
of the time where I have to repeat my request 5 times for it to tell me the
weather, or the connection to the Amazon server is lost and I can't play any
music. This 5% of the time across dozens of devices results in being annoyed
100% of the time.

All of this is why I mainly use a record player to listen to music at home (no
DRM, no problem with servers being down or albums removed remotely), really
like my GameCube for video games (put a disk in and play, no patches to
download), still exclusively buy paper books, am fine with dumb light
switches, and so on.

If you think this entire thing is ridiculous, I fully agree - I make my living
contributing to this industry! But either people are living through these same
annoyances as I am and they're fine with it (in which case please teach me
your secrets), or somehow I'm getting a worse experience with technology than
99.9% of the population (I guess statistically such a person must exist, and
it is me).

~~~
new299
A lot of technology is pretty flaky. I think you have a couple of issues
however:

1\. You have sucky Internet. Bad Internet is going to cause numerous issues.
From what I've heard it's hard to get a really good Internet connection in the
US. But in many places in the world, great Internet connections are available
at low cost.

Bad Internet means devices are going to have issues with firmware updates.
Things will be more flaky in general, data will be lost part way through
transfer and you'll hit issues with devices not robust to this more often.

2\. There's no reason why your macbook should keep disconnecting from Wifi.
Perhaps you live somewhere with a lot of RF noise? Or you have a cheap/crappy
router? Again, this is an issue which many people don't face. Mostly Wifi just
works.

~~~
croon
> 2\. There's no reason why your macbook should keep disconnecting from Wifi.
> Perhaps you live somewhere with a lot of RF noise? Or you have a
> cheap/crappy router? Again, this is an issue which many people don't face.
> Mostly Wifi just works.

I've went through tons of routers, and on those routers all available
firmwares (dd-wrt. open-wrt, tomato, etc).

I've been using an Asus RT-AC87U for the last couple of years now, on Merlins
firmware (slightly altered stock). I want to say it's great, but really it's
just the least sucky router [0] I've had.

Wifi has never mostly worked. At least I've never experienced it. With a wifi
dongle on my desktop PC I could go for a few weeks without issue, but I often
find at least one (random) phone to be disconnecting at times when I'm trying
to access something locally on my network. I never have to reboot the router
at least, but have to manually reconnect devices when issues occur, and of
course it breaks any connections I had.

I installed a wired network in our house just this week, for the devices I
care about the most.

I have never been on or even heard of a wifi network that always works. I
imagine that any such suggestion is a statement of minimizing the time when it
fails, which is great, but it has never been on par with wired in reliability.
I would be very happy if it did, but I won't hold my breath.

[0] Nitpick: We're talking about the AP part of the router, the router part is
quite stable and I've had no wired issues.

~~~
matwood
> I have never been on or even heard of a wifi network that always works.

Years ago I had this problem and bought an Apple router. My wifi has always
'just worked' ever since. There was an entire thread of people on here on HN
saying the same thing when Apple decided to stop making them. Wifi, like cell,
is very anecdotal because of things out of your control.

~~~
croon
I've had Apple routers as well. While above average, and not requiring
restarts, it wasn't better than other premium (consumer grade) routers I've
had. Of course, anecdata, but just for clarification:

Are you saying you never have any wifi issues? Even every other month?

I think the OP question touched on problems existing, but small enough for
many to "accept them" as status quo, and him/her questioning if he/she was the
only one bothered by them. I am one of those people too. Thus my question of
whether or not you actually have no problems, or simply "no problems requiring
intervention, other than waiting/reconnecting".

~~~
criddell
We have a decent wifi router and it's been running for over a year now with no
issues.

Our internet has gone down (Uverse fiber), but that's outside of our home and
there's little we can do about it.

My phone - a Nexus 5X - is probably the flakiest bit of tech that I have. I
reboot it every 10 days or so. The next worst is the AT&T DVRs. They are
terribly designed, painful to use, and have bugs.

Most of the tech in my house (Canon printer, QNAP raid box, Hikvision cameras,
PS4, Roku, Wii-U, Onkyo receiver, Samsung and Toshiba televisions, iPads,
iPhones, Samsung Tablet, Thinkpad, MacBook, gaming PC, Kindles, etc...) have
basically no recurring problems. We've had brown outs where the power goes
down but not off that made me have to go reboot everything, but other than
that, no real problems. Our VitaMix blender does blow one breaker, but that's
not really a tech issue.

------
hijohnnylin
what are people actually using these for? i'm legitimately curious about the
use cases for this. if you have an android phone or iphone or smartwatch, you
already can "Hey Siri/Google" whatever you want, including playing music. is
it for light switches? Hey Siri/Google already does this, no? also, how many
people have 50$ wifi connected bulbs? and isn't the most convenient way to
turn on a light switch still just physically flipping the switch? (they're
usually located right where you need them) is it for shopping? this seems like
still a rare use case. is it to check the weather? that's already on your
phone/wrist/computer/tv/window. is it to look up facts? again,
siri/cortana/heygoogle does this.

it's possible that i'm not the target demographic, that i'm the only person
who doesnt have literally everything in their home futuristically connected
(locks, lights, windows, curtains, vacuums, etc) -- and that this is actually
solving a huge problem for a lot of people. but that seems unlikely -- i live
in a relatively tech-infested city (SF) and almost nobody i know has those
things.

maybe i'm too old (27) to "get it"? get off my lawn??

~~~
matwood
> what are people actually using these for?

Off the top of my head from last night while cooking dinner:

* "hey google, add olive oil to the grocery list"

* "hey google, set a timer for 15 minutes for rice"

* "hey google, play some Christmas music"

* "hey google, how much time is left on the rice"

I could have fumbled with pulling out my iphone for all of these, but I would
have had to stop prepping dinner, wash my hands, and then mess with the phone.
Instead, it just fits in the flow of what I am doing.

~~~
sikim
I believe from iPhone 6S and above, there's an option to just say "Hey, Siri"
to activate Siri without having to touch the phone, so you can basically do
the same thing with iPhones.

~~~
matwood
There is, but my phone is either in my pocket or not right next to me. Google
Home works fine across the room, and ties directly into Google Music. I can
also tell it to cast to my better speakers if that's what I want it to do.
Siri also has a weird way of doing multiple timers:
[http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2014/01/timers-and-
reminder...](http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2014/01/timers-and-reminders/)

------
johnsmith21006
Have had an echo since launch and the Google Home for a month. The Echo
basically uses commands. There is some flexibility but not inference like the
Google Home.

So with the echo you sometimes have to do a quick Google search to get the
name of the song so you can tell the Echo.

The Google Home does not require the extra step. With the Google Home I am
starting to use a condensed English. So I will say "play sting Gwen bottle"

The Google home will launch Sting and Gwen Stefani playing message in the
bottle. But the Google Home will also turn on the TV, set the correct input
and then start playing.

The Echo is older but for my family use cases the Google Home is far more
useful.

This was before the new capibilities just added to the Google Home

~~~
greglikescode
I've been eyeing these and had a question about a use case like this. Is it
easy to utilize multiple media sources for this, like Plex and/or Spotify? Can
you tell Alexa or Google Home which to use?

~~~
relaytheurgency
If google home uses the same tech as google now, I've told my phone to
specifically play songs on spotify before as opposed to play music.

------
mrbill
Not quite.. I ordered a second Echo Dot for my mom last Thursday (the 15th).
It was originally scheduled to ship on the 30th, but shipped early on the 19th
and she got it today.

She's not very technically oriented (iPad is about as complicated as she wants
to get), but absolutely LOVES the Dot. I bought her first one for her birthday
back in October, and she called me on my birthday three weeks after that and
had it sing "Happy Birthday" to me over the phone. She'd had it for all of a
week before she told me "I need another one of these for the other end of the
house.."

~~~
newspaper-shill
What does your mom use it for? I'm strongly considering getting one for my own
parents.

~~~
mrbill
Playing music, weather, shopping lists...

------
habosa
I have noticed that Amazon (and Amazon merchants) seem to be unprepared for
this holiday season. Amazon was always my go-to place for "oh shit I need a
Christmas present at it's December 20th".

I went online to buy a few things this weekend and almost every item I looked
up was marked "Back in stock on Dec XX" where XX was somewhere in the range of
24th to 30th.

So I'm not surprised that this extends to Amazon's own products. It's a shame,
as one of the main reasons to shop on Amazon is to know you can get almost
anything with no notice.

~~~
dx034
Could be a sign for the current economic environment. Ecommerce took really
off in the last decade or so. The recovery after the crisis in '08 took long
and while consumption was ok, it was never extremely good.

Current numbers, especially in the US, look very promising. Growth isn't where
it has been in the past, but employment is very strong and so is spending.
Wage growth will have a large effect on spending for gifts, especially for
earners with low wages.

Maybe that's why Amazon was so surprised this year. They anticipated their
growth number to what they sold last year and didn't account for the extra
boost.

Of course that's just speculation, but it would fit well. And would explain
why I don't see this effect on Amazon UK at all.

------
niftich
Fascinating.

Don't take my comment the wrong way -- I'm not begrudging anyone on their
spending habits or how they use their disposable income, but I genuinely have
several items or activities that I'd rather spend that $140 current sale price
on.

Or, to rephrase, the idea of voice controlling music in my house appeals to
me, but not at this price point? For what it's worth, the sibling products are
also awkwardly priced for me: the cheapest Tap (edit/correction: Dot) has a
terrible speaker while the mid-range Tap isn't hands-free.

I'd be truly curious how people actually use the Echo: how much of it is music
playing, how much of it is checking the weather, or witty banter, or re-
ordering a household item. Is it more of a utility device? Is it more of an
entertainment device? Is it some clever hybrid thereof?

~~~
daveFNbuck
If the price point is the only issue, I'm pretty sure the Echo Dot does the
same thing for $40. My concern is that voice controlling the music might not
be worth sending out recordings of everything said in my house.

~~~
eclipxe
It doesn't record everything said in your house. It only listens to the wake
word, and then records. Source: I worked on some of the low level audio
functionality.

~~~
Eridrus
These comments about the NSA listening to you through these get annoying
enough to me, I hate to think how annoying they must be to you when you built
the damn thing.

~~~
CaptSpify
Is there any reason an Echo couldn't be updated to add 24/7 listening? Just
because someone built a part of it doesn't mean they know how it works now

~~~
Eridrus
They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker you
have; why are we freaking out about this except for the fact that it's being
sold as a microphone?

Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all our audio? I
guess you could make an argument that far-field mics make it different, but I
have a lot of conversations near my laptop and phone.

As tekromancr mentioned; it would be pretty obvious if these changes were
made, especially on a wide-ranging basis, so that only really leaves this
potential capability being used in a targeted manner, at which point Mossad is
after you specifically and you're gonna get Mosadded.
([https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf](https://www.usenix.org/system/files/1401_08-12_mickens.pdf))

Having said that, I would be interested in a 3rd party maintained registry of
updates for all software so that it would at the very least be noticeable if
updates were being abused for this purpose, similar to the way certificate
transparency works for SSL/TLS certs.

~~~
CaptSpify
> They could do the same thing to your computer or phone or even any speaker
> you have...

Absolutely. That's why I don't really let stuff auto-update, use as much FOSS
stuff as I can, etc. Just because someone can push a malicious update to
$product_a doesn't mean we should ignore the fact that they can do it to
$product_b. I fail to see the logic here.

> Why don't we freak out that Chrome could be listening to all our audio?

I do. And that's why I don't use Chrome. Just because you don't seem to be
worried doesn't mean other people don't worry about it.

> ...it would be pretty obvious if these changes were made, especially on a
> wide-ranging basis...

Maybe, but I'm not worried _just_ about wide-ranging basis, but a narrow-
ranging basis as well.

~~~
Eridrus
> I fail to see the logic here.

Most people are not concerned about Chrome, iOS or Android auto-updating; I'm
sure you can see that you're an outlier here.

FOSS software might not have automatic updates, but if you do any sort of
update where you don't verify the blob you got is the same one as everyone
else you have exactly the same problem.

I largely expect that unless you get super paranoid about this (and hey, we're
on HN, so that's a possibility), you're not really going to stop a
sophisticated government adversary. And at the point where you're on a
specifically targeted list, they will probably not limit themselves to the
digital world.

I also think that expecting this level of privacy where the government cannot
figure out what you're doing is a historical anomaly; most people who avoided
telephones because the government could be listening are generally considered
crazy people.

Does the government target people in a violation of their civil rights? Yes,
but you probably know if you're doing something the government doesn't like,
and it does not seem sensible to argue that people should become experts in
technology and then give up a lot of benefits to avoid a risk that is not real
for them.

~~~
CaptSpify
> Most people are not concerned about Chrome, iOS or Android auto-updating;
> I'm sure you can see that you're an outlier here.

Sure, but I don't see how that invalidates my point. Some people are concerned
about privacy, some people aren't. That doesn't mean the original software
couldn't be updated with malicious code.

> FOSS software might not have automatic updates, but if you do any sort of
> update where you don't verify the blob you got is the same one as everyone
> else you have exactly the same problem.

I'd disagree. Having the _ability_ to verify it has kept a lot of people from
pushing a lot of bad code because they know they could be caught.

> you're not really going to stop a sophisticated government adversary.

I'd agree, but just because I can't _really_ stop someone from breaking into
my house doesn't mean I'm OK with putting a key under my doormatt.

> I also think that expecting this level of privacy where the government
> cannot figure out what you're doing is a historical anomaly

There's a _huge_ difference between being able to figure out, and recording
everything for later use.

> most people who avoided telephones because the government could be listening
> are generally considered crazy people.

lolno. Movies have often had a trope about talking in person because "someone
could be listening" for a long time. Audiences understand this quite well and
go along with the story. And it doesn't have to be the government. When party-
lines were common, people knew you had to be careful, or the town gossip could
get all the juicy details. The Public has long known that someone could be
listening. The difference now is that a lot of actors are trying to _always_
be listening.

> it does not seem sensible to argue that people should become experts in
> technology and then give up a lot of benefits to avoid a risk that is not
> real for them.

I'm not really sure where I said that. If I did, I'd like you to point it out.
I just think people should be able to educate themselves and decide for
themselves if that trade-off is worth it.

I'm not saying people _shouldn 't_ make the tradeoff, but pretending that
"It's OK, the Echo could never be used maliciously because some guy on HN said
he wrote the software and it doesn't do that" is naive at best.

------
cocktailpeanuts
I think ultimately google home and amazon echo will walk a separate path.
Amazon will focus on what they do best--selling stuff, and Google will focus
on what they do best--providing information.

Of course they will be a big overlap (like how it is now), but smart companies
tend to play to their strengths than to play by their enemy's rules.

~~~
function_seven
But why would I want a $100 voice-interfaced device just to sell me stuff? Not
challenging your prediction. Questioning Amazon’s game plan if that’s indeed
the path they’re setting out on.

In fact, their current ad campaign clearly shows the “buy stuff” use case.
From ordering pizzas to buying roses to requesting an Uber. But it also
features users asking Alexa for their calendar itinerary, or the caloric
content of hot wings.

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
In the last year they've also been creating several Alexa (Echo Devices)
exclusive sales. Meaning you have to order on an Echo device to get the same
price. I suspect we'll see more of that in the coming year.

Amazon.com has already become a site where if you aren't a prime member then
you may have well not use it. Since almost all sales are prime exclusive,
shipping is now crazy expensive without prime, and almost all new features are
prime too.

I suspect in the coming year or two the "cost of entry" will be both a prime
membership AND an Alexa enabled device. Without both you'll miss out on a lot
of the site's benefit and prices.

------
Hydraulix989
I see this "artificial supply constraint" hype-mobile getting played up a lot
by consumer electronics marketing.

It's pretty easy to get the factories in Shenzhen to crank out a couple extra
to meet demand (it USED to be a lot harder).

I call BS.

~~~
dx034
The manufacturing process is likely still several days as it involves more
than one factory in the process. Plus shipping to the US (1-2 days) you'll end
up at probably around a week in the best case. And that only if there's enough
cargo capacity to add 100k units on that route (don't know how busy they are
in these weeks). I'd guess it's realistically closer to 2 weeks from decision
until it's in the warehouse.

It seems to me that the Echo is what amazon pushes most at the moment. They
want to be in every house. I don't think they make much by selling it, it's
mostly to bind people to amazon (prime and buying through the device). It
doesn't make sense to constraint supply in that case. Constraining supply is
used for expensive items to suggest that they're sought after. Don't think
Echo fits in that category.

~~~
Hydraulix989
Even with that lead time, you know ahead-of-time when you're about to run out
of supply in 2016. There's just no excuse.

That said, I just don't see too many people buying Echo. Another distracting
device that tries to get you to buy more stuff on Amazon is just not something
I think people want, and the speech recognition works flaky at best, even in a
quiet room (my Amazon engineer buddy has one). It's just like Siri.

I had to go brick-and-mortar to get a flash drive in under an hour the other
weekend. At Silicon Valley's Best Buy in SF, the in-store Echo demo had a few
passersby press the Demo button, and then as soon as it started talking, they
looked confused and walked away. Not a good sign.

It does make a lot of sense: When something actually isn't selling so well,
running a marketing campaign saying "we've sold out" is a great psychological
hack to temporarily drive up demand.

~~~
joezydeco
I'm here in Chicago and it's really sold out. Nothing at any of the major
retailers within 50 miles of my location.

Google Home also seems to be completely gone at every store I've visited in
the last few days. That includes places like Target, who usually have their
shit together when it comes to inventory.

------
petecooper
FWIW, there's stock in the Amazon UK store, and Amazon are advertising via a
front page banner.

Echo:
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GAGVC9K/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GAGVC9K/)

Echo Dot:
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DFKBG5Y/](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01DFKBG5Y/)

Delivery to UK addresses only, but if you befriend a UK HN-er who's willing to
be a patsy, I'm sure that won't be too much of a hurdle.

------
alistproducer2
Having a hot mic in my house that there is data to servers that I don't
control really doesn't appeal to me. Although I know my Android phone is
essentially the same thing, I'm actively looking to replace my version of
Android with something different soon as I can.

~~~
Crespyl
And at least with an Android phone it's typically possible to root/wipe and
install a custom OS that's completely separated from Google/whoever. There's
usually still a few binary blob drivers, and you have to have some trust that
the hardware itself isn't malicious, but at least you can be confidant that
it's not dependent on/subservient to some online service that's out of your
control.

I'm not terribly interested in any home automation/assistant system that
_requires_ an always on connection to some external server.

~~~
CaptSpify
Agreed. I don't like closed-source stuff, but I'd still absolutely use an Echo
if it didn't require cloud connectivity. At least then I'd be able to prevent
it from reaching outside.

Unfortunately all of the FOSS voice-recognition stuff I've tried has been
hacky at best.

------
seanwilson
I found the idea that it could be always listening to you creepy at
first...but if you think about it your mobile phone, landline phone, computer
microphone and more could be hijacked to always listen to you as well so there
isn't much difference.

~~~
CaptSpify
"I thought leaving my door key under my matt was a bad idea, but then I
realized that if someone wanted into my house, they could just break my
window!"

I'm not saying your making the wrong decision, it's a trade-off that everyone
needs to make individually. If your happy with your Echo, great! But just
because someone has one attack-vector on you doesn't mean you should dismiss
new attack vectors.

~~~
srssays
You should be more worried about using npm. How do you know that when you
install 100 of different dependencies, there isn't one that is turning on your
mic and listening to your conversations?

The Echo is an unlikely device to be compromised and recording everything you
say, because it's pretty locked down and definitely not a general purpose
computer.

~~~
CaptSpify
(I don't use npm, but I do use other repos) The difference between an Echo and
repo-code is that repo-code is open-source. I can verify it's running what
it's running. AFAIK, there's no way to do that with the Echo.

> it's pretty locked down

source? AFAIK you can't verify what it's doing, so it doesn't matter how well
it's locked down.

------
fragsworth
I was given one as a gift, but I can't bring myself to plug it in.

The device sends sound to their servers to process what you are saying. They
probably aren't sending _all_ the sound, but if they aren't, I can't be
bothered to keep up to date on if they change that policy.

Is it unreasonable to assume that the NSA is logging (or will eventually be
logging) everything sent over the Internet with this device around?

~~~
sumbry
If you're seriously worried about the NSA logging things - I'd be more
concerned with the device you carry on your person every day, with a
microphone, two cameras, a GPS device, 24 hour battery, and probably 10x the
processing power of the Alexa.

It seriously is no worse than OK Google or Siri and you should seriously be
more worried about your cell phone.

~~~
proaralyst
The device I carry day-to-day needs to be specifically compromised. With voice
assistants using an internet service, only that internet service needs to be
compromised. For bulk surveilance, I think it's far more likely for the Echo
servers to be attacked than my smartphone.

~~~
petra
Amazon says that only after you say the hotword it transmits voice to servers.

~~~
m_t
Well then we can definitely trust them.

~~~
petra
If they lie about this in general(and enable blanket surveillance), it would
be relatively easy to detect , and hurt Amazon's brand.

~~~
icebraining
How? If you say "by analysing the amount of data it transmits when not in
use", then not really - they could record it locally and then sneak it
alongside a normal request.

~~~
CaptSpify
I don't know how Echo's update, but they potentially could also sneak in an
update that does listen 24/7, then a couple days later push an update that
turns that off.

------
silveira
I was in a Bed Bath and Beyond today and there was people looking for the
Echo. All models were sold out, they put a sign saying they didn't have any
more Echos.

------
johnwheeler
People here are really missing the point with these things asking, "why should
I care?"

It should be clear to the HN crowd. One day, ambient voice technology is going
to be everywhere. In your car. In the supermarket. Everywhere. The Amazon Echo
is an early example of it. That it's connected to the largest goods
distribution network has the potential to enhance modern living in an obvious
way.

It's so typical with new technology to see a bunch of naysayers and ho-hum
attitudes until one day it hits mainstream and everyone is like, "oh yeah, I
knew it all along"

~~~
swozey
I've had this stuff in my cars, phones and now laptop (siri and cortana) for
years and I've never found it to be a smooth execution to the point that I
just don't use it. My BMW has a horrible manual system for entering addresses
into its navi (spin wheel to letters), you'd think the voice system would be
an easy resolution but it's even clunkier.

I bought 2 dots last night, one to plug into my Sonos and one to use as an
alarm clock. Let's see if I use them at all beyond that.

edit: I canceled the dots and bought a Google Home and a dot to compare.
Mostly because I use Google Music.

~~~
johnwheeler
It's early. Think beyond the current capabilities and project 10 or 20 years
from now.

------
nullnilvoid
How many were sold? 20K? 200K? 2M?

~~~
drdrey
The story mentioned 5M since 2014

------
nathanvanfleet
I was hoping to see a review of them here. I almost bought an Echo, or a Tap,
but then I read the audio wasn't great. I wanted something to play music well
and it sounded as if it didn't. I would love to know whether or not their
audio quality or Google Home's, were worth it. Otherwise I guess I'll buy a
decent quality amp for my Airport Express or something, which seems to cost
about as much.

~~~
kevincox
I know Google put significant effort and takes serious pride in the audio
quality of the Home, so while I haven't heard it myself it is probably worth a
try.

~~~
whatok
I was pleasantly surprised by the quality. Passable enough that I don't
immediately Chromecast to another set of $$$ speakers.

------
capitalisthakr
I had one for two weeks and sent it back. The requirement to summon an app
before asking your question is clumsy and really takes the "magic" out of the
experience. I'm waiting for the Google Home to be available.

Critically lacking in both ecosystems, is the ability to handle multiple user
profiles so that it can recognise who is asking the question and tailor the
answer to that users schedule, travel etc.

~~~
iKlsR
> The requirement to summon an app before asking your question is clumsy and
> really takes the "magic" out of the experience. I'm waiting for the Google
> Home to be available.

TBH, GH is just a large speaker for your smartphone.

------
yeukhon
I was excited about Echo when my co-worker introduced it to me a month ago,
but then realize I'd have to write a Lambda function, set up this and that,
and the fact I'd have to write out the exact command, I shrugged a bit and
lost my interest. Now that AWS has Rekognition, Polly, and Greengrass, I am
more excited to find out how to integrate them (although sure Google's Vision
API and Voice API already exist for a while now).

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twothamendment
Why do I love the Echo? It was stupid easy to put up a Skill to control my
house, my way. Skills are open to do whatever you can code up. They need to
talk to a secure endpoint, but with Lets Encrypt handing out SSL like candy,
what is your excuse? Since my Skill is custom to my house, it isn't open to
the public - I'll just be "testing" it for a long time.

------
wdr1
FWIW, they still have them in stock at the Amazon Bookstore (in Seattle). My
sister in North Carolina was trying desperately to find one for a gift, so I
popped in there. They're also on sale, a discount of about ~$40. They seemed
to be aware of the shortage and saw this a good way to get people to check out
the store.

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ageofwant
Its worth noting that you can build a Echo yourself, for example:
[http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Raspberry-Pi-
Powered...](http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Raspberry-Pi-Powered-
Amazon-Echo/?ALLSTEPS)

With blacjack, and hookers...

------
TheOneTrueKyle
The greatest part about the echo is that I can create my own skills for my own
echo without having to publish my skills to skill store.

This allows me to build the Alexa that I want to build which is really awesome
IMO.

------
baby
This is surprising. How does it compare to siri and the android equivalent?
For me Siri doesn't get me more than half the time, while google gets me most
of the time.

------
nepotism2016
My amazon dot and Rpi3 enabled kodi are next (literally) to each other, yet
communication needs to leave the house for them to talk to each other...sort
it out amazon!

~~~
m0ngr31
I wrote a skill for this that has a ton of features:
[https://github.com/m0ngr31/kodi-alexa](https://github.com/m0ngr31/kodi-alexa)

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homerguy69
I think this years re:invent was a big factor to the supply as well. Everyone
who attended was given one.

~~~
dx034
I'm not sure. Guess only a few thousand people attended? As it's on the front
page of Amazon for a while, they probably sold a few million of those now. I
know quite a few people here (UK) who got one, it seems very popular at the
lower price.

------
sjg007
Had huge problems with my MacBook and with a zoom wifi cable modem and a dlink
ac router. Connection to xfinity wifi was better. Then we moved and I got
fiber with their commercial wifi router and things have been stable. Less APS
around. At work we have Cisco access points which were stable when not
misconfigured.

------
alkonaut
I want a thing like this with one single difference: I don't want to talk to
it.

~~~
dx034
In that case you can just buy a smartphone or laptop?

~~~
alkonaut
I was unclear: I want an "integration hub" that controls sonos/hue etc with a
massive corporation polishing it, instead of the usual suspects of home
automation crapware.

I'm happy to use it from an app rather than with voice

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jcoder
Considering the ambiguity of "Sold Out", maybe the original headline, "Amazon
Sells Out of Echo Speakers in Midst of Holiday Rush", would be better?

~~~
MatthaeusHarris
I got what you meant, and that was my first thought too.

The main reason I haven't bought an Echo (and am looking into self-hosted
solutions instead) is the privacy concern.

~~~
throwaway40483
Well, according to Amazon nothing is sent to their server unless Alexa is
awake (after saying the magic 'Alexa' keyword).

~~~
CaptSpify
And we all know Amazon would never lie, and that the Echo could never be
compromised...

------
cmelone
B

