
Tell HN: Alexa mute button is not hardwired - hammock
I recently plugged in my Alexa and quickly pressed the mute button while it was booting up. The mic icon turned red and then later in the boot process the mic light turned off again all by itself. I assume this means that some software in the Alexa system can turn the light on and off at a minimum, and maybe even the mute functionality itself.
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adetrest
Anybody who puts one of these devices in their home and expects to be fully in
control of it or not being spied on is deluded.

I'm not saying they're wrong in their expectations, I definitely have an
expectation that I won't be spied or eaves dropped on in my own home as well.
But that's why I don't put an always on mic that is sending everything it
records off to a US company on us servers, running software no-one can see the
source code of.

Seriously, it boggled my mind how you an expect the Facebook telescreen or the
google/amazon spy mic to respect your privacy when we know the business model
of these companies and the potential for abuse. Even assuming they didn't want
to spy, they could easily be compelled to by an alphabet agency and you'd
never know.

And for what? So you can order more coffee from Amazon without lifting a
finger, or so you can pause Spotify without pressing on the remote? Come on...

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londons_explore
No modern device will have truly 'hardware' buttons for anything, unless the
device has no microprocessor (think electric iron, kettle, hedgetrimmer).

It leads to a smaller simpler design to simply hook all switches and lights
into a CPU and have software control everything. It lets the UX be decided
later in the design process, it allows the design to be modified to other
usecases more easily, and it simplifies the testing required for each device
produced.

Having 'hardware' switches also tends to be significantly harder to design.
For example, a hardware mic switch might bounce when switched, and cause
voltage transients which damage the ADC. Such things are very hard to predict
before the design is produced, and might only affect a small percentage of
produced devices meaning it gets missed in testing.

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beatgammit
The Librem 5 claims to have hardware switches for the radios, and it's not
even out yet.

Yes, most modern devices don't have these switches, and yes it's more
expensive to put them in, but hopefully it's not completely going away. I like
knowing that something is off (software can fail, whether intentionally or
unintentionally), and I'm willing to pay a little extra for that.

I hope we haven't completely ignored lessons from Spectre/Meltdown. Trusting
the CPU isn't acceptable, so certain things should have a hardware shut-off to
ensure malware can't break through (e.g. Purism's laptops have hardware
switches for the camera and other components, which is awesome given the
Snowdon leaks).

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shostack
One of the reasons I got a Tap vs. an Echo was because it required push
activation and wasn't always on. Imagine my surprise when this functionality
was added via a software update and entirely configurable via the Alexa app.

There's a color it glows when it is on since it is battery powered and that
actively drains power. That isn't much comfort since that light is also
software activated.

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ehead
Wow, I didn’t realize that the validity of this statement is not widely
confirmed.

I’ll post back here if I find any info to confirm or deny this.

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nvusuvu
Not surprised.

