Looking for the latest features and news from Alexa, Siri & Google Assistant? Do you want to learn how to do more with your smart home? Are you an Apple fan? You are in the right place.
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I ONLY use it to answer my video doorbell. Somebody rings bell and the video pops up and ready right away to talk. Everything else deleted so it only has the ONE purpose
With one exception, I refuse to have an Amazon Echo devices with screens in my home specifically because they're basically advertising billboards. It would be different if there were at least a toggle that said "Allow sponsored content", and if turned off, it drops all ads. But that's not going to happen, so I stick with the speaker devices only, which advertise MUCH less. All I want is to be able to control my smart devices, set alarms and timers, get the time, simple stuff. And all unprofitable for Amazon. The one exception is that I do have a Fire tablet, which has show mode, but is also mostly a regular Android tablet, with the google play store sideloaded.
I donated my Echo Show 8 to my mom. I got so tired of the advertising Amazon did to me constantly. I turned off all the settings I could, and still it kept showing ads to me. Screw that crap. I bought an Echo Dot and then an Echo Pop. I love them. They do what I want, and nothing more!
I’ve had mine for a few days and I have enjoyed the ability to do work on it. I need to spend more time with just the entertainment, but overall it is turning out to be exactly what I needed to assist me in productivity.
I went with 256gb. I don’t overload my devices with apps and video/pics can offload to iCloud. I would put the extra storage money towards another device or accessory
Sound like an amazing time to covert to an iOS powered device and move over the Apple’s HomeKit! Plus in the not to distant future, Alexa is going to cost you!
I am with you on that suggestion. I have been running my smart home off of HomeKit for the past two years. There’s just so many more features in the Apple Home app. I’ve only kept the echoes around for their assistant features. Now those aren’t worth it. But more people should definitely consider switching. Thanks for watching.
@@CraigsTechTalk with the upcoming release of iOS 18 and some amazing new features that will be coming to Siri, I am super stoked to see the amount of possibilities that will be unlocked with the implementation of it.
With all these services we are at the mercy of their ever changing terms, offerings and pricing. One service goes up other streaming services. We didn’t make their crappy media streaming model.
After I give my echos a command, they keep asking me if I want to create a routine. I tell it to shut up and just do what I told it to do but it keeps doing it. It’s annoying. I turned off Hunch suggestions thinking that was it but it still does it. Any ideas?
It’s so annoying. I made a video last year on a routine to stop all the by the ways. The routine every morning telling Alexa to stop the “by the way” check out the video if you get a chance
They did a much better job with the the Echo hub. Not sure why they couldn't have just updated the software on the echo show. Echo hub is a much better device all round but could be improved by letting us move things around on the home screen a little more. @craig why not swap out all your devices for Echo Hubs instead? Or you just had enough? lol
I agree with the Echo hub. The clock and simple screen is perfect. My theory on the hub is that there are no ads because this is meant to be a good smart home controller mounted to the wall. But once Amazon realize people are using it like an Echo Show, then I can see ads. Also if Amazon put that interface on any echo show, then when do they get to show you ads. Even the echo show 15 makes sure to keep ad space like other echo shows. I am done with Amazons ad practices. I want to use the tech, but I don’t trust Amazon when it comes to ads anywhere. Every other device I own that shows ads can be turned off. Nothing else I use is an always on screen that can randomly serve me ads.
@@CraigsTechTalk hopefully they don't mess the Hub up as it's a great device. Interesting I have a Echo Show 8 first gen and don't get any adds once I set my screen to show the Alexa album art. Give it a try on one of your devices and let me know if is a work around to your issue with the adds. I would try another device but I only own the 8 and Hub that have screens. Don't think there is a way to fix the sluggish speed of the device though. If I find any workarounds to that I'll let you know.
@@CraigsTechTalk What ads ? In the settings you can control what shows up on your screen. My clock stays on the screen 24/7 with no ads showing. I have an echo show 5 that I set up to show a full screen clock with today’s date and outdoor temperature. I use the echo show 5 to monitor my apartment when I’m out and to control most of my home devices with voice command . The only problem I have is that this device is deaf. I have to keep repeating myself for it to hear me . I’ve almost thrown it out my 3rd floor window many a times. I also have an echo show 15 with no ads showing. I set it up to show me todays weather and the screen changes to todays news then it will change to the clock with Amazon full screen pictures.
@huntzjr if it says “sponsored” in the lower right hand corner, it’s an ad and cannot be turned off. I am familiar with where do all the screens. If you are not seeing the ads yet, you will if your in the US or Canada. Thanks for watching.
@@CraigsTechTalk I’m in NY, I just shut everything off in the Home Content on my Echo Show 15 . The screen now shows just the time , date , temperature and rotating Amazon pictures with no unwanted ads so far . If it happens in the future I will get rid of it .
Amazon overreach. Can we demand to …cease Ai? Or else be… laid off by Ai, then human extinction? Or suffer an… Ai new world order? With swell robotics everywhere, …Ai jobloss is the top worry. Anyone else feel the same?
I banned all Alexa stuff from my house. The stupid thing often could not even do what I asked, all I wanted it to do was turn lights on and off, and sometimes it couldn't even do that. Even if it does, then there is "by the way..." Annoying as all hell. I did keep one Echo Show plugged in, mostly to be a clock with time, date, and temperature. That didn't last long, because every time I looked at it, another ad or suggestion. I looked online (not on Amazon), and found a clock that offers all of that - it comes with a thingy that you put outside, and uses radio waves to transmit the temperature to the clock. No internet needed, no annoying ads, just time, date, and outdoor temperature. It even has a wireless phone charger built in. If Amazon wants to put advertising billboards in my house, they should be paying me for thew privilege. I already use a lot of Apple stuff, so it was easy to replace Echo devices with Home Pod Minis. So much better. No fighting with the thing to get it to turn a light on or off, it plays the music I ask it to play and otherwise shuts up, and no annoying ads. More expensive, but well worth it to me. I also agree that Amazon doesn't care about its customers.
I can’t believe people are buying the 256GB version. That’s nothing. I have micro SD cards that hold more. I bought the 1TB Vision Pro. It’s worth the price difference. This thing is amazing!
Sadly… The Echo ecosystem is still the best “off the shelf” for smart home management. HomeKit is still not well supported and google or smart things are laughable at best.
If Amazon charges more for this it would be ridiculous. They already screw all of us that don’t want their music, videos and dump their products which have to be loss leaders. I just want to order products thru them and nothing else. Amazon stinks.
They want to be a tech company and everything store. I just need them to be my Target, Best Buy and Apple Store alternative. You are right about all the loss leaders.
You nailed it Ian. That always frustrated me. People would call Apple overpriced. But they sell their devices for a profit and use former phone processors. Now people are trained on products that were made as cheap as possible, with cheap components. That was fine when the device was useful. I hope you are doing well. It has been a bit.
As a person with echos and Google home and has never had a home pod. I hate the amount of ads with Amazon and Google thinks just about everything is “hey Google”
I have several echos in my house. Only one show. I was so hopeful when I got it but like everyone else am disappointed. I changed the awake word from alexa to computer because too many tv or radio ads that would wake it up. Then from computer to echo because I use the word computer too much. It still wakes up in conversation with my kids. When trying to use it to control smart devices it won't wait long enough and come back with sorry .....
The only thing I can think of is a tablet. Possibly a fire tablet for the price. Or an old iPad. But if the Echo 15 does the job and is useful, why change it.
Amazon do have a long way to go to make it fully AI friendly. I had a Echo Show for about a week and I ended up taking this back, because it serves no purpose. What Amazon needs to do now, is work with the top flat screen TV sets and perhaps incorporate show into the TV itself with your phone acting as a keyboard/mouse. Nobody wants these small screens in most rooms, collecting dust, forgotten about.
I am with you, Karl. In the beginning these devices have potential. Now they’re just shown to not offer much. It would be nice if they put out some of their features like you said into TVs and stop making devices.
Very cool. That is a great gift. Happy belated birthday. I am glad you are loving it. It is so much faster and a cleaner interface than anything else. Enjoy my friend.
@@CraigsTechTalk yeah it’s a great gift, so much so that I’ve now bought 2 of the 1st generation Apple TV 4K’s for the kids rooms! I’m good thanks, hope you & that wonderful family of yours are doing well ❤️
Good Riddance to Alexa.... Eventually (Now), Open Source Models like ' Anthropic 3.5 Sonnet ' will dominate the small localized model scenario. These (almost AGI) models will be getting smaller and smaller, smarter and smarter.... til they can Run 2B models or smaller on your phones or a small device guarding your home.... watching the cameras... talking to visitors.. and all memories are Local and never exist on the cloud. These models will learn everything and be your personal assistant without needing external help (all data controlled by you)... I would never have anything like Apples dumb (UN) intelligence that is dumping all my data to an NSA director at Openai. Thats just plain irresponsible and Stoooop!d
Amazon Alexa has always been sub standard. Other than turning off lights, play spotify and check ring cameras. Should have been more like a tablet. limited configuration is the final straw.
This seems like just the old standard echo dot or even the echo dot with the clock is perfect. I bought my Echo Dot like 3 years ago for about £17. I still used to control my light and do simple mathematics. I was looking at the Echo Show but after this video, I will stay away from it.
I’m glad you made this video, it definitely encompasses a lot of my thoughts. Personally, I believe that if Amazon wants to compete still with Siri and chatgpt, they need these AI updates. How can you have the visions like the movies, Jarvis, hal9000 etc but then produce something so embarrassingly weak in comparison. Every time I run into issues with not just Alexa but Siri as well, knowing that Siri was the dumbest; I always think ‘ didn’t these ceos create these things for us because they used them.’ It’s definitely clear they don’t. Personally if I was rich I would want Alexa to turn on and off my 100 lightbulbs in my mansion. I would want to just say hey siri what do xyz and she just does. Maybe they do have this but it’s for them only and not us commoners since they want to figure out how to make us pay for levels of AI…
I agree with you about Amazon, I am in both the Apple and Amazon ecosystem. I use Amazon Prime for shopping watching some shows, kindle books Ring security and Alexa to control my smart home devices. I too am a bit frustrated with Amazon always listening in and pushing products on me. I use Apple for everything else, computers, phones, iPads, AirTags, watches and Apple TVs etc. I am really thinking of getting rid of the echo devices and replacing them with HomePods, and iPads where I need them. I believe that Apple will really enhance Siri over the next year or two and I feel Apple gives consumers the best privacy in the space. I really like watching your videos, I have learned quite a bit watching them.
Very much done with Amazon smart home for all the reasons you listed here. I’m in the process of rebuilding my smart home with Apple and HomeKit compatible things instead.
I am not paying anyone for AI. The amount they want us to play is ridiculous. If Apple Intelligence works as expected, it will put both Google and Amazon in interesting positions going forward. I used to love Alexa and now it feels dated and no longer as cool as it used to be.
