We have to ask ourselves, are they doing this to "save #Alexa" from when it was called a financial failure in 2023 or are they doing this because they believe it solves a real need people have?
Wenn du blöde genug warst, für einen nicht funktionierenden "KI"-Abhörapparat zu bezahlen und den auch noch in dein Schlafzimmer zu stellen, dann bist du bestimmt auch blöd genug, da noch ein Bezahl-Abo für abzuschließen!1!!
This whole thing started because my family would always leave lights on and lose their keys…
Now the lights turn themselves on and off, all doors are now keyless, I have control over ALL of it, I know exactly what we are consuming at any given moment, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what this amazing software can do!
I will buy NO smart home device that isn’t #HomeAssistant compatible.
Forget #HomeKit. Forget #Google. Forget #Alexa. If you’ve got a little tech know-how, get this.
Amazon sent me unsolicited "notification" via my Alexa speaker promoting their Black Friday sales. There was no unsubscribe mechanism which is in violation of the Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. If you received a similar spam message, please report it.
That's it I've bloody had enough of #amazon#alexa becoming worse and worse at understanding instructions. It was to the point I had to repeat 5 times and shout for it to register. And of course I have no control over which version of the language model it uses.
«Markets have been “replaced by digital trading platforms which look like, but are not, markets”. The moment you enter amazon.com “you exit #capitalism” and enter something that resembles a “feudal fief”: a digital world belonging to one man and his algorithm, which determines what products you will see and what products you won’t see.
If you are a seller, the #platform will determine how you can sell and which #customers you can approach. The terms in which you interact, share information and trade are dictated by an “algo” that “works for [Jeff Bezos’] bottom line”.
The capitalists who rely on this mode of selling are granted access to the digital estate by its virtual landowners, the Big Tech companies. And if “vassal capitalists” don’t abide by the laws of the estate, they are kicked out – removed from #Apple’s App Store or #Google’s search index – with disastrous consequences for their business.
Access to the “digital fief” comes at the cost of exorbitant rents. Varoufakis notes that many third-party developers on the Apple store, for example, pay 30% “on all their revenues”, while #Amazon charges its sellers “35% of revenues”. This, he argues, is like a medieval #feudal lord sending round the sheriff to collect a large chunk of his serfs’ produce because he owns the estate and everything within it.
This is not extracting profit through the production or provision of goods and services, as these platforms are not a “service” in the sense in which the term is used in economics. They are extracting rents in the form of the huge cuts they take from the capitalists on their platforms.
There is “no disinterested invisible hand of the #market” here. The Big Tech platforms are exempted from free-market competition. Their owners – “cloudalists” – increase their wealth and power at a dizzying pace with each click, exploiting a new form of rent-seeking made possible by the new algorithmically structured digital platforms. Parasitic on capitalist production, they are now dominating it.
But something even more transformative has happened, Varoufakis argues.
Even though most of us are regularly interacting with capitalists and earning wages via our labour, now, for the first time in history, all of us contribute to “the wealth and power of the new ruling class” through our “unpaid labour”.
Every time we use our cloud-linked devices – smartphones, laptops, #Alexa, Google Assistant, #Siri – we replenish the capital of the Big Tech cloudalists. This in turn increases their capacity to generate more wealth. How? We train their algorithms, which train us, to train them, and so on, in a feedback loop whose goal is to shape our desires and behaviour. They are “selling things to us while selling our attention to others”.»
Kann ich trotzdem per Spotify App vom Smartphone einen Symfonisk ansteuern?
Hab ein günstiges Webradio bei dem das so geht, der Klang davon ist aber "nur so mittel" 😇
Hier gibt es doch bestimmt #auskenner für das Thema...
Currently already a thing. If I go visit people, do I know that there's an #Alexa sitting somewhere in the room with its fabulous spatial #microphone tech? Silently #spying.. or not?
If I become aware, do I then mention it to my host, and ask politely to turn it off? If they aren't willing to, or maybe someone else is using it at the same time, do I then pack my stuff and leave the building like Elvis 🕺?
How will people who love #gadgets, don't fret on #privacy, perceive me?
Tiens, je vous propose une petite expérience : j'ai ressorti des étagères ce Guide des meilleurs sites Web, édition 2000, paru chez Microsoft Press il y a de cela 23 ans.
Je vous propose de l'explorer page par page au cours des mois qui viennent et de découvrir combien des sites listés sont encore accessibles.
D'abord parce que ça va m'occuper, ensuite par curiosité, et avoir une idée de la portion du Web qui a survécu à ses 23 dernières années.
On finit donc aujourd'hui la thématique de la recherche avec les "Utilitaires de recherche".
Pas des moteurs, pas des annuaires, mais plutôt des extensions de navigateurs, des logiciels hors-ligne, des "traducteurs de recherche", etc.
Dans cette sélection, seuls #Alexa (depuis Amazon), #Copernic (depuis B2B) et #BlueSquirrel (créateur de #WebSeeker, revendu depuis) continuent à œuvrer dans le même domaine.
Le reste a disparu.
This school year we’ve been trialling #alexa announcements to count the kids down to the school run: one announcement 10mins before and one when we need them to put their shoes on. Reduces parental nagging & they have responded really well!