Here it comes. Now that you’ve invested in this useful tech, found a nice place for it in your workflow, we’re going to start serving up ads.
Makes me wonder if the original Echo shipped with a disclaimer that ads might be part of the experience. If not, seems like a liability for Amazon, potential for a law suit. Either way, this seems like a decidedly negative turn in that particular road.
The moment my Echo serves an ad without being asked it flies out of the window. I might not even be bothered to open the window first…
The HomePod team just jumped for joy. Should gurantee some solid sales.
It depends on how they implement this. If I ask Alexa to turn on my stereo and it plays an ad first, it will go straight in the trash. On the other hand, if I say “buy some soap”, I’m not totally opposed to getting a paid suggestion first even though it might get annoying.
However, I’ve tried buying a few simple items with Alexa, like batteries, and it always selects a more expensive item than if I went to the website and browsed for myself. So that’s enough to turn me off the whole shopping feature.
Don’t just throw away that Echo when it starts spewing ads at you; cannibalize it!
Harvest the speaker’s rare-earth magnet for your refrigerator! Invert the tall case for handy kitchen-implement storage!
I knew there was a reason I wasn’t interested in an Amazon “smart” speaker.