I love the idea of these smart home speakers, but I wonder that not more people are concerned about privacy issues. Here you put something into your home that listens to everything that goes on and while it is supposed to only react when you say a keyword, who knows if it isn’t sending everything it hears to Amazon’s or Google’s servers where this raw data is mined for certain information. I’d be especially worried with the Google Home device since information is Google’s business. I guess in a way one can say this about any smartphone, but the microphones on these devices are so much better and are made to pick up speech from across the room. Has anybody read what Amazon and Google are exactly saying in their privacy policy regarding these things? Then of course there is the potential of these devices which are part of the “internet of things” getting hacked and even if Google and Amazon set boundaries and behave themselves, I’m sure if some hacker got control of it they would use whatever they might harvest to their greatest gain and, most likely, this would be to the greatest harm of the user. Does Alexa or Google Home even have any sort of security? I shudder of the thought how many of these things are connected to WiFi passwords where the router’s password is “password” or whatever else the default might be. I’ll hang tough on these things until maybe Apple releases something equivalent which hopefully has better security as per the article Mary posted about how Home Kit devices are apparently a step above of most other things out there. In the meantime I just spent a bunch of money on a very fancy dovetail jig for my woodworking shop, it’s made of cast aluminum and steel, there isn’t a cable on it and the only way to hack it would be if somebody took an axe to it *smile*. It won’t tell me the time, what the weather Is like and it won’t read a book to me, but it will give me endless hours of joy when I make drawers, boxes and chests with fancy dovetail joints and it also won’t be replaced with a better model next year or, for that matter in 5 or 10 years; sometimes we do need to get our priorities straight.
Regards, Sieghard From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Kevin Chao Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2016 8:44 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Alexxa App The Alexa app is highly frustrating and annoying especially with the bad performance, menu not opening, and other inaccessible elements with VoiceOver. Fortunately, the Google Home is super-accessible and delightful! On Fri, Oct 21, 2016 at 4:39 PM Brian Fischler <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hey Deb, Yeah I had the same issue with the app quitting when trying to use the language picker. That is when I uninstalled the app and reinstalled but no luck. Thanks for the heads up on how you got past it. I ended up using chrome > On Oct 20, 2016, at 9:49 PM, Deb Lewis > <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: > > On 10/20/16, Deb Lewis <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> > wrote: >> I set up my Dot successfully using the Iphone app. I thought it was >> going to be problematic because when I got to the language picker, it >> kept closing the app when I would try to pick. And it didn't show a >> default language. I rebooted my phone becaue I've noticed that this is >> sometimes necessary in iOS10. It was a little sluggish during the >> install, but everything worked exactly as it should and I got it up >> and running. So I'd recommend rebooting the phone if it's problematic. >> >> On 10/20/16, Brian Fischler >> <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: >>> Hey all, >>> >>> I am a long time owner of the Amazon Echo and was very excited to have my >>> new Dot arrive today. Unfortunately the accessibility of the Alexa app >>> has >>> gone backwards. I could not set up my Dot in the app, as I could not get >>> the >>> connect to wifi part to work and VO crashed multiple times when trying to >>> do >>> so. I also deleted the Alexxa app and reinstalled it thinking there might >>> have been a bug on my end. No luck. Do not even bother trying to set up >>> the >>> Dot on the mac as all wifi networks are read as one continuous list and >>> you >>> can't select your wifi network. What finally worked setting the Dot up >>> was >>> doing it in Chrome on the mac as the Amazon set up page read all wifi >>> networks as it should be different items. Anyway just wanted to get this >>> out >>> there as I spent hours trying to get the Dot up and running. It seems to >>> be >>> connected and working fine now just waiting it to reboot as I changed the >>> wake word and thought this might be helpful to someone. >>> >>> -- >>> The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone >>> list. >>> >>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or >>> if >>> you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners >>> or >>> moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>> >>> Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn >>> - >>> you can reach Cara at >>> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> >>> >>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>> --- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "VIPhone" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to >>> [email protected]<mailto:viphone%[email protected]>. >>> To post to this group, send email to >>> [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. >>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>> >> > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - > you can reach Cara at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to > [email protected]<mailto:viphone%[email protected]>. > To post to this group, send email to > [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:viphone%[email protected]>. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
