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Comment by adjkant | Hacker News Reader

When I'm rushing out of the house and would prefer to multitask tying my shoes and checking my phone, my new Google Home makes two things incredibly easy: weather and train times. That along with a good speaker connected to Spotify has been super worth it. Bonus points for connecting to Chromecast.

I'm an iPhone / Mac person and the Chromecast / Home combo has made me consider what a life in the Google ecosystem would look like. Not yet ready to switch but it's priming me. Then I remember how terrible an Android is for my current setups. If they solve that issue for me, they have me.

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If you’re in any iMessage-only group chats, you can’t really switch to Android. Apple will just silently fail to deliver any further messages to you if you try to shut down your iMessage account.

You’d have to coach each person (individually) in all of those threads to delete the thread and create a new one in order to be included again, which is a crazy barrier. Even more so if the threads are work related.

I suspect Apple is in violation of federal law in this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2511

There are definitely certain things that are easier to do with voice, and certain things that are easier by touch. Voice will definitely never replace 100% of interaction, the trick is knowing where it's most useful.

For example, one great example is, sometimes I'm watching something on my Chromecast and I want to skip a very specific amount. I can go "OKG, skip forward 48 seconds". Try doing that with the tiny track bar on your phone precisely...

> the Chromecast / Home combo has made me consider what a life in the Google ecosystem would look like.

Like living in a fish tank being filmed from all angles.

Who cares if you're in a fish tank being filmed if the video is never viewed and the tank is in a sealed room?

Where the fish tank is placed and where that video is going is important. Details matter and trying to dismiss technology with these taglines do those details a disservice. I'm an engineer myself, I am very aware of the dangers and watch closely. Right now, for my personal calculus, the benefit outweighs the risk.

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