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Comment by Satam | Hacker News Reader

I was skeptical at first, but after having Alexa for a few months... it seems very very very promising.

After getting it, I quickly adapted and enhanced my routines by using it to set timers, schedule events, asking for the time (actually, it is quite useful!), setting my alarms for the morning and, finally, playing some soothing sounds to help me doze off to sleep... And yes, these are super simple things, and yes, even those suck quite often (I spent 5 minutes arguing with Alexa to set a 15minute timer instead of the 50one, couldn't do it), but even at this super-primitive stage it definitely adds a lot of value, especially at its price.

I don't know if it will be any of the current players that will win out in the field, but there will definitely be winners.

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Same here, thought Alexa was stupid until I met someone who had one. I had to get my own. Alexa has features that makes it a much seamless benefit to everyday life. I ask her about the weather daily, easy to set timers, if you have smart lights you can tell her to turn off the lights without getting out of bed, etc. Voice will without a doubt become an essential part of the future smart home.

Agreed, those things alone are worth it.

However, once I already had an Echo I started thinking of things that could be done with it beyond the trivial stuff.

For example I have been working on a tiny ESP8266 device that will sit behind or above the toaster oven in my moms kitchen. If the temperature is high for more than an hour or two, Alexa will say "I'm reminding you, the toaster oven is still on".

Total cost will end up being about $10-15, and requires no contact with or alteration of the oven, so it is a progressive enhancement rather than potentially making things worse or interfering with the basic function of the oven.

I could put a "smart switch" on the power supply and cut it automatically, but when things like toaster ovens are plugged in those switches are a potential hazard themselves.

It seems like automatic shutoff is something toaster ovens should all have, but clearly not all of them do. The same is true for ovens, stove tops, coffee pots, clothes irons, heating pads, tea kettles, electric woks, curling irons, etc.

Also seems like a better idea to follow the example of smoke alarms and use external monitoring rather than trust every single appliance to work properly.

I've considered putting something like an AMG8833[1] in a smoke alarm housing on the ceiling, so it can detect any appliance left on too long, but I'm not sure if it would work well in practice. Things like that are getting cheaper though, eventually it'll be possible.

[1] https://www.adafruit.com/product/3538

Is it bad that my daughter has to say goodnight to Alexa as part of her bedtime routine?

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