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Comment by aquir | Hacker News Reader

Agree. I don’t see the purpose or the point of these devices. The only place where voice control makes sense it’s in the car.

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Admittedly it's a pretty trivial usecase for such an expensive device, but one thing it is brilliant at is setting timers, hands free, while cooking.

Apple Watch does this job well too.

You wear watch while cooking?

Is that a serious question?

Well it's not the most hygienic thing, items are hardly sanitisable

Depends on how and what do you cook.

From a hygenic point of view, yes, it's a serious question.

Yes, I do. I sanitize my Apple Watch regularly anyway, which is why I opted for one of the silicone bands over the fancier options.

Just tried this with my Apple Watch, hands free of course. Didn’t work. Do you have to enable this?

Edit: nm I had to be away from my phone for my watch to pick this up over my phone.

For a timer it shouldn’t matter since iPhone timers will also activate on the watch

If you raise your wrist to speak then I think Siri will prioritize the Watch, no?

It's not about lack of utility, it's about lack of privacy. There are many great use cases for voice control at home.

What about disable people? The fact you don't see a purpose doesn't mean there isn't.

If their disability is no concern for their own privacy then sure.

Voice control might be a need, Alexa voice control shouldn’t be.

Again, you're making assumptions that people worry about privacy like you are. You're also making an assumption that people think like you that Alexa harms their privacy. Finally, your first sentence is pretty ignorant I must say. Let people in a wheelchair talk about Alexa and their tradeoffs.

Personally I have an Alexa but don't find it too appealing. I barely use it. My kids use it much more often. I don't worry about privacy. I trust Amazon (or Google/Apple/Microsoft) that non of the audio is saved or sent to the cloud unless the device hears the trigger word. Can someone hack it and listen to our interactions at home? I'm assuming it's possible but that's true for our phones too.

Please, this is either a serious lack of imagination or a ton of insincerity on your part. Having the ability to speak a command at home to turn on/off lights, adjust the temperature, play music, etc is extremely convenient. I would love to do it at my home, but I will not be using any of these products when they require an internet connection.

I'd love to have voice control at home but I want something that's private and stays within my network, I refuse to install spyware inside my own house

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