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29athrowaway

I use Alexa for everything.

- To ask for the weather, weather alerts, relative humidity, precipitation, wind speed

- To ask about outdoor air quality, indoor air quality (requires air quality monitors)

- As a baby monitor (crying detector routine)

- To know when to empty the dehumidifier bucket (humidity > 60% routine)

- To know when someone left the AC fan off (high CO2 routine)

- To know when to open the window (high VOC routine)

- To know when to turn on the HEPA filters on high (high PM routine)

- To turn lights or on off

- To manage the thermostat temperature

- For music during lunch/dinner

- Reminder for meetings, taking out the trash, etc.

- Timers, alerts, alarms, reminders...

- To automatically turn off devices at night via smart plugs

- Vacuuming, mopping

- To locate my phone by calling myself

- Stock prices

I couldn't live without it.

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so from the perspective of an executive trying to make money off it: utterly useless

I also order stuff as it runs out.

Or they could just charge for costs + profit and let people decide if it’s worth the price. The SV business model is good for small companies to get rapid growth but after that it’s just bad economics

I wouldn't say useless. He'll look to buy other smart peripherals that fit into the Alexa ecosystem, not a competitor's. It helps build up the brand. There's also a lot of data there to collect.

Maybe not the most lucrative revenue stream, but not nothing.

I'd love to do all this stuff too, but if the price I have to pay is an unauditable always-on listening device in my home that sends my every utterance to a server controlled by a FAANG, and which speaks verbal ads to boot, that's an absolute dealbreaker.

It's horrifying to me that anyone would allow such a device in their home. Someone gave me an Echo as a gift once. I smashed it and buried it in the back yard.

What seems interesting to me about many of these (all the HVAC, home automation stuff) is that a device with a voice interface sort of seems like a local maximum in terms of usability. You're spending lots of time getting info from Alexa and then telling her what to change to keep the environment ambient.

I would expect that in the future, home automation does all the regulation for you without any interaction. You set up a bunch of configuration in advance, and maybe train the device a little bit initially on things like your temperature preferences (because we think we want a certain temp, but actually usually find it slightly too warm or whatever). Then you almost never have to make changes, let alone expend your executive function on deciding what instructions to give the devices.

I could never get used to the thing. I got one for free and I went ahead and hooked it up - every once in a while I ask it to play some music, but for the most part, I'm just aware of it because my daughter has a friend named Alexa and I have to be careful not to say her name or else the Amazon device will wake up.

> Vacuuming, mopping

Please elaborate.

Probably having it start the robot vacuum

What do you use for VOC/PM detection that integrates with Alexa?

Alexa Smart air quality monitor.

Nah you totally could.

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