You shouldn’t defend yourself for sounding bitter, these are all facts of how bad amazon’s hardware has gotten, and you didn’t even open the can of worms about what they’ve done with ring
The gap between what consumers want and what tech companies want them to want just keeps getting wider. Whether it is products from Amazon and Apple, or protocols like Matter and Z-Wave, it seems like companies just can't hear what potential customers are very clearly asking for and insist on giving something else instead.
Everything you said in this video is correct. Thank you for making it. These corporations used to serve their customers and it was a symbiotic relationship, and now these corporations see you as a number and a product they can use to collect data from. Just look at the insurance companies raising your prices then conveniently offering deep discounts if you put a device in your car so they can track you or put an app on your phone. What evil, soulless behavior we are seeing from all these corporations
I just asked Alexa to “chat with me”. She said. “ The chat feature is no longer available “. Wow last month she said that “ she will chat soon”. Something has happened. The chat idea is dead? What? Do you know where that stands? Funny that I asked her this morning before I saw your video!
The echos in my house are going haywire. I have problems that I have never had before. I’m writing it off as them doing something on the back end to prepare for the AI. My whole house runs on Alexa, so it’s extremely annoying.
Quick separate tip to limit ads on echo shows. Set do not disturb to last 23 hours, 59 minutes. With the only free 1 minute in the middle of the night. This eliminates them. Mostly. One will sneak in for a flash when you wake it from sleep as the ads just seem to be covered but still feed to the echo. Genius coders at Amazon… You do, of course, loose anything that do not disturb hides or delays! Since, as Craig said, the echos are mostly junk that do not integrate with anything now in any worthwhile way, no big deal for me and most people.
I got rid of my Echo Show 8 because I was tired of seeing all the advertisements. I bought an Echo Dot and then an Echo Pop. I use them for alarms, reminders, and timers. I don't pay for premium features.
I purchased my Alexa devices to control my smart home. I feel that I can’t even do that properly anymore. Half the time it can’t understand the commands. I give it. The rest of the time it’s responding from the wrong device. How is it performing worse now on the same hardware than it did two years ago. I can’t be the only one experiencing this.
I no longer watch Amazon Prime video because of the ads they’ve stuffed in. I’m so disappointed that they did that. Not only did they do that but they raised the cost of Amazon Prime membership. Frig. They are really putting the screws to us.
Not that they’re much better, but google has also been removing services: just one example is the displays used to proactively show traffic to upcoming planned destinations, there are many others like recipes and plenty promises that never came true like ability to send sms from voice assistants
Yes I think Google also removed the trivia games too which is a bit of a bummer😊, it does seem like they are removing features from one area to perhaps make room on their servers for the AI stuff ? It comes back to the mighty dollar, all these big companies know where their next payday is coming from.
Craig, long time fan. I ended up Getting rid of my echo show 15 in my echo show 10 in the other room. Simply because I was sick of ads. I simply replaced all the monitors in my house with Fire TV sticks. So I can still get my live feeds From my video cameras
I've mostly switched to Homepod, but have one echo in my bedroom and .... it takes 3-5 tries almost every time for it to hear the wake word. Then half the time it doesn't hear the commands after the wake word correct. I'm planning on replacing that as soon as the next gen of homepods come out.
I couldn't agree with this more regarding Amazon and the Alexa-based hardware/services over the years. It has definitely become a snowball effect over the years that has gotten out of control in the worst way possible.
Isn't Apple still working for the customer? They are the exception, and they also charge more for their devices because they don't offset the cost with advertising.
Never thought that the echo screen devices would face the same faith as CHUMBY devices, I have 3 screen echos and 3 speakers but two years ago I disconnected the smart speakers and 6 months ago I ditched the screen echos because of the annoying ads. Seems sad that the customer is not their priority at amazon
Yeah man Apple isn’t much better but their smart home system is so much better than Alexa simply for no ads although we still don’t have HomePods with screens yet.
I agree with you. The only reason I still have my echo show 5’s because I wanted a screen to see who was at the doorbell and it controls my lights and locks. All I want it to do is show the clock and when someone is at the doorbell, not all those stupid ads.
This is all so true, I’ve been trying to figure out how to transition to apple home without breaking the bank. Tough part is we use the echos as nightstand clocks and intercoms for the kid.
I’m done with them and angry about it. Commercials on Prime Video, commercials on my echo show. Alexa just keeps getting more dumb and has had, from my experience, NO improvement in years. Awful company and awful products.
I recently bought an Echo and a Spot. They're simplistic - what time is it, turn on/off light, what's the temp - but also pretty unobtrusive. I occasionally get a"you last odered cat food on xx/xx, shall I re-order?" "Play X music" plays random music, like a radio station which is ok if you just want some background noise but if you ask for some specific piece it asks you to sign up for Premium. The Spot replaced my bedroom alarm clock and that works a treat.
With respect to Echo ads, someone on reddit suggested changing the language from English ( US) to English ( Canadian), which stops the ads. I tried this 4 months ago on all my Echo 8 devices, and it's still working. Unfortunately, not every device has the English ( Canadian) option.
Do you have any recommendations to switch to if you currently have a amazon based smart house? As a android user, would google devices be my only option at this point?
Thank you Craig. Totally agree. Worse they basically destroyed their app. It hasn't had any real updates that were great. Same with their music player app. I think making the AI as a paid service is idiotic.
At no point did these companies see anything other than a means of making profit. They are companies,they are not people, they only exist to make profit and that is all they exist for. As long as the share holders are happy the customer is incidental. It matters not what the company is called Amazon, Apple, Tesla or place company name here [apple is my master]. Profit is the motivator and the bigger the company the bigger the motivator seems to be. All we are and will ever be is a source of labour and profit.
I'm tired of Amazon Video services due to ads on TV Shows now and renting movies and shows that I cannot filter out during my search. I have other streaming services with the same movies and tv shows that are free. Also finding 2 days service is more a 4 to 7 day service now using USPS. Walmart has next day service in my area and most of the time cheaper than Amazon.
The fact that the Amazon mobile app has been extremely buggy and still doesn’t have a dark mode for years now is ridiculous. They had a small aesthetic update recently but the problems are still prominent. It really shows the disconnect between the consumers.
Honestly I have all but 1 of my alexa devices facing the wall. I use them for timers and home automation. I used to use them for time and temperature but all the ads makes that unreliable/worthless. If there was a good home automation come around I would take the time to set it up and just ditch Alexa completely.
This could be a Plex issue but given everything you just said I'm thinking its more likely an Alexa issue. I use to be able to Play music from my Plex server to multiple Echo that were already paired and they do work, with music from Amazon. Now When I ask it to play it either doesn't work at all or only works with one echo. Tried factory resets, deleting old echo groups, repairing nothing works. One day it worked fine the next it stopped.
Why did you ever trust information sprunging monopolistic super-corporations in the first place? Having one is basically having a G.O.D. in your house watching you all the time. North Korea would salivate at the idea!
I agree with everything you mentioned. I really miss the guard feature that linked with ring alarm. When set to away it would change lights to look like im home. I think it would make dog barking sounds too if my outdoor camera detected a person. I allready pay for the alarm why shoukd I also pay for emergency assist? Slowly but surely moving away from alexa and toward local.
I dont disagree with your perspective, but I have the ability to limit some of the data I give them. and if you are not talking about thier products in a reasonable way any more, I dont have a reason to watch you, if you think apple is less intrusive, you are just being silly. Good Luck to ya!
Personally my only real use of Amazon Amazon Echo Show 8 these days is coming up shortly....... Linking all the Christmas lights through smart plugs so that Alexa can turn them on and off. (Eventually)
I do get certain things from Amazon on a regular basis and do go through them if I need something relatively quick (especially given my physical disabilities). I even splurge a little bit when I want to buy something that might be hard to find in a physical store - or for those rare little gems - but I would much rather support 1) a business I know I can trust (Apple is one such company on my list due to their focus on privacy), 2) small businesses or independent creators/sellers (i.e. people who make and sell their own products, and 3) entities I know and want to support (like bands, for example).
Can you do a video on alternatives for Firecube and Firestick? I feel like the assistants themselves have a handful of obvious players, but the streaming box market is a little more convoluted. Especially since Google fumbled that ball for a long while. There's Roku and Apple obviously, but there's also a ton of Android-based devices with a wide range of features. It's hard to sift through.
I threw my echo dot out this summer and bought a Homepod and two minis. Switched my default browser and search to Brave. Swapped my doorbell cam to one that supports HKSV. Soon I'm switching to iPhone. To your point, I trust apple way more than Google or Amazon.
I started loosing faith with their Ring Cameras asking for my address and also in which direction the camera is pointing. With my neighbors this allows them to generate a complete seamless coverage of the neighborhood to give them something like the tracking found in the Film Enemy of the State. Then the failure of the Echo Show 15 which had so much potential but failed to deliver. If someone wanted to place a huge advertisement sign in my Garden they would pay me rent to do so, but Amazon wants to place advertisement inside my home for free or to avoid it I have to pay!! They where ahead of the game in so many areas but failed to develop further. Instead each year a new device gets a minor tweak and because they offer them so cheaply on Prime days its an easy investment to purchase the new one hoping that this version is going to be the one to deliver. The echo show HUB showed how little interest they have in products if it cannot display adverts. Will only miss my echo Studio when it retires as it is great for listening to the radio.
Hey Craig, as always a great video. I definitely agree with you, Amazon needs to scan our entire home just to make a 2-D map personally that’s something that I think no one would do because it is an invasion of privacy. And to tell you the truth, I think that is why Amazon is failing because unlike Apple and Google privacy is there main and only concern keep up the great work and enjoy next week off.
biometrics are usernames not passwords maybe scan your plam and then enter your code to pay no phone or card needed sure but never use the palm to authenticate
Amazon has sold products touting features, and then taken those very features away a year or so later. I only but Fire tablets as cheap generic tablets, and I always jailbrake them to add the play store. I leave the lock screen adds since that is part of the agreement to get the tablet cheaper, but I refuse to alexify my life.
I could not agree with you more. I am well entrenched in Apple and years ago Siri was light years behind Alexa. Siri is still not as good today but hoping with Apple Intelligence that will change. I have already started to replace my Echos and once Apple has a display I will get rid of the Shows. we all have to decide what level of exposure we are comfortable with our devices. I do take steps to limit what I share and what I do
Honestly they could just allows us to create our own 2D map and let everyone use map view. But nooooooooo, pop out your camera and scan your whole house.
Yep, the Alexa products have only gotten worse; I've had several since they let us buy a discounted beta version of the original Echo. Besides not recognizing my voice (slight southern accent), the slightest background white noise and they are unusable. It's perplexing why if I'm standing a foot away and facing a full size Echo ball w/hub, and tell it something, like setting a timer, a smaller echo in another room or other side of the house responds - but not the one I am facing and speaking to a foot away. Further, the extremely annoying "helpful" "by the way..." advertisements or unwanted messsages are the main reason why I'm probably going to walk around the house soon, collect all the echos, and toss them in the garbage.
I’ve had a very positive experience with my echo devices. I use them for simple smart home activities, like controlling lights, cameras, the front door and one AC unit. Apart from that, I use them for amazon music. One echo show in the kitchen I ocasionally usw for youtube and the fire tv cube is for an assortment of streaming services. But so far the experience has been rock solid. I’m not being served any ads, but I am in El Salvador. Anyways, even if they did serve ads I wouldn’t really notice them much.
I got rid of ALL my amazon hardware in favor of Apple about 6 months ago (Apple TV is fantastic). They pulled the plug on fire recast TV and I just could not stomach all the damn advertising. I don't know if I going to pay for prime again either. Products seem to take longer to be delivered, returns are a pain in the butt. Prime video is a joke (the biggest joke being Rings of Power). Honestly the only big thing left on prime video I would miss is Thursday night football.
commented this before but ive all but replaced my smart home echos with apple HomePods and Sonos speakers. I have 2 echos remaining as unfortunately some critical smart home stuff (Ring alarm specifically) is only compatible with Alexa and I have useful routines that control it. Basically an echo flex - cheap as anything.... tucked away ready to answer the 'Alexa' wake word and do stuff without advertising. Also have an old dot with clock as that makes a nice distance-visible clock in the lounge but thats it now. Look forward to the day hell freezes over and Amazon make their Ring Alarm and Cameras matter compatible. Spot on about Apple not updating the HomePods year on year - there is just nothing to update. Im sure the chips will change with the advent of Apple Intelligence but other things in terms of Audio hardware are great and dont really need updating every 5 minutes. I trust Apple with data. I dont trust any others especially not Amazon and Meta.
Where do I stand? Well I think it’s time to start listing my echo devices for sale and purchase more Amazon stocks. The subjections and advertising is getting out of hand and it will only get worse.
Refused Alexa from day one. Amazon gets enough of my personal information; they don't need even more. For every advancement in technology that you think will benefit humanity, you end up seeing a new problem stem from it. That doesn't mean you stop using technology, but just pause for a moment before jumping right in to the new tech.
Its the opposite for me though, im just a starter of home automation, Im using smartthings a my primary hub and i find Alexa to be more suitable voice trigger since the devices in smartthings are interacting well with Alexa App...., they have Scene that comes from other platforms that u can activate in, they have NFC to triggers... tons of option compare to google home app.... I do have hub a bunch of Google Home speakers, minis and hub (bought 2nd hand)... google nest hub is good for monitoring... but not for routines and automation.... i go for Alexa, It may be a different talk if i start to learn Home Assistant
Amazon Alexa was my first, moved to Google before the Nest thing. Google was way better as far as an Assistant goes but the way apps worked weren't good and no Apple Music support. Went back to Alexa, then moved to Apple HomePods. Had the bad issues the first go around with all Apple. So did the dual thing for a long time of running both. Now I am 100% all Apple again and loving it, running Matter devices on Thread. Amazon lost its way and I also noticed once you disconnect your smart home stuff from Amazon, it seems to work faster on Apple. But Amazon has become one big ad and got very annoying. I want to see the news and sports scores, not ads and the ads were way more and it lost its place in my home because of it. Even all the hack ways to get rid of the ads stopped working.
100% agree and it’s a bit sad hey. Apple is the one that I am worried about too atm. Tim has done great making it worth a fortune but there is no innovation whatsoever, unless you count the Vision Pro that flopped because of the price. They do hardly anything in the Apple Home front. The car project they torched. Etc. , etc.
Did you replace them with anything? I'm curious because if I do the same I don't know what I'll do for announcements and music. Maybe I'll pony up the dough for Apple's HomePods...
We have all this echo hardware that many are unloading. How do we find the right people to hack the hardware (with a modified operating system) for use with home assistant only and tie is a private home AI engine. We want the convenience of AI, but with security & privacy ...which includes data collection and being bombarded with Ads! So anyone know of a way to do this...if so spread the word!
I will wait for apple to bring AI to homepod and I will replace all echos. apple maybe difficult to work with in terms of compatibility and general knoweldge, but at least it's more relaiable
I dropped Amazon over two years ago for all of these reasons. They’re not trustworthy, not reliable, and not exciting anymore. Just one correction I think: Amazon is Target with stuff that’s just as expensive, with lower quality and more fake crap to sort through, than Target’s. 😆
I have been using them for the past 7 years and in the past year the "Sponsored" content has increased. The screenshots I show in the video are sponsored ads. It does depend on where you live. It is starting in the US and Canada. I am sure it will expand, Amazon Ads is one of Amazon's fastest growing and profitable businesses. Here is a link to the Amazon ads page for echo shows. advertising.amazon.com/products/device-ads?ref_=a20m_us_p_da_p_dvc_c This is what people get to look forward to more of. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.
We sold all but 1 of our Alexa devices a couple weeks ago at a garage sale... cheap. Just done with them. I did keep the Fire for the TV for now, but doing research now, and moving on. Honestly, I was never that impressed with it. Never seemed to work right, would just randomly start talking about random things way too often, even when no one was talking. Dealt with sketchy performance for years, way too long. Bye Amazon!
I remember when you had to get up to change the channels and if you didn’t see it when it came on you missed it. Tv is a lot better now.i antenna tv you would see more add than show.
Those days were so much simpler. I do actually miss the limited choice of old school tv and cable. It forced you to go do something when nothing was on.
In ten years (maybe less than five), we'll be giving everyone our social security number and driver's license with the excuse of "security," "accountability," and to "protect kids from the internet." It's already being done in some states for porn sites, but imo that's just a step towards the slow creep of data mining. Whenever a company or government wants something from you, they are profiting from it. It's for them, not you. I love tech but I hate the disrespect for privacy, and unfortunately the way things are now, that's the tradeoff you have to make every time you get deeper into tech.
The echo show is pretty useless I just prefer the better speakers and the ability to see the timer. But yeah they’re very frustrating to use. I really only like them for multiroom music on a budget
It isn’t just Amazon that has been putting an over abundance of effort into advertising. Just in 2024 alone. UA-cam has more than quadruple their commercial length and how many commercials per video. Not only that. With their algorithm. Every time you pause, rewind, or fast-forward the video. Another commercial starts. Then to top it all off. The UA-camr has their own advertising. While they’re wearing hats and shirts that has to do with who they support. Plus, the background of their setting also has all their products that they advertise for. So in comparison to what you said about Amazon. I think UA-cam is another one that needs To Have more competition to cut down this BS. I stopped watching Hulu. Because every 2 to 3 minutes there was a commercial. But I think UA-cam has gone past every single entertainment outlet that we use on a daily basis. As far as Amazon. I stopped using them when they started to charge more for Amazon Prime. Then they started to take away items that was included. Like Amazon music. They also tried to take away the two day free shipping. When I called them to tell them that I did not receive my items in two days. They tried to tell me that it never was That way in the past. There are two day free shipping meant that it would ship in two days not that we would receive the item within two days. Which we all know is BS. Because the four years that I had subscribed to Amazon prime I always receive my item in two days. Basically, I just got tired of them raising the price for it and taking away features at the same time. Besides, if you do your research. Amazon prime is just like having a membership at Costco. Or Sam’s Club. More than likely everything you buy under prime is cheaper buying it somewhere else. Or even from another source on Amazon. So in reality you pay a higher price for the “prime“ item just so you can get it quicker. In reality you can search on Amazon for the same item that isn’t a prime item. Then pay for a quicker shipping. And you would still get it in the same timeframe. But you would not have to pay the yearly prime membership fee. If you check prices at Sam’s Club and compare them to Walmart. 99% of the time Walmart prices will be the same or even cheaper. And you won’t have to spend the yearly membership fee that you do at Sam’s Club But you are correct. It isn’t the company‘s fault for trying to make more money by using access advertising. It’s the morons like us that continue to buy these products that are basically one big commercial feed. We just need to stop feeding these billionaires. And start investing the time and money into our families.
All of this data gathering is concerning. I haven’t setup a lot of things that would give them anymore data than necessary, such as voice recognition. Last night when I tried to activate Siri on my HomePod mini, 2 feet from me didn’t respond. I tried again, the mini didn’t respond but the OG HomePod across the room and blocked by some furniture responded with “Hi Valerie, how can I help you.” WHAT?!! Again, have never setup voice recognition, but Siri used my name in its response.
I am done, I will never buy another video Alexa device. I am so sick of the advertising. All I really wanted was for it to display the time and my pictures and every time I look at the device it’s either advertising something or making suggestions or notifications about things I might be interested in, I also have Google hub devices. They don’t have any advertising. They just display my pictures and the time but they haven’t updated anything in a while. I wish Google would continue working on that project. The only reason I’m forced to keep some of these devices is they are the voice interfacefor my automation systems in my house
Amazon is still absolutely customer focused. But we are no longer the customers, advertisers are.
I like that. You nailed it. Thanks for watching and sharing.
You shouldn’t defend yourself for sounding bitter, these are all facts of how bad amazon’s hardware has gotten, and you didn’t even open the can of worms about what they’ve done with ring
What did they do to ring?
When my current Alexa devices reach the end of their life, I won’t be replacing them that’s for sure
How about apple homepods
@@slamdolphin That’s exactly what I’ve been doing, I’ve got 2 HomePod Mini’s & 2 full size Gen 1 HomePods & I’m delighted with them all
@@garethjones5068 was it expensive for you to replace your smart devices with ones that work on Apple
I am noticing this with my Fire TV, now ads all over the place,. When I pause a show, an ad covers the screen
I'll keep the devices I have, but don't plan on buying anything new.
The gap between what consumers want and what tech companies want them to want just keeps getting wider. Whether it is products from Amazon and Apple, or protocols like Matter and Z-Wave, it seems like companies just can't hear what potential customers are very clearly asking for and insist on giving something else instead.
Alexa has become horrible. Every time I ask for her to play my playlists she plays garbage that sound similar.
Everything you said in this video is correct. Thank you for making it. These corporations used to serve their customers and it was a symbiotic relationship, and now these corporations see you as a number and a product they can use to collect data from.
Just look at the insurance companies raising your prices then conveniently offering deep discounts if you put a device in your car so they can track you or put an app on your phone. What evil, soulless behavior we are seeing from all these corporations
I just asked Alexa to “chat with me”. She said. “ The chat feature is no longer available “. Wow last month she said that “ she will chat soon”. Something has happened. The chat idea is dead? What? Do you know where that stands? Funny that I asked her this morning before I saw your video!
These companies are what we let them be, I'm in the process of switching from Alexa to homepods mini, I'm done with Alexa, I'm tired of ADDS....
What ecosystem would you suggest to use to replace Amazon?
The echos in my house are going haywire. I have problems that I have never had before. I’m writing it off as them doing something on the back end to prepare for the AI. My whole house runs on Alexa, so it’s extremely annoying.
Quick separate tip to limit ads on echo shows. Set do not disturb to last 23 hours, 59 minutes. With the only free 1 minute in the middle of the night. This eliminates them. Mostly. One will sneak in for a flash when you wake it from sleep as the ads just seem to be covered but still feed to the echo. Genius coders at Amazon…
You do, of course, loose anything that do not disturb hides or delays! Since, as Craig said, the echos are mostly junk that do not integrate with anything now in any worthwhile way, no big deal for me and most people.
I got rid of my Echo Show 8 because I was tired of seeing all the advertisements. I bought an Echo Dot and then an Echo Pop. I use them for alarms, reminders, and timers. I don't pay for premium features.
I purchased my Alexa devices to control my smart home. I feel that I can’t even do that properly anymore. Half the time it can’t understand the commands. I give it. The rest of the time it’s responding from the wrong device. How is it performing worse now on the same hardware than it did two years ago. I can’t be the only one experiencing this.
I no longer watch Amazon Prime video because of the ads they’ve stuffed in. I’m so disappointed that they did that. Not only did they do that but they raised the cost of Amazon Prime membership. Frig. They are really putting the screws to us.
There are very few companies out there that are customer focused anymore.
Not that they’re much better, but google has also been removing services: just one example is the displays used to proactively show traffic to upcoming planned destinations, there are many others like recipes and plenty promises that never came true like ability to send sms from voice assistants
Yes I think Google also removed the trivia games too which is a bit of a bummer😊, it does seem like they are removing features from one area to perhaps make room on their servers for the AI stuff ?
It comes back to the mighty dollar, all these big companies know where their next payday is coming from.
Craig, long time fan. I ended up Getting rid of my echo show 15 in my echo show 10 in the other room. Simply because I was sick of ads. I simply replaced all the monitors in my house with Fire TV sticks. So I can still get my live feeds From my video cameras
I've mostly switched to Homepod, but have one echo in my bedroom and .... it takes 3-5 tries almost every time for it to hear the wake word. Then half the time it doesn't hear the commands after the wake word correct. I'm planning on replacing that as soon as the next gen of homepods come out.
I couldn't agree with this more regarding Amazon and the Alexa-based hardware/services over the years. It has definitely become a snowball effect over the years that has gotten out of control in the worst way possible.
Google has become really lazy but there are no ads. Hard wear across the board is crap now not one of them are working for the customer anymore.
Isn't Apple still working for the customer? They are the exception, and they also charge more for their devices because they don't offset the cost with advertising.
Never thought that the echo screen devices would face the same faith as CHUMBY devices, I have 3 screen echos and 3 speakers but two years ago I disconnected the smart speakers and 6 months ago I ditched the screen echos because of the annoying ads. Seems sad that the customer is not their priority at amazon
I have 3 Dots, 1 Show, 1 Flex, a Belkin Speaker and a thermostat with Alexa built in, 4 Fire TV Sticks and I've been looking for a way out.
I saw Amazon’s head say he’s very confident that they will start charging for Alexa services in the future.
Yeah man Apple isn’t much better but their smart home system is so much better than Alexa simply for no ads although we still don’t have HomePods with screens yet.
I have an iPhone I charge in landscape mode so it turns into a nightstand screen...that's getting close.
I agree with you. The only reason I still have my echo show 5’s because I wanted a screen to see who was at the doorbell and it controls my lights and locks. All I want it to do is show the clock and when someone is at the doorbell, not all those stupid ads.
This is all so true, I’ve been trying to figure out how to transition to apple home without breaking the bank. Tough part is we use the echos as nightstand clocks and intercoms for the kid.
I’m done with them and angry about it. Commercials on Prime Video, commercials on my echo show. Alexa just keeps getting more dumb and has had, from my experience, NO improvement in years. Awful company and awful products.
I recently bought an Echo and a Spot. They're simplistic - what time is it, turn on/off light, what's the temp - but also pretty unobtrusive. I occasionally get a"you last odered cat food on xx/xx, shall I re-order?" "Play X music" plays random music, like a radio station which is ok if you just want some background noise but if you ask for some specific piece it asks you to sign up for Premium. The Spot replaced my bedroom alarm clock and that works a treat.
With respect to Echo ads, someone on reddit suggested changing the language from English ( US) to English ( Canadian), which stops the ads. I tried this 4 months ago on all my Echo 8 devices, and it's still working. Unfortunately, not every device has the English ( Canadian) option.
Do you have any recommendations to switch to if you currently have a amazon based smart house? As a android user, would google devices be my only option at this point?
What advice would you give someone that has mostly Amazon/Alexa stuff in their ecosystem?
Completely agree with all of this. I’ve been slowly replacing all my Amazon ecosystem smart home stuff with things that are HomeKit compatible.
Thank you Craig. Totally agree. Worse they basically destroyed their app. It hasn't had any real updates that were great. Same with their music player app. I think making the AI as a paid service is idiotic.
Our evolution regarding Amazon and Alexa are very similar. I went through the same progression of trust as Craig.
I’m an Apple gal, but interested to hear your opinion.
Thanks, as always.
Anthropic has been blowing past OpenAI on many fronts
At no point did these companies see anything other than a means of making profit. They are companies,they are not people, they only exist to make profit and that is all they exist for. As long as the share holders are happy the customer is incidental. It matters not what the company is called Amazon, Apple, Tesla or place company name here [apple is my master]. Profit is the motivator and the bigger the company the bigger the motivator seems to be.
All we are and will ever be is a source of labour and profit.
I'm tired of Amazon Video services due to ads on TV Shows now and renting movies and shows that I cannot filter out during my search. I have other streaming services with the same movies and tv shows that are free. Also finding 2 days service is more a 4 to 7 day service now using USPS. Walmart has next day service in my area and most of the time cheaper than Amazon.
The fact that the Amazon mobile app has been extremely buggy and still doesn’t have a dark mode for years now is ridiculous. They had a small aesthetic update recently but the problems are still prominent. It really shows the disconnect between the consumers.
Honestly I have all but 1 of my alexa devices facing the wall. I use them for timers and home automation. I used to use them for time and temperature but all the ads makes that unreliable/worthless. If there was a good home automation come around I would take the time to set it up and just ditch Alexa completely.
they removed todoist integration now I can't add stuff to my list and forced to use the native shopping list
This could be a Plex issue but given everything you just said I'm thinking its more likely an Alexa issue.
I use to be able to Play music from my Plex server to multiple Echo that were already paired and they do work, with music from Amazon. Now When I ask it to play it either doesn't work at all or only works with one echo. Tried factory resets, deleting old echo groups, repairing nothing works. One day it worked fine the next it stopped.
Why did you ever trust information sprunging monopolistic super-corporations in the first place? Having one is basically having a G.O.D. in your house watching you all the time. North Korea would salivate at the idea!
I agree with everything you mentioned. I really miss the guard feature that linked with ring alarm. When set to away it would change lights to look like im home. I think it would make dog barking sounds too if my outdoor camera detected a person. I allready pay for the alarm why shoukd I also pay for emergency assist? Slowly but surely moving away from alexa and toward local.
I dont disagree with your perspective, but I have the ability to limit some of the data I give them. and if you are not talking about thier products in a reasonable way any more, I dont have a reason to watch you, if you think apple is less intrusive, you are just being silly. Good Luck to ya!
I agree about Apple. They're just as bad as Amazon.
Personally my only real use of Amazon Amazon Echo Show 8 these days is coming up shortly.......
Linking all the Christmas lights through smart plugs so that Alexa can turn them on and off. (Eventually)
I do get certain things from Amazon on a regular basis and do go through them if I need something relatively quick (especially given my physical disabilities). I even splurge a little bit when I want to buy something that might be hard to find in a physical store - or for those rare little gems - but I would much rather support 1) a business I know I can trust (Apple is one such company on my list due to their focus on privacy), 2) small businesses or independent creators/sellers (i.e. people who make and sell their own products, and 3) entities I know and want to support (like bands, for example).
Nailed it, my friend.
Can you do a video on alternatives for Firecube and Firestick? I feel like the assistants themselves have a handful of obvious players, but the streaming box market is a little more convoluted. Especially since Google fumbled that ball for a long while. There's Roku and Apple obviously, but there's also a ton of Android-based devices with a wide range of features. It's hard to sift through.
I didn't count, are there 10 reasons?
I’m so glad you said this! I thought it was just me!
appreciate your insight
I’m so glad that I for rid of my Echo when I did. I ended up getting a HomePod Mini and I’ve never looked back
I threw my echo dot out this summer and bought a Homepod and two minis. Switched my default browser and search to Brave. Swapped my doorbell cam to one that supports HKSV. Soon I'm switching to iPhone. To your point, I trust apple way more than Google or Amazon.
I started loosing faith with their Ring Cameras asking for my address and also in which direction the camera is pointing. With my neighbors this allows them to generate a complete seamless coverage of the neighborhood to give them something like the tracking found in the Film Enemy of the State. Then the failure of the Echo Show 15 which had so much potential but failed to deliver.
If someone wanted to place a huge advertisement sign in my Garden they would pay me rent to do so, but Amazon wants to place advertisement inside my home for free or to avoid it I have to pay!! They where ahead of the game in so many areas but failed to develop further. Instead each year a new device gets a minor tweak and because they offer them so cheaply on Prime days its an easy investment to purchase the new one hoping that this version is going to be the one to deliver. The echo show HUB showed how little interest they have in products if it cannot display adverts. Will only miss my echo Studio when it retires as it is great for listening to the radio.
Hey Craig, as always a great video. I definitely agree with you, Amazon needs to scan our entire home just to make a 2-D map personally that’s something that I think no one would do because it is an invasion of privacy. And to tell you the truth, I think that is why Amazon is failing because unlike Apple and Google privacy is there main and only concern keep up the great work and enjoy next week off.
biometrics are usernames not passwords
maybe scan your plam and then enter your code to pay no phone or card needed sure
but never use the palm to authenticate
Amazon has sold products touting features, and then taken those very features away a year or so later. I only but Fire tablets as cheap generic tablets, and I always jailbrake them to add the play store. I leave the lock screen adds since that is part of the agreement to get the tablet cheaper, but I refuse to alexify my life.
I got rid of Alexa echo, was becoming too intrusive.
You nailed it. Thank you.
I could not agree with you more. I am well entrenched in Apple and years ago Siri was light years behind Alexa. Siri is still not as good today but hoping with Apple Intelligence that will change. I have already started to replace my Echos and once Apple has a display I will get rid of the Shows. we all have to decide what level of exposure we are comfortable with our devices. I do take steps to limit what I share and what I do
Pay with palm has been available for years...
I hope that you never had “faith” in them ever.
Wow! All the points in this video I agree with.
Honestly they could just allows us to create our own 2D map and let everyone use map view. But nooooooooo, pop out your camera and scan your whole house.
Thanks Craig.
I was hoping that they would develop the interaction with other apps like... "Alexa, place an order for my favorite coffee from Dunkin Donuts."
Not defending Amazon here, but Anthropic is one of the big AI companies with Claude which, for some uses cases, it’s better than chat got
Yep, with you 100% there... no faith in Amazon or Google. The jury is still out on Apple, though. I like what I'm hearing from them.
I feel that Amazon should have paid me to put an echo in my home
Yep, the Alexa products have only gotten worse; I've had several since they let us buy a discounted beta version of the original Echo. Besides not recognizing my voice (slight southern accent), the slightest background white noise and they are unusable. It's perplexing why if I'm standing a foot away and facing a full size Echo ball w/hub, and tell it something, like setting a timer, a smaller echo in another room or other side of the house responds - but not the one I am facing and speaking to a foot away. Further, the extremely annoying "helpful" "by the way..." advertisements or unwanted messsages are the main reason why I'm probably going to walk around the house soon, collect all the echos, and toss them in the garbage.
I have the echo dot 3rd gen and I absolutely hate it i have to yell at it just to turn a lamp on
I am sorry to hear that Thomas. That is a bummer. Thanks for watching.
I’ve had a very positive experience with my echo devices. I use them for simple smart home activities, like controlling lights, cameras, the front door and one AC unit. Apart from that, I use them for amazon music. One echo show in the kitchen I ocasionally usw for youtube and the fire tv cube is for an assortment of streaming services. But so far the experience has been rock solid. I’m not being served any ads, but I am in El Salvador. Anyways, even if they did serve ads I wouldn’t really notice them much.
I got rid of ALL my amazon hardware in favor of Apple about 6 months ago (Apple TV is fantastic). They pulled the plug on fire recast TV and I just could not stomach all the damn advertising. I don't know if I going to pay for prime again either. Products seem to take longer to be delivered, returns are a pain in the butt. Prime video is a joke (the biggest joke being Rings of Power). Honestly the only big thing left on prime video I would miss is Thursday night football.
commented this before but ive all but replaced my smart home echos with apple HomePods and Sonos speakers.
I have 2 echos remaining as unfortunately some critical smart home stuff (Ring alarm specifically) is only compatible with Alexa and I have useful routines that control it. Basically an echo flex - cheap as anything.... tucked away ready to answer the 'Alexa' wake word and do stuff without advertising. Also have an old dot with clock as that makes a nice distance-visible clock in the lounge but thats it now.
Look forward to the day hell freezes over and Amazon make their Ring Alarm and Cameras matter compatible.
Spot on about Apple not updating the HomePods year on year - there is just nothing to update. Im sure the chips will change with the advent of Apple Intelligence but other things in terms of Audio hardware are great and dont really need updating every 5 minutes.
I trust Apple with data. I dont trust any others especially not Amazon and Meta.
Where do I stand? Well I think it’s time to start listing my echo devices for sale and purchase more Amazon stocks. The subjections and advertising is getting out of hand and it will only get worse.
i call BS on them bleeding money. More like they're covering other divisions with it. 25 billion? really? Sure.
Refused Alexa from day one. Amazon gets enough of my personal information; they don't need even more. For every advancement in technology that you think will benefit humanity, you end up seeing a new problem stem from it. That doesn't mean you stop using technology, but just pause for a moment before jumping right in to the new tech.
Its the opposite for me though, im just a starter of home automation, Im using smartthings a my primary hub and i find Alexa to be more suitable voice trigger since the devices in smartthings are interacting well with Alexa App...., they have Scene that comes from other platforms that u can activate in, they have NFC to triggers... tons of option compare to google home app....
I do have hub a bunch of Google Home speakers, minis and hub (bought 2nd hand)... google nest hub is good for monitoring... but not for routines and automation.... i go for Alexa,
It may be a different talk if i start to learn Home Assistant
Amazon Alexa was my first, moved to Google before the Nest thing. Google was way better as far as an Assistant goes but the way apps worked weren't good and no Apple Music support. Went back to Alexa, then moved to Apple HomePods. Had the bad issues the first go around with all Apple. So did the dual thing for a long time of running both. Now I am 100% all Apple again and loving it, running Matter devices on Thread. Amazon lost its way and I also noticed once you disconnect your smart home stuff from Amazon, it seems to work faster on Apple. But Amazon has become one big ad and got very annoying. I want to see the news and sports scores, not ads and the ads were way more and it lost its place in my home because of it. Even all the hack ways to get rid of the ads stopped working.
100% agree and it’s a bit sad hey.
Apple is the one that I am worried about too atm. Tim has done great making it worth a fortune but there is no innovation whatsoever, unless you count the Vision Pro that flopped because of the price. They do hardly anything in the Apple Home front. The car project they torched. Etc. , etc.
I dumped Alexa a couple of years ago. Unplugged all my Echo devices and never looked back.
Did you replace them with anything? I'm curious because if I do the same I don't know what I'll do for announcements and music. Maybe I'll pony up the dough for Apple's HomePods...
We have all this echo hardware that many are unloading. How do we find the right people to hack the hardware (with a modified operating system) for use with home assistant only and tie is a private home AI engine. We want the convenience of AI, but with security & privacy ...which includes data collection and being bombarded with Ads! So anyone know of a way to do this...if so spread the word!
I will wait for apple to bring AI to homepod and I will replace all echos. apple maybe difficult to work with in terms of compatibility and general knoweldge, but at least it's more relaiable
Well, I lost faith in Google some time ago.
I cannot turn off ads to my SHOW! Ticks me off! I’m leaving Amazon Echoes and Shows
I dropped Amazon over two years ago for all of these reasons. They’re not trustworthy, not reliable, and not exciting anymore.
Just one correction I think: Amazon is Target with stuff that’s just as expensive, with lower quality and more fake crap to sort through, than Target’s. 😆
I have an echo show for about 4 years and I have not noticed a lot of adds. News,sports,music. Maybe it had to do with where you live.
I have been using them for the past 7 years and in the past year the "Sponsored" content has increased. The screenshots I show in the video are sponsored ads. It does depend on where you live. It is starting in the US and Canada. I am sure it will expand, Amazon Ads is one of Amazon's fastest growing and profitable businesses. Here is a link to the Amazon ads page for echo shows. advertising.amazon.com/products/device-ads?ref_=a20m_us_p_da_p_dvc_c
This is what people get to look forward to more of. Thanks for watching. Have a great day.
We sold all but 1 of our Alexa devices a couple weeks ago at a garage sale... cheap. Just done with them. I did keep the Fire for the TV for now, but doing research now, and moving on. Honestly, I was never that impressed with it. Never seemed to work right, would just randomly start talking about random things way too often, even when no one was talking. Dealt with sketchy performance for years, way too long. Bye Amazon!
Im done with Amazon.
I remember when you had to get up to change the channels and if you didn’t see it when it came on you missed it. Tv is a lot better now.i antenna tv you would see more add than show.
Those days were so much simpler. I do actually miss the limited choice of old school tv and cable. It forced you to go do something when nothing was on.
In ten years (maybe less than five), we'll be giving everyone our social security number and driver's license with the excuse of "security," "accountability," and to "protect kids from the internet." It's already being done in some states for porn sites, but imo that's just a step towards the slow creep of data mining. Whenever a company or government wants something from you, they are profiting from it. It's for them, not you. I love tech but I hate the disrespect for privacy, and unfortunately the way things are now, that's the tradeoff you have to make every time you get deeper into tech.
The echo show is pretty useless I just prefer the better speakers and the ability to see the timer. But yeah they’re very frustrating to use. I really only like them for multiroom music on a budget
Imagine a world where people agreed to brain implant chips. They could flood your mind with ads you can't shut off. Sounds wonderful doesn't it?
It isn’t just Amazon that has been putting an over abundance of effort into advertising. Just in 2024 alone. UA-cam has more than quadruple their commercial length and how many commercials per video. Not only that. With their algorithm. Every time you pause, rewind, or fast-forward the video. Another commercial starts. Then to top it all off. The UA-camr has their own advertising. While they’re wearing hats and shirts that has to do with who they support. Plus, the background of their setting also has all their products that they advertise for. So in comparison to what you said about Amazon. I think UA-cam is another one that needs To Have more competition to cut down this BS.
I stopped watching Hulu. Because every 2 to 3 minutes there was a commercial. But I think UA-cam has gone past every single entertainment outlet that we use on a daily basis.
As far as Amazon. I stopped using them when they started to charge more for Amazon Prime. Then they started to take away items that was included. Like Amazon music. They also tried to take away the two day free shipping. When I called them to tell them that I did not receive my items in two days. They tried to tell me that it never was That way in the past. There are two day free shipping meant that it would ship in two days not that we would receive the item within two days. Which we all know is BS. Because the four years that I had subscribed to Amazon prime I always receive my item in two days. Basically, I just got tired of them raising the price for it and taking away features at the same time. Besides, if you do your research. Amazon prime is just like having a membership at Costco. Or Sam’s Club. More than likely everything you buy under prime is cheaper buying it somewhere else. Or even from another source on Amazon. So in reality you pay a higher price for the “prime“ item just so you can get it quicker. In reality you can search on Amazon for the same item that isn’t a prime item. Then pay for a quicker shipping. And you would still get it in the same timeframe. But you would not have to pay the yearly prime membership fee. If you check prices at Sam’s Club and compare them to Walmart. 99% of the time Walmart prices will be the same or even cheaper. And you won’t have to spend the yearly membership fee that you do at Sam’s Club
But you are correct. It isn’t the company‘s fault for trying to make more money by using access advertising. It’s the morons like us that continue to buy these products that are basically one big commercial feed. We just need to stop feeding these billionaires. And start investing the time and money into our families.
All of this data gathering is concerning. I haven’t setup a lot of things that would give them anymore data than necessary, such as voice recognition. Last night when I tried to activate Siri on my HomePod mini, 2 feet from me didn’t respond. I tried again, the mini didn’t respond but the OG HomePod across the room and blocked by some furniture responded with “Hi Valerie, how can I help you.” WHAT?!! Again, have never setup voice recognition, but Siri used my name in its response.
lol you really have absolutely no need to be worried about using voice recognition with Apple products
Amazon is still working on in house AI Cluade is a stop gap
I am done, I will never buy another video Alexa device. I am so sick of the advertising. All I really wanted was for it to display the time and my pictures and every time I look at the device it’s either advertising something or making suggestions or notifications about things I might be interested in, I also have Google hub devices. They don’t have any advertising. They just display my pictures and the time but they haven’t updated anything in a while. I wish Google would continue working on that project. The only reason I’m forced to keep some of these devices is they are the voice interfacefor my automation systems in my house