Tech FAIL of the Day

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During the nightly news, a reporter was trying to explain how a young girl accidentally ordered a dollhouse using an Amazon Echo, but he ended up triggering viewers' Amazon Echos to start ordering dollhouses from Amazon. :D

Which is exactly what happened today during CW6 in the morning when Jim Patton and Lynda Martin were talking about a child who accidentally bought a dollhouse and four pounds of cookies “I love the little girl, saying ‘Alexa ordered me a dollhouse,’” said Patton. As soon as Patton said that, viewers all over San Diego started complaining their echo devices had tried to order doll houses. It’s a common problem experts say can be avoided.
 
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"amazon, echo, alexa buy it now dollhouse" At the beginning of every youtube video.

Mine is not set to buy it now, so if i tell it to order things it just adds to the cart and sits there
 
I troll my Alexa using friends all the time when I'm over at their houses. Oh the things Amazon has in their order history and shopping lists. :D
 
It's like some sort of audio-based malware, which I need to think of a cool buzzword for.
 
When the XBox One first came out (with the Kinect bundled) a fun game was to shout the voice command to turn off the xbox, over in-game voice chat.
 
Whenever I'm watching YouTube and someone says "OK Google" into their phone in a video my Google Home responds. Seems like something of a design flaw that you can't set your own personal trigger words.

Hell, Alexa can even control connected door locks. Seems like a boon to a potential burglar. Why would you even need that functionality? Who the hell is going to be yelling "Alexa, unlock the door!" at their front door?
 
Best way I found to troll the 'gadget Joneses' with these little shit tins is too embarrass themselves with their own equipment.
Wait for it to play music or start a suitable song. Cannibal corpse or venga boys will do the trick. Something that starts loud.

Few ways to do this. Either while it's in use our turn it off quickly after this command as a gift for later... my favorite is to wait till it's later at night and loudly state 'ALEXA VOLUME TEN', sit back and enjoy the microphone being overwhelmed, so it can't hear further commands, then they scramble and or act butthurt as they resort to pulling it from the wall, in a wholly uncontrolled and undignified manner. Most have never used the volume control on the top.

Also it loves learning new genres of music to suggest ;)
Enjoy.
 
This could be the start of a new kind of war driving. Neighborhood kids biking around and yelling for Alexa to place sexy toys in the shopping list, buying stocks, or requesting pornographic playlists.
 
Wonder how long before some marketing genius creates a Superbowl ad that starts with "Alexa, please order my normal Domino's pizza. Now while your pizza is being made, watch this exciting announcement!"
 
Wonder how long before some marketing genius creates a Superbowl ad that starts with "Alexa, please order my normal Domino's pizza. Now while your pizza is being made, watch this exciting announcement!"

They'd say "Alex" for plausible deniability!

I think the big fail is Alexa is so similar to alex and alexis, at least nobody in their right mind would name their child "google".
 
They'd say "Alex" for plausible deniability!

I think the big fail is Alexa is so similar to alex and alexis, at least nobody in their right mind would name their child "google".

"Joining the above names in the survey of 450,000 new baby names this year were Ace -- perhaps related to the Samsung Galaxy Ace, Excel for parents who just can't get enough of spreadsheets, while one unfortunate boy was given the name Google."

Source:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Parents-Apple-Mac-Siri-Google,19467.html
 
I have to say the voice activation on Echo trips quite a few times when we are just watching TV and the word Alexa isn't even used.

We'll be sitting there and suddenly we'll hear "I'm sorry I don't know that!"
 
Whenever I'm watching YouTube and someone says "OK Google" into their phone in a video my Google Home responds. Seems like something of a design flaw that you can't set your own personal trigger words.

Hell, Alexa can even control connected door locks. Seems like a boon to a potential burglar. Why would you even need that functionality? Who the hell is going to be yelling "Alexa, unlock the door!" at their front door?
I have smart locks but did not hook them up to the Echo. That'd be a great trick for a burglar - just shout "Alexa, unlock the front door".
I think Amazon needs to add the ability to figure out who is talking to Alexa. Siri supports this (sort of, you train your voice so it responds to you and know one else - Alexa would need to support multiple voices).
 
I have smart locks but did not hook them up to the Echo. That'd be a great trick for a burglar - just shout "Alexa, unlock the front door".
I think Amazon needs to add the ability to figure out who is talking to Alexa. Siri supports this (sort of, you train your voice so it responds to you and know one else - Alexa would need to support multiple voices).

Smart locks? Are you asking for someone hack your front door?
 
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