Echo dot and google mini both down to $39

[BrianP]

If any one is interested in an new toy the Amazon Echo Dot is down to $39 from $69
and the Google Mini is down  to $39 from $79.


Both  can do home automation with smart switches and such or just be there for questions, jokes,weather or listening to you favorite radio station.

The Echo seems to have more support for more devices like fitbit. The Echo can also connect to your Bluetooth speakers or soundbar for richer sound the mini can not.

Not sure how long the lower prices will last...

[ssfc72]

Thanks for the heads about about the special pricing Brian!

I am not comfortable with having any of these devices that listen/record what is being spoken in my household, so I would not be someone who would purchase this type of device. :-)

[BrianP]

Yeh I get what you are saying..
.
But with traffic cams, atm cameras, surveillance cameras in stores, RFID chips in so many plastic cards and of course your the big risk  is your phone which you carry with you everywhere.... haha

I think the biggest risk with this home automation stuff is someone  in Russia or China turning on/off your lights.

But there is a work around for that also -  there are lots of instructions to use a raspberry pie to intercept the commands and process them locally in your home network.

[Jason]

I have to agree with Bill. As cool as these things are, I don't like that they're connected to the net in order to interpret your commands. Basically everything you're saying has to be listened to and send across the net for them to work. It's kind of spooky and it won't be long before hackers are using these devices to listen to conversations. I don't think the convenience is worth it, but others may feel differently and that's ok. I didn't know you could let the Raspberry Pi process the commands instead though. That's interesting.

Traffic cams, atm cameras and surveillance cameras in stores aren't in your home where you would expect privacy.

And bank cards (if that's what you meant) don't use RFID technology. See here:

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/chipandflash/_assets-custom/pdf/Myths-brochure-Interac-en.pdf

And as far as the phone goes, I don't think it's always listening to you. At least with my phone, I have tap to bring up the Google Assistant before it will. If it was always listening, Of course, somebody could hack into it so that it is, same with laptops with webcams.