Amazon Echo - SNL
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN brings it up as a joke and as design inspiration for voice assistants for seniors.
What it is
A Saturday Night Live sketch for the Amazon Echo Silver, a smart speaker for the elderly, in which older users misunderstand Alexa. It parodies voice assistants.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2017 to 2022.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bradbatt · 2018-01 · on “HomePod arrives February 9, available to order this Friday”
I'd be interested to see how older people interacted with the device. I know someone who got their parent a device and they kept "Alexa" written on a post-it because they couldn't remember the device name. It's a big shift in technology, but since it is voice interactive, rather than computer/smart phone, I think it does provide an ease of use for older people who might not be as technology savvy. SNL did a great skit on this … [this video]
Cites wallflower · 2018-01 · on “Facebook Dives into Home Device Market with Video Chat Product Named “Portal””
Did you see the recent SNL skit? I think that a real Alexa for Seniors would incorporate some of what this spoof Alexa does. [this video]
Cites wpietri · 2022-12 · on “Win for privacy: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe”
But a leader in what exactly? I have been looking for years for actual usage stats. E.g., MAU and UAM for VR headsets, especially ones broken out by length of ownership. I get that people are buying Oculus units because of the hype, but is there much sustained usage? If so, what exactly is keeping people engaged once the novelty wears off? As comparison, look at Amazon's smart speakers. $10 billion spent, lots of hype, part of the zeitgeist enough that SNL is doing jokes about it [1]. End of the day it's a "colossal failure": [LINK] [1] [this video]