Jeff Bezos says we are heading towards recession and to hold off on big purchases

[Kulindahr]

And Crypto is one of the things that will trigger the next recession, because of unregulated companies like FTX.

House committee announces hearing into FTX collapse featuring Bankman-Fried

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing next month to investigate the collapse of top crypto exchange FTX, lawmakers announced Wednesday. Reps. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Patri…

thehill.com

I went to buy some ammo on sale for Black Friday and found the company now only takes crypto for orders from out of state.

 

[Kulindahr]

Charities are supposed to help. They have no power to fix. It's like expecting religion to fix sin.


Bezos isn't actually in charge. He turned over the reins to a new CEO. Jeff's title is "Executive Chair", not to be confused with the executive chairs that Amazon offers on their website from prices ranging from $72 to $1,349. I wonder if a $1,349 office chair is considered a "big purchase"?

The layoffs are supposedly from their "devices" division which is Alexa and the like. Alexa is nothing but trouble. Good riddance.



If only it were enough atonement for all of the businesses that Amazon has crushed along the way. Speaking of sin...

I learned this week that the latest Garmin GPS navigation toys have Alexa built in and certain features will only work if you use Alexa.
Turned me off on a purchase until I found someone worked up a hack t get around the limitation.

 

[PrinceCory]

It's like my Roku remote. Roku makes a big deal about voice control, where you push a button and tell it to go to Netflix or something. It's stupid. I don't want to talk my remote control. If I want Netflix (or whatever), I will select it on the screen and push enter button.

My Roku remote is an older model with no voice button. But my Alexa speaker will work with my Roku search. I find it very handy to do voice search. For instance, if I'm in the mood to watch Star Trek: The Wrath of Kahn I just tell Alexa to find that movie on my Roku. My TV screen will then give me a list of the various streaming apps (such as Netflex, Paramount, NBC, Disney, etc) that has the movie available on-demand. It will also list the "rental fee" if there is one. I just then scroll to the entry and press OK on the remote. You can do the same by actor name, or type of movie you are in the mood for. Or if I miss an episode on cable TV, I can use voice remote to find the latest episode of "60 Minutes" and it will show me where to watch it for free. Give it a try!

 

[PrinceCory]

I learned this week that the latest Garmin GPS navigation toys have Alexa built in and certain features will only work if you use Alexa.
Turned me off on a purchase until I found someone worked up a hack t get around the limitation.

I have a 2017 model car with built in Garmin GPS. It is not paired with Alexa, but will let me do voice search. If I'm driving the system will NOT let me use the touch screen to put in the location info unless it is a previous entry saved in the memory. However, my system will let me voice request the address and voice select from the search results on the screen.

I do have a plug-in Alexa smart speaker in the car that connects to my mobile phone wirelessly. It comes in handy to turn on the driveway and porch lights when coming home late. Or asking for the weather, or what my location is, or even have it tell me what is on my Google calendar, or what is on my Errand list.

 

[PrinceCory]

I'm not surprised. Alexa was a novelty at first, but long-term, people do not want that damn thing, or other things like it, listening to them all the time. There have been too many instances of people being spied upon, or the things being hacked, or the device responding out of nowhere to something that it shouldn't. Who knows what happens to your data. I don't want that thing in my house.

@cityboy - I so very much disagree with your view on the Alexa hardware devices (smart speakers) that "people do not want that damn thing" listening to them. Amazon claims these devices are the number 1 hardware devices sold by Amazon. While I did not read the article from the link provided in the OP, I think I read the same article a couple days before this OP.

What the article was saying was that the Alexa division of Amazon failed to find a way to make a big profit sales of other merchandise from the Alexa software such as getting folks to order items by voice....or being able to sell us customers skills (apps for the speaker) for a monthly / yearly subscription.

As far as the Alexa hardware it's probably a generational thing. I am the older generation, but have always loved Tech so I'm probably not a good example of my generation. My Dad is in his 90's and he has 2 smart speakers he uses everyday mostly.

 

[PrinceCory]

@cityboy -

^^ Oops! @cityboy-stl