Alexa, is The Smart Home vision failing?
summary
Amazon losing $10 billion on Alexa highlights that the business model fails to cover hardware plus cloud maintenance, and voice features misroute music because of single‑user linking. Zigbee bulbs drop mesh hops; a firmware change forces renaming to avoid Alexa groups colliding with Philips Hue. Promises of Thread and Matter may help but don’t fix multiuser or longevity. Practical fixes shown: Home Assistant plus Raspberry Pi for local control, documented device APIs, subscription-backed services and small wins like Trinity and Better Route Planner.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Start
- 0:47Microsoft's 1999 vision video
- 2:20The dream
- 5:29System Admin Fun
- 6:58debugging "office"
- 11:34Prey gets eaten
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