Last week's announcement that Amazon's Alexa can now control a Wi-Fi door lock — provided that you're already in close proximity to both devices, which means it's arguably easier to lock the door yourself — had me SMH. Incrementalism is not always a bad thing, but here was another example of asking consumers to spend hundreds of dollars for an incrementally better "smart home" experience. For these kinds of costs, Alexa better make my coffee for me, too.
Which is what I decided to do this weekend — set up the Echo speaker so I could ask Alexa to turn on my coffee maker in the morning. I've fallen down this rabbit hole before, but there was one key difference then: I wasn't using voice control to start the coffee. I had to open an app,...
via The Verge
