[nallen]

"Alexa, add Sauvignon Blanc to the shopping list".

Alexa complies, but sighs inwardly and marks you down on her secret silicon ledger as "Cheapskate who won't stretch to a decent Chablis."

[JoeC]

Amazingly and embarrassingly within just a few weeks post purchase of an Alexa thing in the kitchen I now tut with mild annoyance at having to go to the effort of having to physically turn a radio on in other rooms of the house.

[bar shaker]

"Alexa, add Sauvignon Blanc to the shopping list".

Alexa complies, but sighs inwardly and marks you down on her secret silicon ledger as "Cheapskate who won't stretch to a decent Chablis."

I'm a Craggy Range fan. It's coming from Essex that did me in.

[bar shaker]

I say that and it adds it to my wife's shopping list!!

We share the lists. It's absolutely brilliant.

[PaulB]

I say that and it adds it to my wife's shopping list!!

We share the lists. It's absolutely brilliant.

So do we, but I hate lists so never look at it. My wife *loves* lists though. She has multiple list apps on her phone!

[Rob P]

Any.do app is much the same.

I certainly don't get any 'broadcast' ads when using it.

Rob P

[Awful Charlie]

(Original NSFW from B3ta )

[Colonel Panic]

AW - that only happens if your Dot is in the kitchen

[defcribed]

People say Orwell was incredibly perceptive when he came up with the idea of telescreens in 1984.

He never guessed though that instead of the state mandating them, people could be convinced to willingly pay money for them.

[Joe Dell]

Our shopping list is held on the fridge door by a magnet. I suppose that makes us poor.

[bar shaker]

Our shopping list is held on the fridge door by a magnet. I suppose that makes us poor.

The problem was that was normally where the list still was, when I was in Waitrose.

[akg1486]

People say Orwell was incredibly perceptive when he came up with the idea of telescreens in 1984.

He never guessed though that instead of the state mandating them, people could be convinced to willingly pay money for them.

It's been a while since I read it, but I seem to remember that in Farenheit 451 they had high definition TV screens that covered the whole walls. We're soon there, people! That book was published in 1953 and TV screens were about the size of a modern phone and had super-low resolution in black and white.

(And I guess you could say that Orwell came up with telescreens in 1948. )

[Flyin'Dutch']

Our shopping list is held on the fridge door by a magnet. I suppose that makes us poor.

Ah, you are lucky, you have a fridge!

[Rob P]

The problem was that was normally where the list still was, when I was in Waitrose.

Oh, how true is that!

Rob P

[OCB]

People say Orwell was incredibly perceptive when he came up with the idea of telescreens in 1984.

He never guessed though that instead of the state mandating them, people could be convinced to willingly pay money for them.

It's been a while since I read it, but I seem to remember that in Farenheit 451 they had high definition TV screens that covered the whole walls. We're soon there, people! That book was published in 1953 and TV screens were about the size of a modern phone and had super-low resolution in black and white.

(And I guess you could say that Orwell came up with telescreens in 1948. )

My high school 6th Year Studies English dissertation - more than 30yr ago - I had to choose 3 books based on a theme.

I chose “dystopia”; 1984, Fahrenheit 451 + Brave New World. I generally wasn't a fan of forensically dissecting Shakespeare etc - but I remember I quite enjoyed doing so with those books.

There are a fair few things in all of them that we can say the authors got eerily right.
Of the 3 books, only F451 had some sort of hope for humanity from what I recall...and even that was pretty grim.

As for the omniscient and omnipresent Alexa, Siri - and it appears even Facebook are getting into the "assistant" game - I have serious reservations about them. I'm probably a bit more paranoid than I need to be, but that's one technology where convenience versus risk I'm not convinced the risk is worth it.