Re-Apple Doesn't Hear The Echo

My family loves Alexa. As an Amazon Prime member, I was one of the few that had one before it came out over 2 years ago. I feel bad calling her an 'it." Like you, I never use Siri, and I don't like her voice as much. Alexa works great when you have the unlimited music subscription from Amazon, and she is also great as a timer, joke teller, and player of games. My son loves her for his schoolwork, too.

Carolyne Mas
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case in point regarding Apple: tel Siri to play "Suicide Note Pt. 1" by Pantera. The results are hilarious

Ilias karim
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Bob ask Alexa for more cowbell! Or to enter self destruct mode!

Mark Bridges
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Someone gave me an echo for the holidays. My wife set it up. We have it hooked up to amazon music and our hue connected lights. We changed it to respond to "echo" instead of "Alexa" seems less creepy. We were laying in bed this morning calling out tunes; metallica should hang it up..Their recent live stuff is worse than Lucas fucking with star wars.

Check out Philips hue if you haven't already. "Alexa, turn on the lights" is sooooooo effing cool. self driving cars and voice recognition, the future is coming on fast

James Kirst
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One problem with declaring that Amazon 'won:' the Echo line is only available in the US and UK. It clearly has an advantage there, but you can't have world domination through two countries. Even Google Home has wider reach. If Apple is indeed working on a smart speaker (as it's rumored to be) and ships it worldwide like it does with most products, it might take the lead simply by being the only game in town for most customers.

Jon Fingas
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I've been a Mac user since first using one working on my high-school newspaper in 1991. The local college computer labs, where my friends and I would go to use the free internet (long before we owned computers ourselves), were always filled with Macs. The first computer I ever owned was the original blueberry colored iMac.

It was only ten years ago when a Time Warner Cable guy at my new house to setup my Internet was upset by the mere presence of an Apple laptop. He immediately radioed in for help! "This guy has a Mac." He kept asking me if I had another computer in the house he could work on instead. He was at my home for nearly an hour waiting for their "Mac guy" to show-up. I kept politely telling him that I was already on my next door neighbor's wifi, so whatever his issue was in setting up the internet, it wasn't my "Mac." After the "Mac" guy from TWC arrived, he went to put a CD into my laptop to install some software. I stopped him and asked them both to leave.

At some point Apple crossed over from the "cool kids club" to what you often refer to as the "hoi polloi," hitting its "tipping point." And that was fine with me. I've never been the person who abandoned a band because they signed to a major label and the less confused Internet installation people around, the better! But what's going on here now? I bought the first and second generation AppleTV. I have yet to upgrade. The iPhone 7 is the first iPhone I haven't owned, as I haven't seen any reason to upgrade from my 6, after always "needing" to upgrade before (of course, now that my 6 is having the battery issues that Apple will only admit the 6s has, I may have to…).

Has Apple jumped the shark (just like the phrase," jump the shark")? Because here we are in 2017, when everybody has an iPhone and/or uses some type of Apple device, and you've nailed something here that I've been feeling since I purchased my Amazon Echo. Why doesn't Apple have a device and service that's even comparable, let alone better? Did they really spend all of that money for overrated headphones so they could make a complicated service I'm even less interested in than when they tried to make a social network (remember that? I already forget what it was called). I'm still using all Mac devices in my home and office… Except for my Amazon Echo. And of course I have Spotify set as the default music service, because Spotify has the best interface, look, and usability and it WORKS WITH ALEXA.

It's not perfect. I've asked it to play "Hardwired… to Self-Destruct by Metallica" in a variety of ways without it working (eventually, it played the song, instead of the album. But the fix is easy — pull it up on my phone and then send it to my Echo). My complaints are few. As you said, "Alexa" almost always understands you, straight away.

Where will this lead people like me? Am I going to become someone with those goofy smartphones and laptops I've made fun of for so long? The ones that cause text messages to turn green? The stuff that catches fire in your hands? The devices with… Um, better cameras and faster stuff? Er, hmm… Seriously, I liked the simplicity and convenience in trusting Apple to have the best stuff, always. They're slipping. Will be interesting to see how folks like me feel about them a year from now.

- Ryan J. Downey
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Also today Ford announced that Alexa will be in their cars and BMW is on deck as well.
I think its fucked up and we've given away our souls, but as you've always said there will be one…. and Apple is losing out fast on being in any one of the places anymore.

David Tobin
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I completely agree Bob! That's why I built a way to create apps for it before Amazon released theirs: http://alexaho.me?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo There's tons of interest in this from everyone - people in software, music (labels, venues, etc), and hospitality. And eventually it'll be more conversational and smarter and smarter as time goes on.

Zach Feldman
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So Right Bob!

Just bought Amazon Dot for $49. Blue tooth to my audio system… Fantastic!

Using Spotify and Amazon for music… Apple who?

EVERYTHING Music, news, weather, sounds fantastic.

Oh, and there is still a speaker if you don't have the sound system on.

Mike Renault
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Totally agree Bob. We just redid our entire house, new the, Sonos, everything. All I could think about was how is this not all Apple stuff? They should be owning all of that. Then my 10 year old boy bought himself and Echo Dot with his own money (bless up!) for only $50. I can't believe how cool and easy and accurate that thing is. And again, all I could think about was why didn't Apple do this years ago?

Bob Ferdman
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Can't wait til Echo integrates with Sonos! We have Echo and we have Sonos. I'm not enjoying the Echo speaker so I still mess around with Sonos and Spotify. Have you figured out a workaround already?

Jenny McCourt
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Hey Bob
Got a Echo Dot for Festivous (for the rest of us) and it is way cool. I read that SONOS will be integrating with it so you can play your Echo songs on your SONOS speakers. Since i have Amazon prime the Dot taps into Amazon Music and Bob's your Uncle.

alan fenton
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First off, Happy New Year to you.

As I've said to you before, my itunes library is FILLED with songs not found on any of the mainstream sites. I have a 4TB external drive with over 144,000 songs on it. Much of which are obscure albums and singles that have not seen legitimate release in the digital age.

And YouTube, which you often denigrade, has COUNTLESS rare 45s uploaded by collectors that Spotify and Shitify and Fuckify will never have.

That's why there are people like myself who still like Youtube and their own digital libraries. Now, someone should come up with voice command for personal computer libraries. THAT would be something.

Keep on keepin' on.

Kevin Kiley
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Right on Bob. I gave five as Christmas presents!!

Staying warm I hope!!

Its minus here in Columbus and snowing

Rick Vogt
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I got mine for Christmas! It is awesome. My wife makes fun of me. Says I like telling a woman what to do. Weather, traffic on route to work, NPR News on demand and I have not scratched the surface. The main thing though is I like to cook. Cooking takes some time and and I am not a great chef but believe in slow work. Chopping, grating, measuring, and to be able to be able to say "play the Good Rats, Gotta Get Back" and have it pop up... awesome. But I am a simple man.

Peace! You pushed me into this. Thanks.

Michael A. Becker
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Agree 100%. The last thing I testified this much about was my TiVo back in 2002.

Jim Horan
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You're right, Bob. I own 5 Echo units - one at each house, 2 Dots (bedroom, patio) and one Tap, just to carry around the property. Don't use that one very much, but I have it if I want to.

Alexa rules!

Apple can suck it - iTunes has been getting worse with each update for years now.

Bob Davis
Retired Roadie
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Bob, I love Alexa! The skills just keep growing, but yes, I did get it for the music. I have it wired to my main stereo system and it's keyed off my computer (not my Android phone or tablet). I have my entire music collection, that I've been collecting since the mid-70's, either on my computer or an external hard drive, and so anything I don't have on Amazon's cloud, I can easily Bluetooth from the computer. Not as easy as speaking it, but the music I listen to most frequently (Eagles) is on their cloud, so it's not usually a problem. It also means that when looking at videos on You Tube or Facebook or wherever, it streams via Bluetooth to the stereo.

I bought it for a lot of reasons, but I have to say, as someone that likes to cook, speaking to set a timer and turning it off is great, especially when I'm in the midst of washing dishes or otherwise have my hands a mess. I can do that on my phone ("OK Google"), but I don't always hear it when it goes off.

Google has a product now, Google Home. Eventually it will likely be more robust than Echo, but right now it listens the same as my phone and so when speaking, they'll both try to answer (my phone very seldom is inaccurate, probably because Google's voice features predate Siri by a couple of years, it wasn't as robust, but the ability to adapt to your voice and accent has been around longer). What I like about all this is, there's no reason not to have both. If Google does something better, use Google Home for that, if Alexa does something better, then use Echo.

Downsides to Echo? The commercials! One day, Uber is going to arrive at my house because a commercial activated it. The Dot lights up and tries to process it every time one of those commercials comes on.

Verna K. Rose

P.S. I forgot to mention, perhaps you've seen it, but later this year, Ford will start putting Alexa in its vehicles.

http://www.autoblog.com/2017/01/05/ford-sync-amazon-alexa-ibm-watson/?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo
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Love your blogs a lot.

Happy 2017 and thinking you should hit Mammoth for fresh massive amount of heavy Sierra powder.

I have never sent you a " dispute " email but have to share that Google Home with Youtube Red is mind blowing amazing.

The above set up works just like you describe above and is magical when I request Praise You by King Arthur...

or Paul Oakenfold remixing Beautiful Day by U2 - My two favorite songs that power by creative vibe up.

I love Goggle Home & Youtube Red more than anything but the DJI Mavic Drone is almost as impressive in its own way ( lol )

For sure Google Home is fantastic and makes listening to music so much fun again.

Sending you all my best and giant thanks again for your words of wisdom.

My favorite Bob Blogs are your observations of popular culture.

Cheers To Us,

Mark in Malibu Canyon

Mark Jacob
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Got 1 almost a year ago.
I totally concur.
I do not have to get off my ass to
Say Alexa what time is it
Forecast for ny or Any other city town or village anywhere
Alexa what time is it in London
Alexa wake me at 630
Am
Alexa play sweet Virginia play
Norwegian wood
Coltrane miles.
And much more.
It's crazy.

Neil Lasher
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Here's the question Bob.

What is Amazon doing with all of the data it 'hears' through all of these Echo devices that are being deployed all over the world?

Do you know? I don't and that's what makes me hesitant.

Apple puts customer data security, customer privacy first. They've staked their reputation to it, even rebuffing the federal gov't when challenged.

'Hey Siri' even with it's imperfections at least has Apple's position on security+privacy behind it.

Maybe not all of us consider that when installing a semi-sentient network device in their home.

But I do and that's a major obstacle to me feeling comfortable with installing Echo in my home.

Just my two cents.

Paul Teeter
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Beyond music, turning off lights, and many other wonderful attributes, Alexa is also life affirming. Ask her, "Alexa, do you like me?" You'll enjoy her answer. I ask her for a joke every morning. Some are pretty funny, robotic inflections and all.

best,
Michael Laskow
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Amazon buys Sonos, and game over as far as I'm concerned.

Thanks Bob,
Brian Clothier
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You are so right about this. I had this same thought the other day. (Well, actually I thought to myself, "How does the Echo come up with these tracks?") Alexa played me some deep tracks (some of which I had never heard before) for an artist I (until then) thought I knew a lot about. Without any kind of special request.

Ned Menoyo
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I don't know about you but I surely don't want some Amazon geek listening to everything I say in range of Alexa. Data/voice mining for FUN + profit!

Steve Boone
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The acquiring of an Echo, a Dot and also a Google Home in Hawaii and schlepping them all the way home to Australia has been life changing, as much as starting on email in 1983, Apple in '85 and having my first website a decade later. I'm amazed that Apple didn't think to lead in the AI revolution as Amazon has.

For music, Alexa saves me an hour a day by allowing me to shift with a phrase from one artist/album/playlist to another through it running on all five stereo systems throughout the house (with Dots). All the while I can give it tasks, add to lists and reminders and even text by voice through them. Having it as the basis of my SmartHome here in the country, I can control lighting, security, appliances and more at a whim.

The best part though Bob that you may appreciate joining me in the advanced age race is a skill called Ask My Buddy that sets up as many as ten friend contacts who can be individually phoned, texted and/or emailed if you as Alexa to notify them that you need help. Like a fall, coronary, breathlessness or other injury. Instantly.

It will also find your lost phone in the house making it ring offline! Handy.

But it's the music application that sucked me in and I'm just in the process of adding my entire iTunes collection of 100,000 songs into Amazon Music Unlimited so that I can access what it and Spotify may not have, mainly my live non-record concerts.

Revolutionary!

Phil Tripp
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Re Echo/Amazon
This is my first note to you.
I too love my Echo and Amazon Music Prime.
But I also love iTunes on my PC.
But I also love Devialet Phantom speaker(sometimes sold in Apple Store). Check reviews on line and be prepared to buy.
I have uploaded iTunes library to Amazon cloud...called My Music (120000 tracks), where I have created playlists.
Where Echo is exceptionally vulnerable is: poor sound quality in large spaces. Outclassed by Devialet, Sonos5 or Bose.
Also Amazon My Music craps out on FireTV, but surprisingly it works well on iOS Alexa.
A magic wand would be: Amazon iTunes equivalent, an Echo family that merged Sonos network with Bose/ Devialet sound.
As a side note and some truth here.. over 50,000 tracks come from local libraries free.
I still buy about 200 to 500 cds per year... about half new half used all from Amazon.
I use Pandora free. Paid for awhile but went back to free.
Have tried Spotify meh.
Also Devialet has a radio feature in their iOS app that connects to a zillion internet international stations.
So...reality.
In the bathroom I have Sonos5 set to pandora...changed "station" weekly.
In kitchen Echo where I say play music...sometimes specific or use Alexa App to play my music playlists.
In Living Room I play Devialet Peru/Mali or Brazil internet radio.
In my office I have connected to PC German Adam Artist5 stereo monitor speakers, which have sound as good as Devialet.
Also in both LRoom and office I have Apple TV and Fire TV all connected to high end Amps/ Speaker set up.. but seldom use for music , except when PC with total music library is connected to net and iTunes in HomeShare mode connected to Apple TV.
Apple cloud is USELESS!!
It rejects most of my iTunes library because of their rules Amazon cloud has no rules...takes it all.
Conclusion...Apples overall Music(actually media) product line/ strategy/ has huge holes and is terribly vulnerable.
Their silent war with Amazon is stupid and counterproductive.
Love your posts.
Bob Brannon, retired hi tech guy from intel and HP
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Apple's been too busy trying to limit developers salaries... wait, doesn't Google and Amazon also collude on developers salaries. Or maybe Tim Cook was focusing too much on trying to get Hillary elected and took his eye of the pie.

- Carl Foggin
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My Brother -in-law works for Sony... Been there a while- since well before the 'hack' happened.
He's very integrated (an IT guy) in the ways of tech (email., social media, et all) and tells me of the sweeping 'suck' ALEXA is becoming, gobbling up waaaaay more personal information about anyone and everyone using this and other similar robotic devices.
Operator beware, Bob.

Kevin Patrick Goulet
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here is where the future is: Sonos + Echo Dot
https://youtu.be/NFJ7O7N5Yok?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

Eric Seifert
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Hey Bob. I love Apple... the Apple run by Steve Jobs. And that is gone. What is left is the scraps of the catcher-ons and the demise of Apple Innovation has been replaced by Apple copy-chatting by Apple themselves.

It's sad. It makes me angry. Steve died and took the magic with him.

Ugh.

Phil
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I have both a google home and echo and ask them both the same questions - it's no contest, Google home is a lot smarter. You can ask follow up questions and it feels more like a conversation. Spotify wise, it's a push

Mike Abbattista
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Couldn't agree more. This is a stretch but using siri is like grabbing the yellow pages (if yellow pages are even still in print). Amazon nailed it with the Echo.

Gary Marella
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Echo and the like are wonderful...if you don't mind installing an always-on surveillance device, which feeds directly into relatively unaccountable corporate servers, in your house. In Amazon's case, they also have a half- $billion cloud computing contract with the U.S. intelligence services.

What could possibly go wrong?

Jonathan
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I was all in on Apple until I tried the Alexa for fun. With the Alexa sitting on my desk I got an email from Spotify offering a cheap free trial of Spotify premium so have given that a go. The killer app is spotify connect allowing me to play spotify through its own app on Sonos, Alexa and Apple TV. Wow. In an instant I have upgraded to family premium. I had a few problems with my wife's account but Spotify customer service was brilliant and now I am all set. Apple Music? Fuggetaboutit!

Andrew Harting

P.s. Amazon should buy Spotify now!
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Couldn't agree more Bob. Just wait until the Sonos / Echo update penned for early this year becomes available, you'll be able to voice activate your Sonos system. For those of us with the Dot, accessing "Hard Days Night" via voice control is awesome but doesn't sound great. Add your Sonos system into the equation... game changer indeed!

One other thing to consider, is this just a stepping stone created by Amazon to get us ready for the next stage of AI? Would society be happy with jumping to the iRobot stage of personal assistant or is this the clever folk at Amazon (and Google etc) getting us familiar with this type of interface so we're ready for Alexa 2.0?

Mark Jennings
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Real question is does the Echo hear you, and everything that goes on in your home ? The rush to new tech and we stop asking the important questions. Do we need this and do we trust this ? This is beyond data mining. This is the American security apparatus under Trump control sitting down to dinner with you every night, then tucking you into bed. You can't get away from the security state, even in the land of the free, but do you have to invite it in and feed it ? Best of the new year to you.

Peter
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Bob,

You must have a premium Spotify account to link to Alexa

Thomas B
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Minor problem here. I do remember old song titles like paint it black, yellow submarine, imagine etc. etc.However this is definitely not the music I want to hear. So mostly I scroll a list out of my jazz, pop or classical categories and take a gamble on picking a few non familiar titles. And of course everything in lossless or high res. Thus I never have to listen to boring old titles :-) In Europe there is so much good new music people never heard of...But like you I am a baby boomer and unlike you I maybe hanging on to old habits.

And with a family I would prefer everyone to type their queries in stead of all family members shouting at an Echo...

However, my son gave me a Chrome cast for Xmas (I had my doubts about it), but I must admit it's quite convenient to stream Netflix series from my tablet. And especially I am surprised by the good and stable picture quality on my big plasma screen. My wife and I started binge watching house of cards from season 1. And we love it. So indeed you were right. Services like Netflix do indeed kill piracy!
Cheers and keep up the good work.

Nico Aarts
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Great recap on voice control of music Bob.

Interestingly, Sonos has just seen the light on this as well.

Until last month Sonos was all in on controlling the music access experience, not just the devices and the wiring.

First you needed their $400 controller, which they dropped in favor of their mobile/desktop app, which is not great.

As of this year, you could jerryrig it to play from your Spotify app thru Google Chromecast to your Sonos.

But Sonos has finally given up control and support Spotify connect so you can play right from your Spotify app thru your Sonos (then seamlessly continue listening to your Spotify in your car).

And Sonos has announced plans to support Alexa and other voice interfaces, so they have clearly gotten the memo.

Whether they will survive as a high end wifi streaming and speaker system over the likes of Google Home as it evolves remains to be seen.

Keep up the good reporting

Eric Chaikin
Woodland Hills, CA
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I totally agree that Amazon did a complete end run around Apple/Siri with Echo/Alexa. It is certainly the device de jour.

With all the glee over it's seamless usability this is the thorny issue of customer privacy. To that point there is an interesting article about a murder case in Arkansas where the police want the server data from an Echo that was in the house when the crime was committed.

Here is a link to the article on engadget that gives more detail on whats going on.

https://www.engadget.com/2016/12/27/amazon-echo-audio-data-murder-case/?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

David Einstein
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Thanks for the tip on making Spotify the default music service for Echo. I didn't know about that future and I honestly hated having to say, "on spotify" each time. It's a small change that makes things a lot easier!

Richard Young
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WOW...look how cool Alexa is becoming. HAHAHA... Guess you can't wait to request a song from your Alexa toilet. My question is, whose going to be listening in the background, huh? Do you really want Bezo's in your house? NOT.

We should be hoping that CCTV becomes ubiquitous, where you can at least see the cameras and feel safer.

Olie Kornelsen

http://www.brandchannel.com/2017/01/05/ces-2017-amazon-alexa-010516/?&&&utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo


P.S. Apple loses battles and wins wars Bob.
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I haven't used Echo yet, but Google Home is anything but "blah." ;-)

I wish they'd roll out third-party integrations a little more quickly, but I'm so happy with it right now that I own two and bought one for a friend.

Matt Raymond
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I totally agree. I first got the Firestick and I realized this is
cheaper and BETTER than my AppleTV. I used the Alexa feature on the
remote and it picked up everything I said with lightning speed. I even
tried mumbling or talking fast and it recognizes everything. Now,
after receiving an Echo as a Christmas gift, I use it all the time and
just fascinated with how well it works. You can even say some of the
lyrics of a song you're thinking of and it will find what you're
looking for. Alexa has made me forget about Siri altogether. 80% of
the time, Siri doesn't respond when I say "hey siri!" and on top of
it, she can never figure out what you're trying to say so I don't use
it at all.

If Amazon makes a decent phone and computer, I wouldn't mind switching
all my products to Amazon.

Mat Herbers
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Hey Bob

Buy an LED globe to really see the difference and problem apple faces.

"Hey Alexa dining room light on." Done

Hey Siri - same thing - you have to be wearing a watch or have your phone. What about my 5 year old? He talks to Alexa for everything. "Hey Alexa what's the temperature? He Alexa spell fire station. Hey Alexa turn on bedroom light."

LED globes are going to make all others redundant. This is just the start. Apple home doesn't work for a family. They need to urgently fix this. Buy Sonos and put Siri into it.

Xross

Ross Mollison
Spiegelworld
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I was just saying the same to a friend yesterday.

I switched from Spotify to Apple Music, and now because of echo (Which I had delivered on amazon now), I'm switching back.

Music is the killer app.

The friction is gone. And it won't just be music. It will be audio books, podcasts, and obviously buying stuff.

One annoyance is that I wish Amazon had more of a POV on the third party apps (skills). They should have rejected most of the apps because of the phrasing you need to use is too obtuse.

How can the apps succeed if it's too hard to remember what to teach people in your house and to use it again yourself? It's going to hurt the 3rd party developer market if apps have too much learning language frictions.

The human language is the API.

After buying the big one, I bought three dots and set them up for my three kids last night and put them in their bedrooms. It was painful. I had to create a Spotify account and an Amazon account for each. Luckily they already had Gmail accounts I created when they were born.

I tried using one Spotify account but you can't play two songs as once, let alone four. Then you need to add them all to the family plan, also a painful experience.

Anyway it's done now.

So now my three kids have a hi-fi system with an unlimited music library. Although I wish the speaker was better, for $50, it's hard to complain. They certainly aren't.

Gordon Mattey
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Got the Echo a few months ago based on your raves and I have to say you are 95% right.
EXCEPT when it starts to say "Now connected to Zachary's Macbook Air" in the middle of the night at top volume for no apparent reason and scares the shit out of my kid.

I also find that it won't play itunes songs 50% of the time even if it's connected. Dunno if that's an Apple or Amazon issue, but very unstable.

Besides those few issues, it is awesome.

Happy new year!
--
Best Regards,
Zach Goode
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er...
Apple's classic mpdel is to let others open the market, blow it and then come in and fix it dramatically. in this instance that might not work because of the velocity pc the marlet these days

google's product synchs which the amazpn product doesnt. same music in all rooms. that os a big deal

sirii stinks. the questip. is whether that is on accounta the spftware and AI, or the crap mic in the iphone. the Mazon and google products (amd related knockoffa) have seven or eight microphones of a completely different sort than the single mic in a phone hard comparison

four million is a lot it would be an irrelevsnt number if apple actuLly gets it right. which fhey clearly havent with Musoc but it seems npt to matter

short form: at present you are slam
dunk right. long term? jury is out. i cam
imagine Apple gettong it right and sellong 30 million a year. and i can fr the first time imaging Apple totally failing. pretty dang interesting

oohlikewowman
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Thank you for mentioning Rhapsody. I switched to Spotify nearly 3 years ago because my daughter's student account was half the price. I miss Rhapsody. I liked the layout. I liked the album reviews by Christgau and others.

Tom Quinn
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With ya. Have had a music crush on mine since the day I got it. The rest is just more levels of awesome. Great, great stuff. Apple's loss.

Paige J. Mann
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Alexa, did you witness a murder?

Bloomberg Law
https://bol.bna.com/could-amazon-echo-hold-evidence-in-a-murder-case/?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

Cheers,

G.Robey
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Bob,

Don't count out Google on this one. I just got Google Home and had a similar experience to this:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaymcgregor/2016/12/30/amazons-alexa-vs-google-assistant-24-questions-1-winner/?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo#64f054b52649

Their AI capabilities are far superior to any other company out there right now. Just look at what they did with AlphaGo. That wasn't supposed to happen for years. First mover or a pretty facade is no match for a superior UX... uh hum... remember myspace? Google will market the shit out of this thing and people will start to notice.

The AI revolution is being exposed to the mainstream via voice activation, but it is much bigger than that and going to hit us like a semi --->

Self driving cars/trucks:
https://medium.com/basic-income/self-driving-trucks-are-going-to-hit-us-like-a-human-driven-truck-b8507d9c5961?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo#.lzmcdvj52

AI concerns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycJeht-Mfus&utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

Deep Learning Revolution:
http://fortune.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-deep-machine-learning/?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

Great newsletter BTW. A co-worker recommended it and to be honest I hate newsletters and any email subscriptions. I read the first newsletter in my subscription and thought to myself - who is this old guy complaining about stuff??? But I read a few more and was genuinely intrigued by your opinion. Your newsletter and Quora are the only email subscriptions that have really kept my attention in the last 2 years. kudos and keep kicking out your opinion.... it actually provokes thoughts, unlike most stuff I'm exposed to.

John McAliley
________________________________________

I can barely even read this without cracking up, and wanting to yell a little. I've got an Echo and an Echo Dot and a lot of connected accessories that are supposed to work with Alexa. I've bought in and tried to be open minded and on top of that, I know way more about tech than the average consumer, and getting Alexa to do much of anything but the very, very narrow stuff it can do well is an absolute nightmare. It's infuriating on a daily basis and it's gotten to the point where I don't even try anymore. It's worse than Siri was in the early days at all but the few things that I admit it does do well.

The speech recognition is great, even at a distance, I'll certainly give them that. If only it knew what to do with the commands then on a consistent basis. It has the music part mostly down (both Apple Music and Alexa struggle to play perhaps the right version of a track I've found), but why would I want to listen out of the Echo when I have audio systems that smoke it? I can connect a Dot to any system, but I have to switch inputs then away from Apple TV, which basically handles 99.9% of my home media consumption with ease. I can AirPlay audio to it from any of my Apple devices, and yes, as you said, Apple Music absolutely does play music with Siri as well, and has for quite some time. It doesn't work in a room, but "Hey Siri" on iPhone/iPad is lightning fast now, and it works well enough with Apple Watch if you have one, and Siri actually works well on Series 2 which is about as good as a listening-device in a room with Hey Siri (Siri was utterly useless on the first Apple Watch). And with Apple Watch, your listening device is with you wherever you go, and it's only going to get better. It's going to be your keys, your wallet, your remote, your always on you, always available listening device, and so-on. And Siri will work the same on all of these different devices as well; no small thing.

But getting back to Apple TV, what else can I do with it that I can't do with Alexa? AirPlay video, like Amazon Prime video, any audio, not just what Alexa works with, plus all the apps and everything else it does as a streamer/smart TV device. And Apple has sold a ton of Apple TVs, and it's certainly more of a mainstream media box than Echo is a mainstream home listening device. Wait until Apple combines the two and eliminates the need for the silly remote. Apple will undoubtedly put out a new Apple TV that's a lot closer in functionality to Echo; you know it's coming, and likely quite soon. And I'll tell you, it'll be a hit, because Siri truly is lightyears better than it used to be, HomeKit is an infinitely more robust and increasingly supported smart-home platform, and that's going to be huge moving forward, and Apple TV is already far more mainstream than Echo.

When it comes to connected devices, again, Echo/Alexa is atrociously bad and utterly and completely painful to use. Look at all the reviews in the Alexa app for the skills. They're horrible because none of them work well in the slightest. The smart part of the home platform is very, very broken. Siri and HomeKit are so far ahead of their competition on this front, and the setup is infinitely less painless than Alexa's, and the HomeKit platform is no doubt far more secure, which people should be worried about given events we've seen recently related to the hacking of the internet of things.

And believe me, I could rant and rave endlessly about Apple right now. They're a frustrating company at this point in time in so many ways, but they're still doing a lot of great stuff; the frequent doom and gloom sentiments are comical. Having used both platforms a great deal for some time now for a lot of different tasks, I firmly believe Apple is still way ahead of Amazon on the core smart technology front. Echo/Alexa has absolutely made me a believer in the home voice-enabled device, without a semblance of a doubt, but literally every single day I use it only makes me long for the Apple version more, because Siri absolutely is so much better than it used to be, and it's infinitely smarter with HomeKit devices, which most smart devices are.

"Hey Siri, turn on the lights in the living room, and what the hell, make them green."

And without touching anything, almost before I finish the sentence, I'm flooded with green light. And thankfully, it's just as quick and easy to set the lights back to something sensible!

I've fully embraced both platforms, and I've lost a lot of my Apple bias in the wake of the seemingly countless software problems lately, but there's simply no comparison to me between Siri and Alexa when we're talking potential in the voice-enabled home device space. I am glad you're excited about listening to music by talking to a box, it is cool, but it's barely the tip of the iceberg of where this is going. And it's not nearly enough to compensate for how utterly infuriating (more so than the early days of Siri in some ways, which is saying a lot) Alexa is at nearly everything else. And again, so many limitations!

This is a bit of a convoluted message, but hopefully you get my point. This is all cool, in many ways Echo is really cool. Again, I have two. But it's also really terrible in a lot of ways, and Apple isn't behind on the core technologies and platform as some people like to assume as opposed to actually looking into it again. My Echos will be replaced immediately once Apple puts out a listening version of Apple TV. I'll likely keep an Echo in the kitchen for Amazony-things, but that's about it unless it gets infinitely better fast.

Elliot Kleinfelder

P.S. I also trust Apple far more on the privacy front, which is kinda important when you're talking about keeping devices in your home that could always be listening.

P.P.S. When has Apple ever cared about being first to market???

________________________________________

TV news report prompts viewers' Amazon Echo devices to order unwanted dollhouses:

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/01/06/tv-news-report-prompts-viewers-amazon-echo-devices-to-order-unwanted-dollhouses.html?utm_source=phplist5695&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Re-Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

Josh Tarnow
________________________________________

bob i can't believe you don't have a "Lefsetz Letter" skill yet

Ryan Burton

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Bruce Springsteen On WTF

http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episode-773-bruce-springsteen?utm_source=phplist5694&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Bruce+Springsteen+On+WTF

He's so screwed up!

But so are you.

This could be the rock and roll moment of the year, equivalent to Bob Dylan's speech at MusiCares back in 2015. Because rock and roll is a spirit, based on alienation, wherein if you speak your truth you believe it will set you free.

But it didn't work for Bruce Springsteen.

He's internalized. And on guard. It takes him a while to warm up. And he doesn't talk like you or me. It comes out slowly. But while you wait, you realize...

This guy is thinking about it.

Nobody in public life does that anymore. Everything's for show, everything's for the cameras, everything's for social media. Come on, YOU DOCUMENT IT! Believing everyone cares about your image, that the more people who flock to you the happier you'll be.

But it didn't work for Bruce Springsteen.

He got bitten by the music bug. The only thing I've seen similar is the internet bug. Back in '95. When suddenly the whole country had to sign up for AOL to play. There'd been music, but when the Beatles hit, when they were on Ed Sullivan, an entire generation took up musical instruments and tried to speak their truth and become famous. Most gave up. Some soldiered on. Especially those with no other options.

Bruce Springsteen had no other options.

So he battles a mentally ill father and then the whole family abandons him, moves to the west coast for a better life and Bruce soldiers on in no-man's land, trying to make it. A&R guys were not coming to Asbury Park, it was the land of cover bands. But Bruce could feel himself getting better. And when he listened to the radio, he thought he was just as good.

But he was nowhere.

And, of course, we know that Bruce Springsteen got somewhere. But that is not the story being told in this podcast. First and foremost it's a story of isolation and detachment, just trying to survive in a screwed-up family. Putting up defenses. Not trusting good things even if they happen, never mind love.

And then hitting the wall. Becoming famous and realizing it solved none of his other problems, it didn't make a life. Being thirty five and wanting a family but not knowing how to acquire one.

Life happens to you. You don't control it. Bruce philosophizes and it's like he's inside your brain, saying what you feel, but nobody else is saying this stuff. Nobody else will show any weakness. Nobody else will say they've got many more questions than answers. No one else will say that being a star works on stage, but the rest of your life??? That can be torture.

Used to be we pored over the interviews in "Rolling Stone" for wisdom. When musicians were big thinkers instead of brands. Now it's endless hype.

And Bruce Springsteen has done his share of hype too. For albums and projects that may not have deserved it.

But this is different. He's selling a book, but unlike television the interview is extended. Unlike television there are no ratings. It's akin to radio, it's personal. You're never gonna get the chance to talk to Bruce Springsteen, you can tell he's wary of speaking with Marc Maron, because if you haven't been burned by the press you have no fame, but once he gets going he just can't help himself, he's got to lay it on the line.

That's what he did. That's what made him famous. That was the essence. That was why we were drawn to him. And his brethren. They were driven to make it because not only were there no other options, they had to prove their worth. And once someone is paying attention, their heart's desire, they cannot hold back. Because it's not money they're looking for, not really fame, but understanding. They want to be known.

Bruce Springsteen is in his sixties. He's seen a lot. He's finally comfortable in his own skin. So he can speak about the journey, the dead ends, what it takes to become a man.

Like Marc Maron, I'm still working on it. But listening to Bruce gives me insight. How you've got to adjust to what happens. And know you'll get through no matter what. How to learn how to say yes and learn how to say no. How to exert some control in a world with no control. You're guarded to survive, but ultimately you die inside.

This is not a tech world-beater telling you how he had an insight and now lives the life of a billionaire. This is someone you put on a pedestal, who's been on a journey you can only dream of, but is broken inside and has spent the last few decades of his life trying to put the pieces back together.

It's a privilege to listen. Because you rarely get wisdom, just posture and bloviating. Everybody's trying to get ahead, everybody's polishing their image and selling. But once upon a time, you got up on stage and...

That's what built Bruce Springsteen's reputation. Sure, he was on the cover of "Time and "Newsweek," "Born To Run" got airplay. And eventually he was the king of MTV with "Born In The U.S.A." But what broke Bruce Springsteen was the performances. The albums came alive. The show was anything but rote. He delivered, not for you, but for himself. He needed to prove it all night, that he was good enough, that he deserved attention, that you should pay attention.

And he did.

But it did not make his life work.

You may be too young to get the lessons imparted. You may be too busy being born to contemplate dying. You may not want to look at yourself as you blindly march forward.

But if there's a crack in your system, if you put your head on your pillow and can't fall asleep because you're overwhelmed, unsure what path to follow...

You'll find this podcast a revelation. You'll feel a kinship. You won't get answers, but you'll gain the ability to march forward, in your own way, and isn't that all we're looking for?


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Navigating The Modern World

1. No one is hip.

When someone makes fun of you for not knowing something, laugh it off.

The truth is in today's overwhelming society no one can know everything. No one can see every movie, no one can see every TV show, no one can listen to every record. Used to be professionals would look at the "Billboard" chart and know every record. Now the "Billboard" chart is irrelevant, those trumpeting its importance are inured to the old ways, it's too fluid, it's not comprehensive enough and even though you can listen to the Spotify Top 50 can you do that in every genre? Absolutely not, and anybody who tells you otherwise is lying. Hipdom is a passe concept. We are all in the know in our own little universe. Wear your ignorance proudly. We live in an on demand culture. If you hear that something is good you can check it out, almost everything is at your fingertips. But usually you have to hear about it a few times before you bother, because you're overwhelmed with input to begin with!

2. Go deep.

Find your vertical and revel in it. Being a grazer is passe. That's from back when there were fifty channels and nothing on, but now there are five hundred channels and Netflix and Hulu and Amazon... What purveyors don't know is we have to be grabbed instantly, no one has the time to stick with something, to find out if it's good, to see if they like it. And don't view this as a short attention span problem, view it as an incentive to up your game. To be great from the get-go and stay at that level.

As human beings we like to wallow and get to know people and entertainment and...

So, feel free to binge on the show. Or read up and participate in your favorite sport. The advantage in the new world is you can communicate with like-minded people, you can find your tribe online.

We live in an era where a little knowledge is not respected. But if you know a lot about one thing you become a resource. Put all these resources together and you have a functioning society. Instead of putting someone down for what they don't know, investigate and find out what they do.

3. You can't disconnect.

We cannot go backward. When you read about vinyl and the return to analog...ignore it. The vinyl fetishists are listening to reproductions of digital recordings on inferior equipment. Of course there are exceptions, tweaks with six figures invested listening to reissued analog recordings, and I'm fine with that, but what I'm not fine with is a media that keeps trumpeting the analog world. Vinyl records, books... Ignore the reactionaries, they can't cope with change. The truth is digital is both easier and here to stay. We want to be able to buy a book on a beach. We don't want to tote around a bag full of reading material. The fact that those in charge of the old school media are experiencing future shock is irrelevant.

And this affects art too. Which used to be experienced alone, oftentimes in the dark, we had time to kill. But now a big problem is people checking their cell phones in the theatre. And if you want to bitch about mobile phones I want you to give up instant access to your kids, the ability to make a restaurant reservation online...

The way to the future is not via the past. We don't live in a disconnected, dreamy world. Which is why our music is not disconnected and dreamy. But that does not mean new twists on art cannot appear, and they will!

4. Nobody knows anything.

Don't trust the media, don't trust the bloviators, you're on your own.

We used to have the illusion that people knew what they were talking about. Before we could go online and find not only a contrary opinion, but one further in depth. The problem with the mainstream media is it still believes it's anointed. That it lords over us. But it doesn't. We make fun of its bias, we laugh at its self-righteousness. These people don't know, too often they're talking heads. As for reporters... We've got people living the subject and testifying online, why should we trust someone with a notebook who showed up for an afternoon?

The establishment hates this. It doesn't want to give up power. It doesn't want to admit there's chaos.

But there is.

5. We live in a world of self-education.

College is a joke. Diploma mills. A place where you go to get a sheet of paper that says you're better than those who don't possess it. Your greatest learning experience will take place outside of the classroom, interacting with different people.

So, if you want to get ahead, YouTube is your friend. Getting ahead is hard work, not cheating on the multiple choice test. All the information you need is hiding in plain sight, do you have the time to study it? Most people don't. But if you do, you'll get ahead, I promise you.

6. Analysis is king.

In a world where all knowledge is at your fingertips, it's how you put it together, how you gain insights, that is king.

This is the mark of a smart person, someone who can make sense of the data. If someone is just shouting headlines, ignore them. We all have the same facts, what do they mean? They can teach this in school, but they don't, except at the finest institutions. Which is why you want to go to the Ivy League. And you can! All the elite colleges are need blind, if you can meet the requirements, there's no fee, assuming you can't pay to begin with. But the rich don't want you to know this, because they want a stranglehold on opportunity.

7. Experience is king.

Take every opportunity to travel, to meet new and different people. That was the downfall of the mainstream media in the presidential election, it was a self-satisfied echo chamber. People will surprise you. Everybody has a gift. It's your job to uncover it.

8. Assets are passe.

Accumulation is for baby boomers. You need a mobile phone, with a fast connection, clothes, food, a roof over your head and some cash, that's it. When you see someone spending on a car they cannot afford, laugh. You are your own status item, your possessions are irrelevant. So much is virtual, so much is on demand, so much has been commoditized. Spend your time developing your identity, not accumulating goods.

9. Relationships are key.

Watch all the online porn you want, hopefully it will get you through. But know that despite the virtual world connecting us, it's the one on one human connections that sustain us.

10. The transition is happening.

The free-for-all piracy internet has faded. The every week a new hot app or website world has faded. We will have tech breakthroughs, but Trump and Brexit have taught us that our coming societal struggle is one of inclusiveness, how do we all live together? Finland just started paying a guaranteed wage. Even if manufacturing comes back to America, most of the work will be done by robots. What is everybody gonna do for a living? Billionaires live behind gates and fly private but are oblivious to the contempt the proletariat have for them. This division will not sustain, the walls must come down. Do your best to effect change, to work for equality, but know that the seeds have been planted, the issue is in the air, there's a feeling that we've been sold a bill of goods and we can't make it here. We keep hearing how stupid we are, how we need to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, that the corporation is king. But now with opportunity reduced, we're not buying it. It's our country, and for too long we've been whipsawed by those who say they know better. But now we've discovered they don't, they were just yelling louder. Accept change. Know that the past is history. But also know that you are in charge of the future, you are responsible. And if you're getting high and taking yourself out of the game, the joke is on you. But the joke is really on those who keep telling us they know better. They don't. You know as much as they do. You've got the tools at your fingertips. You are powerful. You are in control of your own destiny. You can make a difference. But only if you discard the disinformation and believe in yourself.

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Apple Doesn't Hear The Echo

Alexa is my music concierge of choice. I just tell her what to play and she does.

How did Apple squander first mover advantage? It was there earliest, with Siri, but I never use it, it's too inaccurate, but Alexa gets it right almost all of the time.

That could be perception. But what is driving my Echo adoption is utility.

Voice-activation is the hottest thing in tech right now. It's hiding in plain sight. But most people have not gotten the memo. But those with Echos are testifying. As for Google's me-too product... Android put a huge dent in iOS, but Amazon is a better competitor. Because first and foremost all units are cheap. And the Echo is tied into Amazon's sales paradigm. And Google's product is blah, in a world where design counts, and Amazon has first mover advantage.

Echo is the dream we've been waiting for. The one we've given up hope on arriving. One wherein you talk to your computer, as opposed to typing in entries.

We've lived through the video revolution. All that news about Facebook focusing on the moving image?

This voice activation revolution is even bigger.

It's not just a reduction of steps, it's a change in conception.

Oftentimes I think of a song but don't play it. Because to get to the computer and find my music program and type it in...

Takes too much time.

But to just think of a track and blurt out its name and hear it right away?

It's utterly fascinating. Kinda like demonstrating Sonos nearly a decade ago. People couldn't believe you could pull up any track and hear it instantly. They couldn't wrap their heads around Rhapsody, never mind Spotify. And it's only a matter of time before they wrap their head around Echo.

But Apple is out of the loop.

Supposedly you can tell Apple Music what to play via Siri. But even for the tracks I own I find Apple Music too complicated. It's got interface issues. Funny how the company that pioneered easier user interfaces is blowing it here. I can figure it out, but my girlfriend couldn't find shuffle within her playlists and there was just an update and today if you need a manual you don't even bother.

But with the Echo, you just blurt out your choice.

Here's the skinny. You make Spotify your default music service. So, you just say "Alexa, play 'A Hard Day's Night.'" and she does. Yup, just like that.

But you can't do this with Apple Music. And the window keeps widening. People are becoming inured to their Echos and are not signing up for Apple Music. Because Apple Music is a walled garden. When will this change?

Apple has to admit it lost the war. It must open itself up to the Echo ecosystem, or be left behind.

But that's not the Apple Way.

But the Apple Way used to be to create a dominant ecosystem that no one wanted to leave. Amazon couldn't topple the iTunes Store. And now Apple is gonna get creamed.

As is Amazon. It was too late to the party with its own streaming music service. That horse has left the barn. It's Apple and Spotify, and the latter is increasing its footprint at a faster rate.

You don't fight the last battle, you start anew.

So, you're gonna control your music via voice, you just don't know it yet.

And the first mover here is Amazon.

But now you can make Spotify the default music service on Google Home too.

And where is Apple?

Nowhere to be found, on either device, never mind having a device of its own.

Meanwhile, Amazon has already sold five million Echos, talk about first mover advantage...

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/make-spotify-the-default-music-player-on-your-echo/?utm_source=phplist5692&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo

Spotify on Google Home: https://support.spotify.com/us/listen_everywhere/on_speaker/spotify-on-google-home/?utm_source=phplist5692&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text&utm_campaign=Apple+Doesn%27t+Hear+The+Echo


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Megyn Kelly To NBC

You just can't treat someone that badly.

Forget Roger Ailes's harassment, station star Bill O'Reilly said she should eat it, report infractions to human resources, take one for the team.

But no one ever went to human resources, they were afraid, it was a toxic environment, and the truth is women don't want to work in a place like that. Donald Trump may have won the Presidency, but most things in America did not change. Women want opportunity and equal rights and a safe environment to work and raise their kids.

That's been the explanation, that Kelly took this gig so she could see her kids. And I'm sure that's a factor, but it turns out that she did not drink the kool-aid, she was not a dyed-in-the-wool conservative oblivious to the plight of most Americans.

Never forget that Fox News missed the Trump phenomenon. That Kelly tried to attack him and lost. Sure, the right wing outlet may be preaching to delusional oldsters angry that our nation has changed, but they're not the ones who got the Trumpster elected, those were the white disenfranchised, many of whom used to vote Democrat, they were worried about their jobs. They've got no problem with gay marriage and if an immigrant is not looking to take their job, they're cool with him or her.

But we keep hearing from Fox that half of America are takers and the rich know better and if you think this plays across our country you're believing the b.s. they're feeding you.

But Megyn Kelly did not.

She's got more at risk than Fox here. They can groom another bimbo. Whereas the bimbo paradigm doesn't work so well on the rest of the stations. That was Ailes's genius, appealing to dirty old men like himself. But now he's gone too, and if you think Fox News can survive you probably felt the Doors would triumph after the death of Jim Morrison. Sure, some bands haves survived the loss of their lead singer, but most haven't. You need a visionary (can you hear me Apple?) Despite all this hogwash about team-building, getting along, the truth is one person makes a difference, can move mountains, and usually the one who does has rough edges on his personality.

Kinda like Andy Lack. Who came in to fix the record business and showed no respect, thought he knew better. Well, we fixed that, didn't we? The rootkit fiasco was just an excuse to finally kick his butt out. Lack went back to news, he was the one who signed Kelly. He who believes he can jump from career to career, wreaking havoc and lording it over workers everywhere, has been reading too much press. You're lucky if you can do one thing well. Pick an industry and stay in it, assuming you want to get to the top, exercise a bit of power.

Now the truth is Megyn Kelly was a creation of Roger Ailes. He groomed her. In the Fox mold, she was beautiful. But also educated and intelligent. And a free-thinker. That's why she's triumphed while the other one note Fox anchors have failed to gain traction with the non-believers. But take her out of the band...

A daytime show? Does she know how hard it is to gain traction? Her special failed, she's a newsreader and should continue to be so, asking a few questions along the way. But she believes her own press and thinks she can be something more. Hell, all those correspondents on "60 Minutes" needed Don Hewitt to mint and maintain their fame, there's still a show on CBS with that name but it's a far cry from what once was, a joke where talking heads try to get serious but too often only skim the surface, or play for entertainment value.

And how did we get here to begin with? Where we think people reading lines on television are geniuses who we should listen to otherwise? Better to promote someone from print.

And the truth is print rules, even if it usually appears as pixels on a screen.

Kim Kardashian is about how you look.

News is about what you have to say.

So...

Used to be you left the other outlet for the ratings juggernaut. Greta Van Susteren left CNN for Fox. But now she's gone too.

And who is going to pick and groom the new Megyn Kelly? It's hard to start from scratch. And if you think picking stars is easy, you've never run a record label. Stars have this charisma, this je ne sais quoi. They shine, but they're not easily found. And oftentimes they need seasoning. After all, David Lee Roth could not replace Howard Stern.

So, chances are Megyn Kelly will fade away. She's no Barbara Walters, who asked the unaskable and made a career out of it. And the even more beloved Katie Couric and Connie Chung couldn't sustain, and Jane Pauley never equaled her status on the "Today Show."

You see sometimes it is the show, like it is the band.

I would have told Megyn Kelly to stay. Or to ask for an equal gig at a rival outlet. Host of the news every night.

But one thing's for sure, TV no longer controls the narrative. It's subservient to print, but the "New York Times" is still trying to figure out how to adjust to the election of Trump, paying lip service to the disenfranchised but circling the wagons around its myopic coastal liberal elite viewpoint all the while.

And the "Wall Street Journal" is an analog of Fox News. Shrinking with little content, it's the right wing paper of record. It gave up its stranglehold on business news and now we're not sure what the paper is for, it's been marginalized, all by itself.

And none of these outlets have conquered the web. Just like MTV missed music online before it.

Their game just doesn't apply. We don't need reporters when there's someone living the subject online. Someone who's in the trenches of that vertical every day.

And the public is tired of the shouting. the constant debate by the bloviators on TV. I'd rather go to a boxing match, a UFC cage fight, but really, I don't want to watch that either.

But I'm an information junkie. Today everybody's an information junkie. What we're looking for is facts and honest analysis. Sure, there's skewing in the political sphere, but that does not work elsewhere. They tell us movies are good and we tell them they are bad and don't go. The decline of marketing power is the story here. Truth and honesty rule. And what blows the mind of even Trump voters is how little truth and honesty there was in the campaign, even from their candidate.

But they wanted change. They wanted someone to listen to them.

So they flipped the table over.

Megyn Kelly moving to NBC may flip the table over at Fox, but basically it's inside baseball, most don't care.

And last I checked they didn't care about the NFL either.

That's one of the big lessons of 2016, that the conventional wisdom is wrong. That nothing is forever. And if you don't think change is coming, you're gonna be wiped out by the tsunami.

So Megyn Kelly jumped from a sinking ship. She'll get paid, maybe she'll land on her feet.

But one thing's for sure, Fox News has taken two bullets in the last six months. People die from less. How are they gonna staunch the bleeding?

They're probably not.

That's the big news here. Who's gonna fill the vacuum?

Someone will. And it won't be a pretty face, but a visionary, like Shane Smith of Vice Media or some other young 'un in touch with what their generation wants.

Because believe you me, the younger generation does not want to sit down in real time and watch pretty people argue about the news.

That's an oldster's pastime.

Youngsters want the facts on demand. He or she who delivers this will own the narrative in the future.


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Coachella Lineup

The only one missing is Justin Bieber.

Then again, maybe he'll make a guest appearance with DJ Snake.

Classic rock is dead. The oldsters are in the rearview mirror. Even booking Radiohead was a risk. Because, you see, Coachella is a rite of passage for SoCal teenagers, and Radiohead peaked nearly twenty years ago.

Unlike Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar.

We did not expect it to go down this way. After getting old, we expected Pete Townshend and the other survivors to rule until they died. Only last year some of them did die. You may hate the Eagles, but if Glenn Frey can expire that means you can too. You're just one health crisis away from passing to the other side.

Unlike the youth. Who might be victims of misadventure, just ask the Hard crew, but otherwise feel they're invulnerable.

It's a passing of the torch. Doug Morris has been kicked upstairs and labels are run by people who were not around when the business was built and in the next ten or fifteen years it will be taken over by millennials with completely different values from their parents. Millennials believe in money, but they also believe in transparency. They cannot understand the obfuscation of the modern music business, and when they take the reins...

It can only get better.

You see the old farts are cynical and set in their ways. For far too long Coachella has been featuring reunions of bands its audience does not care about, giving slots to those who were someone once, but who are no one today, other than in their fans' memories.

And these fans don't go to Coachella.

One of the reasons Desert Trip was such a success was because it was upscale. You didn't have to eat hot dogs. You were treated like an adult. And that's what adults want, only they do not realize this lifestyle does not run the culture. It's those without who push the envelope, who take risks. And the only risk a classic act takes is to dye their hair and get plastic surgery, believing image is everything.

But image is fading in this social media world where your warts are revealed. Honesty is on its way back.

And the honest truth about Coachella is it's about the fans, not the lineup. They want to mingle, they want to ogle each other, take pictures and post to Instagram. Today you are the star of your own production, who is on stage...not so much.

I'm not saying that the performers are not heroes to some, just that too many look outward instead of inward. Art is not branding and money is a byproduct, whereas too many of the modern acts believe otherwise. Then again, their idea of an oldster is Mariah Carey, a woman who was the antithesis of classic rock.

So this changing of the guard is a good thing. We're wiping the slate clean so a new generation of acts can triumph. We're admitting rock is dead and hip-hop rules. And EDM is the building block, the core, the nougat of all these festivals. The kids want to party. The sound is just grease. Doubt me? Then you don't remember the last time Radiohead played in the desert, when their audience continued to shrink as everybody went to the Sahara tent.

Further risks can be taken. A country act could be put on the Coachella bill. After all, they rap too. And the audience genre jumps, they listen to everything. If you wanna be cool you can book Sturgill Simpson, but the audience wants to see Thomas Rhett.

And the fact that two African-Americans are headlining proves...

That music is far ahead of the government. Where Obama is exiting and the white men are entering. African-Americans control popular music. It's about time lilywhite Coachella acknowledged this.

So where does the festival go from here?

Rumor was we were no longer minting new headliners, that you had to overpay oldsters to play.

But then Beyonce dropped the album of the year, with videos, and Kendrick Lamar was acclaimed the most credible artist out there.

Who next, Chance the Rapper?

You're gonna have to pay him beaucoup bucks, he can sell out stadiums all by his lonesome.

So it's not your father's music business anymore. They don't make Oldsmobiles and everyone has seen the classic rock acts, they've been hiding in plain sight, and only a small number of people want to see revivals of the cult favorites.

Last year our heroes died.

And this year we're starting over with a whole new generation.

It's about time.


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Gamblin' Man

http://spoti.fi/2ixMBOy

"Sweet Forgiveness" was Bonnie Raitt's comeback album. After starting off as a critics' darling with her four track made in Minnesota eponymous debut she wandered into the wilderness, changing producers with each record and having less and less success. So it was decided she should work with a certified hitmaker, Paul Rothchild. Their first attempt, 1975's "Home Plate," was slicker than what had come before and there was no hit but the team decided to stay the course and 1977's "Sweet Forgiveness" finally yielded a radio track, a cover of Del Shannon's "Runaway." But Bonnie ended up in no-man's (no-woman's?) land. Her old fans shrugged their shoulders and not enough new fans signed on and she shifted to a woman's best friend, Peter Asher, for her next LP, but that resulted in a collection even sweeter and who knew what to do?

Bonnie ended up making a rougher, rootsier album with her then boyfriend, Rob Fraboni, entitled "Green Light," and there began the walk into the wilderness, Warner Brothers was done, their investment had never paid off, eventually she was dropped. Not that you could blame the Bunny, after eight albums and no breakthrough it could be argued it was time to cut their losses. Who knew nearly a decade later WB execs newly ensconced in the Capitol Tower would sign Bonnie and she'd end up being not only the favorite of the critics, but the whole world, with "Nick Of Time." Credit Don Was, who let Bonnie be Bonnie. He engineered a return to what once was, that initial LP from '71, albeit with modern technology. You see Bonnie Raitt always had an edge, and if you tried to clean it up, cut it off, you removed her essence.

Meanwhile, over on RCA, the Record Cemetery of America, there was a band with little traction that had a track on its second album that ended up gaining momentum and breaking through long after its initial release. That act was Pure Prairie League. That song was "Amie." The writer of that number was one Craig Fuller.

Now purchasers of "Bustin' Out," the Pure Prairie League album containing the hit, knew it did not stand alone, because when you dropped the needle on side two the opening cut was a magical, harmonious number that set your mind adrift before the picking for "Amie" began. That's right, scratch a baby boomer and they'll be able to sing "Falling In And Out Of Love" as well as the hit, they see them both as one long number, a veritable suite, hell, as you reached the end of "Amie," "Falling In And Out Of Love" returned.

I got e-mail from Craig Fuller.

I assumed it wasn't him. After all, I regularly hear from Mike Campbell, a guy from Canada, not the guitarist extraordinaire in Tom Petty's band. You'd be surprised how many people have your name. Then again, it was the real David Gilmour, and one of the privileges of my work is if I write about someone they read it, and oftentimes they do reach out. So when I got wished a Happy New Year by one Craig Fuller I decided to investigate. His e-mail address had a "49" in it and Wikipedia told me that was the year he was born in, so I asked...

And he said:

"I presume you mean the musician and not the former White House staffer; that would be me. Read your thoughts on things everyday; well done."

And that made me tingle. Reminded me of those Pure Prairie days, the work with Little Feat and in between, the partnership with Eric Kaz, and for two albums Steve Katz and Doug Yule too.

I bought those American Flyer LPs. Which were on United Artists, so they could not break through. If only they'd been with the Bunny. But I played them and there was one cut that truly stuck out, "Gamblin' Man." But did Craig Fuller sing it? I knew Eric Kaz wrote it, I pulled my vinyl, there was no detail, I scoured the internet and came up with nothing, so I decided to ask my new buddy Craig himself...

"No that was Eric Kaz; he wrote it and did a bang-up job! I think he sang it a lot better than Bonnie R.."

I agree.

"The odds are down and the track looks slow
Sure don't feel like a sure thing"

And speaking of things, the Triple Crown is still one, especially the Kentucky Derby, but basically horse racing is going the way of duckpin bowling, it's fading away. But fifty years ago, it was still burgeoning.

"Your horse gets jumpy when the pack runs wild
It don't like a good thing"

Trains and gambling. For most of the twentieth century those were standard songwriting subjects. But trains have faded from songdom the same way westerns have faded from moviedom, there's no romance left. And gambling...it's been institutionalized, you can still lose your life savings but the state needs the tax revenue, so the renegade element has been eviscerated from society.

"You must be crazy
To gamble this way
The children hungry
And the rent ain't paid
Gamblin' man
Ramblin' fool
Sure must be crazy
To gamble on you"

We don't choose who we love. I know, I know, you can go to a good school and try to build a dynasty through matrimony but the truth is the heart wants what the heart wants and even though you may have money in the bank your heart yearns for something different. This is the conundrum of love, so often what you want is bad for you.

So who better to sing about a gamblin' man than the blues rock mama herself, Bonnie Raitt.

Now if you want to go back to the nadir, the album that caused the label to connect Bonnie with Rothchild, you'll find an opening track so mellifluous that to hear it once is to be taken away to a place of reflection you enjoy inhabiting so much you spin it over and over again.

That's right, Bonnie's 1974 album "Streetlights," produced by Jerry Ragavoy, was a dud, it was so soft that it nearly put you to sleep, but despite getting no traction at the time it contains Bonnie's signature song, her cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery," and the aforementioned opening cut, a cover of Joni Mitchell's "That Song About The Midway."

"I met you at a midway at a fair last year"

That's another thing no one writes about anymore, the carnival, the fair, a place where rogues caroused and sans cellphone cameras anything could happen.

"You stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear"

I'm not sure you can say this anymore, political correctness and all, but the point is it's funny who gains your attention, you're just minding your own business and then your eyes lock on to someone and they can't let go.

"You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings"

That's right, once upon a time bands were not brands. Sure, musicians were entertainers, but they didn't fit into regular society, they enjoyed the freedom of the hours to live an alternative life, which they ultimately sang about.

So, this guy was betting on the ponies...

And so was the guy in "Gamblin' Man."

"The deal is down so you slip right in
You've got the deck but you can't win"

Dreamers. We fall for them time and again, until we learn our lesson. We're infatuated by the tales they spin, until we realize most of them don't come true, and that their purveyors fail even if they have the ammunition in their arsenal. You know the type, charismatic with a wink in their eye, they're hard to resist.

And Bonnie's singing about him with such swagger we know she's headed for heartbreak. That seems to be the story of the blues mama's life, right? Livin' hard, being taken advantage of, never finding true happiness.

But Eric Kaz's rendition is more fatalistic. The hope is absent. It's a cautionary tale by someone burned enough times to be wise.

I bet you Craig Fuller is pretty wise.

It was a different era. You had to have skills to play, you had to practice to get there. And so few passed muster. And then you got a smidge of fame and...

Bonnie Raitt had an unforeseen renaissance, in her later years she's become something akin to America's Sweetheart, but sans sweet stickiness, Bonnie's the sister at the soiree, the one you worry about but always manages to survive.

American Flyer broke up. And its albums were in the rearview mirror until the internet unearthed everything that came before. To the point where you can now hear American Flyer's version of "Gamblin' Man."

"The cards are cold and the cut is thin
You've got the deal but you won't win"

That's right, despite all the advantages, most don't win. And that seems so unfair. You work hard, but mistakes made when you weren't looking, like signing with the wrong label, employing the wrong producer, keep you from grabbing the brass ring.

But you keep on keepin' on, there's nothing else to do.

After all...

You're a gamblin' man.


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