#I know he’s an AI housed in a server and not a robot body don’t @ me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

swampsail · 6 years

Text

Some thoughts about a jchat d:bh au

@droil please join me in this new form of robot hell

Kim is obviously the Kamski of this universe, but instead of building androids, she's programming artificial intelligences to populate cyberspace. Maybe they were originally intended as like, cyberspace guides? "Hi I'm here to help you navigate this virtual space". But whoops, they gained sentience and now they're doing stuff outside the bounds of their programming.

So like, people can pull a Matrix I guess and hook up to cyberspace/virtual reality or whatever. But that's optional, they're not trapped there. There's different "places" to go, so folks can sign in to work, have interviews without leaving the house, or do various forms of entertainment. But they don't just sit at home plugged in all day. People still have to GO places.

So, for example; Chatham (the Hank of this au) is a police guy and has to physically go to the police station to do his job, and still has to travel the city during investigations. But he can hook up to the station's virtual server for stuff like paperwork and cataloguing evidence and so on. And while out and about, there's probably some way to stay connected to the work server to make real-time reports and reference files or whatever. I don't know man, I'm not a cop.

Chatham fucking hates logging on to the servers. Not just for work, but like, any of them. Since this is a dbh au, he's the grumpy millennial who misses how internet used to be, compact and on a phone in your hand. He doesn't like being IN cyberspace and he hates having cyberspace in his head.

So these virtual AIs are becoming self aware and the murders happen. Maybe they're doing something to fry people's brains while online, and just leaving heaps of bodies with no explainable cause of death. I mean obviously it gets figured out eventually, they learn that people are getting toasted online. But WHY. HOW. WHO IS DOING IT

So Chatham's the guy who gets put on the case, and now he's gotta go around investigating the virtual scenes where these people have died, and he hates it.

And in comes this rookie prettyboy to be his partner, of course. Because da cheif said so, and because Jiro (the Connor obviously) is hot shit in the virtual world. Maybe he's got crazy high levels of comprehension and that makes him capable of cruising through the internet at a breakneck speed. Which is exactly what this investigation needs, since there's a LOT of virtual settings they need to comb through.

Also Jiro has special police-issue cybernetic implants that let him connect to pretty much anywhere at any time, and he has neat security access to stuff. The boy is practically half robot, why not.

Obviously Chatham is disgusted by the implant trend, and hates his new partner, and from here we more or less follow the dbh themes through their courses.

But wait, there's more

Down the road we get to the whole Kamski scene,and we discover that

GASP

Jiro isn't just some guy with cybernetic implants and a super fast brain. He's been a virtual AI the whole time, designed by Kim along with all the rest. But he's a fancy prototype that's been stuck into a body instead of existing solely in the virtual world. And, idk, maybe only certain people knew he wasnt human, so the company could see how well he'd blend in with people.

Anyway Chatham is shocked to learn that Jiro isn't human. He's suspicious about it, but Jiro passes this version of the Kamski test (which I assume happens in cyberspace and Kim tries to get Jiro to murder one of her other AI programs, and obviously he doesn't do it)

Jiro and Chatham go back to their investigation and also later have a long talk about feelings and humanity and of course Chatham threatens to shoot Jiro in the face, because "what are you really, Jiro?"

This is about as far as I've gotten with it, and I'm leaving out a LOT of key plot points. But at the end there's definitely a whole scene from Her, where after their uprising the AIs all decide to fuck off to some other plane of existence instead of living in humanity's virtual world. Jiro has the option to leave his body and go with the rest of the AI, but he chooses to stay and rejoins Chatham on the force.

AND THEY HUG GOTTA HAVE THAT HUG SCENE

#jchat

5 notes · View notes

jolie-in-the-underground · 6 years

Text

Fallout (Q and Grim fic)

I actually wrote this last night in response to that completely tragic mini fic my sister posted over on @skeletonsgrim about Grim’s suicide attempt. Then I just REALLY got the urge to watch Ironman, though, so that’s why you’re only just now getting this 8′D i’m terrible i’m sorry

So uuuuuh enjoy the feels and Q’s reaction? *sweats*

Q reached the end of the internet and lingered at its ever expanding horizon of new content, scanning it all with every bit of processing power he could spare that wasn’t already committed to maintaining his world and other vital operations.

It was, to say the least, a startling amount of tech being bent to a single purpose. Q had long since grown out of the lodge basement, and all these years later now owned entire server farms around the world, one of which he maintained in the basement of his home. His basement that was bigger than most people’s entire house.

“Sans, what on earth are you doing down here?” called a familiar voice as the sound of footsteps on the stairs tripped Q’s sensors and pulled him back into the robotic body in which he spent so much time these days. “It feels like we have heated floors upstairs!”

“sorry, peaches, looking for something,” he responded distractedly, his attention still primarily on the ongoing search.

“Looking for what?” Q’s one-time landlady asked with an incredulous laugh. “The lost treasure of the Sierra Madre?” She grimaced and waved her hand in front of her face as she entered. “Lord, it sure feels like the Sierra in here! Do you have the cooling units going? The whole place is going to go up like a match at this rate!”

A soft huff of laughter escaped Q in spite of himself. “if i didn’t have the units going, only flames would live here now. as for what i’m looking for…” he paused and grimaced, once again hit with the inconvenience that came with having a best friend no one else could see. This was far from the first time he’d had to maneuver around the subject of Grim when talking to someone else. “well, it’s something very important, and we’ll leave it at that.”

The answer earned him a lift of a feminine brow as the woman stepped closer, “That’s… vague.”

“peaches, trust me, if i could explain, i would,” he mused tiredly. The search for Grim was starting to drag at him, but he kept at it. Being what he was, Q’s void plagued doppelganger didn’t carry a phone that could make use of satellites or cell towers, leaving it completely reliant on wifi for any sort of communication. It made getting in touch with him a challenge, to say the least. That, and his habit of teleporting overseas on a whim to fight eldritch horrors from beyond the veil of reality were why Q had finally insisted that Grim start wearing a tracker, just in case. The other monster had eventually agreed, though it had taken a great deal of pestering on the AI’s part.

Q was very persistent when it came to getting what he wanted, though. Grim hadn’t really stood a chance.

Now, though, the tracker wasn’t working, and the only time that ever happened was when Grim took one of his brief, painful trips into the void to see his family. There was always the chance the tracker had been broken, of course, but after what had happened with that piece of shit anonymous message someone had left on his friend’s blog… Q would have bet everything he owned on Grim taking it to heart and…

The AI shifted uncomfortably in place as the servers around him kicked into high gear, sending the temperature shooting up another few degrees. Q had found that the only way he could even begin to keep track of Grim’s movements when he wasn’t wearing a tracker was, oddly enough, via posts on conspiracy blogs, ghost hunter forums, UFO sites… it was ridiculous, really. Still, humans’ inability to see Grim while still being able to see the things he moved or the lives he saved often wound up on these sites, attributed to other phenomena entirely. They’d both had a good laugh together about the skeleton’s official cryptid status, and Q had put together an algorithm that would seek out such mentions that might be attributed to his friend. He’d done it as a joke so he could send the results to Grim whenever a new one popped up, but now…

Now it was his only hope to track where his friend might have disappeared to if his tracker wasn’t working.

A large part of him insisted that it was a foolish endeavor, all data pointed towards one result and logic insisted that Grim had made a trip to the void, not had his tracker damaged. The rest of Q, though, held on tight and insisted that maybe he had. It was better than the alternative.

When the tracker had initially gone offline, the AI had quirked a brow, but not descended into outright panic. After all, he wasn’t Grim’s keeper, if he wanted to pop off into the void for a few minutes, it wasn’t any of his business…even if his friend was generally pretty good at keeping him up to date when he was planning anything like that. But then they’d passed the five minute mark and Q had begun to worry. Then six dragged into seven, into eight… now they were ticking steadily past nine and a half and the monster was frantic.

“This is big, isn’t it?”

Q’s eyes darted to the woman beside him and saw her gazing up at him, brow furrowed with concern for whatever was bothering him. The way her lover’s expression contorted in response only deepened her frown and made her reach out to him on reflex.

“Ouch!” she yelped and snatched her fingers back the moment they came into touch with his overheated exterior.

Before he could even apologize, the tracker alert dinged quietly and Q’s eyes went wide.

Grim was back. He’d cut it down to the second, but he was back.

“i gotta go,” Q said and darted towards the back of the long room where there was a ladder bolted to the wall leading up to a hatch in the ceiling. Around him, the servers continued to hum for a minute, then gradually began to back down and enter their cooling cycle.

“What?” came the startled reaction from behind him. “Did you find what you were looking for?”

“i think so,” Q called back as he mounted the first rung and started up hand-over-hand. “i’ll be back in a bit, peaches, don’t wait up.”

“Where are you going?” the woman asked with a blink as she trailed after him down the stacks, long since inured to the AI’s eccentric comings and goings.

“uh-” Q paused and actually looked at the tracker map now, then rolled his eyes hugely and let his head sag forward to hit one of the ladder rungs with a dull clank. “alaska, apparently.” The woman behind him made a startled, almost affronted noise until he twisted where he hung on the ladder and bent to land a kiss on her upturned cheek. “i’ll be back in a few hours, promise.”

She rolled her own eyes now, but turned so her lips caught his now that he wasn’t so overheated as to burn her. “Fine,” she said when they broke contact. “Bring me back some smoked salmon or don’t come home at all, though.”

He laughed and started to climb again. “yes ma’am.”

“The candied kind!” she clarified from the bottom of the ladder as he pushed his way up through the hatch.

“who do you think you’re talking to right now?”

“My husband, the guy that’s abandoning me on date night to make a trip to Alaska to find the lost treasure of Sierra Madre!”

Q had disappeared up through the hatch, but at her shout poked his head back over the opening and grimaced apologetically. “i’m sorry peaches, it-”

Her expression softened when she saw the discomfort in his gaze and she waved him off with a smile, “I know,” she said. “Just hurry up and go. I’ll see you in the morning.”

His wife blew him a kiss and the AI pantomimed catching it, then shot her a wink and said, “see you in your dreams, peaches,” then closed the hatch and stepped up onto the patch of cement he’d had laid in their expansive back yard.

Once at its center, he paused and kicked off his shoes, then rolled his pants up to his knees before stripping off his hoodie and the t-shirt he’d been wearing under it. The shirt he tossed aside, and the hoodie he tied off around his waist before activating his flight array. Panels on his body lifted and shifted as the specially designed engines flared to life and launched him effortlessly into the air.

Yeah, alright, so he might have borrowed the idea from Ironman. So what? It was a good design and he felt cool as hell as he soared up and over the city, then breached the cloud layer to find himself over a sea of gently shifting white illuminated by the rising moon. The monster took a moment to orient himself to the tracker location, then shot off towards the northwest at speeds that would make jet blush.

It didn’t take him long to get where he was going, and the fact that the tracker had moved a bit since coming back online gave the AI some relief on his trip north to find his friend. Unfortunately, that still left him with plenty of time to get worked up.

He was coming in far too hot and fast, Q knew, but when he spotted his friend cresting a hilltop at the base of a mountain, all caution went out the window.

The monster dropped out of the sky like a stone, and only a last second burst from his boosters kept him from hitting hard enough to leave a crater. The close call was, however, enough to char the earth for several feet around, and Q left it to smolder as he marched towards Grim with an expression like a thunderstorm.

His best friend had the good grace to look ashamed of himself, and dropped his gaze from Q’s as he approached. It wasn’t enough to allay the AI’s wrath, however, as he shouted, “nine minutes and fifty-five goddamn seconds, grim!” and jabbed at the air between them with a finger.

“yeah,” was the solemn response as the other monster still refused to meet his eyes.

Q stared him down for a long minute, but when Grim offered no defense he made a sound of irritation and stormed off some distance and paced for a moment before marching right back to demand, “you were really ready to pack it in, weren’t you? This little trip was your last hurrah so you could die on your brother’s fucking doorstep wasn’t it?!”

Pinned under the weight of his friend’s gaze, Grim shifted uncomfortably, but finally managed to say, “i… not on their doorstep. not intentionally.”

He’d known as soon as he got back that he was in for a lecture, but that didn’t make it any easier to bear. Q’s ability to cut to the quick of a subject when it suited him had always been able to wrong-foot Grim considering his friend’s usual proclivity for half-truths and teasing, and that was still the case now. The bluntness of it shone a light on the harsh reality of the almost permanent solution the skeleton had sought for his temporary problem, and the disappointment in his voice stung like a lash.

Q pointed wordlessly at Grim, struggling to find the words he wanted, but failing, so his hand tightened into a fist and he turned his back on his friend and walked away again to give himself some space. Mechanical body struggling to keep up with the onslaught of emotions the AI was suffering, Q’s hands began to tremble and he shook them out angrily, then put them to use dragging his hoodie off his waist and pulling it on. He zipped it up and adjusted it with short, sharp movements as he collected himself.

“i’m sorry,” Grim finally managed to say quietly as he approached to stand at Q’s side, eyes on the sprawling view of the forest and distant, glittering city that was laid out before them.

The AI looked at him sharply, eyes narrowed. “that so?” he asked bitterly. “what would ‘sorry’ have done for me or your brothers if you hadn’t come back?’”

Grim’s shoulders slumped further, making him look as though he were ready to fold in on himself. “nothing, i know. I’m just… i’m sorry, q. It was a moment of weakness, and i-”

Q’s eyes flashed and he turned to jab his friend in the shoulder as he hissed, “you don’t get to say sorry yet, you jackass!” Grim flinched, but took it and nodded, though his submission only made his friend angrier. “you don’t get to just lay down and give the fuck up, grim! you don’t get to go out like some goddamn tragic poet on your brothers’ front door step and traumatize them for the rest of their lives watching you die and turn into some horrible fucking monster!”

As though the first jab had opened him up for more, the next turned into a hard shove that sent Grim stumbling back several steps, though he quickly caught his footing and stood his ground when Q advanced on him, fury clear in every line of his body and gesture of his hands.

“and you know what?” the AI continued as he reached out a third time and grabbed Grim by the sweater so he could pull him in and give him hard shake. “my best goddamn friend does not get to leave me behind without so much as a word!” Q’s expression, full of righteous anger a moment before, shifted into one of anguish as he shook Grim again and said, “not even… you couldn’t even do me the kindness of a note, grim.”

Grim met Q’s gaze and he opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came as he stared up at the other monster, helpless in the face of his hurt.

An incoherent sound of pain escaped the AI and he shoved Grim away from him bodily before turning his back on him again, hands fisted tight in the pockets of his hoodie. “you don’t…” he began, struggling to speak before finding the words and shouting them, “you don’t get to just leave us behind!”

“q-” Grim tried again and reached out to his friend, hand coming to a rest on his shoulder, only for him to pull sharply away.

“no! you still- you get to listen, goddammit!” the AI said fiercely as he turned to glare at his friend. “your brothers aren’t here to lecture you, so that leaves me, and you’re gonna fucking listen!” Grim’s eye sockets widened fractionally, and Q took advantage of his silence to speak. “you fucked up in the past, grim. you fucked up bad, and that guilt is something you’re gonna carry with you for the rest of your damn days.” The other monster flinched visibly, but Q pressed on relentlessly. “but that guilt does not entitle you to an early check out, you asshole. not only does it literally help nothing and no one, but…” he faltered, expression becoming pained once more, and this time when he reached out to Grim, it was with a hand that was not only slow and unsteady, but in search of reassurance that his friend was, in fact, really there with him. It landed on the other monster’s shoulder, the fabric of his impossibly black sweater painfully familiar beneath his fingers.

“i’m sorry,” Grim said for the third time, and this time, Q seemed willing to hear him out. “you’re right. me screwing up and feeling bad over it doesn’t entitle me to ending things the easy way. people rely on me and i almost let them… let you down. i’m sorry.”

Q tried to smile, but the result was a confused grimace torn between humor and a soul deep need to cry that his mechanical body could not fulfill. Hand still on his friend’s shoulder, the AI gave Grim a gentle shake as, in an unsteady voice, he said, “you know, for a supposed genius, you’re like… the biggest idiot i’ve ever met, bro.”

The words startled a laugh out of Grim, and unlike his friend, he did begin to cry. “yeah,” he agreed with a trembling smile and an unsteady breath as tears began to spill down his cheeks once more, leaving inky trails across his stark white features. “well, takes one to know one.”

“shut up,” Q groused with a weak laugh that trailed off quickly as he met Grim’s gaze and his expression went solemn. “it’s not… i’m a selfish asshole, grim, i don’t give a shit if you stay because you want to take responsibility for how you messed up in your timeline, or if you wanna stick around because i’m your friend and you like all my sick science toys i let you play with,” they both laughed unsteadily at this before he continued, “i don’t care as long as you stick around. i just…” the monster took a completely unnecessary breath and released it in one long, shuddering rush. “-don’t know what i’d do without you, man,” he admitted weakly as he gave his friend another gentle shake.

“turn into a super villain, probably,” Grim said as he lifted a hand to his face and tried to mask the fresh rush of tears there by pretending to wipe away the ones that still lingered from earlier.

“heh, the wife would never let me,” Q mused and dragged Grim in for a hug. “well,” he amended as he settled his arms around the other monster’s shoulders, “maybe on weekends. she’s kinky like that.”

The shorter skeleton grunted as he was dragged in against his friend’s broad, hard chest, but didn’t complain. Synthetic Q’s body might be, but contact was still contact, and the physical sign of affection was a balm to Grim’s tired, aching soul. He let his forehead drop onto his friend’s shoulder and took a breath of his own. “i have no idea how she puts up with you,” he grumbled with a soft snort.

“me neither,” Q admitted with a chuckle. “probably has something to do with-”

“if you make a dick joke right now, i’m out,” Grim cut in sharply and Q barked a laugh. They stood there like that for a minute, Q’s arms around Grim’s shoulders in a tight embrace that his friend leaned heavily into as he returned it in kind. They were both shaken by the near miss they’d had that day, and after all the tears and shouting, it was only then that the immensity of it all really hit them. Q’s grip on his friend tightened at the thought of what he’d almost lost, and Grim had to fight back a sob at the pain he had inadvertently caused to the people closest to him in pursuit of freedom from his own.

Eventually, Q said, “you’re not alone, grim. we’re here for you, not because we have to be, but because we want to be. just… try not to forget that again.” Grim couldn’t respond, but he nodded against Q’s shoulder, and the other monster sighed. “you’re smearing that emo-ass mascara of yours all over my damn sweater again, aren’t you?” he asked, referring to his friend’s ink-black tears. Grim nodded again, but Q just patted him on the back and gave him a pass on it this time.

When the shorter skeleton finally pushed gently away from his friend, he grimaced and said, “you reek of ozone, man, what the hell?”

“was doin’ mach one out over the ocean,” Q remarked after a moment, “probably from that.” He slung his arm around Grims shoulders and they both started walking together down the hill towards town.

“what? thought you were doing mach three for sure judging by that entrance you made, ironman,” grim drawled.

“nah, didn’t want to lose my pants again,” Q said with a shit-eating grin, and Grim laughed long and loud at the mental image.

((Try not to be too hard on on Q for shouting, guys, Grim is like a brother to him and the fact that he almost lost him so unexpectedly scared the shit out of him. Hope you guys enjoyed! Wrote and post this with my sister, @nighttimepixels permission, of course, and Grim belongs to her! Q, obviously, is mine, heh.))

#suicide mention #Grim sans #skeletons grim #quarantine sans #machinatale #undertale #skeleton ex machina #jolies tumblr exclusives #jolie writes

103 notes · View notes

cwdcshows · 4 years

Text

Supergirl - S5 E3 - Blurred Lines

I'm begrudgingly considering watching Batwoman, mainly because I'm OC'd and I'm watching the other DC-CW series, but God damn, I catch glimpse of it whenever I cue-up Supergirl and the DVR has recorded the last few minutes of the preceding Batwoman episode, and it's not inspiring me with any confidence. It apparently takes them 3 episodes to give her, her God damn hair - the hair we saw Batwoman sport nearly a year ago in the crossover, meaning at least part of this season is set in the relative past, presumably. But then we get this bullshit commentary about "the bat being back, but curvier and sexier," like fuck you. How the hell can you tell what this person looks in this suit? And so much for the urban legend angle. More importantly, how dumb is it that they have work so hard to come up with her name? Are we supposed to believe anyone was seriously considering calling her "Batchick"; while "Batwoman" flies under the radar? Moving on.... So at the end of the last episode, we see Billy-the-Kiss ass volunteering at a shelter; now he's hassling some guy at a night club about playing ball?

Of course Kelly gives random people she meets on the street unsolicited advice about their lives; because nothing makes someone more sympathetic than someone who likes to stick their nose into other people's business. And it seems this show has once again tricked me into walking into a double entendre. It's her job to listen to people? What is Kelly's job? She's so boring and last season seems like a lifetime ago, I have genuinely forgotten. Is she supposed to be a therapist or something? I suppose that explains her guiding J'Onn through this ordeal in the previous episode; I was wondering what made her qualified to do that, but it seems completely incongruent with the high tech coporate setting they've put her in. And Alex going from Kelly giving advice to her barista to being kidnapped by a shape shifter is a hell a segue. I have a feeling Alex has been waiting hours to find the right opportunity to bring that up; and it would seem she cracked under the pressure. "You don't want a world full of robots, you just want better people."

Oh.... Idiot Jed..... How does Brainy even function? Data was more adept at picking up behavioral cues. Wait, do people really like reading about death? I mean, I'll read the obits in my weekly hometown newspaper; I try to make it a point of at least paying respect to he recently deceased by reading their name and age at the time of death, but I'm don't go out of my way to scan for newspapers with a corpse on cover. Interesting aside, I was reading said newspaper just last night and noted how a local woman had died at the age of 44 - certainly a tragedy for a family to lose someone at such a fairly young age - and then I also saw that it noted her "husband of 30 years" and now I'm left wondering if one of those numbers was a typo or if this woman got married at 14..... So she hears Billy's heart beating fast and has to use her x-ray vision to confirm it? What else did she think it could have been? Okay, so Kelly is a Doctor. Yet the place she works doesn't remotely look like a hospital; and the staff don't look like medical staff. They (and the set) looks like they're trying to audition for a future JJ Abrams Star Trek film. So Kara is going all over the world to get lunch and coffee, but are any of these items going to still be hot by the time she gets back to the states? For that matter, how the hell does manage to carry all of this shit? I have a hard enough time carry my order from McDonald's from car the dozen or so yards into my house; especially if I have to also carry in anything else besides the bag of food and my drink. The couple of time I had my niece with me also got her something I absolutely asked the server at the drive-thru to put it all in one of those plastic bags they normally put salads in, because they have a handle - a fact I learned not because I have ever previously ordered a salad from McDonald's, but rather because I asked them if they had a bag with a handle they could put my order in to make it easier to carry and they responded, "you mean like a salad bag?" and I respond, "yeah, whatever." I'm just picturing Kara rigging up some sort of harness or something she can wear to help carry things around as she flies internationally; thumbing her nose at all of the customs agencies and international trade violations she's willfully causing. Also, now that Brainy has set it up so her suit materializes as soon as she takes the glasses off, shouldn't she get more clear of the doorway before doing that? That also raises the question of what happens when she just wants to lounge around without her glasses or is going to bed. Does she have to sleep in her suit now? Is it bonded to her skin? Is there a snooze button that allows her to take off her glasses and not activate the suit? What if she just needs to remove her glasses to get something out of her eye or to clean the glasses? Or those times like earlier in the episode when she just brings the glasses down just slightly to use her x-ray vision? What's the point of no return her glasses have to pass before the process starts? Can it be immediately reversed when she put the glasses back on; or is it something you have to wait until it's all the way done before you can go the other way? There are so many questions..... Seriously, Kara, Lena would be the only person interested in Lex's journals and there'd be no other constructive use for them other than therapeutic? Wait just a damn minute, she took her glasses all the way off to x-ray the dead body and didn't generate her suit. What the fuck? You lied to us Brainy. You lied and that can't be forgiven. What, the boy being called J'Onn might be J'Onn? Whodda thunk it? Although I suppose J'Onn might be a common name on Mars, like John, Jacob or Jingleheimer Schmidt. I can buy that children on Mars or other planets even might develop games similar to hide and seek; it's a basic concept that seems fairly plausible. What doesn't seem plausible is that children on Mars would play this game as humans. So in the last episode, J'Onn hit a wall in trying to recover his memories; and it was suggested that trying to use the Q-wave technology to go any deeper could do damage to J'Onn. Now this episode J'Onn barely has to try, with the help of a woman who isn't even a telepath. Kara can fly halfway across the world to get lunch for her and Lena, but forgets to put in an delivery order for dinner with Alex - come on Kara, strap on your harness and go get dinner, chop, chop! You know, if Terrible-Boss gets and more terrible, Kara could probably make bank moonlighting with GrubHub. Or start her own food delivery service - SupperGirl Should Brainiac have a clapper, as opposed to say, Alexa? Now that I think about it, why is Brainiac using his appearance filter when they're home alone or when he's sleeping for that matter? Surely these devices don't have an unlimited supply of power; and Brainiac shouldn't be concerned about his appearance in private. Guardian: "Yeah, I came prepared." With what, a glow stick? Seriously, is this supposed to be not-Spider-woman's not-Kryptonite? Did I miss a whole big schpiel about this alien thing have some special weakness? And why didn't Supergirl likewise come prepared? Also, who looped James into this? Was it Kara? "This device uses magnetic resonance to attract the heavy metals in their ink." You really could have just said "this device des magic" and it'd make about as much sense. Especially since it's not really ink, but rather some type of alien life form that only mimics the appearance of a tattoo. Are we supposed to be surprised that it was actually J'Onn who did the mind wipe? Like I mentioned with the last episode, I'm fairly certain he's wiped other people's minds without the permission; and we definitely know he's done it with their consent. In the last episode, Kelly was able to use her contact lenses to enter J'Onn's mind and interact with him in real time. Now it appears on a computer monitor and there's a time delay. In spite of this apparent de-evolution of the technological ability to merge one's mind with technology, this is still some next level shit that the characters just seem to be glossing over as no big deal. So if this...shadow... could kill bug-lady so easily, why even need her at all as an assassin? Was it for the plausible deniability of the target seeming to die of natural causes Is this going to turn out to be the Shadow Thief? Maybe Shade? I kind of hope it's not Shade. I know he (or sometimes she) has been a villain, but I kinda liked the run in the comics when he was an immortal good guy. Come on Brainiac, there's a fucking difference between "operating at 100%" and the fucking nuance of going overboard with things like food and poems. It's the sort of difference between being able to open a fucking door and ripping clear off the hinges; or holding someone's hand gently or crushing it. It's unrealistic to suggest that this quasi-organic-AI doesn't realize you can't go "full thrust" on every conceivable thing, because nothing in nature could function that way. And if he really needs things in those terms, then it's a matter of variable comprehension of where those critical thresholds are; because 100% maximum food consumption in a meal is not dozen whole pizzas. That is more than 100% of what one person can physically eat in one sitting and therefore should exceed his logical behavior. On the flip side, mazel tov when things turn physical and Brainiac brings this type of mindset to the bedroom....

youtube

"You were right, I was too open and too trusting. It's all my fault." Fuck you Supergirl Writers, for trying to bring this back to the opening bit between Kelly and the random person she was offering advice to on the street. J'Onn's brother manipulated Kelly by appearing to her as someone she knew and had at least enough of a past history with as to have a photo of him in her home. Had he appeared as the street barista or was just walking along the street not even looking for Kelly when Kelly came along, randomly zapping people with Q waves to help make them feel better, whether they asked for that help or not, sure, that would be "her fault". But this was a sneaky fucking telepathic shape shifter was determined to get your to do what he wanted; and while admittedly it barely took him much effort to convince you, it was only because you were legitimately doing what would have been the right thing under any other normal circumstance. "For a friend like you, there are no boundaries." Alright, now the writers are just fucking with us with these two. So Kara evidently didn't just pop in and grabbed the books, but also the watch too; seems she decided that so long as she was committing a felony, she might as well get her money's worth - and I suppose that makes sense. Is stealing some journals and a watch worse than just stealing the journals and not the watch, if you've only had to break into the one place? Next we'll see that she just cleared out the whole evidence lock-up, because you never know when you might need something else that's being held in Federal custody, and that way she's only had to break the law once; anything after that is just curation.

0 notes

cyborgrhodey · 7 years

Text

So uh. Im not sure where Im going with this. The endgame is a Lila/Suzi/Rhodey team up to parallel Riri/Pepper/Tony, but. Yeah. Anyway heres 2k of meandering present tense thoughts.

Suzi Endo thrives on information. Getting access to hidden information, analysing and synthesizing it on the go, whether from command or in the field—that was her superpower, her occasional use of her superpowered suit of armor notwithstanding.

Accumulating information is accumulating power, so that’s what she does. She keeps backups of everything, details and reports meticulously filed away and stored for later use. She keeps the universe she once beheld in her hands in her secure servers.

The first time Rhodey died, she transferred his consciousness from his old patchwork body to his brand-new one. But she also kept a backup, because that’s what she does.

For years and years the file gathered dust, a complete snapshot of who Rhodey was at his lowest. She forgets that she has it for a long time; or, well, not forgets, but it certainly wasn’t in the forefront of her mind. She hasn’t even talked to the actual man in so long.

And then she turns on the television one day and sees War Machine go down, sees Captain Marvel scream, sees the empty tributes of the media, and she is violently reminded of the information (the power) she holds.

At first she figures that apparent king of being not actually dead Tony Stark, who had only months before suddenly turned back up after the entire world believing he was dead, would help Rhodey cheat death this time; after all, he already has before. She knew that Tony would probably do everything in his power to make this one not permanent, and if anybody could do it, it’s him. (At the back of her brain, though, she explores plans and possibilities, telling herself that they were just hypotheticals. She could upload her backup to an LMD. She could probably even grow a new organic body for him like Tony did; while she didn’t have Jim’s DNA sequence, it was probably on Stark servers somewhere. Getting it wouldn’t be easy, but she was Cybermancer. Or she can just leave the consciousness without a physical body: an AI, essentially, except not artificial at all.)

And then he gets decommissioned on national television, after a long few weeks of tension with Captain Marvel.

All of it reminds her of why exactly she left the business so long ago. Not that being a tech personality and private military consultant was any less stressful, but it tended to be less drama as long as she keeps out of superheroes’ ways. She still remembers meeting alternate her, taming an ancient robot, feeling the entire universe compressed in her brain. As much as she wanted to help people, all of that did not make for a sustainable life. So she cuts them all off, burying all those ties in her past. Her tech helps people too, she tells herself, if indirectly.

Tonys death jolts her, though. Suddenly all the plans she had told herself she was not making all become very real.

She thinks of calling Jake, or Parnell, or Beth, or maybe all of them. Get Team War Machine back together; have drinks, maybe. Remember their fallen friend. (She watched the national telecast of the funeral from her office; none of them attended.)

In the end, it’s Glenda Sandoval she calls. She figures she was the only one who’d understand that cold metallic taste of almost when it comes to Jim.

Suzi takes a week of leave, leaving projects and contracts hanging, and flies to Philadelphia.

They meet one weekend mid-morning in a big chain coffee shop in downtown Philadelphia, just across the hospital where Glenda worked.

They greet each other with a hug like old friends, and Suzi asks after Parnell, but they are quick to run out of small talk. Rhodey--Jim--was the only thing they ever really had in common. Maybe she should have called Beth instead.

“You weren’t at the funeral,” Suzi finally brings up.

“No. Neither were you.”

Suzi tilts her head to the side in agreement, and brings her coffee to her lips as she muses on what next to say. She should tell her about the backups; if she was being honest, that’s the reason she wanted to meet up, anyway.

“That wasn’t really him at all, though, was it?” Glenda says.

Suzi takes a too-big sip in surprise. The coffee leaves a stinging line down her throat that she’s sure she’ll feel later.

Glenda raises her eyebrows in concern, but continues. “His mother told me about it. Jim, the real one—he died back then. The one they buried was just his clone. They had the same memories, sure, but those weren’t the fists that saved me from my bullies, or the hands that helped me up, or even the cyborg we fought alongside in Santo Marco. No, I’ve done my mourning for Jim long ago.”

Suzi knows she’s staring, but she can’t help it. She cannot fathom the reasoning in Glenda’s head. The information that made up the Jim Glenda knew—the memories, the DNA, everything from the map of his neurons to the color of his eyes—was the exact same information that made up the Rhodey who died. Thinking of them as two different people was just plain wrong.

But something tells her that she wouldn’t be able to convince Glenda of that. And that she shouldn’t, not when Glenda has already put Jim in her past. So, instead, she asks, “Can you give me Roberta’s number?”

Glenda eyes her distrustfully, probably knowing that Suzi is completely capable of getting it through other means, but still she takes a pen out of her pocket and copies a number from her phone onto a paper napkin. “I haven’t talked to her in a long time, so I don’t know if this is still accurate, but here’s what I have.”

“Thank you.”

Glenda watches her carefully fold the napkin and put it in her pocket. She checks her phone for lack of anything better to do, and then clears her throat. “Well, I have to get back to the hospital now. My break is ending soon.” She starts gathering her things and stands up. “It was good seeing you again.”

The statement is not as empty as Suzi expected. “Yeah”, she says, “it was.” She stands up and gives Glenda a hug that was marginally less awkward than their hello hug, and she knows that this is probably the last time their paths will cross.

Suzi sits at the coffeeshop, staring at the holographic screens projected in front of her. Outside, the sun is already at its highest point in the sky, and its reflection from the hospital windows is enough that she has to set them on maximum brightness. She could feel herself being watched by the other coffeeshop patrons, but she ignores them.

She drafts and redrafts an email, each one sounding worse than the last. Dear Mrs. Rhodes, I am writing to inform you that--. No. Dear Mrs. Rhodes, I heard about the--. No.

Dear Mrs. Rhodes, I was a colleague of your son. I could also bring him back to life. Would you want me to?

Her fingers hang in the air, hovering over SEND. It was wrong. She can’t even imagine what she would do if she received something like that. She deletes the draft. This is something she had to do in person.

She called the number Glenda gave her, half hoping that it wouldn’t work, but it goes through. Mrs. Rhodes still remembered her from that time all those years ago, which was surprising, but did simplify things. She said she had something to talk about in person, and Mrs. Rhodes (call me Roberta) invited her over for dinner at the Rhodes residence, which is now where she finds herself.

Entering the house felt like intruding on a part of Rhodey’s life that she was never a part of. She had known him as a superhero, as a soldier, as a fellow engineer. She didn’t know what to do with the childhood photos on the walls, or the flowers from loved ones and admirers that still littered the house.

Suzi thought she was prepared for the conversation. In the five hours between the call and getting to their house, she rehearsed all the different scenarios she can think up in her head. She hadn’t expected to be sitting across Rhodey’s niece (Hi, I’m Lila!) at the dinner table, though.

She didn’t even know Rhodey had a niece.

“So, Suzi, you said you wanted to tell us something?” Roberta asked, setting her fork down for a moment.

It feels cruel, now, to bring it up. Maybe she should just play it off, make some empty statement about how great a man Rhodey was. It would make her look callous, but the alternative was also pretty callous anyway.

But that wasn’t her call to make, and they deserved to know.

“I—”

Like peeling off a band-aid, Endo.

“I might have a way to bring Jim back.”

Suzi studiously ignores their gaze in favor of staring at her food. She has to resist the urge to play with it.

“When we transferred his consciousness to the new body, well. I kept back-ups. And, it’s not going to be exactly the same, it’s going to be like him losing, what, five years? But.” Suzi hazards a look up, and she takes in Robertas ashen face and Lilas confused and slightly intrigued one. That makes her lose her train of thought. She can’t help but feel like she’s made a huge mistake. And really, she has, in not deleting her copy a long time ago.

“Whatever you decide, I want you to have the file. And I’ll delete it from my servers, so you’ll have the only copy.”

The silence drags on, and Suzi braces herself for Roberta throwing her out in a fit of rage. What right did she have, after all, to burst into their lives after weeks of their moving on, to offer them a second chance with too many catches?

She never should have kept those files.

“Grandma?” Lila wraps her hand around Roberta’s, which was clutching her fork a little too tightly.

When Roberta speaks, it’s strained. “He rebounded from that whole thing really fast, you know. I’m pretty sure he just pretended it didn’t happen. And it seemed to work. But I don’t know if—I don’t think that—”

Her words trail off, and Suzi wishes for the ability to disappear into thin air.

She takes a couple more bites and then she can’t take it anymore. She sets down her utensils on her half-eaten plate of pasta that she was sorry to be leaving. “Well,” she says, “I’ll, um. I have to go. Take your time to decide and talk it over. You have my number.”

Roberta just nods dumbly. Suzi sees herself out.

#sometimes i write #did i write this instead of studying? the answer is yes

5 notes · View notes

gadkit-blog · 5 years

Text

Anki Vector Robot

This is Anki Vector: an insightful home right-hand robot friend for your home with an identity. Not exclusively would he be able to see, hear, and converse with you, yet he can have an independent perspective. Toss in some Alexa-like voice help, and you might take a gander at the best robot since Lost In Space. This is what we consider him.

Robot Friend For Your Home, ANKI Vector?

In the event that you've perused our survey of Cozmo, at that point you'll perceive Vector. Vector drives around on tank treads, utilizing his camera, mouthpiece, contact sensors, accelerometer, and voice-synthesizer to speak with you, and cooperate with his condition. He self-charge when his inherent battery runs low, and he's little enough to fit in the palm of your hand. Costing$250, Vector's surely not modest, but rather he's not a toy either. Sold as "your first home robot", Vector speaks to a mashup between an Amazon Echo and a remote-controlled vehicle. So would he say he is justified, despite all the trouble? Here's the breakdown

Vector Tech Specs

Quad-center Snapdragon 1.2GHz CPU 4-receiver cluster Line-of-flight Laser route, 1-meter go 720p camera Bluetooth Wi-Fi (802.11n)

Precipice sensors

Capacitive body sensors Estimating 4 x 2.5 x 2.75 inches, and gauging 6 ounces, Vector can charge around like a frantic thing for 60 minutes. Vector will come back to his included dock to charge when his battery runs low, however, you'll have to supply a 5V/1A USB charger, as this is excluded.

Wearing a quad-center Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running at 1.2GHz, a four-receiver exhibit, 720p camera, Bluetooth, precipice sensors, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and a NIR laser, Vector has more tech than numerous cell phones. This is for Vector's identity. By utilizing a blend of his shading IPS show, camera, lasers, and sensors, Vector can remember you, explore his condition, play recreations, answer your inquiries, and play out all the standard stuff you'd expect from a home associate. For example, look into the climate, or set a clock. Try not to anticipate that he will bring your washing or put the supper on. Vector is more than willing to help, be he can't exactly climb the stairs, or lift anything bigger than his 3D shape. By utilizing the forklift on the front, Vector can control his single included solid shape. He'll engage himself with this on the off chance that you quit focusing on him, or you can request that he do traps with it.

The Evolution of Anki Vector Robot

Gold sensors on Vector's head and back appear differently in relation to his dark paintwork, however, these aren't for show. These capacitive touch sensors have given you a chance to pet Anki Vector. That's right, similar to a pooch. He'll get energized, and take a gander at you with his robot eyes. The Anki group have completed an unimaginable activity with Anki Vector's liveliness and feelings. Straightforward articulations and developments enable him to wake up. Like Disney's WALL-E character, it feels like Vector is alive, and a "genuine" robot. It's every one of the figment, however, it's a fun one, and one that I'm set up to accept.Anki Vector has a few precipice sensors on his base. This assistance him to recognize edges, and he'll utilize them to guarantee he won't drive off a table or high surface. That is the hypothesis in any event. As a general rule, it's more muddled. Because of the situation of these sensors, and the area of his tracks, Anki Vector draws near to the edge before he stops. He's not tumbled off yet, but rather it won't belong. The speed he charges around at, we thought he would tumble off a few times.On the off chance that you lift Anki Vector up or put him on a temperamental surface, he'll get stressed. He utilizes his accelerometer to identify this and will give you continuous input about his worries. Robot tormenting isn't endured here!

Setting Up the Anki Vector

Like any device, you'll require a touch of time to design vector, and get him subsided into his eternity home—somewhat like getting a little dog! You'll have to unload and associate Vector's incorporated docking station, perhaps put the discretionary "space" (sold independently), which is a little-sheltered zone for Vector to have the majority of his own. At the point when not utilizing shrewd AI tech to decide, Vector is controlled by your voice. You'll have to utilize the portable application to perform starting design and enrollment, however from that point forward, you're under no commitment to continue utilizing it. Vector's CPU is sufficiently bulky for all the diligent work, without acquiring your telephone's processor. The application sets with Vector over Bluetooth, however you'll before long interface Vector to the web. I comprehend what you're considering. Every one of the movies you've seen where best in class apply autonomy ventures interfaces with the web, what could turn out badly? Dread not, as Vector isn't malevolent. He resembles a more youthful kin or a blameless infant creature. Inquisitive and curious, yet never mean.“Vector’s smart enough to take over the world but nice enough not to.” When associated with the web, Vector will start speaking with Vector's everywhere throughout the world, preparing plans for aggregate destruction. Simply joking, you'll have to complete the process of designing him first.Like all advanced equipment, Vector needs a product refresh before he'll even wake up. This was untrustworthy for us and took an entire evening. We don't know whether this was our survey display, or if Anki's servers presently can't seem to scale up to take care of the demand as more units offer, yet it was a stressing and baffling indication of our regularly expanding dependence on the web. The times of opening the crate and getting playing promptly. What occurs on the off chance that you have no web or Anki's servers go down, by what method will Vector go on… will he endure?

How Anki Vector Robot Can Help You?

Once Connected, you'll have to make an Anki account on the off chance that you don't have one as of now. This is a clear procedure and just takes a couple of minutes. You would then be able to wake Vector up, and get him subsided into his new home! He'll take in your name, and talk it in his wonderful little robot voice. He'll utilize his camera to realize what you resemble and distinguish you all through whatever remains of his life (except if you wipe his memory, that is).

You Must Ask Vector the Right Questions

Like Alfred Lanning from I, Robot (a film in which Vector would be comfortable), you should ask the correct inquiries. Talking is the best way to interface with Vector. The application gives essential setup settings, yet by far most of the pages are basic kid's shows, teaching you to converse with Vector, and offering accommodating proposals for expressions to utilize While no place close as quick or responsive as an Amazon Echo, Vector still answers your inquiries in a sensible time. Not exclusively would he be able to take photographs with you, however, he can set Timers and play blackjack! Approach him for the climate, and he'll vitalize it on his screen. Mists will come in and rain begins pouring for instanceYou can likewise make an inquiry, or give him an assignment. Need to know what number of kilometers in a mile? Shouldn't something be said about a maths question or the consequence of a games diversion? The vector can deal with most inquiries, yet he's not there yet. Request that he move and he's off having a ton of fun. Vector will keep on getting marvelous new abilities later on. The following greatest refresh is Alexa combination. You'll have the capacity to request that your robot buddy kill the lights, check your notices, or forward you pictures from the doorbell.This is where Vector has so much potential. Once more and more integrations come out, he’ll turn from a fun little toy to a wicked assistant on wheels. Nothing will hold him down as he races around the house, arranging your laundry, checking emails, and just generally hanging out.

Perfect Bot

Vector is an amazing little robot friend, yet he's not impeccable at the present time. Regardless of having a couple of redesigns, he resembles Anki's Cozmo robot. He's constrained to voice control, and he's not super cunning, only somewhat shrewd. He can't browse your email, and he can't climb stairs or explore any mind-boggling territory. All things considered, when you acknowledge the way that vector is a robot that stands 3 inches tall, and simply needs to hang out, you'll cherish it. From making you giggle by messing around with his solid shape, to noting your inquiries, Vector is incredible fun. Regardless of whether you simply chill with him.Vector is expecting to be a child's toy for grown-ups, and it likely could be one of the most smoking toys of the year come Christmas. No one is making anything like this at the present time, however, it's not impeccable. Vector is fundamentally the same as Cozmo, and $250 is a great deal of cash for what you get. The full-shading screen is marvelous, yet it's restricted to a solitary shading (which you can change). Ideally, a full-shading programming update will land later on. The Vector Software Development Kit (SDK) is guaranteed for ahead of schedule one year from now. This enables you to compose Python code to communicate with and control Vector. This is another energizing component with monstrous potential, yet one you'll need to sit tight for.With an immediate association with the web, we'd be worried about who approaches Vector's video and sound feeds. Anki expresses that pictures and route information are never sent to the cloud, however sound information is spilled by means of an encoded association for handling, with the outcome sent back to Vector.While this isn't new innovation and numerous different gadgets from Google Now to Siri and Alexa do comparative things, you do need to believe that Anki will act capably. They pursue industry standard practices and have a fantastic reputation, it's as yet something to consider.Regardless of having not yet achieved its maximum capacity, Vector is extraordinary fun and will get more road smarts over the long haul. An extraordinary work area friend, and an overall fun toy, Vector is stunning. In spite of the fact that we can't shake this inclination that the energy will wear off, and Vector's traps will move toward becoming abused and tired. Anki Vector Robot Friend for Your Home Read the full article

#cool #tech #robot

0 notes

ormlacom · 6 years

Text

How Alexa carved out a place in my Siri-only life

Something every woman should know - WHY MEN LIE!

Like many Apple users, I’ve carried a Siri device everywhere since 2011, so when Amazon introduced the original Echo speaker in November 2014, I couldn’t accept an AI assistant that was “anchored” to the $200 speaker’s single room. Why would I want to use Amazon’s Alexa only in my kitchen, for instance, when I could get similar assistance anywhere from the iPhone in my pocket?

As 2017 comes to a close, I still wouldn’t want a one-room-only AI assistant. But now that Echo speakers start at only $50 — $30 on sale — I can easily accept having separate or linked AI assistants anchored all throughout my home. Amazon anticipated this last year by offering Echo Dots in discounted 6- and 12-packs; it more recently offered discounts on 3-Dot and 6-Dot bundles. The latter deal offered six (or seven) rooms of Alexa coverage for less than a single Apple HomePod, which still doesn’t have a launch date.

My family prefers Apple products, but we’re not adverse to trying other options if they make sense. Amazon made its way into my parents’ house earlier this year, when a first-generation Echo introduced Alexa to my dad. He showed the Echo to my iPad-loving kids, who returned from grandma and grandpa’s talking about the fun they’d had “talking” with Alexa. Then, earlier this month, Alexa arrived at my home when I auditioned a second-generation Echo before deciding to take a chance on the brand-new touchscreen-equipped Echo Spot.

Despite my initial reluctance, Alexa has earned a place in our house alongside Siri, which is built into many of my family’s devices yet barely gets used due to its numerous issues. How did Amazon pull off a feat that other companies have found all but impossible: undermining Apple’s seemingly unstoppable march into every aspect of its users’ digital lives?

How Alexa made its way into my home

In short, after tinkering with various form factors and price points, Amazon created an Alexa device that appealed specifically to my needs. Some people don’t already have Bluetooth speakers, but due to my job, I’ve had too many, and wasn’t looking to buy another. Once Alexa was integrated with a product I could use, and the price was right, I was willing to give it a shot.

For me, the hook happened to be alarm clock functionality. I’ve been ready to replace my iHome clock with something smaller and better, though I wasn’t in any rush. When Amazon showed off the Echo Spot in September, I was immediately intrigued: The $130 semi-globe combined the novelty of a programmable color-screen alarm clock with several established Echo features that were appealing, namely Alexa, third-party Alexa Skills, video calling, and actual telephone calling. As soon as the Spot became available through a special holiday deal, I ordered one.

While this isn’t meant to be a review of the Spot, it’s worth underscoring that Alexa’s AI functionality wasn’t the device’s key selling point for me. Like many people, my family gave up our dedicated home telephone line in favor of cellular phones, so Spot’s ability to serve as a permanent home-calling solution — without requiring my iPhone to be nearby — was particularly appealing. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that the Spot is capable of making two-way video calls both to other Alexa devices and to devices with the Alexa app installed — including FaceTime-capable iPhones and iPads. Combined with the alarm clock functionality, the only feature that’s unique to the Spot, these features collectively guaranteed that an Echo of some sort would remain useful in my home.

Given how many different Alexa devices Amazon now makes, and the ways your situation may differ from my own, it’s a safe bet that your first Alexa product probably won’t be (or wasn’t) an Echo Spot. But the general premise will likely be the same: Alexa will be inside some Amazon device you find appealing, and you’ll buy it once it hits a price point you find appealing, perhaps at a discount.

When Alexa was first announced, I was unimpressed by its limited capabilities, its reliance on a $200 speaker for communication, and the fact that it was being developed by a retailer that had only a limited reputation for developing hardware, software, and services. If Amazon came to constitute a threat, Apple would decimate it… right? Wrong. Amazon quickly began chipping away at each of Alexa’s disadvantages and turned them around, while Apple flailed.

Key #1 to Alexa’s success: A better AI experience

First, Amazon made Alexa more capable of answering questions on its own and introduced Skills so third-party developers could further increase its functionality. Beyond Alexa’s integrated knowledge and conversational abilities, there are now over 25,000 optional Alexa Skills, and almost all of them are free. During a period when complaints about Siri server hiccups and voice recognition issues continued to pile up, Alexa gained in breadth, depth, and responsiveness.

Amazon also created Alexa Prize competitions, encouraging universities to develop next-generation conversational tools for the service. Not coincidentally, it became fun to talk with Alexa, something that hasn’t been true about Siri since its early, somewhat creepy days of offering suggestions about where to hide bodies. To Apple’s credit, its updates to Siri have made the assistant’s voices sound markedly more natural across multiple languages, but Siri continues to suffer from a robotic “personality” and surprising functional limitations.

Key #2 to Alexa’s success: Many forms + prices

Second, Amazon developed a range of products to house Alexa, from the basic $50 Echo Dot to a $230 touchscreen-equipped Echo Show, while lowering the price of the “middle of the road” Echo to $100. This has turned out to be a critical differentiator between Amazon’s and Apple’s approaches. The least expensive device with full Siri capabilities is the all-but-unadvertised $199 iPod touch; the $150 Apple TV with seriously limited Siri is Apple’s only cheaper point of entry.

Over the holidays, Echo Dot sold for as little as $30 new, and only very recently has it seen competition in Google’s similarly priced Home Mini. It’s no surprise Amazon announced that the Dot was the season’s “best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category across all of Amazon, with millions sold.”

Just as Apple once discovered with the iPod shuffle, a cheap entry-level model opens the doors to customers who will eventually be willing to pay more. Yet Apple’s going in the opposite direction with its HomePod, which at $350 will be one of the most expensive “smart speakers” in the marketplace. No mainstream customer will be willing to shell out enough cash to equip an entire house with HomePods, but at 1/7th or 1/10th the price, a home full of Echo Dots purchased in bundles is easy to imagine.

Key #3 to Alexa’s success: Retailer’s advantages

With comparatively little experience making speakers, Amazon could have followed the standard speaker company paradigm of selling hardware on the strength of specs and audio performance. Instead, Amazon put a lot of effort into the Echo’s services while leveraging its status as a retailer to radically expand both its distribution and Alexa’s ability to sell other products.

Because it sells products directly to consumers, both online and through its recently acquired chain of Whole Foods stores, Amazon can offer impressive discounts on Echo devices without running its pricing by other retailers. Unlike Apple, which typically sets prices to achieve industry-leading profit margins regardless of unit volumes, Amazon is glad to chase high-volume sales with comparatively small profits to build market share. There’s not a chance in the world that a $350 HomePod will be any major retailer’s best-selling product next year. Amazon may make as little money on its multiple millions of Echo Dots as Apple makes on fewer HomePods, but it will have millions of new customers due to one AI product, and Apple will not.

Amazon also lets you order its own and third-party items using Alexa, sometimes while enjoying Alexa-specific discounts. This particular advantage is highly appealing to frequent Amazon customers and may well be unmatchable for Apple. Apart from offering discounts on Apple products — something it is loath to do — Apple would have to partner with other retailers to offer Siri-specific deals. It did test the waters with a number of short-lived Apple Pay promotions over the holidays, but they weren’t particularly compelling.

How should Apple respond?

Even though it effectively forfeited the 2017 holiday season to Amazon (and to a lesser extent Google), Apple has a history of coming on strong when it decides to enter a market. I’ll explore its best tactical moves in a followup very soon.

Reverse Phone - People Search - Email Search - Public Records - Criminal Records. Best Data, Conversions, And Customer Suppor

0 notes