Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/12/wtf-just-happened-today-availa.html
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Here’s the normal website for those that don’t have an Echo.
This is a wonderful news aggregator and it’s the other web site I check every day (after perusing the BBS, naturally).
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I’m out of the loop on all this Amazon / Alexa etc stuff (and happy about that) but why, oh why, do they call it a “skill”?
That right there is a crime against the language that they should be hung for. Before long we’ll have young people thinking that “skills” are something you buy or subscribe to that deliver stuff to you automagically, providing you with some content, product or information etc. Rather than hard won personal capabilities achieved by education, experience, practice, etc. - i.e. the hard way!
And yes, get off my lawn while you’re there
(Edited for typo)
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I don’t own an Echo so I’m unfamiliar with the experience but, I find online news aggregators that leave out imagery and video are missing valuable contextual information. If you are just making breakfast in a hurry and the Echo is reciting the list I guess that’s ok. I’m an extremely visual person so I’d rather have the experience of something like Flipboard which is by far the most media rich aggregator out there. (when combined with BB of course!). I’m still waiting on smart mirrors to deliver media rich information in a compelling fashion. Perhaps a link between a smart mirror and the Echo is possible. I am enjoying Quartz Media’s news aggregator bot that dishes out daily news on your phone like you are having a textual conversation and it includes questions, imagery, gifs and links to stories. Imagine that? 
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I’m the opposite. I prefer to get my news as mostly plain text, then I can move on to something richer if I want to (I rarely do). And, I have to be super motivated to actually watch a video, it has to be really important, because I feel like videos take 10 times as much time as necessary and I’d rather read words.
That said, I think it’s important to get people news in whichever ways they prefer, so that everyone can get the news.
Personally, RSS is my long-time companion, in all it’s stripped down glory.
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Thanks! I’ve added this to my RSS.
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