News Disney testing smart speakers in guest rooms at Disney's Yacht and Beach Club

[Kamikaze]

Clearly you are not tech savvy. I use a VPN to remote into my houses network to get into my PC, router, NAS, etc. basically it allows me to get in while protecting my data when on a public access point as I am on the road for work about 30% of the year. But sure, go ahead and generalize a group of people. I could say the same thing about a bunch of grown ups who are on a Disney forum. Wouldn’t want them around kids either but oh wait....

Thats not the type of VPN that people are usually referring to. You're using it for remote access, not for privacy/redirection. And I completely forgot about that type when I was making my prior post. And your usage is one that is completely legitimate and well used, especially for companies with many different locations. In fact, I would bet that WDW uses site-to-site VPN between its different offices.

 

[bigrigross]

Thats not the type of VPN that people are usually referring to. You're using it for remote access, not for privacy/redirection. And I completely forgot about that type when I was making my prior post. And your usage is one that is completely legitimate and well used, especially for companies with many different locations. In fact, I would bet that WDW uses site-to-site VPN between its different offices.

No.... I Initiate the exact same VPN that everyone else uses to do illegal stuff. A VPN is a VPN.... I just have it setup so I can have a direct connection and feel secure while on public networks.

I do have my companies VPN as well and more or less what you are thinking of. But at my house, I cannot have a dedicated IP from my ISP so I can’t create a dedicated Personal VPN so I have to use a VPN service to do it. I wish I could have a dedicated IP as my dell sonic wall firewall supports it....


And before anyone asks why do you need that kind of protection. My wife runs a photography and videography business. So all of her work stuff, pics, and stuff are on the same NAS as my blu-Ray rips on my PLEX server. Do not want anyone gaining access to those things and causing grief.

 

[Kamikaze]

No.... I Initiate the exact same VPN that everyone else uses to do illegal stuff. A VPN is a VPN.... I just have it setup so I can have a direct connection and feel secure while on public networks.

I do have my companies VPN as well and more or less what you are thinking of. But at my house, I cannot have a dedicated IP from my ISP so I can’t create a dedicated Personal VPN so I have to use a VPN service to do it. I wish I could have a dedicated IP as my dell sonic wall firewall supports it....


And before anyone asks why do you need that kind of protection. My wife runs a photography and videography business. So all of her work stuff, pics, and stuff are on the same NAS as my blu-Ray rips on my PLEX server. Do not want anyone gaining access to those things and causing grief.

Right, a VPN is a VPN, but you're using it for a different purpose and in a different way. A person using it to hide torrenting is not using it as a tunnel to a specific site like you are - they're using it to appear as if their IP is the other end of the tunnel, and they 'come out' of it to go wherever they want. The technology is the same, the use case is not.

As far as having a dedicated VPN on your dynamic IP, you can certainly do that without an issue using a service such as DynDNS (dyn.com/dns) which will allow you to create a hostname that automatically updates when your dynamic IP changes. Any SonicWall dating well back before Dell purchased them supports DynDNS, NoIP and others.

 

[bigrigross]

Right, a VPN is a VPN, but you're using it for a different purpose and in a different way. A person using it to hide torrenting is not using it as a tunnel to a specific site like you are - they're using it to appear as if their IP is the other end of the tunnel, and they 'come out' of it to go wherever they want. The technology is the same, the use case is not.

As far as having a dedicated VPN on your dynamic IP, you can certainly do that without an issue using a service such as DynDNS (dyn.com/dns) which will allow you to create a hostname that automatically updates when your dynamic IP changes. Any SonicWall dating well back before Dell purchased them supports DynDNS, NoIP and others.

True, but as with all SOHO Sonic walls they do not like to update the IP sometimes. And it has bitten me in the butt when it has refused to refresh. Hopefully that changes when I move my network over to a ubiquity setup, but until then, the VPN setup I have now has worked the best and reliability has been perfect except for when my house loses its connection or I run into that one hotel that blocks almost every port except for 80....

 

[Kamikaze]

True, but as with all SOHO Sonic walls they do not like to update the IP sometimes. And it has bitten me in the butt when it has refused to refresh. Hopefully that changes when I move my network over to a ubiquity setup, but until then, the VPN setup I have now has worked the best and reliability has been perfect except for when my house loses its connection or I run into that one hotel that blocks almost every port except for 80....

Then you install the DynDNS desktop app if you're having a problem (or if your router doesn't support DynDNS.)

 

[Patcheslee]

If you haven't tried one, its hard to understand. But after using them, there is something enjoyable about asking a question to the air and getting a response.

That would be a change, I'm still working on getting responses from my kid half of the time

 

[LukeS7]

Most Echo devices do not have a physical on/off mic switch, however.

This is actually false if you're talking about the first party echo devices. Every single one that Amazon has made has a physical mic/camera mute button.

 

[NormC]

And yes, I carry an iPhone. Mine has had the internal microphone physically disconnected, to use the phone as a phone, I use a headset.

Did you disable all four of them?

 

[Obobru]

And others that want to appear to come from a different area, say to watch MLB.tv of a local team which you can't do from the teams broadcast area. Which means if you don't have cable/TV, you can't watch your team even if you pay for MLB.tv. If you use a VPN and grab a server in the next state (or any other area) you can watch your team just fine.

I think we can safely say not one person has claimed here this is the purpose of their VPN, they have all claimed they have them for "security" aka hiding themselves online. Nice distract but I can safely assume from the posts here the people moaning about a voice assistant are they type that stock up on rolls of tin foil, in fact most would stock up on anything as they most likely have a bunker.

 

[Monty]

Did you disable all four of them?

My iPhone 6 only has three and, yes, all three are physically disabled.

 

[DavidS1234]

For anyone that is not a government agent, this is a ridiculous level of inconvenience to go to.

The first rule of being a government agent is not to talk about being a government agent.

 

[hapihart]

In this day and age, you're being watched or listened to on a regular basis. Whether you want to admit it or not. So I really don't see what all the fuss is about.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Jim and @lentesta discussed this as a possibility on the next 3 cruise ships. Seems logical.

 

[mikejs78]

No chance that Google Home is outselling Echo devices. Literally zero.

Edit: It appears Amazon has a 2:1 (100m to 50m) lead in devices sold as of the beginning of 2019. Much closer than I thought, to be honest.

Google Home has been rapidly catching up to Amazon Echo quarter to quarter. Amazon's lead in devices sold comes from their head start, but Google had been slowly closing the gap.

Redirect Notice

 

[lentesta]

Jim and @lentesta discussed this as a possibility on the next 3 cruise ships. Seems logical.

I just got a WDW survey today, with lots of questions on how I use an Echo.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I just got a WDW survey today, with lots of questions on how I use an Echo.

Alexa, basement lights on.
Sorry, I don't recognize the pengiun
Alexa, basement lights on.
What device?
Basement.

Fast forward to Stephen Colbert's show,
Alexa, play smooth jazz
"Playing smooth jazz"
ME: .

 

[Notes from Neverland]

Fun to see this play out into the new "Hey, Disney!" that was announced.

Technology – Always Part of our Magic

At Disney, we’ve always pushed the boundaries of technology and innovation to entertain our guests and create experiences that are unlike anything else in the world. Walt Disney himself was absolutely fascinated by the technology of his day,

disneyparks.disney.go.com

 

[aaronml]

Interesting to see the things they choose to invest in… Why pay for parking trams and parades when you can instead pay for a custom Disney / Amazon smart speaker…

That said, it appears you’ll be able to use this for requesting services (e.g. more towels), so I suppose this is intended to reduce calls to the “front desk” call center, and thus reduce staffing needs.

 

[VJ]

Interesting to see the things they choose to invest in… Why pay for parking trams and parades when you can instead pay for a custom Disney / Amazon smart speaker…

because 1. they can charge for this 2. "synergy"

 

[Dunston]

Think about how everything on Genie is algorithmic, and now they're putting an Amazon Wiretap in every guest room. Now, if you check in, and your hyperactive 8-year-old mentions Rise of the Resistance several times in your room, the Amazon Wiretap will tell Genie to suggest you buy Lightning Lane on your scheduled Hollywood Studios day, and maybe even surge the prices for IA$ based on what it hears.