Get dice rolls.
Me: “Alexa, give me a number between 1 and 6”
Alexa: “Your random number between 1 and 6 is 4”
Yeah, that need arises a lot. And before Alexa, there was just no way to do it.
Aha … there must have been some other problem then. Maybe her Iphone 5 didn’t work with it…she has a 7 now so I’ll have her try it again.
We use the timer feature a ton, and she can certainly handle more than one at once. Phrase it like “Alexa, set a cookie timer for 12 minutes” and then “Alexa, set a pizza timer for 15 minutes”, and she’ll tell you which one goes off when the timer ends. You can also ask “how much time is left” at any point and she’ll run down your timers for you.
Probably the feature we use the most is the “Sleep Sounds” skill. Nice to fall asleep to a thunderstorm.
Fun stuff: ask her to sing her favorite song.
I can see I’m going to be busy for a while.
I think it can control my Dish Hopper too.
GaryM
I’m not saying it’s super useful. 
But sometimes there is one or two dice you can’t find, or can’t be bothered to look for, and you only need them a few times during the game.
Please tell me it’s not Daisy Bell. I’m too afraid to test.
My son was over at my house. I asked him if he was doing a Christmas tree this year. He got out his phone and said, “Alexa, show me the tree. Alexa, turn on the tree lights.” He held his phone out to me and I watched the lights come on.
I asked him if this wouldn’t freak out his wife and kids, seeing the lights suddenly come on. “Alexa, show me baby monitor 1. Okay, not that kid, she’s napping…”
Nope, but supposedly Cortana likes it.
There are actually several, and she rotates through them. Last time she sang one in a barbershop-quartet style about “technology!” I’ve also heard a sort of country tune about “it’s raining in the Cloud…” And last Christmas she sang a carol-style song I can’t remember.
Our family got a 1st gen echo about 6 months ago and we all love it. The sound from the device itself is pretty good for its size and paired with a spotify subscription (which I already had) and iheartradio it’s fantastic for listening to anything.
We use it primarily for listening to music and radio (mostly the local public radio), kitchen timers (hands free), shopping lists, weather, and any general info question my kids (7 and 12) have - definitions of words, geography questions, science questions… anything factual one might look up on google can be done in a blink with the echo pretty much.
We have amazon prime but I don’t use it for ordering anything - I’ve turned that feature off.
There’s also all sorts of these little “apps” within it that you can enable/download that gives it additional features/extras. The kids use these mostly. “Alexa, give us a fart.” Cue fart noise followed by giggling kids.
I’ve not tried shopping yet. It’s only my wife and I so should be an issue with pranking.
If I ask it to play music, how do I know it won’t play something I need to pay for? Or will it tell me before playing?
I’ve been using it to check weather and timers so far. The interconnect for the phone line is pretty ordered and I’m thinking will be here Tuesday or Wednesday.
GaryM
If you have a dog, try “Alexa, open the box of cats”.
She’ll tell you. She will say “(Song) is available only on Prime Unlimited (or whatever it’s called) but here is a sample of it”
It won’t just sign you up for something without permission, so don’t worry about that. It can be hard, though, to get her to play a very specific song that has a lot of different versions. I found that “Alexa, play ‘Ave Maria’ sung by Beyonce” did get me the version I wanted; there sure are a lot of versions of “Ave Maria” out there.
Supposedly, though I haven’t tried it myself, Alexa can even play songs you don’t know the name of. Try “Alexa, play the song that goes ‘Hello from the other side’” or something along those lines.
Might have been a version of Technologic, by Daft Punk.
I’m hooked after 3 days with this thing. I need a Dot or Spot to replace my alarm clock.
GaryM
Mine will be delivered tomorrow!
This is pretty basic, but “Alexa, what’s new?” or “what’s in the news?” will trigger the “flash briefing” - basically the latest news. I think by default it plays the hourly news update from NPR and BBC, but it’s customizable through the web portal or the smartphone app.
Alexa can also play podcasts, stream radio stations, etc.
Personally I think it’s worth it just as a hands-free kitchen timer.
Amazon seems to have deals on these pretty often. I picked up a refurb Dot for $30 from Amazon and a new 1st gen Echo (on woot!) for $75 - half price.