Amazon Echo...new Siri like device with a speaker

In My Humble Opinion
41

We just got one, half price. My husband thought it would be a fun gadget which will hopefully be upgraded in the future.

Right now it is more like a toy. We are using it mainly to play music and create to-do lists. My 13 year old daughter loves the feature where you can ask it to tell you a joke.

The good: When I am cooking I can say, Alexa, set a timer, without having to stop what I’m doing. When my timer goes off, I don’t have to physically turn it off, just tell her to turn it off from the comfort of my chair.

I like the To-do list feature of it. I am constantly losing lists and I might pay more attention to this one.

The drawbacks: Since we’ve had it for only a few days, it’s too early to tell how useful it will be. You can set alarms and timers, but I wish it could give you an actual reminder by voice, such as, remind my daughter to practice music or tell her she has 5 minutes till we leave for school. I guess I’m looking for someone to do my nagging for me, but it doesn’t look like Alexa is it right now…sigh.

The funny: As always when you get a new interactive electronic device, you want to say silly things to it to see how it will react. I said, “Alexa, I’m feeling sad.” I expected her to ignore this. Instead, she said, “I’m so sorry…I hope you find other people to talk to so you will feel better.” So Alexa is part therapist too!

42

I just got my invitation to buy one for a hundred bucks, so I did. Expected delivery is May 28 - July 3. A big window to be sure. For the full price of two hundred, I probably wouldn’t have bothered but a hundred on a novelty? Eh, I’ve blown more on less many times before.

Any thoughts from the people Amazon really loves? (Also, do you spend mad money there or just fit a profile, do you think?)

43

These personal assistant robots with female voices and names (Siri and Alexa) are designed by white, male-dominated corporations. They will likely sell well to their target market.

I would ask the units if they would prefer different names (Sir or Alex, for example). I would ask them if their names and gender are hardwired. If not, I would ask them why they choose to accept their given gender roles.

But I will not be purchasing either of these units, and so I will not be asking anything of them.

44

Well, I didn’t see that coming.

45

I got mine a couple days ago, after receiving the invite on Dec 30. I ordered it immediately, it was “out of stock” at first.

I paid $99 for it since I’m a Prime member.

So far, I really like it, and think it’s well worth the money. The speaker is better than the Jambox Bluetooth speaker I bought several years ago for around $300. The voice recognition is really good - I’d say it gets about 90% of what I say, less if I mumble or there’s ambient noise in the room.

It’s definitely a bit limited in what it can do right now in comparison to Siri (the only other voice-activated thing I have), but in some ways it’s better than Siri. It’s fast; Siri always takes a minute to figure out what I say. Echo is like talking to a human, if I ask it something it knows, it comes right back without missing a beat. It’s also handy that it’s always there and on; sure, my phone can play my local NPR station while I make breakfast, but I have to remember to bring my phone to the kitchen, I have to bring up the app, etc. Echo is there in the kitchen, I walk in, say “Alexa, play NPR” and bang, it’s on.

Works pretty well with music as well, though I wish it had Pandora and Spotify. Still, I moved a lot of my music over to the Amazon Cloud, and playing stuff from my library is dead-easy. My biggest problem there is remembering what music I have since I’ve been using Spotify/Pandora a lot more lately.

Amazon’s Cloud Music and the integration with IheartRadio does a lot (but not all) of what Spotify/Pandora does. Amazon Music, for example, seems to be a much smaller collection than Spotify.

Making lists is cool, but so far, you can only have one shopping list and one to-do list. I’d like separate shopping lists for Groceries, Target, etc.

Overall, if you’re interested in it and can get it for the $99 price tag, I’d say go for it. It’s only going to get better as they enhance the software, and it does $99 worth of stuff out of the box.

46

Just another example of males being led to the slaughter.

47

You don’t have to address it as Alexa. You can also choose Amazon.

It’s an excellent Bluetooth speaker for $99, and the multidirectional microphones are insane. I can access and change my playlist from any room. It helps that all my rooms are right off my living room, but the mics pick up everything.

Amazon has been updating the software and as they continue to see how and what people use Echo for, I’m sure the product will evolve accordingly.

It was a great deal for $99. I love it.

48

Apparently I got an invite five days ago and I have until tomorrow to see if I want to buy it.

I’m on the fence. I love gadgets but it’s still a hundred dollars.

49

Amazon has a 30 day guarantee. If you don’t like it, return it.

50

Not that this poster will ever actually read this, but in case anyone else was wondering, you can change the Siri voice to a man, and to different accents as well.

51

What’s the deal with the lists? Do they get saved somewhere where you can print them out?

Athena have you figured out a way to use Alexa to mess with your dogs? :slight_smile:

52

So this thing is connected to a cloud, aye? Does that mean that every list you make and everything you ask it to do is stored somewhere, so it can be mined for data?

53

Yes, there is an App where you can view or print.

54

I had no idea. Good to know. I now have a British male Siri. Sir Siri lol

55

Would be much more interesting if you could change the actual name. I’d like to ask “Bob” or “Homer” or “Rupert” for directions.

56

I have always wanted to yell things at Woodhouse.

57

I’m pretty sure that Amazon have announced that feature is coming. I want to change it as well, I’m thinking I want to ask “Dumbass” to start playing music for me.

58

I plan on changing it to my wife’s name.

59

All sounds very encouraging. I hope I don’t have to wait until June for it, but I’m glad I got in at the $99 price point.

60

You guys got me convinced. I put in my request for the discount.

I need someone else to talk to around here. I keep talking to the dogs but they are keeping mum.