# Ask the guy who got his Amazon Echo today! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 10, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192 "2015-06-10T19:53:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/1 "2015-06-10T19:53:24Z")
Just got it today! And I frick’n love it! total nerdgasm! I’m happy to answer any questions for those curious. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/2 "2015-06-10T19:57:37Z")
Is it a solution in search of a problem? What are you going to use it for? ---
**Author:** ![CinnamonBabka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@CinnamonBabka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CinnamonBabka)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/3 "2015-06-10T20:00:02Z")
Can you take it apart and take very detailed pictures for me? ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/4 "2015-06-10T20:04:04Z")
Well for instance, with out lifting a finger, I asked it to play me “Groove is in the Heart” by Dee-Lite and it complied! I also put together a shopping list, which it did and then subsequently downloaded it to my phone. All with out lifting a finger. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/5 "2015-06-10T20:21:41Z")
What’s so arduous about lifting your finger? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/6 "2015-06-10T20:23:46Z")
What is it? Never heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/7 "2015-06-10T20:38:20Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What’s so arduous about lifting your finger? Nothing, it’s just a cool nerd thing. Think of it like being able to talk to the computer on ST: TNG. It is functional though, like for instance, if I open up the fridge and notice I’m out of milk, all I have to do is say: Alexa, add milk to the shopping list. Which is much more convenient than actually having to look for my phone and type it in manually. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/8 "2015-06-10T20:39:30Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What’s so arduous about lifting your finger? They’re busy typing about how little he’s using them. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/9 "2015-06-10T21:43:45Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > What is it? Never heard of it. I just Googled it: seems to be a voice-recognition command thingie. I don’t like voice-rec, so it wouldn’t be a toy for me. But **Shakes** seems happy, so the tech has a home. (“This program has been brought to you by XYZ corporation, leaders in speak recognition – speech retchognition – speech recognition software.”) ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/10 "2015-06-10T22:31:04Z")
ask her to tell you a joke ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/11 "2015-06-10T23:36:22Z")
Supposedly, they’re good for keeping your children entertained for a few minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/12 "2015-06-11T00:07:43Z")
I find talking machines frickin’ annoying, but am fully behind improving the technology for those that do like it. I’m just concerned that we’ll all be FORCED to use it instead of alternatives we might be more comfortable with (like keyboards, which I can use in the same room where someone else might be watching a movie or TV, without disturbing anyone). ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/13 "2015-06-11T00:31:25Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > ask her to tell you a joke That actually worked! Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/14 "2015-06-11T00:50:08Z")
Does yours cut out when attempting to play Prime music? I set mine up Saturday and was able to tell it to play stuff from Prime like a 90s playlist. But now it will start to play then cut out after 2 seconds. It will play other stuff from the cloud, stuff I have purchased, but if it’s random Prime stuff it dies. I’m bummed it won’t stream from my actual huge music collection that is right there on my network. Hoping they add that sometime. Although I guess it will deny them their $25/year for me to upload it to their cloud. It’s fun so far. Except when I want random music and it dies. I have to figure out who to contact about this. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/15 "2015-06-11T01:12:29Z")
I got mine last week too. I did find one little glitch with the timer - I’d used it several times successfully, but had never asked it to do anything else before that time was up. Then yesterday I asked it for a couple other things right after asking for a 30-minute timer (which was confirmed, so I know it understood what I wanted). The timer request was somehow forgotten, and I ended up burning the beans I was making for dinner. Boo. I did report it to Amazon, and they sent me a reply pretty quickly, so they are paying attention to the performance reports they are getting. So far what I’ve liked the most is telling it what time to wake me up in the morning. I get up at a different time every weekday, so it’s pretty convenient to just order my wake-up ‘call’ before I go to bed. I hope they eventually add different voices - I’ve always wanted my own English butler. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/16 "2015-06-11T01:21:27Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > That actually worked! > > Thanks. well? what did you get? ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/17 "2015-06-11T01:42:00Z")
> [@JackieLikesVariety](#): > > well? what did you get? And can you ask it to tell a dirty joke? Or a dirty limerick? Kids might have fun with that. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/18 "2015-06-11T01:46:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I find talking machines frickin’ annoying, but am fully behind improving the technology for those that do like it. They’re my friends. I make them. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/19 "2015-06-11T02:41:24Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > And can you ask it to tell a dirty joke? Or a dirty limerick? Kids might have fun with that. Well, I did ask it to tell me a dirty joke and it didn’t know what I was asking. But, in the interest of being crude, I asked it to blow me. it’s response was: “I’m not designed for that sort of thing.” ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192/20 "2015-06-11T02:45:19Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Does yours cut out when attempting to play Prime music? I set mine up Saturday and was able to tell it to play stuff from Prime like a 90s playlist. But now it will start to play then cut out after 2 seconds. It will play other stuff from the cloud, stuff I have purchased, but if it’s random Prime stuff it dies. > > I’m bummed it won’t stream from my actual huge music collection that is right there on my network. Hoping they add that sometime. Although I guess it will deny them their $25/year for me to upload it to their cloud. > > It’s fun so far. Except when I want random music and it dies. I have to figure out who to contact about this. I haven’t had this problem. Sometimes I’ll ask it to play me a song, and the best it will give me is a sample. I’m thinking that’s due to Amazon’s Prime Music limited selection though. I think with time, it should get better. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-got-his-amazon-echo-today/722192.md?page=2)