This is one reason I am taking a month off of Facebook.
Back to the story.
Lets get some terminology out of the way first. The device is called the Echo, there are several variants from original, compact, wireless, and 2 new video variants. The voice interface is referred to as Alexa and you can choose between several "Wake words" for addressing the device.
Yes, there is potential for abuse of the device, but I weighed the benefits against the risks and have decided that I have nothing to worry about.
Of all of the devices, the Dot is the most affordable and often drops to $35. The sound with the Dot is passable but it can be connected to either a $10 pair of wired speakers or a set of Bluetooth speakers and the results are terrific.
Let me just get what I think of as the big shortcoming out of the way first:
You cannot get it to announce anything without giving it a command.
I would love for it to be able to announce when the mail arrives at the mailbox, or that the greenhouse is in danger of freezing, but that is not yet supported.
Now, on to what I use it for:
- Turn on or off lighting in my house, with the assistance of smart lighting.
- Play music from:
- Pandora.
- I Heart Radio.
- Amazon Prime, requires a subscription, more later.
- Timed alarms.
- Kitchen timer.
- Morning news briefings.
- Weather forecast.
- Drive time report for my commute.
- Simple information lookup, more on this later.
- Jokes.
- Sleep sounds with timer.
- Interactive games.
- Calling family members.
There are more uses that I have not mentioned, these are just the ones I have experience with.
Of the music skills, I have found I Heart Radio to be the most useful, I can ask "Alexa, play KNDD in Living room", or "Play KING FM everywhere." Pandora is almost as good, with deeper wanderings into a genre of your choice, but you can tailor it as you listen.
Prime music is different. First, it requires a membership with Amazon Prime to be used at all, and then only one device at a time may be using it. The basic Prime music package, included with your Amazon Prime annual fee, is one device at a time with a limited music selection. There are higher tiers for Prime music allowing for a larger selection of music. Known as Prime Music Unlimited, you can subscribe to the larger collection of music for one device at $4/month, one player at a time for $8/Month or up to 6 players at a time for $15/month. Note that this is on top of the price for your Amazon Prime. There is good music to be listened to in the basic Prime list, plus any that you have purchased through Amazon.
The Morning Briefing is configurable, but I find a lot of stories repeated when going from global to national. I prefer to read my news anyhow.
The search function is limited by two factors; it only reports the first found item, and it uses Bing as the search engine. For many things it works well enough, such as "What is the proper temperature for a medium rare steak?" or "What is the cube root of 125?" If you wanted a funny answer, ask her the value of pi, or ask her to open the pod bay doors.
The jokes can range from bad to worse. But it can be fun to ask for them.
The calling feature is an interesting newer addition, you can call another person from your contacts list, if they have the option turned on. The difficulty I have with it is that it can be difficult to turn off the connection. It will also act as an answering machine for Echo to Echo calls.
Other skills I have not explored include:
- Calling an Uber or taxi.
- Ordering a pizza.
- Finding your phone.
- 7 minute workout.
- Cooking recipe reference.
- Shopping list.
- Amazon ordering.
While these appear useful, I have not had the inclination or need to try them yet. I do, on occasion ask her for her deals and sometimes you can get some good values around the holidays.
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