Anyone have an Amazon Echo? Do you like/dislike it?

[PrincessMommy]

I'm curious and considering putting it on my Christmas wish-list.   A friend has one and she likes it a lot, but she seems more connected than I am.

 

One question I'm curious about is I would love something that reads the news to me.  Do you have to have a subscription to the newspaper to do that, or can you just find random news sites and ask Echo to read the article?  I already listen to NPR most mornings, but I like to have a variety of news sites to go to.

 

 

[Spryte]

I love our echo.

 

Yes, it will read the news to you - no subscription necessary. We use it all the time, for news, music, audiobooks (we use Audible), and DS uses it for spelling help multiple times daily. We set timers with it, too.

[Miss Marple]

I loved our Echo.  Unfortunately it was my #2 son's property which he took to Georgia Tech for grad school :(  Dh loved it so much that he ordered 2 for his office...one in the main room and one in the minor surgery room.  So today I sit here at home Echo free. 

[Laurel]

We love ours. You don't need a subscription for news; it's a standard feature. We probably use it most often for a timer, and also to keep track of shopping lists. It's great to be able to add things to the list even when my hands are dirty in the middle of cooking. We also stream music, and I use it as a speaker for my phone for music/podcasts/audiobooks. (I like the audible app interface better, and while you can listen to podcasts directly on the Echo, it's much easier to find them on my iPhone.)

Oh, also, a favorite feature - with the Alexa app I can turn music on remotely when I'm not home, which really freaks out DP when he's home alone.

[Spryte]

I loved our Echo.  Unfortunately it was my #2 son's property which he took to Georgia Tech for grad school :(  Dh loved it so much that he ordered 2 for his office...one in the main room and one in the minor surgery room.  So today I sit here at home Echo free. 

 

Uh oh.  I think it's time for you to write a letter to Santa... 

[Lady Florida.]

I love ours. I suspect I'd love it even more if we had a smart home. 

 

There are several different news sources available, so you aren't limited to just NPR. 

 

You can look here at the Skills categories to see what it can do for you. Browse or click on Categories and look at the different skills areas.

 

We use ours mostly for:

-shopping lists

-to do lists

-timers

-listening to music - it has several options as you can see under Skills, but I usually listen to Prime Music

-asking what's on the calendar - our Echo is paired with our Google Calendar but there are other choices

-news updates

-weather

-traffic - I haven't figured out how to use this efficiently yet because I think you have to put in your destination each time

-I sometimes have it read my current Audible book to me, but not often. I usually prefer to listen through my blue tooth headphones because the rest of the family doesn't necessarily want to hear my audio book. I only use Echo for this when I'm home alone.

 

I live in a small city so ordering local food and other things isn't an option for us and we don't use Uber. I haven't tried using it to reorder something from Amazon yet, but that might change this week when I have to reorder cat litter genie refills.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Lady Florida.

[Butter]

We've had an Echo since they first came out a couple years ago.  We love it.  It reads me news every day.  I have selected which sources I want it to include.  You can even have it play various radio stations from all over for free.  We have it play music a lot.  It's attached to my daughter's Spotify account and my husband's Amazon Music account.  We ask it a lot of questions.  It's awesome for conversions while cooking.  We use it as a timer daily.  It's gotten so much more useful and functional over the last couple years.  I would miss it if I no longer had it for some reason.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Butter

[RegGuheert]

No experience with Echo. I'm just posting to say I cannot imagine putting a device in my house which listens to everything which is said and potentially sends some/all of that to a third party.

[Butter]

No experience with Echo. I'm just posting to say I cannot imagine putting a device in my house which listens to everything which is said and potentially sends some/all of that to a third party.

 

It doesn't.  You have to "wake" it by saying Alexa before it will listen to you.  Sometimes more than once.

[RegGuheert]

It doesn't.  You have to "wake" it by saying Alexa before it will listen to you.  Sometimes more than once.

 

How does it know when someone says "Alexa" if it is not listening?  I think what you mean is that it only responds to you when you say "Alexa".  What it does with what it hears at all other times is up to the programmers to decide.

 

Edited November 15, 2016 by RegGuheert

[PrincessMommy]

No experience with Echo. I'm just posting to say I cannot imagine putting a device in my house which listens to everything which is said and potentially sends some/all of that to a third party.

 

yes, that is a concern of mine.

 

Similar to having random conversations in my home and then my computer (Google) giving me "recommendations" quite similar to the topics we've been discussing.  So who else is listening besides Google, one wonders? 

[Butter]

I can honestly say that I have never had recommendations show up, including on Amazon, from anything we've talked about near the Echo.  Actually, I've never had recommendations show up about anything we've talked about period.

 

My friend, however, DID have a suggestion show up for something immediately after I was telling her about it while talking on the phone (she does not have an Echo, so it was presumably through her iPhone).

[Guest]

.

Edited September 11, 2020 by Æthelthryth the Texan

[Butter]

Can you unplug the Echo and plug it in when you're ready or does that defeat the entire purpose and make you have to set up again each time?

 

You can.  It just takes a few seconds to power up.

Edited November 15, 2016 by Butter

[Baseball mom]

We love ours. You don't need a subscription for news; it's a standard feature. We probably use it most often for a timer, and also to keep track of shopping lists. It's great to be able to add things to the list even when my hands are dirty in the middle of cooking. We also stream music, and I use it as a speaker for my phone for music/podcasts/audiobooks. (I like the audible app interface better, and while you can listen to podcasts directly on the Echo, it's much easier to find them on my iPhone.)

Oh, also, a favorite feature - with the Alexa app I can turn music on remotely when I'm not home, which really freaks out DP when he's home alone.

 

:lol:  :rofl:  :lol:

[Baseball mom]

I would be concerned with what it was hearing & recording when I didn't think it was listening.

 

I also would be concerned with the kind of random (really stupid) questions dss and their friends would ask, just to hear the answer.  

[SeaConquest]

We have 2 Alexas. We love them and would never be without them. We are early adopters. Love love love.

[heartlikealion]

We have one. I have very mixed feelings on it. Guess I'm not a very good user because I don't find it nearly as user-friendly as I had hoped.

 

There have been many times where I thought it was stupid because it couldn't google for me or whatever. You ask a question and it says, "I'm sorry, I do not understand the question" and such. I ask about the weather and it mishears me half the time and tells me the weather in another part of the country that has a similar name?? Then I have to interrupt and repeat myself. If I'm adding several items at once to the grocery list I get exasperated saying, "Alexa. Add oranges to the shopping list. Alexa. Add salami to the shopping list. Alexa add blah blah to the list." If you don't say shopping list sometimes she'll put it on the to do list instead. Dh says you can just add the items via the app on the phone so that's what I did last time. I would rather just say, "Alexa. Add oranges and salami to the shopping list" but I think she puts them on the same line?? When you say her name she turns blue. If you stop talking she will turn off and that's why you have to say her name again.

 

I do like Alexa for some things. Setting timers, setting alarms, listening to music. Sometimes she will play a song because it's available from Prime or in my music library. Sometimes she won't play what I ask because we don't own it, but she may redirect me to a music station. Sometimes we ask her definitions. I don't know if it worked every time, but at least a few times ds was able to get her to understand when he asked an abbreviation for a state.

 

That is so funny about turning on music remotely. I didn't know about that. My MIL also has an echo. Dh and SIL added weird things to her grocery list lol (I mean from her home, not ours)

 

My toddler has thrown Alexa a couple times. She's still alive. So far.

 

The biggest use here? Us saying, "Alexa, what time is it?" Lol Usually when everyone is trying to get ready to leave the house and doesn't want to stop what they are doing to look at a clock.

 

Usually Alexa doesn't react (turn blue) when we're just carrying on/watching tv. There used to be one Amazon Echo commercial that made her react, though! It was annoying because she would start reading the news Lol.

Edited November 15, 2016 by heartlikealion

[Jyhwkmama]

We have one and love it. We use it for music and news, the kids have it tell them jokes, I use it for sports scores, my son uses it for definitions and timers and spelling for school.

 

It really is awesome for family dance party time.

[Amber in SJ]

We enjoy ours, but it took a little getting used to.  Dh has it synched to his fitbit & when he asks it about his fitness goals it says things like,

 

"I hope you have jam, because your fitness goals are toast!"

 

He uses it for the news brief in the morning, music all day, hockey games on the radio, weather & shopping lists.  It mostly lives in the bedroom, but once we got a "battery" for it, it became mobile & can be moved around the house.  The kids love to ask for jokes.

 

Amber in SJ

 

 

[VaKim]

Can I do a bit of hijacking here and ask some questions about it?

 

Do you have to have a smart phone in order to use the features like shopping and to-do lists?

 

How about for playing music? Do you have to set up playlists and connect it to them? Or can you just ask it to play a song and it will find it on Amazon Prime music or whatever? 

 

If we had one, those are the main things we would want it for, but we do not have smart phones, only computers.

[Familia]

...does this all also go for opinions about the Tap?  

[Laurel]

Can I do a bit of hijacking here and ask some questions about it?

 

Do you have to have a smart phone in order to use the features like shopping and to-do lists?

 

How about for playing music? Do you have to set up playlists and connect it to them? Or can you just ask it to play a song and it will find it on Amazon Prime music or whatever?

 

If we had one, those are the main things we would want it for, but we do not have smart phones, only computers.

You can access look at your shopping and to-do lists on the amazon website.

 

Playing music is very easy to do directly with the echo, no need for a smartphone. Just say the song or artist and if it's available, it will play. (If it's not available free with prime music, she plays a sample.) And there are lots of playlists already made, so if you just want a certain genre of music it's easy to ask for that too.

[Spy Car]

I saw this mention of a black Friday deals morning:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-friday-2016-tech-deals_us_582205ede4b0e80b02ccf460

 

The Echo is item #10.

 

$140.

 

Bill 

[heartlikealion]

I saw this mention of a black Friday deals morning:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-friday-2016-tech-deals_us_582205ede4b0e80b02ccf460

 

The Echo is item #10.

 

$140.

 

Bill 

 

I find that pricing to be a joke. I mean, they can do way better than that for Black Friday special. We paid $99 for ours when it first came out.

 

[J-rap]

I have one, but I never, ever remember to use it.  It seems just as efficient to do the same things in a different way.  (Like on my phone.)  The only thing I consistently use it for is playing Christmas music at Christmastime.  It does have a good sound!

[Lady Florida.]

I saw this mention of a black Friday deals morning:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-friday-2016-tech-deals_us_582205ede4b0e80b02ccf460

 

The Echo is item #10.

 

$140.

 

Bill 

 

Totally off topic, but I want that Canon Rebel!

[UCF612]

My husband wants one.  Is there a major advantage to having the big Echo over the Dot?

[mommybee]

I just bought the Echo Dot....any idea what are the differences between that and the full size product?

 

I haven't figured out how to fully utilize it so this thread was helpful.

[heartlikealion]

I thought the dot was to accompany the Echo. Like I thought the Echo was required to use the dot. Shows how much I know ha. I just googled it and it sounds like the dot is more bang for your buck since it's pretty much the same.

http://www.howtogeek.com/248590/whats-the-difference-between-the-amazon-echo-and-echo-dot/

[Spryte]

Can I do a bit of hijacking here and ask some questions about it?

 

Do you have to have a smart phone in order to use the features like shopping and to-do lists?

 

How about for playing music? Do you have to set up playlists and connect it to them? Or can you just ask it to play a song and it will find it on Amazon Prime music or whatever?

 

If we had one, those are the main things we would want it for, but we do not have smart phones, only computers.

So many ways to play music! You can say, "play Ben Folds from Spotify" and it will play Ben Folds. Or you can say, "play the Ben Folds station from Pandora" and it will play a Ben Folds Pandora station. Or you can say, "play [specific album] by [specific artist] from Spotify" and it will play just that album. You can do the same with "play [specific song by specific artist] from Spotify." If you don't link it to Spotify or Pandora, you get free access to all Prime music so you do the same commands, I just find that I prefer our Spotify account.

 

I don't often use the shopping list feature, maybe I should try more often.

 

We mostly use it for music, audible, timers, news, spelling help.

[kewb]

I don't know. I've seen this movie. The computer tried to kill Parker Stevenson's girlfriend when it fell in love with him.

 

Dh would like it. I have lived this long without it and don't want it.

[Jyhwkmama]

If you are into music, pick the echo over the dot. The rich sound of the echo is worth the one time extra cost.

[Spryte]

Oh! I forgot: visiting kids like the tell me joke option. :)

 

Full disclosure: we didn't buy ours. DH's company buys new, fun tech every few months for everyone to try out. To keep enthusiasm high. Their Munich office currently has some electric unicycle thing that everyone plays with at lunch. The Echo was a company "try it out" purchase right when they came out. Since they didn't work in Germany at first - we scored!

 

We loved it so much, we bought a Tap for DS's room. He's always listening to audiobooks.

 

I'm not sure we'd have bought one on our own without trying it long term first.