Community Chat

[pattypeep]

I am very interested in the Amazon Echo and would like to maybe purchase it for my dh's birthday coming up. If you have this and enjoy it, I would love to hear your pro's and con's.

[Tribesters]

I had Alexa. I recently changed her name to Echo. Too many news stories & commercials where they were instructing Alexa to do things. My DH was watching the news story about the little girl that ordered the dollhouse & cookies. Apparently they demonstrated how she ordered these through Alexa. Mine is right by the TV & she came right on when she heard her name. Luckily he was here to cancel her. We got a chuckle out of it & I have since changed the ordering settings so a 4 digit code is required.

As to if I'd recommend it- I like it. But it's mostly a toy for me. I have her set timers, tell me the weather, when my sports teams play, etc... She can play music, news, read books & so much more. I actually have the Dot & not the Echo. It was under $50. For that price I think it's a cool gadget.

[pattypeep]

@Tribesters Very good info. Thank you. I saw the Dot on Amazon, but didn't really know what it was. So, it's basically like the Echo pretty much? It will probably be mostly a toy for dh and I as well. But what fun when you have company. A conversation starter. If you're playing cards, for instance, you can ask Alexa to clarify a rule. No squabbling. LOL

[Lorik62]

I received the Echo as a Christmas gift and I absolutely love it! I use it mainly to play music, however I find myself asking her questions during the day. I have also heard my husband asking her questions about his sports teams!! 

[patbz]

 I was an early adapter of Alexander and DH and I love it.  We mainly use it for sleep music (sounds great) and setting alarms.  Last year we surprised our son with one (uses it for music and cooking alarms).  The Echo has way better speaker than Dot, depends on what you are using it for.  Amazon offers $20-$30 off periodically as a promotion and there may be one coming up for Valentine's.

[mistyada]

I have the dot. I love it. i use it daily for timers, setting calender events, weather, general questions, weather, traffic and music. It sometimes turns on if the tv says something but you can report that to Amazon so they can focus on changing things, More things are being added so it should becme even more handy. I do not use the ordering because any child could prder things even with the code. Kids will just listen to the code. 

[Havarti]

Here is a con to consider…loss of privacy in your home. 

Many people do not care, but this one factor alone would keep me from having any such device in my home.  You should at least be aware that anything/everything you say could potentially be recorded and stored for an unknown period of time in the cloud.  So, if you or your husband conduct business in the home, or over the phone, or you talk to your bank/financial person, or your doctor, or you have an argument/”discussion”, or private/intimate moments, etc. – all can be recorded without warning and stored by Amazon indefinitely.  Here is a link regarding the police asking Amazon to release recordings from 2015 that relate to a murder:

. 

http://edit.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/blog/police-want-an-echos-data-to-prove-a-murder-case-but-how-muc...

Amazon will not release them, but they never state they don’t have them – and it is now 2017.  These machines are always “on”/listening…they need to be or they would not hear their name when you request/command some action or information.  Personally, I am not ready to give up my privacy for some machine to play music on command, or tell me what time it is when I can look at my watch, or keep a list when I can write it down.  My privacy is important to me, I value it and I am not going to willingly hand it over to strangers.  That is just my decision…it is for each to decide for themselves.  You just asked for pros & cons….this is a major con to me that I thought you should at least know about before making your decision.

[Silver Lining]

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@patbz wrote:

 I was an early adapter of Alexander and DH and I love it.  We mainly use it for sleep music (sounds great) and setting alarms.  Last year we surprised our son with one (uses it for music and cooking alarms).  The Echo has way better speaker than Dot, depends on what you are using it for.  Amazon offers $20-$30 off periodically as a promotion and there may be one coming up for Valentine's.

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Great info! Thanks for the heads up about Amazon!! My sister is having surgery in a few weeks and it would be a really good gift for her.

[SaRina]

I don't want another woman in the house....

... especially one who listens to and saves your conversations.

[Graydoxiechick]

I would smash that annoying thing