On 1/11/2015 blinddogs said: I don't get the hype on the Echo, other than the rather bogus "exclusivity" of having to be invited to join the "club" of Echo buyers as a clever marketing tool by Amazon. I'm an Amazon Prime member and also have their separate music cloud service where I store all my music. I can stream my music from the cloud to wireless audio speakers via bluetooth and via a Roku box to my HD TV, which then displays the album and song title being played.
If you have a smart phone, it can do much of what the Echo does-- and does NOT need to be plugged into an electrical wall outlet to operate as the echo requires.
Since Echo operates via Amazon's various cloud capabilities, I'd be a bit wary for privacy reasons of having so much personal information stored-- all the voice commands and inquiries-- attached to your name and account number.
A smart phone can do much of what Echo does, but to use my smartphone I have to take it out, hit the tap code to wake it up, launch whatever app I need then navigate my way through to find what I want to do. If I get distracted for more than a few seconds in that process the battery saving mode will kick in and lock the smartphone back up again requiring me to use the tap code to awaken it once more. With Echo I simply say, "Alexa, play my Eva Cassidy music" and there's Eva Cassidy's voice coming from Echo. If it's too quiet I can tell Alexa to raise the volume. If it's too loud I can tell Alexa to lower the volume. I can set timers and alarms on my smart phone, but once again it requires navigating to the proper app and launching it and then applying the setting. With Echo you simply tell her to set the timer/alarm and it's done. It's just one step more in the move towards convenience and convergence.
Technically you don't need a smartphone to do all of those things. I can find my old Eva Cassidy CD's and play them in a CD/DVD/Blu-ray player. I can set the stove timer. I can use an alarm clock to set an alarm. Smartphones are used because they're more convenient and Echo is simply more convenient than a smartphone.
As to being plugged in, having had to replace several perfectly good items simply because the built-in battery failed, making Echo plug in isn't such a bad thing. It's not like she can do a lot if the power goes out anyway as she's completely dependent on the Internet. When your power goes out, so does your router/modem so your Internet is down and so would be Echo. Even if you're using an uninterruptible power supply to keep your modem/router running, the cable/telephone company very likely isn't and your modem won't be receiving a signal anyway.
As to the privacy issue, the government has now had it leaked that they can turn on the microphone in your smartphone/computer/cordless phone and eavesdrop on whatever you're doing anyway. Given the number of microphones and connected items in a typical household these days (video games, smartphones, laptop computers, landline phones, etc.) anyone who wants to eavesdrop on you and has that capability is probably already doing so. I'm not overly worried about Amazon eavesdropping on me. All they'll get is bored listening to me talk to my cats.
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