Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Amazon echo review

Alexa review


Our Amazon Echo was delivered a few months ago. When I got the email inviting us to get one I thought. Cool! But wasn't sure what it could do. It wasn't a lot of money so I said, "Why not?"

The name the Echo responds to is Alexa and I will refer to the Echo as she. We listen to the news everyday, listen to music at meal times, have dance parties in the afternoon. She tells us jokes, answers our questions about all things trucks (or anything else we want to know), tells us the weather. Now that we set up an iheartradio account it plays pretty much everything, with each email update it is getting better. Alexa can now find some wireless appliances like our Hue bulbs, so far she can't really do anything with them but I'm excited to see what she can do in the future. 

I asked my 3 year old what he thinks about the echo "good. It makes music and tells about fire trucks and ambulance and street sweeper and dump trucks." There you have it, from the mouth of babes. 

It would be nice if
You could program it. In the morning I'd like it to say "good morning Scribs, the temperature is, would you like to hear the news?"
Change its name.
Check the status of Amazon orders, subscribe and save etc (all things we use), although it has just been updated to be able to re-order things from past orders.
Set actual reminders "Alexa, remind me at 11:45 am Friday to call my mom"
Perhaps one day!

The biggest down side is at times she can't understand what we're saying which gets super-frustrating. "Alexa, play iheartradio Hozier"
"Do you want me to add a station for How do I love you?"
"No."
"Alexa, play iheartradio Hozier"
"Do you want me to add a station for Brian Adams?"
"No!"
This happens sometimes when we want the news, ask questions. Maybe we're expecting a bit too much at times. If the volume is too loud, she can't hear us at all.

For $200 it was definitely worth it for us. We've had it for a few months in use it all the time. Yes, we could just use our phones or computer for most of what we use it fore but I like having a compact tower that looks decent and isn't a phone. We bought it for the potential which may or may not have been a wise move as technology advances this model, I'm sure, will be obsolete. As I said, we're happy with it. It was well worth the $200.


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No, amazon did not sponsor this post, but if they'd like to feel free! 

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