I received my Amazon Echo today.
6Anyone else with more money than brains get one of these? If so what are you expecting of it. 
The wife plans to use it mainly for online music and her audio books. I plan to use it to show off my great taste in obscure electronic toys and look up the weather on days I expect to go golfing.
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Mine is a lame alarm clock that I have to set every night. It could be a night time music player if it had a sleep timer, but it doesn't yet, but might be coming, someday.
Was tempted by this gadget but wondered about the sound quality? Any good? Please do not compare to BOSE or I'll have my answer.
@RedOak Actually not that bad. I was going to compare it to the Bose satellite speakers on our head board but if you say not to...
@Mehrocco_Mole thx. I have my answer.
For truly intrusive in your private world:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jibo-the-world-s-first-social-robot-for-the-home#/story
@RedOak Takes pictures. Threatens to post them to the internet unless you do what he says ...
@RedOak Thanks, watched the video and now I have ads for these popping up all over the place. :-}
@Mehrocco_Mole Either turn on privacy, install an adblocker, or look at other products to wash it out. Very common to see ads in your browser reflecting what you've viewed. I see no Jibo ads.
@RedOak Now I realy want one of those!
My sister has one. They use it mostly to play music and to make shopping lists.
Mine gives me my "flash briefing" every morning from NPR. The speaker is well above average for music and works perfect in my office. Amazon's been regularly adding functionality to it, too. Bottom line: I like mine and would buy it again for $100 (but no more).
@pwademetzger That's how I wake up as well. "Alexa, Flash Briefing" are my first words. NPR, BBC, then onto the Economist podcast. After the recap and weather update, I'm ready to start my day. It gives me enough time to wake up while still in bed. I've had my Echo since the initial launch, and while it's a bit gimmicky and low tech in areas, I couldn't imagine not having one anymore. $100 for this has been well worth it., especially since it has become more and more than it originally was.
I've owned one since original launch. Almost a year later, my biggest complaint is I can't buy 5 more of these things. I want one in every heavy use room in my house. These are great, but I really want a smart house already. Alas, Amazon won't let me buy anymore :/ We need Echo Satellites already..
It's interesting but I'm not impressed with mine for the price. I was excited about the shopping list feature, except it can't determine the difference between "align" and "wine". I use it to set timers and check the weather, plus the dad-jokes it tells, and that's about. Meh.
I've had one for months. It's getting better. My primary use case is still music, but I've gotten to like it much more since they've added features (like google calendar integration).
I wouldn't go as far as @DarkHuD , but it's the best $89 (It shipped a couple of days late, so I got a $10 credit from Amazon) electronic toy I have. Mine sits in the kitchen, so having voice control is great when I'm working. News briefs, music, change volume, radio (Found I could get local radio stations by telling her the broadcast letters and/or frequency, as well as TuneIn and iHeart radio).
I can get the time (to reset a clock) or a silly joke, or the weather forecast. I could also reorder stuff from Amazon, but I prefer to do that on the computer. It is also fun to scare the crap out of people in my kitchen by activating Alexa with the remote from the other end of the house. I use the "Simon says .." to get Alexa to repeat whatever I say.
As a reference point, does anybody have a JBL Mini speaker dock (I know there are lots of Meh'rs out there with them – 'not claiming it as excellence, just a common point.)? Does this thing have similar clean, tight sound with some bass or is it brassy with boomy bass like typical BOSE sound? ('Sorry, I guess I'm betraying my dislike for BOSE sound.)
@RedOak Yes, and yes. Similar sound quality. Both voice and music are amazing clear. Much better than I was expecting for its size. Echo is also Bluetooth enabled, but will not recharge your phone or mp3 player like the speaker docks. OTOH, I can't turn on music to the JBL speakers with a voice command.
Added: Keeping in mind that the sound quality is only as good as its source. A news report from NPR or music from iHeartRadio will only be as clear as the original broadcast, which can sometimes be a bit fuzzy or tinny.
@rockblossom thanks. Makes it much more tempting. But will await the price inevitably falling to something more comfortable, like $50-60. In the meantime an old tablet hooked up to a decent speaker dock does compact form factor streaming music quite nicely. And will let the early adopters beta the other functionality.
Our Echo just came in on Friday. My husband is in love with Alexa's ability to tell him bad dad jokes. Alexa lives in our kitchen, where she makes my grocery lists for me, and plays us music for dinner. I also find the timer setting to be quite useful while I'm cooking. It's handy for the morning weather report, and asking it random questions. We'd buy it again. I do wish that it could be linked to Google instead of Bing, and that we could link up our Spotify accounts with it.
I like it. Love the Dad jokes, and the google calendar feature. I also use it for getting FM radio through iheartradio, and amazon prime music, though if I heard 'playing SAMPLES of...' one more time I might throw it out the window. If this had Google Music's selection, it would be awesome. The speaker quality is surprisingly good.
I also use it as a beer making timer- hop additions, mash time, etc.
I really disliked the introductory video. It's the type of marketing that oppresses reality.
but,
Something seems weird about it to me -- like it's real purpose is to spy on people.
@Kevin this one?
@marklog or this
Damn you people! Now I want one :/ Invitation has been requested.
@mfladd same.
@connorbush I just received an acceptance to purchase one. - $149, I am hesitant, but dammit I love toys. Did you get an email from amazon yet?
Why the shit is it $199 or $149 for prime (I am prime, just flustered). This would be great to purchase at $99.... I am hesitant at $149.
@connorbush It was $99 for Prime members. I submitted my invite request on launch day and I finally got my invite in April. It was $99.
@connorbush its for the early adopters, the price will drop
@connorbush We're Prime, we only paid $99 for it. We requested at launch, got our invite in April, and they just cleared the backorders, so that's why we didn't get it until June.
I did some work with this project team when I was at Amazon. It is amazing to see the extent of work that happens just to make these work correctly.
It's a lot more expensive then I expected though. I would get one to mess with if it was cheaper.
So the main selling points seem to be dad jokes (which will never apply to me), music (from an ecosystem I'm not heavily invested in), and being a clock radio (which, $200 will buy me a lot of normal clock radios and then I can listen to the radio/sleep anywhere I want). It seems like a neat thing and all, but I'm more and more convinced it's a gadget that would do very little for me.
Just Bing, not Google? Meh!
I've had mine since the beginning. Mostly use for music, shopping list. My kids use it to cheat on their math homework.
I didn't know I could link my Google Calendar now. Cool.
Still wish I could tell it, "Remind me to pick up the kids at 3pm." Seems like it should be able to figure that out, but no.
@phatmass that is a surprising deficiency. Works great with Siri.
@RedOak Siri can't do it either.
@RedOak Well, I take that back. Siri can set a reminder, but she won't tell you "Pick up the kids".
I just figured this out. It's better to tell Siri, "set alarm to pick up kids at...". An alarm gets your attention, a reminder does not.
@phatmass yep. I use both methods depending on the purpose. I would not want Siri broadcasting verbally, the details of my reminder tho! ;-). Could be embarrassing.
@RedOak Siri: "Okay RedOak, I set an alarm for 'TRIM THE HEDGES WHILST NAKED' at 3:00am."
@JonT that sounds like fun - especially if I'm not alone doing it. But I was thinking more along the lines of "remember to buy that black lace body suit for my wife for tonight".
@shawn, oh how I dread typing a reply to a comment on my iPhone, accidentally clicking outside the box, and having the comment disappear!
On the other hand, the edit comment function on an iPhone blows away the desktop method. (Full comment displayed in a box for click and edit vs a painful to scroll thru one liner box to find the edit point.)
And whilst on the complaint wagon, why is "br br" (surrounded by greater/less thans) required for a new paragraph in a reply, but not in an initial post?
'Sorry for the whining - the forum functions are otherwise nicely clean and wonderful!
@RedOak We changed the mobile comment/reply UI so that tapping the gray overlay no longer closes the dialog. I see your point about editing replies in a single line input box. We'll discuss it over here. We'll make sure any changes we make fix the newline issue you're pointing out as well.
@shawn thanks. But perhaps I wasn't clear about the first point. When I write a comment on my iPhone and accidentally click outside the text box before submitting it, it does get lost forever.
@RedOak Not anymore. That's what we changed.
@shawn aha! So you changed it between my first comment and your first response! I thought you were indicating it had "recently" been changed... and I thought the fix hadn't worked for me. Just tested it. Excellent - you are fast! Would never see that kind of response elsewhere. Thanks.
I wasn't convinced since I am not in the Amazon ecosystem for music. I was going to return it (mine actually came physically damaged, but worked) to find out that they give you a full six months to try it before you have to return it and they, in a very friendly way, shipped out a non-damaged one next day. I guess I should give it a bit more time...
Oh, I also use it to ask about weather and sports. So...
"Alexa, what is the forecast?"
"Alexa, what time do the TX Rangers play tonight?"
"Alexa, who won the Cleveland Cavaliers game?"
If the Echo had the ability to read RSS feeds, it would be a HUGE improvement. Then we could say,
"Alexa, read Meh." - to get the latest item for sale
"Alexa, read Kevin's Blog." - to stalk Kevin
Etc.
Oh, I also use the Echo to talk to my kids from another room. Using the remote, I say, "Alexa, simon says: you kids behave". She will repeat exactly what I say. Using this method you can actually have her carry on a real conversation with someone. haha
What does it do if you tell it to make you a sandwich?
Using my phone and "Ok google" is funny with this one, but yields no real sandwhich.
Me: "Alexa, make me a sandwich."
Alexa: "I wish I could. Cooking is beyond me at the moment."
Me: "Alexa, what should I do next?"
Alexa: "You should wash the dishes, but isn't talking to me more fun?"
WHERE THE HECK ARE THE DASH BUTTONS??? I REALLY NEED TO ORDER MOAR TIDE.
So Echo is now available to all. I think this thread made them do it.
@phatmass Just came here to post the same thing, haha. Though, it is $179.99, but at least it's not $200 like it was originally supposed to be.
@phatmass hopefully they were paying attention to the suggested improvements too.