Does Anyone Have an Amazon Echo and Do You Like It?

[Jerjo]

We stayed with friends this week and they had one of the damn things. My wife liked playing with it, making requests for songs, weather info. So she thinks we should get one. I think it's a waste of $80 but she will be pressing her case. I do give it credit for coming up with Eno's Ambient 1 when I asked for it.

[moecurlythanu]

I have an Echo Dot. Same thing but much cheaper. Unfortunately, I don't use it much.

[JKL2000]

My wife wanted one for Christmas or something (this was a few years ago) so I ordered the Echo Dot. But then I realized that she could just speak Amazon orders out loud to order stuff, so I never gave it to her. She does enough damage just telling ME to order stuff for her!

[rcarlberg]

My wife wanted one for Christmas or something (this was a few years ago) so I ordered the Echo Dot. But then I realized that she could just speak Amazon orders out loud to order stuff, so I never gave it to her. She does enough damage just telling ME to order stuff for her!

That's why I won't buy one for myself. Amazon doesn't need a superhighway into my wallet. They're already got "One Click."

[DocProgger]

Speaking of american consumerism run amuck and superhighways into the wallet, anyone notice this Walmart ad for home delivery featuring the tune "Ring My Bell" by Anita Ward? Suppose any of the marketing geniuses at Walmart understood the clear double entrende meaning of that song before deciding to use it for a family commercial...

[Supersonic Scientist]

The LAST THING you need is this "Spybot" recording everything you say. I'll never own one of these things....Life is fine without it.

[DocProgger]

The LAST THING you need is this "Spybot" recording everything you say. I'll never own one of these things....Life is fine without it.

For a similar reason I would never purchase one of these silly genealogy DNA kits being advertised all over the place. People really trust giving their DNA profile to some corporation? Who knows what corporations could and will do in the future once they have possession of that. And what prevents government entities from getting a hold of that info, much less hackers and cyber criminals. I'm amazed at the trust people have in giving away confidential and personal info. Facebook can't even protect even the most fundamental info like people's pics and addresses etc, and people are sending their DNA to some faceless corporation?!

[moecurlythanu]

The LAST THING you need is this "Spybot" recording everything you say. I'll never own one of these things....Life is fine without it.

Yeah, I was a little concerned about that, so I started singing songs, mentioning titles of albums, movies, etc around the Dot to see if they would start showing up in my recommendations feed from Amazon. They never did. Not once.

[moecurlythanu]

For a similar reason I would never purchase one of these silly genealogy DNA kits being advertised all over the place. People really trust giving their DNA profile to some corporation? Who knows what corporations could and will do in the future once they have possession of that. And what prevents government entities from getting a hold of that info, much less hackers and cyber criminals. I'm amazed at the trust people have in giving away confidential and personal info. Facebook can't even protect even the most fundamental info like people's pics and addresses etc, and people are sending their DNA to some faceless corporation?!

Agree 100%. Unfortunately, my brother's girlfriend got him a kit for Christmas, and they sent the DNA in, so they might as well have sent mine in too.

Oh, and the results were highly suspect, imo.

[rcarlberg]

The LAST THING you need is this "Spybot" recording everything you say.

For a similar reason I would never purchase one of these silly genealogy DNA kits being advertised all over the place. People really trust giving their DNA profile to some corporation? Who knows what corporations could and will do in the future once they have possession of that. And what prevents government entities from getting a hold of that info, much less hackers and cyber criminals.

Oh you're probably being just a little paranoid. I can't imagine any of us are that interesting to the government.

Now, Amazon may eavesdrop on you and suggest Caribbean vacations if you're singing calypso, but their malfeasance is strictly capitalism so far as I know.

But I feel the same way about all those "free credit reports" everyone's supposed to be needing all the time.

[3LockBox]

It's for people who like to talk all the time

[MrXindeed]

I have an Echo and a Dot and I LOVE Them!!!!I don't know how I ever lived life without them.
The Dot is in the bedroom and I use it as an alarm clock.
The Echo is in the living room and acts as my music service.
Both control my Philips Hue lights and my Wemo plugs.
I'm thinking about getting two more Dots while they are on sale.
I don't order anything through mine.
You can set a PIN so not just anyone can order anything if you're worried you kids will buy a car or something..
Buy one, you wont regret it!

[Dave (in MA)]

I gave one to my wife because she wanted one. She mostly uses it to set timers and tell her what the forecast and temperature is, or to tell her how late a store stays open, stuff like that.

I use it as a decent-sounding bluetooth speaker to listen to things on my laptop.

At some point I expect my parrot to start talking to it, but not so far.

[Scott Bails]

I have a Dot, and it's pretty cool. I do have the concerns mentioned about how it listens, but I haven't encountered anything creepy. I use it mostly to listen to music. It's great if you use Pandora, and since I'm a huge fan of Plex, I found the "skill" for that and now use it to listen to my music via that. I'm sure I haven't even scratched the surface of what it can do, but I'm not really interested in having it turn on lights, etc. I have to research what it can do.

But I got the Dot for $30 from Amazon, and I'm impressed with the sound that comes out of this little hockey puck.

[rdclark]

Amazon's recent discontinuation of the uploading feature of Amazon Music has very much soured my feelings about the Echoes we've deployed around our home. But I expect to continue o find them very useful.

One is a Dot in the bedroom, feeding a cheap little Class-T amp (always on) driving a pair of 30-year old bookshelf speakers (Cambridge Soundworks Ambiance) mounted on the headboard shelf. This Dot plays bedtime playlists, mostly, and is used as an alarm clock and sleep timer, weather station, news source, etc. Sometimes I connect my iPad when watching Netflix.

Another Dot is located in the living room, where my main 7.2 home theater system resides. The Dot is not connected to it, however, instead having its own 2-channel system similar to the bedroom (with DefTech SM350's). This is because streaming music via Internet or Bluetooth benefits from a less analytical playback system played at lower volume to help disguise the bandwidth limitations and increased distortion. This system plays background music for reading, mostly.

In the kitchen is an original (tall cylinder) Echo from the first Prime pre-release era (2014) using its internal speaker. It's mostly a cooking companion, playing podcasts and music, setting timers, converting measurements, etc.

All our Echoes can play music in whole-house mode, which is handy on housework days, and accept commands for our Phillips Hue lights.

We don't use the system's other capabilities much, but have been satisfied with its performance as it stands. The Dot is a particularly excellent bedside appliance. But not being able to add music to my Amazon Cloud storage (aside from what I buy from them) is a bummer. Although I do get a lot of use from Amazon Music Unlimited (a surprising amount of new music is available this way), and have already uploaded most of what I need them to keep. When I do buy CDs, it's usually from them, and Autorip is usually available.

If you're already a Prime member, I'd say that, especially if you have an audio system or good powered speakers you can connect it to and leave turned on 24/7, and reliable wifi, an Echo Dot on sale or refurbished can be a very useful and entertaining accessory. Amazon Music Unlimited really adds a lot to the Echo as a music appliance, and costs $4/month for one Echo or $8/month for all your devices. You can download Unlimited music to your phone or tablet, too. There is a lot of good prog on Unlimited.

[rcarlberg]

I'm curious about these Phillips Hue lights a couple of you mention. How often do you turn your lights blue or purple and why? I've been unable to imagine a use for this product.

[rdclark]

I don't use the colors. We use the system to re-set the lighting for movie watching, to switch a couple of hard-to-reach lights, and to manage lights when we're away from home. "Hue" is the brand name for Phillips' smart lighting system that includes color capabilities, but doesn't mandate them.

[JKL2000]

I'm curious about these Phillips Hue lights a couple of you mention. How often do you turn your lights blue or purple and why? I've been unable to imagine a use for this product.

You don't have enough orgies.

I assume it's totally impossible to use an Echo or Dot without using an Amazon account, right? That's the f-ing killer there. I'd probably be using whatever the Google version is - Googly or whatever it's called. I just don't want my wife taking an Ambien and ordering all kinds of crazy stuff. As she's wont to do.

[rcarlberg]

You don't have enough orgies.

You said a mouthful there, mister!

[spellbound]

Bluetooth benefits

There's two words I never expected to see together.

Regarding Echo: Never had one, never wanted one. If I were to want one, my wife would probably veto it.

The LAST THING you need is this "Spybot" recording everything you say.

It would often be the only one listening to me. Even it would stop listening when it learned how much I swear. Or, it might order me up an orgy.

[Jimmy Giant]

We got an Echo last year. It's been disconnected for over 6 months. Don't need another spy device. We also don't connect our SmartAss TVs to the internet.

[Jerjo]

Amazon's recent discontinuation of the uploading feature of Amazon Music has very much soured my feelings about the Echoes we've deployed around our home. But I expect to continue o find them very useful.

One is a Dot in the bedroom, feeding a cheap little Class-T amp (always on) driving a pair of 30-year old bookshelf speakers (Cambridge Soundworks Ambiance) mounted on the headboard shelf. This Dot plays bedtime playlists, mostly, and is used as an alarm clock and sleep timer, weather station, news source, etc. Sometimes I connect my iPad when watching Netflix.

Another Dot is located in the living room, where my main 7.2 home theater system resides. The Dot is not connected to it, however, instead having its own 2-channel system similar to the bedroom (with DefTech SM350's). This is because streaming music via Internet or Bluetooth benefits from a less analytical playback system played at lower volume to help disguise the bandwidth limitations and increased distortion. This system plays background music for reading, mostly.

In the kitchen is an original (tall cylinder) Echo from the first Prime pre-release era (2014) using its internal speaker. It's mostly a cooking companion, playing podcasts and music, setting timers, converting measurements, etc.

All our Echoes can play music in whole-house mode, which is handy on housework days, and accept commands for our Phillips Hue lights.

We don't use the system's other capabilities much, but have been satisfied with its performance as it stands. The Dot is a particularly excellent bedside appliance. But not being able to add music to my Amazon Cloud storage (aside from what I buy from them) is a bummer. Although I do get a lot of use from Amazon Music Unlimited (a surprising amount of new music is available this way), and have already uploaded most of what I need them to keep. When I do buy CDs, it's usually from them, and Autorip is usually available.

If you're already a Prime member, I'd say that, especially if you have an audio system or good powered speakers you can connect it to and leave turned on 24/7, and reliable wifi, an Echo Dot on sale or refurbished can be a very useful and entertaining accessory. Amazon Music Unlimited really adds a lot to the Echo as a music appliance, and costs $4/month for one Echo or $8/month for all your devices. You can download Unlimited music to your phone or tablet, too. There is a lot of good prog on Unlimited.

I didn't know you could run an audio out. That makes it more attractive to me.

[Scott Bails]

Amazon's recent discontinuation of the uploading feature of Amazon Music has very much soured my feelings about the Echoes we've deployed around our home. But I expect to continue o find them very useful.

One is a Dot in the bedroom, feeding a cheap little Class-T amp (always on) driving a pair of 30-year old bookshelf speakers (Cambridge Soundworks Ambiance) mounted on the headboard shelf. This Dot plays bedtime playlists, mostly, and is used as an alarm clock and sleep timer, weather station, news source, etc. Sometimes I connect my iPad when watching Netflix.

Another Dot is located in the living room, where my main 7.2 home theater system resides. The Dot is not connected to it, however, instead having its own 2-channel system similar to the bedroom (with DefTech SM350's). This is because streaming music via Internet or Bluetooth benefits from a less analytical playback system played at lower volume to help disguise the bandwidth limitations and increased distortion. This system plays background music for reading, mostly.

In the kitchen is an original (tall cylinder) Echo from the first Prime pre-release era (2014) using its internal speaker. It's mostly a cooking companion, playing podcasts and music, setting timers, converting measurements, etc.

All our Echoes can play music in whole-house mode, which is handy on housework days, and accept commands for our Phillips Hue lights.

We don't use the system's other capabilities much, but have been satisfied with its performance as it stands. The Dot is a particularly excellent bedside appliance. But not being able to add music to my Amazon Cloud storage (aside from what I buy from them) is a bummer. Although I do get a lot of use from Amazon Music Unlimited (a surprising amount of new music is available this way), and have already uploaded most of what I need them to keep. When I do buy CDs, it's usually from them, and Autorip is usually available.

If you're already a Prime member, I'd say that, especially if you have an audio system or good powered speakers you can connect it to and leave turned on 24/7, and reliable wifi, an Echo Dot on sale or refurbished can be a very useful and entertaining accessory. Amazon Music Unlimited really adds a lot to the Echo as a music appliance, and costs $4/month for one Echo or $8/month for all your devices. You can download Unlimited music to your phone or tablet, too. There is a lot of good prog on Unlimited.

I'd be interested in learning more about how you have your devices set up with speakers, etc.

Regarding your Amazon music, I highly recommend Plex. I've been able to upload all of my music, listen to artists, albums, playlists, etc. And the Alexa devices have a Plex "skill" that allows you to stream all of that to your device. I haven't been able to figure out if multi-room is supported yet (I've only had mine for a few weeks and haven't had time to really play with it), but I'm really hoping that's an option.

[rdclark]

I didn't know you could run an audio out. That makes it more attractive to me.

They vary model by model, and I'm not sure about the newer ones. The Dot has a 3.5mm stereo line out, or Bluetooth out, but you can't use both at the same time, or use BT in and out at the same time.

[rdclark]

I'd be interested in learning more about how you have your devices set up with speakers, etc.

Not much more than already said. The catch is that the external amp or powered external speaker, like the Echo, need to be always on. That's another reason not to use a Dot with a home theater system unless you only use it for the home theater system. I think much depends on how you use your mobile devices. If you use your Echoes as Bluetooth speakers for your phone or tablet, then their own speakers need to be wired or internal.

What else can I tell you?

Regarding your Amazon music, I highly recommend Plex.

I do use the free version for music streaming from my PC to the home theater, and I know there is an Alexa skill for Plex. I should look into this in more detail, thanks.