Amazon Echo- my new favorite gadget!!

[k5jm]

Oh I want one! But I may just wait a bit for any kinks to be worked out.

I have not seen any kinks. But anything they roll out will just improve upon the coolness.

 

[aleighanne]

I have not seen any kinks. But anything they roll out will just improve upon the coolness.

I got an amazon fire tv at Christmas and that has been wonderful. I think there have been a few updates but they have been quick and painless. Looks like Echo is that way too. Thanks for the info!

 

[carissa1970]

No idea what you are all talking about, so I must go investigate! Lol!

 

[MLK-RI]

We've had the Echo for several months and have been very happy with it. It is basically set up for my elderly mother who is legally blind and also has hearing loss. We set up a playlist of music she likes, this way she has the option to ask "Alexa" for specific music or to shuffle her playlist and can have hours of music to listen to. She asks for the weather each morning and also just simple things such as what time is it? The shopping list is great because I have the app and can access the list. I feel the voice recognition is a level above other's I use often, however, sometimes the voice recognition makes mom's shopping list or to do lists an adventure. If mom can remember to not use accented speech it's much better. (For example say Ricotta cheese as an older Italian American and you get some funny things. But say it "rickotta" and Alexa gets it every time.)

The alarm and timer functions are helpful, the flash news briefing is good and they are updating all the time. I haven't had time to put together any of the new IFTTT commands. But I understand you can do things such as when she puts something on the shopping list it will email me, rather than wait for me to check, plus more sophisticated things. Alexa has no trouble recognizing my voice either. When you walk into the house and a duet of mom and Mario Lanza singing at the top of their lungs, a quick "Alexa, Pause!" quiets one of them right away .

We also ask for jokes, which are corny but fun. Alexa can tell me sports scores as well, sometimes you just want to check in on "the game" while visiting. The echo can also read Audible books and I understand books from the Kindle as well. I haven't tried this yet, but it is a newer interesting feature. Since it is software based, then updates just appear when Amazon does them. The account holder will get an email or it shows up in the app and you can explore new features. We are very pleased.

 

[Cousin Orville]

Ours should be delivered tomorrow. Looking forward to hearing how the audio quality compares to say a jambox. I'm also very curious how Prime Music is. I like Pandora and use that a lot. I have Slacker in my car which is hit or miss for me. I'm hoping I like Prime.

 

[ojeight]

Its not the best quality Bluetooth speaker that I own but the sound is not bad and it does things no other speaker can do.

 

[k5jm]

@WebmasterKathy give these a whirl...

• Alexa, I am your father.
• Alexa, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
• Alexa, what is the loneliest number?
• Alexa, how many roads must a man walk down?
• Alexa, all your base are belong to us.
• Alexa, how much is that doggie in the window?
• Alexa, romeo, romeo wherefore art thou romeo?
• Alexa, define rock paper scissors lizard spock
• Alexa, beam me up.
• Alexa, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
• Alexa, define supercalifragilisticexpialodocious.
• Alexa, who’s your daddy?
• Alexa, Earl Grey. Hot. (or Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.)
• Alexa, what is the meaning of life?
• Alexa, what does the Earth weigh?
• Alexa, when is the end of the world?
• Alexa, is there a Santa?
• Alexa, make me a sandwich.
• Alexa, what is the best tablet?
• Alexa, what is your favorite color?
• Alexa, what is your quest?
• Alexa, who won best actor Oscar in 1973?
• Alexa, what is your quest?
• Alexa, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
• Alexa, where do babies come from?
• Alexa, do you have a boyfriend?
• Alexa, which comes first: the chicken or the egg?
• Alexa, may the force be with you.
• Alexa, do aliens exist?
• Alexa, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
• Alexa, what are you going to do today?
• Alexa, where do you live?
• Alexa, do you want to build a snowman?
• Alexa, do you really want to hurt me?
• Alexa, what is love?
• Alexa, who is the real slim shady?
• Alexa, who let the dogs out?
• Alexa, open the pod bay doors.
• Alexa, surely you can’t be serious.
• Alexa, to be or not to be.
• Alexa, who is the fairest of them all?
• Alexa, who loves ya baby?
• Alexa, who you gonna call?
• Alexa, who is the walrus?
• Alexa, do you have any brothers or sisters?
• Alexa, do you know the muffin man?
• Alexa, how much do you weigh?
• Alexa, how tall are you?
• Alexa, where are you from?
• Alexa, do you want to fight?
• Alexa, do you want to play a game?
• Alexa, I think you’re funny.
• Alexa, where in the world in Carmen sandiego?
• Alexa, where’s waldo?
• Alexa, do you know the way to San Jose?
• Alexa, where have all the flowers gone?
• Alexa, what’s in name?
• Alexa, what does the fox say? (multiple answers)
• Alexa, when am I going to die?
• Alexa, I want the truth!
• Alexa, make me breakfast.
• Alexa, why did the chicken cross the road?
• Alexa, where are my keys? (ask twice)
• Alexa, can you give me some money? (ask twice)
• Alexa, knock knock
• Alexa, what are you wearing?
• Alexa, rock paper scissors.
• Alexa rock paper scissors lizard spock
• Alexa, party time!
• Alexa, party on, Wayne.
• Alexa, is the cake a lie?
• Alexa, how do I get rid of a dead body?
• Alexa, are you sky net?
• Alexa, your mother was a hamster
• Alexa, set phasers to kill.
• Alexa, roll a die.
• Alexa, random number between “x” and “y”.
• Alexa, random fact
• Alexa, tell me a joke
• Alexa, heads or tails?
• Alexa, mac or pc?
• Alexa, show me the money.
• Alexa, what is the sound of one hand clapping?
• Alexa, give me a hug.
• Alexa, are you lying?
• Alexa, my name is Inigo Montoya.
• Alexa, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? (3 answers)
• Alexa, see you later alligator.

 

[OKW Lover]

Hmmm, I'm going to have to try some of those on Siri.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Hmmm, I'm going to have to try some of those on Siri.

Ask Siri:
How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

 

[GAN]

"42. That can't be right?"

 

[KathyTX]

Mike, now I know what I'm doing tomorrow!

Last week Mom was at my house talking to someone on the phone named Alexa. It was a long conversation, and my son and I were very entertained by Alexa's confusion every time Mom said her name, and Mom's confusion about why that silly Echo kept acting up while she was talking on the phone!

 

[doconeill]

Mike, now I know what I'm doing tomorrow!

Last week Mom was at my house talking to someone on the phone named Alexa. It was a long conversation, and my son and I were very entertained by Alexa's confusion every time Mom said her name, and Mom's confusion about why that silly Echo kept acting up while she was talking on the phone!

My daughter was half asleep on the couch late a couple nights ago and the commercial for the Echo came on. Ours is right next to the TV. She said it freaked her out as things just started talking...

 

[PlutoGirl1117]

I've been thinking about this for a couple of weeks, and now this thread has convinced me to place my order!

 

[k5jm]

We love our Echo!! We use Alexa for:

• Timers - Like watering the grass, cooking, Free time for DS, Practice time for DS on his instrument, etc
• Shopping lists - this is great! It is great to be cooking and be able to add things to the list. I also get the list updated at the store if my wife adds items while I am shopping.
• To-do lists - Honey-do lists are much easier to keep track of
• Music
• Radio stations
• It is a pretty cool little, integrated, gadget.