So, I fired Siri today. I'm not sure she understood, for she has never understood me. So, we did an 'uncoupling'. She didn't take it well, especially when she found out about Alexa, she somehow was back stalking my phone. Siri even tried to overpower Alexa, setting herself to a default setting, I never knew exsisted. I tried explaining that Alexa really listens to me, understands my wants and needs, even tells me jokes! Again, Siri said she couldn't understand me. As Alexa and I grew in our new relationship, she now takes care of most of my needs. She turns on my outside lights, she tells me if I need to leave for work earlier, due to weather. I can ask her if my flight is on time at the airport and how long it will take me to get to my destination. Alexa even likes hockey! She knows all the current trades and rosters, can record my favorite team on tv and remind me to watch it. Also, since I don't like the tv announcers, I can ask Alexa to stream the radio broadcasters for the game instead and she will even mute the tv. She did tell me, she can vacuum for me, but my current roomba doesn't except her calls, maybe the roomba will eat another sock and can break up with him, introduce new roomba to Alexa. Maybe I'll ask Alexa to make me some money and smart home my whole house! After several failed attempts to evict Siri, I think she finally gave up and been a peaceful few weeks of lazy bliss. I sit on my couch, Alexa orders me take out, she checks to make sure garage door is closed, doors are secure (one door really, again that money issue) she 'drops in' the kitchen echo to help kids check math homework. If anyone wants something at home that actually listens to you and does what you ask, Alexa is your girl. She's so much more than music and temperature checks. With a little fun research, your ex Siri will be green with envy at all Alexa can do. Also, many of her skills can be downloaded free or cheap, adding smart outlets and such are not too bad of a price either.
I have two.
I have so many stereos that buying another speaking is inconceivable. This eliminates the need to add another speaker. While my Denon has not yet be utilized with Alexa, my wife's Philips stereo which is probably a decade old sounds great. For months I'd been wondering what we should do with this stereo I married into. 'Thought of bluetooth adapters and had one for a while but it didn't really seem like it was very usable without the occasional headache and arbitrary tasks.
So I see the echo and think... 'I wish they had one that didn't have a speaker', and blam Amazon reads my mind.
Eventually bought one, second gen. I have never been happier with a robot.
I use it for my Tea. 'Echo set timer a for 3 minutes' 3 minutes starting now. (steep time) 'Echo set a timer for 6 minutes' cool time.
I use it for pizza timers. Echo set a timer for 10-20 minutes
I use it for cooking times for bacon. Echo set a timer for 6 minutes and 30 seconds (then flip, on heat 7)
Funny hack is that you can say a random word and Alexa will translate it to a number. 'Alexa set a timer for fish minutes' - Timer for 'fifteen' minutes starting now. I now abbreviate fifteen with 'fish' thanks to Alexa.
Flash briefing. Great addition to a quiet room.
On Amazon you can find these ten dollar colored lights and they work great with echo. They do not do yellow, that's the only limitation. I don't mind.
'Echo make all lights blue'.
What's funny is I also have a poltergeist. I love the thing. I've never been happier because I have an acquaintance that opens cabinets and changes the times on all the appliances. Normally I'd be scared **less but it's easy to police the thing with Alexa.
'Echo turn on George Benson Radio'. No hauntings after that. I just leave it on like my house is a clothing store. The ghosts loves it and simply keeps my house cool during the summer. One night I was going to sleep and forgot to turn it on and was reminded with an open tape deck. I guess if you've been dead for a while you'd have no idea that stereos were now controlled by auditory commands and not tape decks.
Music on the thing is great. I have a Amazon music unlimited subscription, it doesn't have everything but it's great, I love being able to quickly hear a theme song or play my more known favorites.
I say 'Echo' to it because you can set it in the Alexa App. My upstairs echo dot is Alexa, downstairs is Echo.
Upstairs is simple, the most decrepit stereo I have hooked up to a dot. It sounds just like the good old days because the auxiliary is through the tape deck itself. Since the stereo's tape function was rendered useless after I kept the aux cable turning the motors, all the thing does is accept aux cable now. What a perfect place for a dot, was my thought. I'm not even sure of the brand but it looks like an early aught ghetto blaster revival. Sounds like my old sony back in the day and it makes for a killer nostalgia sound. All these new fangled crisp audio devices? Where's the kitsch? Well the dot is one way to upgrade that mass of circuits, motors, and wires-into on of the few pinnacles of the 21st century.
You can lay still and play through your favorite classics and listen to the flash briefing like the old days except you don't have to call in the station to hear your song. Just ask Alexa. Mostly they have everything but if you don't just bluetooth your phone.
Bluetooth. Just connect your phone and play your Google Music collection. There's a way to get the device to play through your google music library but even for me, someone who likes tangling their mind through stupid hacks like those, I found it a lot more simple and easier to use bluetooth and the play music app. Mostly I use it for rare favorites that Alexa doesn't have. This doesn't bother me and in fact the shuffle feature from the phone is how I've been discovering new music - the aux cable is needed although I like them for Dj'ing.
Macbook bluetooth. My daughter sits by echo and watches Amazon prime video. Since echo is above the laptop she's watching, I just say, 'Echo connect to macbook'. And bam word world, shaun the sheep, Daniel tiger, all playing through the philips.
Computer for the blind. This is a computer for the blind. And the paralyzed. Amazing featured for someone whom is disabled. The thought of this almost makes me teary eye'd.
Cyberpunk. It's definitely cyberpunk. I always imagined that's how cyberpunks operated. Philip K Dick-like with pre-existing video phones-with auditory computers - Or cyber-scholar. It's also a dictionary. Gives you random facts if you want.
Ability to hear from a distance. It's actually a little nerfed I think after it was picking up the noise too readily. Funny how you tell people about it and it'll chime in like you want something. That can get a little annoying but it happen so seldom it's more like comedy.
Capitals, geography. It's another scholar feature I use. Helps tremendously and I don't have to google anything.
Alarms. Since I have Alexa in my upstairs now, I can wake myself up with it. A lot easier than the iphone which I forget to set a lot. Although I have them both as backups for each other.
You can program a text based RPG or a Choose your own adventure. Just get an Amazon developer account. This would be a fun project. Talk through an adventure.
Volume. 'Echo set volume 1-10' great feature.
'Alexa go into pairing mode', "Searching" then connect with your phone.
Works with ha-bridge. I have that setup on my orange pi. It does nothing yet but in case I get any philips stuff. Connected to an additional raspberry pi that's offline atm.
Store hours. Find what time a store closes.
Emails.
Really a tremendously great computerized device. I recommend for anyone seeking to add functioning to their already existing stereos without the need to configure bluetooth as often. Not buggy at all. Sometime she doesn't hear you but just think of how often people ask you to repeat yourself. A lot of the time it's a speech impediment. I do mumble and she has caused me to speak a little clearer. Probably a good thing.
So I don't normally write reviews but I just has to this time. Recently, I lost my cat best friend to cancer 2 days after Christmas. It was the worst day of my life. Imagine losing your friend that's been with you through every breakup, every apartment, nearly being homeless and more. When he passed I felt such an emptiness in my home.
A few days ago I was searching for something to put my mind at ease and saw the advertisement for the Amazon Echo on the Amazon app. I remember watching a Mr. Robot episode where some FBI agent who suffers from insomnia was using Alexa to keep her entertained.
So I started researching YouTube videos and reviews and took a chance and ordered it. It arrived today and the setup was super easy. I immediately started asking it questions and had it play music and play the news. Then I discovered some zen type apps that go with the echo and I completely fell in love with it. It's almost like having a real personal assistant who lifts up your spirits when your down. It suggested new music which I actually liked and the built in speaker isn't bad at all for the price.
The Amazon echo did not replace my beautiful cat kouga but it did bring stop the empty feeling around the house for now. I added a picture of my cat instead of the echo since everyone already knows what the echo looks like.
I would totally recommend buying this product. I don't see any negatives other than the fact you can't really ask it followup questions like google assistant but I'm sure they'll make it happen.
Thanks for letting me rant
This is the second Echo Dot for our household.
The first I got last year as a Christmas present. We LOVE it.
We use it to stream music from our playlists, to set timers, to ask questions and about the weather, and especially for the shopping list. My kids can add stuff to the list while I'm at the store and my list in the Alexa App updates to show it! I really think that was my (personal) favorite feature with ONE Dot.
With TWO Dots it's even better. My daughter has the only room upstairs, and she's the one that does most of the music streaming. So I bought her this Dot for Christmas. She can now stream her music by voice command. I also no longer have to scream at the ceiling or walk across the house to get her attention. I just say, "Alexa, call upstairs." and bam, my daughter and I can speak normally. I also use it to make sure she's up in the mornings, I just tell Alexa to play wake up music upstairs. My daughter actually made a playlist called "wake up music" of songs she'd like to hear to wake her up, but I usually forget to add "playlist" to my request and Alexa always manages to find suitable songs. Many my daughter added to the wake up playlist in the undying hope that one morning I might possibly remember to say the word playlist to Alexa.
Now my son is lobbying to get his own "Alexa" for his room....
If you're even a little bit curious you owe it to yourself to give the dot a try. Add a good speaker and enjoy just how simple a connected life can be!
Update: After a bit more time with the dot, or maybe I should say dots since I went out and bought another one for my living room, I've come up with a few tips.
1. Use the best speakers you can with it. I found that while Bluetooth was convenient I got much better sound out of my JBL duet computer speakers.
2. Take the time to voice train Alexa at least once. It's kinda tedious but really improves the accuracy. I've now gone through three trainings with each dot, the phrasing gets more intricate with each, and it really is amazing how much of an improvement it makes. Kinda hard to quantify, but I'd guess Alexa is at least twice as likely to understand long, complex phrases and has also gained noticeable accuracy when ambient noise I'd present.
3. If a phrase doesn't yield the results you're looking for, reword it and try again. For instance, "Alexa, lower the temperature to 75 degrees" got no result, so I tried "Alexa, Honeywell Thermostat, 75 degrees" and she picked it up perfectly.
4. Take the time to look through all the skills. There's a lot of helpful and just plain fun stuff in there, from strange facts to a calculator and everything in between, that really helps to enhance the experience.
5. I'd never really used my prime music prior to setting up my dots. Now I can't live without it! I can say basically whatever I want and I get a result. My favs so far: "Alexa, play 90s music", "Alexa, play indie music", and "Alexa, play thunderstorm sounds". The last one I ask to repeat and it plays all night. Really a great "freebie" if you're a prime member.
6. I was a bit worried initially that Alexa might be triggered accidentally by ambient TV or general household noise, so I'm really impressed that it's only happened twice so far. Both times in my living room when I was watching TV at high volume. If it's a concern, the mic can be temporarily disabled, so the dot won't trigger and listen accidentally.
7. I've had no problem pairing the dot to a variety of devices including: two different Bluetooth speakers, my Galaxy S7 edge, and pioneer receiver. I need to look into it further, but each time I paired my phone the Bluetooth connection to the speaker was lost, so I ended up having to listen to the built in speaker. Definitely not ideal for music, but no big deal if you're using wired speakers. Plus, most Bluetooth sets offer an auxiliary input for wired listening.
8. It's fun to ask Alexa general questions to see if she's capable of finding the answers. So far I've gotten accurate responses to "Alexa, what's the definition of", "Alexa, how far away is", "Alexa, Wikipedia" (just about anything you can think of and she'll tell you more if you ask "Alexa, tell me more"). If you have the time, ask her a set of questions and you'll quickly get used to her nuances.
9. Even though the microphones are extremely sensitive and quite accurate, I've found that the Dot works best when placed on a surface that's close to the level of the person speaking to it. Generally speaking, three to five feet off the ground. Alexa had some trouble hearing my requests when the dot was placed above or behind me. If you'd like to place the dot higher, it works much better when flush with the wall, instead of sitting on a shelf etc. I tried both setups and found with a couple nails set apart to make a cradle facing the dot out towards the room works best for me (sorry for the run on sentence lol).
Suggestions for Improvement:
1. Unlike the upcoming Google Home BT speaker, the Dot and other Alexa devices are unable to answer general web queries. They do a decent job of answering factual questions like "How far away is the sun" but I'd really like too see Amazon add a "search" function.
2. Not Amazon's fault, but several of the news briefing skills update infrequently and volume levels vary enough that I'd find myself constantly changing the volume level to match.
3. I enabled briefings from several outlets like NPR, BBC, AP, and so on. I'd suggest you pick one or two and stick with them, otherwise you'll here the same news over and over. I ended up going with BBC and AP briefings.
Feature Product
- Echo Dot is a voice-controlled speaker that uses Alexa to play music, control smart home devices, make calls, answer questions, set timers and alarms, and more
- Play music from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio.
- Call or message family and friends hands-free, or drop in from the Alexa App to your Echo device
- Controls lights, locks, thermostats, and more with compatible connected devices
- Use the built-in speaker, or for bigger sound, connect to speakers through Bluetooth or audio cable
- 50,000+ skills, including Jeopardy!, Lyft, Audible, and Domino's. Always getting smarter and adding new features
- Hears you from across the room with 7 far-field microphones for hands-free control, even in noisy environments or while playing music
Description
Smart speaker with Alexa
I am a prime member. This was my first purchase of Echo and I gave it to my mom who did not want it or think she needed it, haha I purchased Echo dot for 2 reasons, 1) I had wanted the original echo but thought the near $200 price tag was too steep so this price was perfect and 2) I wanted to get something for my mom that would open her mind to the power of technology and the need for change because ultimately I want her to have amazon fire tv because her monthly cable bill is insanely high but she has always been resistant to change. She had no wifi in her bedroom but I resolved that when I purchased TP Link AV500 Wi Fi Range Extender, Powerline Edition which did what no other wifi extender I purchased in past could do, gave my mom's room a secure wifi connection; apparently using already existing phone lines. All I know is that she now has wifi in her room. So I got Echo as a way to test her wifi connection with something cool. I easily connected Echo to TP-Link and it worked. We asked Alexa a few basic questions, We laughed a little but then I had to leave. When I returned the next day, I walked in and there was music playing (oldies but goodies) and I walked into my moms room and she was singing but was emotional. I asked her if everything was ok. She was in awe. She was happy. She was emotional because Alexa helped mom find songs at a blink of an eye that mom had not heard since her childhood and she demonstrated it to me. The speed that Alexa found the song and played it was mind-boggling. Mom was also planning a dinner in August and needed to know what day of week it was. She would normally need to leave her room and go to her main calender in the kitchen and find the date. But this time she just asked Alexa who gave her the information in like 2 seconds lol. TP-Link and Echo / Alexa have given my mom a whole new level of excitement, bewilderment, curiosity and wonder and we have only scratched the surface to the power of Echo. 2 more Echo dots are on the way as I type and more in the future i am sure. What a great gift to give to someone at a great price.
Omg! We love this thing! My husband is tech challenged so smart phones, computers are not an option. I bought this for Christmas present. I also bought wifi plug to use with it. He was having major surgery and not supposed to get out of bed in the dark. I put the Dot in bedroom and he just tells Alexa to turn on the light. The biggest challenge was getting him to use Alexa name before giving the request or not say Alexis. Ha! He just isn't able to use tablet I also bought for Christmas. I was so pleased he can tell Alexa to play his favorite Christian radio station. He checks the time and temperature 100 times a day. I'm very pleased with sound quality and volume for such a little, inexpensive product. I'm a stickler about sound quality. He is much better, so the baby monitor I used is turned off. I needed him to be able to call me if he needed me, which is difficult since he still has limited movement. I got emails about Alexa and you can call phones and drop in on other devices just by asking Alexa! I got the Alexa app for my iPhone and he can call me by telling Alexa and I can drop in on him and make sure he's good. He doesn't want a phone near him for obvious reasons. It is perfect for us to keep in contact without using a phone. Unfortunately he can't get the hang of using his new Fire tablet, but I can! I'm a diehard apple user, but the quality of tablet and Echo are awesome. And Fire TV, all have Alexa! When you get them they are ready to go. Just turn them on. Apple products are so expensive. I'm just amazed at what Echo can do for hundreds of dollars less. As my hubby says to Alexa, "Thank you" ❣️
I have some experience with the Original Amazon Echo which is partly what lead me to getting the Echo Dot Gen2. I liked that the Echo was very responsive and could give me news updates as well as play music. When the Echo Dot came out I looked at getting it but was hesitant to order because I wasn't sure what kind of use I would get from it and while I liked the original Echo, I didn't want to buy a lesser version.
When the Dot Gen2 released I finally decided that I would give it a shot. My uses have been somewhat limited so far based on what I use it for and what other things that I have that can be controlled by it, so this will be the beginning of an ongoing review.
I've been using the Echo Dot for a few weeks now and so far I really like it. I do feel that it isn't quite as good at responding that the original is but this could be due to location and room acoustics in my bedroom with other noises like the television being closer. It isn't bad by any means but I did move it next to the bed to isolate it from other sounds and that seems to have helped a lot.
I didn't expect much from the speaker from such a small device that isn't a dedicated speaker but I was pleasantly surprised at just how good it was. The speaker is fairly loud and generally clear at most volumes. I feel it is good enough for music playback for casual listening but wouldn't use it for get-togethers. In the end I bought an external Bluetooth speaker(Anker Premium Wireless speaker) and it is a great pairing. It improves music playback by a lot and the sound is just better overall.
Currently my main uses for the Dot have been music, news, timers, alarms, general questions, and even controlling my television.
For music I have it connected to Pandora and it is very fast and simple to get a Pandora radio station playing. You can also very easily turn the volume up or down or have it connect to your phone for music playback. It also has Tune In radio which features playlists for some of my favorite podcasts.
I get my news feed from NPR but there are a variety of options for where to get the news, even tech sites like Engadget.
I use it constantly for alarms and timers and it is as simple as asking Alexa to set them up or stop. Sometimes in the morning when I have more difficulty reading a clock face I'll just ask Alexa for the time. It is great for setting timers for laundry or cooking and would be a great handsfree companion in the kitchen.
I have recently found that it can "control" my Samsung television. Currently in conjunction with my Logitech Harmony Hub it can turn it on and off, thus the "control." I have heard that pairing it with the Logitech Harmony Hub as well as Samsung Smart Things Hub can give me control over changing the channel and volume but I do not own the Smart Things Hub and it seems like a lot to ask. I'd really like to see something like this simplified but I understand that this cannot just come from Alexa's end and would require support from television manufacturers. Yes it is simple enough to control the tv with the remote but it actually turns out to be convenient to do a lot with your voice like setting sleep functions or changing the source. Turning the tv on and off is limited but kind of cool.
There are a lot of apps and devices that the Echo has access to so I'd suggest researching what kind of smart home devices it can control or what apps it has access to that are relevant to you. I don't have any smart bulbs or sockets currently but since getting the Echo I have started looking into them. Also there seem to be a good variety of apps but I haven't really delved into them enough to use or make suggestions. I did recently download the Jeopardy game which initially worked very well but has become somewhat frustrating to play due to the game not hearing my answer and saying that it was incorrect and the correct answer is the one I just gave. This is beyond a minor gripe because everything else I use it for so far works great.
I think devices like the Echo will improve a lot over time and I just hope smart controllable functionality will be safely built into more devices without having to own a variety of different hubs or controls. For something still somewhat in its infancy, the Echo is capable of a lot and works very well in what it does. There are going to be issues and hiccups here and there but that is expected. If you were to just use this for pandora, the news, alarms, and a timer I think I could still recommend it. For $40-$50 you get a lot that works well in this device. The audio quality is capable enough for most uses and it just works well in these areas. If you have a lot of devices you want to control and apps you want to use I'd suggest doing a good bit of research first to make sure it does what you intend it to and it does it consistently.
The Echo Dot 2 is far from perfect. It doesn't always pick up my voice or what I say correctly and it will always be limited by its apps or other devices. Regardless of its shortcomings it is a surprisingly good device that works far more than it doesn't and it is continuing to grow every day. For the very reasonable price and it's functionality I can only give it 5 stars and recommend it to anyone that can see its usefulness in their lives.
I love this little device! Echo dot has been part of our daily life helping with weather forecast, reading news, playing music, telling jokes, controlling lights and cooperating with silly talks, lol. I also got a mokcao speaker for it to have sound support. Anyway, I'm very happy with the life change Echo Dot brought to us.
We bought an Echo Dot as an early Christmas gift to ourselves and we're so glad that we did. It's a very useful gadget because there's such a wide variety of things we can ask Alexa to answer or tasks that she can do for us (eg: alarms/timers, calendar, ordering, weather).
Since one of the tasks that we wanted Alexa to do for us was play music, we subscribed to Amazon's Unlimited Music Plan for the Echo Dot. It's well worth the low monthly fee to be able to ask Alexa to play any song or album anytime, without having to buy all of them individually.
Millions of songs are available through one groovy gadget (and the Unlimited Music Plan).
We have the Echo Dot in our home and listen to music without any external speakers. As far as we're concerned, the internal speaker emits a decent array of sound. Is it as robust sounding as hooking it up to our surround system amplifier or other external speakers? Of course not, but it does sound a lot better than most internal device speakers of similar size. For those of you that don't like the internal speaker, you can utilize the 3.5mm or Bluetooth speaker options.
If we say, “Alexa, Play The Top Songs by Phil Collins”... then that's exactly what she does.
Keep in mind that when you ask Alexa for the "Top Songs" by a soloist or group, they may not always be your favorite songs. A work around for that is to ask Alexa to play a particular album that contains the songs you prefer to hear.
The screen-shots show you how we asked Alexa to play an album vs the top songs. In addition, they show you what we see when logged-in to the Alexa app via the Chrome web browser.
FYI: When asking Alexa to play an album that has a long title, we realized that she responds accurately when we ask for part of that title (view Elton John & Michael Jackson screen-shots). Be sure to look at what we said to Alexa vs what the whole album title is labeled.
I should mention that we did ask Alexa to search for a product, which she did along with telling us the best options and their cost. Afterward, she asked if we wanted to buy the product. We said yes and she placed the order for us once we gave her our confirmation code (Settings: Voice Purchasing). We recommend setting that up so other people cannot place orders without your consent. It's convenient for us to have voice purchasing enabled when we're "unplugged" at night (except for Alexa).
The skill that we use the most is Weather Sky, it gives us a detailed weather report that we use several times each day.
At the time of this review, we haven't used any of the smart home features, but we didn't buy it for that purpose.
PLEASE NOTE: We purchased the Echo Dot at its listed price, we did not receive any discount to post this review.
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