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I am honestly kinda surprised that so many people have these trojan horses in their homes. Is the value really there?

by whalesalad 7y ago

speedgoose 7y ago
Yes, it makes animal sounds, reminds me stuff, control the lights and blinds, and listen to me having sex.
- justwalt 7y ago
  Well, when you put it that way..
jedberg 7y ago
We use ours many times a day. Maybe it's because I have young kids who don't read yet but can talk. It's insanely useful to me. Thing's we've used it for in the last 24 hours: 1) Drop in (that's where you can set up a two way channel between two Echos). My kids know how to activate it, and it's way better than yelling down the hall. 2) Announcements. Sometimes when one of needs help with something but don't know where the other person is, we use the announcement feature, which covers the whole house between the various echos. The kids know how to use this too. 3) Timers. Hands free timers when cooking are a godsend. During meal prep we often have two or three going at once. 4) Streaming music. The kids know how to make their favorite songs start playing. And so do I. :) I have one in my office connected to my sound bar, and it's streaming the radio from LA all day long (I live in SF but grew up in LA, nostalgia factor). I can also tell it to play music for the whole house while we get ready in the morning. 5) Light control. I just recently upgraded to smart switches. At night I just say "Alexa goodnight" and it turns off all the lights in the house, saving me the effort of walking around (I know first world problem). But more importantly, when I'm reading to the kids and it's time for bed, it's nice to just say "goodnight" without having to get up and disturb them as they are getting sleepy. Also for the lights, my daughter loves the fact that she can change the color and brightness of her room light with her voice. I doubt she could manage the app, since you need to be able to read. So yeah, insanely useful for my family.
blululu 7y ago
I have one and unplugged it recently because I'm working form home these days. As useless as these devices are, I miss having a voice assistant around. Being able to ask about the weather and the time of day whenever you want is kind of nice. Consider that people used to wind up clocks every day and check on thermometers and barometers to glean a vague idea of the climate. Having a much better version of all these instruments at hand is pretty nice.

I am honestly kinda surprised that so many people have these trojan horses in their homes. Is the value really there?

speedgoose 7y ago

Yes, it makes animal sounds, reminds me stuff, control the lights and blinds, and listen to me having sex.

justwalt 7y ago
Well, when you put it that way..

jedberg 7y ago

We use ours many times a day. Maybe it's because I have young kids who don't read yet but can talk. It's insanely useful to me. Thing's we've used it for in the last 24 hours: 1) Drop in (that's where you can set up a two way channel between two Echos). My kids know how to activate it, and it's way better than yelling down the hall. 2) Announcements. Sometimes when one of needs help with something but don't know where the other person is, we use the announcement feature, which covers the whole house between the various echos. The kids know how to use this too. 3) Timers. Hands free timers when cooking are a godsend. During meal prep we often have two or three going at once. 4) Streaming music. The kids know how to make their favorite songs start playing. And so do I. :) I have one in my office connected to my sound bar, and it's streaming the radio from LA all day long (I live in SF but grew up in LA, nostalgia factor). I can also tell it to play music for the whole house while we get ready in the morning. 5) Light control. I just recently upgraded to smart switches. At night I just say "Alexa goodnight" and it turns off all the lights in the house, saving me the effort of walking around (I know first world problem). But more importantly, when I'm reading to the kids and it's time for bed, it's nice to just say "goodnight" without having to get up and disturb them as they are getting sleepy. Also for the lights, my daughter loves the fact that she can change the color and brightness of her room light with her voice. I doubt she could manage the app, since you need to be able to read. So yeah, insanely useful for my family.

blululu 7y ago

I have one and unplugged it recently because I'm working form home these days. As useless as these devices are, I miss having a voice assistant around. Being able to ask about the weather and the time of day whenever you want is kind of nice. Consider that people used to wind up clocks every day and check on thermometers and barometers to glean a vague idea of the climate. Having a much better version of all these instruments at hand is pretty nice.