Does anyone have any experience with an Amazon Echo? It looks like an intriguing piece of kit and the reviews are pretty positive. I’m tempted as it seems to be great to listen to podcasts, audiobooks and radio whilst having a large potential for other things as well.
Is anyone else tempted by it? Or is it just an incomplete gadget?
Does sound interesting. SONOS have recently announced a partnership with them which will kick off in the new year. I’ll probably investigate that arrangement.
Saw it on the Amazon site last night and my first thoughts were (a) if it’s been in the US market for the best part of 2 years already, why hadn’t I heard about it before, and (b) the 2-day discount for Prime members looks like they’re trying to rush people into buying before researching it properly. There’s also the “always listening” aspect from a privacy PoV, although it does have a mute button. Intriguing, yes, but I think I’ll wait – it seems to be a solution to a problem I don’t currently have.
I think that’s similar to my view. However, a lot of the reviews seem to start with that view and then move to a view that it does so many things that you would really miss it if it wasn’t there.
The pricing is similar to what Amazon did in the US. It also makes a lot more sense if you have Amazon prime (which I do). Hadn’t considered the always listening aspect. Mind you, if Cheltenham did listen to my conversations, they’d do well to stay awake.
Home automation is something that I’m currently looking into quite deeply so anything new is interesting. My problem is that none of the companies at the forefront seem to be keen on agreeing to any sort of standard. Obviously X10 is there, but, before I invest significant sums in anything else, I really want to know that it’s expandable and when a bit goes wrong, I won’t have to replace the whole system with a new flavour. Amazon are big enough for this to be a start and the echo does seem to work with other components but time will tell.
The main things I want automated ( because I want to be able to control things when I’m away or out – not because I’m lazy or infirm ) are lights and curtains the echo doesn’t appear to help me there.
Anyone care to predict where this sort of technology will be in five years time? Will be a failed experiment or will it be “Alexa, put the kettle on” or “Alexa, empty the bloody dishwasher”. Alternatively could it be Alexa giving the orders?
I don’t think it’ll be a failed experiment but part of the process. I doubt if it’ll be compatible with anything else available in 5 years time but I’d like to be wrong. Why is Amazon so keen on the name Alexa though? I’ve just been to pick up a parcel from Alexa, my local Amazon locker.
I always like a new gadget – but do I really need to be able to say ‘but me ink cartridges’ as opposed to typing it? Could you really trust it but basically is it really neccessary?
However if it really worked seamlessly with home automation – ie turn on the light – fine. But it won’t. You’d have to buy a whole bunch of different kit from different firms – spend a week setting it up – and it wouldn’t robustly work.