I used some Amazon stockpiled gift cards to buy one last week, and have since been trying to figure out what it’s good for. So far a lot of music, which is pretty cool for. My house isn’t all that “smart”, so not much to synch it into. It’s good for getting the weather and okay for work commute traffic updates. Shopping lists – check. Anyone else find any good day to day uses for it otherwise? Thanks…
I actually picked up the Echo dot via the voice order because I plan on bringing it outside this summer and it synchs to better bluetooth speakers and you can have it do all the same things you ask Alexa to do.
Is it a must have? No. But I'm a fan of it.
sometimes the kids think it's fun to ask Alexa the weather or set an alarm or timer or play music, but it's beyond non-essential.
if I had the option to buy it again, even at the discounted price I would not buy it.
I won't argue that it's a bigger Siri.
It works. :)
But really - we love the thing - in the kitchen and dining room, dinner time, just call out "ALEXA, PLAY PANDORA [station here]" and off it goes. Can adjust the volume by saying ALEXA, LOUDER/QUIETER, can use her as a kitchen timer, can ask for measurement conversions, trivial questions (WHAT'S THE CAPITAL OF WEST VIRGINIA?) (HOW FAR IS IT TO WASHINGTON DC?) (WHAT TIME DOES THE SUN SET TODAY).
I use it for news every morning. Stumble into the kitchen, "ALEXA, NEWS" and start fumbling with the coffeemaker. Ours gets news from NPR.
Having a son named Alex causes problems, as the thing often gets confused by that.