[Charles Xavier]

Been thinking of getting the echo but now all this talk about the dot made me order one to try out . Heck only 40 bucks, but it says I will not get it until Jan 2

[fredgarvin]

Can you change the name or are you stuck with Alexa?

[soundbitten1]

Can you change the name or are you stuck with Alexa?

I think you have 2 other choices ... amazon or dot.

[soundbitten1]

Been thinking of getting the echo but now all this talk about the dot made me order one to try out . Heck only 40 bucks, but it says I will not get it until Jan 2

I got one as an early Xmas gift. Got it hooked up to the living room stereo system. Also signed up for a free month of Amazon Unlimited music (after that it's $3.99 per month for the Dot). It's a lot of fun, if a song pops into my head I just tell Alexa to play it instead of having to fetch a cd or scroll the laptop.

[Mark Korda]

Hi,
  I hate to be the Grinch but I have watched my younger brother whose always on top of the cutting edge of technology grow fat and obese from using gadgets making his life too easy. He does not have any handicaps yet and thinks a manual crank on a car window is manual labor.
    I heard that the U.S. life expectancy has gone down this year. When there is no need to get off your ass it's not rocket science, your going to need a new belt.
    I have a friend with ALS and the Echo might be a god send to him but think if you really need one.
 When your buds start calling you Haystack it's time to channel your money elsewhere.....have a merry Xmas, and I did that by myself, and of course Dell....Mark Korda

[ctviggen]

Hi,
  I hate to be the Grinch but I have watched my younger brother whose always on top of the cutting edge of technology grow fat and obese from using gadgets making his life too easy. He does not have any handicaps yet and thinks a manual crank on a car window is manual labor.
    I heard that the U.S. life expectancy has gone down this year. When there is no need to get off your ass it's not rocket science, your going to need a new belt.
    I have a friend with ALS and the Echo might be a god send to him but think if you really need one.
 When your buds start calling you Haystack it's time to channel your money elsewhere.....have a merry Xmas, and I did that by myself, and of course Dell....Mark Korda

I've lost 55 pounds while decreasing the amount and intensity of the exercise I do.  It's not technology, it's what he's eating.  Tell him to stop eating all carbohydrates.  Particularly, avoid bread and other whole grains.  Eat fat and lots of it, but avoid seed oils at all costs.  They have high Omega 6 PUFAs in them, which cause insulin resistance at a cellular level and also they likely cause cancer, particularly when heated. Avoid anything and everything that's low in fat. Increase his fish intake (high in Omega 3s), but watch nuts (high in Omega 6).  Even some meats might have to be limited (chicken in particular, which is high in Omega 6).  Eat meat, vegetables.  No fruit, which is high in fructose, which is uniquely fattening (causes or exacerbates fatty liver, which causes insulin resistance).  My jury is out on dairy, though I eat cream, high fat cheeses, sour cream, yoghurt and the like. 

Also, the scientific evidence is underwhelming that exercise leads to weight loss.  Why wouldn't you just eat more to make up for the exercise?  Think about it:  if you want to get really hungry, what do you do?  You exercise.  I think Gary Taubes is exactly correct:

http://nymag.com/news/sports/38001/

So, I personally wouldn't blame your brother's weight on exercise or sloth or calories.  It's what he's eating.

[rif]

Well you have to remember their motivations- every amazon device is created for 1 thing - to enable people to buy more at the amazon store, digital or physical items.  So far, google devices sell ad space, not sure how that works with an audio only device. 

Cortana and siri?  I dont know enough about those companies.  I can say the "ok google" on my tablet gives much better answers than siri on an ipad.

[soundbitten1]

  I hate to be the Grinch

I knew the Grinch, the Grinch was a friend of mine. You are no Grinch. You are just an ordinary thread crapper.      

[bnut311]

As geeky as it sounds, and I am sure it exists today but I haven't seen it - Soon it will become common for new houses to not have any light switches on the walls. Home automation seems to be really taking off, and as easy as it is to speak to these things now I believe it is only a matter of time. Switches and such will be as odd and out of place as TVs that you walk up to to change the channel, and phones with cords.

Never going to happen. Check the NEC

[sebrof]

An interesting circus toy that causes otherwise normal humans talk to themselves, quite loudly I might add, when no-one is in the room.

One of the most impressive things about this thing to me is that you simply speak in a normal voice. No need to even direct your voice towards it, just speak as if you're speaking to someone else in the room. So it's very natural, actually, else I would agree with you.

Not there yet; too much money to turn on a few lights with a bunch of extra

My setup was $40 for the Echo, $60 for the Philips hub, $15 for the controllable white light and $25 for the controllable colored light (standard LED lights seem to be about $5 to $10). Too much for some people, not a lot to others I suppose. I'll probably get a few more lights to replace all the lights in my listening room. It's a fun experiment for me to control the lights in my listening room and also get some ambiance.

I think you have 2 other choices ... amazon or dot.

Alexa, Amazon and Echo are your three choices.

[sebrof]

Never going to happen. Check the NEC

Yeah I just kinda pulled that out from wherever...Is it a safety thing or what are you referring to?

[JerryM]

It's a listening device, yes? If it isn't listening to everything, how would it know it's trigger (i.e. 'Okay Google')? It listens so well that one only needs to speak in a normal tone and volume of voice, from an impressive distance, for the device to activate and respond.

Isn't the very definition of a *bug* that of a wireless listening device?

Please trust that I'm not a conspiracy theorist of any kind. I just wouldn't want one of these in my home.

Have fun,

Jerry

[zybar]

Over the last week we installed more Caseta light switches and also integrated the Echo/Dot with my Harmony remote.  With that integration, I can now somewhat control our tv, Xbox, satellite, etc...

So I have now created some cool Marcos or scenes.  I turn on lights, tv/music with the simple phrase "welcome home".  I turn off everything at bedtime with the phrase "bedtime".

A few minutes ago, I heard the boys get up for school and they love having Alexa handle the things above, plus tell them the weather.

We are all really enjoying this tech!

George

[Philistine]

I bought an Echo during the Thanksgiving sale, along with a few Dots to give my boys.  So far I use it for weather, BBC Radio, news and conversion from imperial to metric.
Still waiting for someone to come up with an iCal Skill and Tidal Skill. 

[charmerci]

As geeky as it sounds, and I am sure it exists today but I haven't seen it - Soon it will become common for new houses to not have any light switches on the walls. Home automation seems to be really taking off, and as easy as it is to speak to these things now I believe it is only a matter of time. Switches and such will be as odd and out of place as TVs that you walk up to to change the channel, and phones with cords.

Never going to happen. Check the NEC

It will. Everything will eventually be voice controlled - many things won't even need to be spoken. They'll detect your presence.

[Doublej]

Count me in once they offer an output to feed a pair of decent speakers.

[srb]

Count me in once they offer an output to feed a pair of decent speakers.

The Amazon echodot does have a 3.5mm stereo analog audio output.

[sebrof]

The Amazon echodot does have a 3.5mm stereo analog audio output.

It does. I use the out to my Bose Wave Radio and listen while I work. Works great with the $3.99/month Amazon Music Unlimited. Darn near everything I ask it to play it plays. I cannot vouch for the fidelity of the Dot's output, however since I have only listened to it to the Bose, but for work it's perfect.

[sebrof]

Sorry, double post

[Doublej]

The Amazon echodot does have a 3.5mm stereo analog audio output.

Thanks Steve.
sebrof that was my follow up question. I guess the follow up to the follow up is do you have any sense as to whether or not the Bose sounds worse when the source input is the Echo?