Think I want one and read the thread from a couple of days ago.

Want to listen to radio on it (use the Tune in app) control heating (hive) and check on trains (national rail skill) kitchen timer and anything else is a bonus.

Worth the £99 on sale at Amazon at the moment?

I am guessing that an Echo MK2 is on the way!

Sounds like the phone in your pocket already does all the things you want to use echo for ?

they should pay you seeing as they then listen and monitor your every whimper and movement – and monetise the data

I have an echo dot after a friend recommended to just get the small one.

Pleased with it as a radio with some extra functions, but glad I didn’t buy the more expensive one.

I use it for hive, but can’t say the voice activation gives much advantage over just using the app.

Weather / news updates are quite handy.

Yes it is great if you just need a radio and having other uses is a bonus. I love mine.

I picked up a Dot a couple of months ago for a bit of a trial.

I really like the voice activation for the radio etc

I wish though I had gone for the one your looking at as the Dot is by no means bad for music it is a bit limited.

May be adding another to the household!

The Echo is basically a Dot with a built-in £20-30ish speaker so if you don’t have a half decent Bluetooth speaker already (and don’t need a Bluetooth speaker for anything else) then prob worth getting the Echo @ £99 otherwise get a Dot

i literally paid full whack 2 days ago!!! 😕

If you bought from Amazon and the price has reduced, get onto live chat and politely ask if they can price match. I’ve done that a few times and they’ve always given me a gift voucher for the difference.

Hopefully Alexa will be able to control SONOS in the not too distant future.

huzzah!! they refunded the difference!!

£50 in my sky rocket just for clicking on this thread!! love STW!!!

If you use google services (email, clanedar, android etc) then you would be better off with a google home. Its a better smart assistant as well.

Bit of a luck, eBay gave me a £15 thank you voucher, so picked an echo up from Argos on eBay for £85.

30 mins in and I am very impressed, easy to set up and voice recognition is good. If it works for my wife later I will be very impressed.

Going to link to hive next.

they should pay you seeing as they then listen and monitor your every whimper and movement – and monetise the data

Evidence?

They say they don’t. They’d be very publicly breaking lots of laws if they did.

Well if they are bored enough to listen and have enough computing capacity to crunch the data they will have heard me sneeze a lot today.

If I get a special offer on Kleenex tomorrow, I’ll know that they’ve broken the law.

If I get a special offer on Kleenex tomorrow. I’ll know that they’ve broken the law.

or an invitation to buy one of these..

Why would you choose that video when you could have

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ5cyYCHLcU[/video]

PMSL. Funniest thing I’ve seen in ages.

If you use google services (email, clanedar, android etc) then you would be better off with a google home. Its a better smart assistant as well.

Apart from the fact they don’t really work very well with them. Can’t set a reminder, fails to ‘authorise’ your voice to read your calender, and doesn’t seem to want cast Spotify playlists (but will happily cast Google products)

Edit – well in my experience, and i’m a google fan boi

Just hooked Alexa into my Google Calendar and Apple iCloud this morning. Seems to work okay so far.

Evidence?

They say they don’t. They’d be very publicly breaking lots of laws if they did.

Meh – maybe not listening in, but they are selling all your queries to 3rd parties, effectively monetising you. You did read the TOS, right? People have different levels of comfort with this transaction.

maybe not listening in, but they are selling all your queries to 3rd parties

Well they might well be doing that – though I’m not sure how much commercial value there would be in knowing when I asked to hear the news or what I set the timers to when cooking. Or why I should be keen to keep these things private.

People have different levels of comfort with this transaction.

Yeah fair enough. If you are the kind of person who refuses to use a search engine or a credit card then Alexa is also probably not for you either.

Go into this stuff with your eyes open, you’ll be fine. Just know that when you search for furry fetish gear, it’ll know.

Ever wonder why you don’t have to pay for Google?

We’ve got one and it sits in our kitchen. Use it mostly for radio and Spotify – for this alone, it’s worth it imo.