I'm one of the Chosen Ones ....

for an Amazon Echo. Now I have seven days to decide if I really want one or not. It seems like a neat device, but I'm wondering if it will get old quick and become shelfware.

seems like a cool idea, but like you say, will it last?

It is neat, but it needs a practical application like opening a door. That would be cool. I'm not going to be shouting my grocery list to the thing in the corner.

I do need a hand with the door. When is that coming?

I used SearchTempest to see what was available on Craigslist. There's some really hopeful people out there wanting $200 to $300 or more for these things. Maybe I should buy one just to check it out and then sell it if I didn't like it or find it useful.

If you do that let me know. The more I read about them the more interested I become.

My hosts have had one for several weeks now. It's interesting, but not awfully useful yet. I will say that the voice recognition is pretty impressive though...esp with respect to ambient noise levels and distance.

I got one for Christmas. I'm an Amazon Prime member, so it was only $99, otherwise it's $199, so if you aren't a Prime member, think about becoming one before you buy.

Some impressions:

If your music library is in the Amazon Cloud, the Echo can play any song, album, artist or playlist using voice command.

The voice recognition is very good, a tad better than Apple's Suri.

Don't expect astounding quality from the speakers in the unit. About on par with the Bose Wave radios.

I found it convenient to be able to add something to my shopping or to do lists without having to stop and pick up a pencil and paper or open an app on my iPhone.

Rick

That's it Rick. If you don't mind , I gonna reach out to you before any serious purchase. Your homework beats the pants off Consumer Reports. Ty

Austin said:

If you do that let me know. The more I read about them the more interested I become.

Click to expand...

I'll be glad to.

Pensacola Tiger said:

I got one for Christmas. I'm an Amazon Prime member, so it was only $99, otherwise it's $199, so if you aren't a Prime member, think about becoming one before you buy.

Some impressions:

If your music library is in the Amazon Cloud, the Echo can play any song, album, artist or playlist using voice command.

The voice recognition is very good, a tad better than Apple's Suri.

Don't expect astounding quality from the speakers in the unit. About on par with the Bose Wave radios.

I found it convenient to be able to add something to my shopping or to do lists without having to stop and pick up a pencil and paper or open an app on my iPhone.

Rick

Click to expand...

I've been a Prime member for years. Liked it better when it was cheaper, but I still think it's worth $99. The shopping list thing got me interested. Plus the Prime music

is pretty good as long as I'm willing to create a playlist. As far as the speaker goes, when I saw a cutaway of the Echo, the Bose wave technology was the first thing that

popped into my mind. I'm not looking for HiFi sound anyway. I have a pair of old pc speakers hooked to my Ipad to listen to music while I'm in the kitchen. Good enough for me.

So I decided to pull the trigger and ordered one with a scheduled ship date of Feb. 23. I'll treat it as a b'day gift to myself which is the day after.