Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
Yep, I still don't understand why people want them. If I want the weather or music, I just use my phone/iPad.
Because Google/Siri aren't capable of being fully run by voice (yet). My Echo lives at my office and has become my de-facto office radio. I find its hands-free capability to be brilliant actually.
If I'm working in the middle of a project and something suddenly comes to mind, I can just quickly bark it out at Alexa and it gets handled. No needing to stop what I'm doing, pick up my phone/tablet, unlock it, find the app I need, then type on some crappy on-screen keyboard only to have autocorrect munge it. Additionally, the microphone array on the Echo really does work, much better than any tablet/phone.
I can see one of these for home use where your phone might not be convenient. I'm not sure what other people do, but when I get home, my phone goes on the charging stand in the kitchen or left in the car, where it'd be a pain to grab & use to change channels. I agree that entertainment options on modern tablets/phones are great, but virtually none of them were meant to be controlled remotely.
As far as it listening to everything, I've not found that to be the case, even keeping an eye on it with Wireshark (packet sniffing).
I still see it as a device which is half-baked for now. I think one of the problems Amazon faced was that they weren't really sure what they had created here, which is why it's had basically a year-long beta test. Now that they see what people are using it for and asking it, they're better able to tune the existing one (and create new ones). Still, the Echo lacks audio outputs, any sort of display, and has a hugely limited command set. Siri/Google are much better in this, BUT they still can't be controlled truly by voice only. If you say Play KKJZ to either of those, it will show you that KKJZ exists and has a website but won't start playing it -- Echo will.
What I don't understand is the Amazon Tap. There are plenty of bluetooth speakers out there, far less expensive or with better sound.
I did pick up an Echo Dot. For the price, it's a decent, fully-featured internet radio receiver. Even better is that it IS voice controlled. No remote to lose, no need to fire up the TV and scroll through page after page of listings, etc.