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Comment by ghaff | Hacker News Reader

I sorta agree. I got the original Echo for $100 when they had a special deal for Prime members. The timer is handy. The shopping list is handy. It's occasionally vaguely useful to ask it questions about the weather or other things--though it's not like my phone is that far away. I do use it for Amazon Music when I can't be bothered finding something to play on my stereo.

Potentially, the ability to interface with home automation devices will make it more useful but I'm honestly not sure how much of that stuff I will ever use.

I'm happy enough that I bought it but I probably wouldn't buy more to put in other rooms.

[Edit: I think if I lived in a small place and didn't have another music source I'd find it more generally useful.]

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I have a $4 dollar multi-function timer that we use in the kitchen and for "turns" on the trampoline in the backyard. I still don't use all the different features available on that silly thing. My GE gas range also has a timer, same with the microwave that sits above it. I bet my fridge has a timer too... lol. I have a literal crap-ton of devices that I barely use to their full extent. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

I still use pen and paper to keep notes/lists. I actually have a Bullet Journal... so maybe I am not the target demo.

The thing is, you can ask Cortana or Google Now or Siri about the weather, shopping (at least Cortana has reminders, not sure about the other two) and the other things you mention.

So, at the moment it's feels like a redundant device that one has to purchase in order to do the same thing I can do with the phone and/or computer that I already own.

I mean, I find it kind of cool (except for the creepy "I'm listening to what you say", which applies to all assistants anyway), but I find it hard to find its place in the world as things are right now. Perhaps is that I do live in a small studio and my laptop or phone or tablet are always at hand.

I don't really disagree which is why I'm pretty ambivalent. The original Echo does have a decent Bluetooth speaker and I find the voice recognition a lot better than Siri's. And it's available in my kitchen/dining area when I need to add something to a shopping list or ask a question with greasy hands. But I certainly wouldn't try to convince someone that it's a "must have."

The single greatest feature of Echo that I use, (and too few others use) is turning on my Phillips Hue lights. You can give each individual light a name, as well as groups of lights their own name. Very convenient to turn on / off lights from anywhere in range of the mic.

I use it everyday multiple times a day. If anyone finds network connected lights useful, then they'll find controlling them through Echo doubly useful as it obviates the need to pick up your smartphone.

They can try to take light switches from my cold, dead hands!

Light bulbs are literally the last thing on earth that I want to research for security exploits before I purchase.

Not to pick on you :-), but I have these things called light switches in my house that work pretty well for turning on and off lights. I confess to not seeing much attraction to smart lightbulbs with names.

(To be fair, if I had a lot of lights not connected to switches as was the case when I moved into my current house, I'd probably have put in smart lightbulbs rather than doing as much rewiring as I did.)

Alexa has come in handy when I forget to turn my computer desk's light off -- it's connected to a power strip -- so I can just yell downstairs and have her switch it off for me.

I can also set individual lights or groups of lights to turn on during certain events, like returning home and it's after sunset and the lights aren't already on, but that's more of a whole-home-automation thing rather than Alexa. :)

Light switches are great, but there is something really nice about laying in bed and dimming the lights by voice.

Or right before going to sleep, you remember you left the living room light on, so you say, "Alexa, turn off the living room light", and watch as the glow under the door disappears.

It's a luxury, but it's a lot of fun if you are lazy.

I also use the Echo to adjust my nest thermostat, control my entire home theater (with 6 different devices), and control my tempurpedic adjustable bed and even remote start my car.

I find the possibilities of voice control and home automation to be intoxicating, and hacking around with the Echo is sort of one of my hobbies right now.

How do you use it to control your home theatre?

Some of the Skills that have been added lately are also useful, Alexa can read you Kindle books, for example, which is soothingly robotic.

It's painful to have it read back answers. The weather, for example, takes one quick glance on my phone but forever for Alexa to read.

i was thinking this too. i'd like to also have a screen, for example on my fridge, where echo can post visual data replies.

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