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.