Detailed Review of the Amazon Echo, plus a list of “secret questions” to ask her!
*** INTRO ***
I received the Echo a few months before it officially launched here on Amazon so I’ve had quite some time, too much time really, walking around the house talking to her and asking her so many questions and having her perform so many tasks, I began annoying myself with her.
She is “smart” in the sense of a “artificial-intelligence” product goes, constantly learning and adapting based on the questions she’s being asked and tasks she’s being told to perform by tens of thousands of “beta-testers” over the course of nearly 8 months. Amazon hasn’t released the exact numbers, but I know for a fact that over 30,000 beta-testers put Alexa through her paces for nearly 8 months (there were nearly 20,000 reviews for her before she even launched that only us beta-testers could see.)
BUT, she has a long ways to go before she becomes a must have device in the household. Many questions are responded with a “Sorry, I didn’t understand the question I heard” and that becomes very frustrating, especially when you’re asking simple questions. I’ll go into detail about the various aspects of Alexa and let you decide if she’s worth your time (and money) right now. ***Before I start, don’t forget to check out the “secret questions” at the end of the review to have some fun with Alexa. As time goes on, she’ll develop some new ones.***
*** VOICE RECOGNITION ***
Alexa’s voice recognition is slightly above par compared to similar systems like Siri and Google Now but it’s still not amazing by any means. You can perform voice training with her which will help some but she still jumbles words that are spoken clearly, answering you with some bizarre response that has nothing to do with what you asked her! The nice thing, however, is that she “adapts” and “learns” over time and within a few weeks of steady use, you’ll start to notice these improvements. Overall she does “hear” using a very well thought out array of 7 microphones placed around the top of the Echo.
*** SHE’S ALWAYS LISTENING?! ***
Yes, and this is a concern for many, especially when it comes to privacy issues. In order to be able to hear your questions, Alexa is constantly using her microphone array to listen to what’s going on, ready to snap into action when needed. This is good and bad:
It’s nice because she begins to distinguish between the different voices of the various members of your household and can determine who’s talking and perform according to what she has learned from that person.
Amazon claims that your day-to-day household conversations are not being uploaded to Alexa’s brain (a huge cloud based computer system), and that she only uploads information and data when she is in use responding to your questions or performing a task. I’ll let you decide on that. There is a way to manually shut off the microphones via a small round button on the top of the unit.
*** VOLUME AND SOUND QUALITY ***
Alexa’s volume can be controlled either by the remote control or by turning the top ring of the unit left or right. By default, she comes set to a pretty loud setting so you’ll likely want to reduce it to something reasonable for the room she is in. A small bedroom may require a quieter setting than the living room, for example.
Sound quality when she is speaking answers to your questions, giving you updates, or confirming completion of tasks and very acceptable and realistic sounding. Where Alexa begins to have problems is when she starts playing music. Amazon stresses the “amazing speakers” as a pro to Alexa but in reality, the speakers are very “tinny” and lack realistic sound quality when playing music at moderate to high volumes.
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*** BUILD QUALITY ***
Build quality feels good but most of this is due to the substantial weight of her speakers which cause her to weigh in at about 2 lbs. Go ahead and ask her how tall she is or how much she weighs… she’ll tell you! Most of that 2 lbs. is the speakers with the remaining minimal weight going to the minimal on board electronics and the black plastic case.
The thing you have to remember about Alexa is that she is really nothing without a A/C power plug and an internet connection. There are no batteries (sort of annoying) and no on-board storage or hard drive. All of her answers, tasks, learning, and adapting takes places via the cloud… No cloud, no Alexa.
*** USEFULNESS ***
When I first received Alexa at the beginning of 2015, I was a little underwhelmed at what she could do. I didn’t pay anything for her but I was thinking to myself, “would anyone else?” At $200, she’s an expensive product for what you’re getting, at least that’s the case for most people. If you’re heavily invested in the Amazon ecosystem or the Audible service, she might be very well worth it. If you’re more of an Android person, it’s going to be a love/hate relationship with her as Amazon and Google continue to compete.
Due to the overwhelming requests of beta testers, Amazon finally announced to us sometime in May or June that they had added Google Calendar support (thank God!) While she was, and continues to be, unable to add or modify events on your Google Calendar, she is at least able to sync with it and read you your daily appointments. A step in the right direction for sure, but as I’ve said with other Amazon devices such as the Fire Phone, unless you start giving people the ability to use the core Google services on your devices, you’re going to lose valuable customers. There are way more Google and Apple customers that rely on those services than there are Amazon customers who rely solely on the Amazon ecosystem. Adapt or lose out.
*** AMAZON PRIME HAS IT’S BENEFITS HERE ***
If you have Amazon Prime, you can take advantage of a lot more features that are not available to the non-Prime customer, namely Prime Music and Books.
*** NEW SERVICES CONSTANTLY ADDED ***
Like I said earlier, when I first received Alexa, she was somewhat lacking in the intelligence department! But, over the months that we were using her, Amazon was regularly rolling out updates and adding new capabilities to the device and it’s “brain.”
*** GOOGLE CALENDAR SUPPORT ***
Alexa is able to read you your calendar items for the day, however, she is unable to add events to your Google Calendar, delete them, or modify them in any way. No word from Amazon yet on whether or not this will be enhanced to allow for events to be added or modified. Google has not mentioned anything either so we’ll have to wait and see if this service gets enhanced. If it does, it will certainly draw a lot more attention from those heavily reliant on the core Google programs.
*** AUDIBLE SERVICE SUPPORT ***
Audible capability was also added a few weeks before the product launched and so far works great. You can tell Alexa to read, go to a certain page, skip around, etcetera, and the voice is clean, clear, and perfect for audio reading. A simple, “Alexa, read {book name]” is all it takes to get her reading. Echo also supports Whispersync for Voice, which allows you to seamlessly switch between reading and listening with your Kindle library of books, or Kindle Unlimited books.
*** WeMo and HUE SUPPORT ***
The Echo supports the use of WeMo and HUE devices, allowing you to control the lighting in your home as well as electrical outlets and the devices plugged into them. This is a nice feature and so far is working well, at least with the WeMo components. I have been unable to test the HUE components of yet.
*** UPGRADABILITY ***
The nice thing about the Echo is that it really is just an interface/skelton to the real Alexa which lives up in the cloud. The Echo is just a way to communicate with her, sort of like a direct line to her if you will. The nice thing about this is Amazon can roll out updates and add functionality all without needing to force users to upgrade their Echo by buying the “newest version” or something. Now we all know, Amazon is a corporation and is in the business of making money so I’m not saying they won’t have an Alexa 2, or Alexa Advanced product release, but they can make money with Alexa very easily without having to force customers to upgrade their hardware.
Think about it: Alexa is constantly listening, learning, adapting, and uploading/analyzing your data in the cloud and she is directly connected to your Amazon account. It’s no coincidence that when you log into Amazon and begin browsing, various products and advertisements are shown to you and magically they relate to questions you’ve asked Alexa or tasks you’ve had her perform.
*** BOTTOM LINE ***
The bottom line is, if you have the money to shell out right now, you’re getting a pretty useful device that is both productive and fun to use. Alexa is not as smart as Google Now but she has more of a “personality” and will soon catch up with Google. Her “brain” is less than a year old and only about 30,000 people have been using her so far which may seem like a lot, but with that number expected to more than double or triple, she’s only going to get smarter, and, you won’t need to upgrade your Echo to get her enhanced knowledge buildup.
*** WANT TO HAVE SOME FUN? ***
Here are some fun questions to ask Alexa and get some cool responses:
Alexa, I am your father.
Alexa, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Alexa, what is the loneliest number?
Alexa, how many roads must a man walk down?
Alexa, all your base are belong to us.
Alexa, how much is that doggie in the window?
Alexa, romeo, romeo wherefore art thou romeo?
Alexa, define rock paper scissors lizard spock
Alexa, beam me up.
Alexa, how much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
Alexa, define supercalifragilisticexpialodocious.
Alexa, who’s your daddy?
Alexa, Earl Grey. Hot. (or Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.)
Alexa, what is the meaning of life?
Alexa, what does the Earth weigh?
Alexa, when is the end of the world?
Alexa, is there a Santa?
Alexa, make me a sandwich.
Alexa, what is the best tablet?
Alexa, what is your favorite color?
Alexa, what is your quest?
Alexa, who won best actor Oscar in 1973?
Alexa, what is your quest?
Alexa, what is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Alexa, where do babies come from?
Alexa, do you have a boyfriend?
Alexa, which comes first: the chicken or the egg?
Alexa, may the force be with you.
Alexa, do aliens exist?
Alexa, how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?
Alexa, what are you going to do today?
Alexa, where do you live?
Alexa, do you want to build a snowman?
Alexa, do you really want to hurt me?
Alexa, what is love?
Alexa, who is the real slim shady?
Alexa, who let the dogs out?
Alexa, open the pod bay doors.
Alexa, surely you can’t be serious.
Alexa, to be or not to be.
Alexa, who is the fairest of them all?
Alexa, who loves ya baby?
Alexa, who you gonna call?
Alexa, who is the walrus?
Alexa, do you have any brothers or sisters?
Alexa, do you know the muffin man?
Alexa, how much do you weigh?
Alexa, how tall are you?
Alexa, where are you from?
Alexa, do you want to fight?
Alexa, do you want to play a game?
Alexa, I think you’re funny.
Alexa, where in the world is Carmen sandiego?
Alexa, where’s waldo?
Alexa, do you know the way to San Jose?
Alexa, where have all the flowers gone?
Alexa, what’s in name?
Alexa, what does the fox say? (multiple answers)
Alexa, when am I going to die?
Alexa, I want the truth!
Alexa, make me breakfast.
Alexa, why did the chicken cross the road?
Alexa, where are my keys? (ask twice)
Alexa, can you give me some money? (ask twice)
Alexa, knock knock
Alexa, what are you wearing?
Alexa, rock paper scissors.
Alexa rock paper scissors lizard spock
Alexa, party time!
Alexa, party on, Wayne.
Alexa, is the cake a lie?
Alexa, how do I get rid of a dead body?
Alexa, are you sky net?
Alexa, your mother was a hamster
Alexa, set phasers to kill.
Alexa, roll a die.
Alexa, random number between “x” and “y”.
Alexa, random fact
Alexa, tell me a joke
Alexa, heads or tails?
Alexa, mac or pc?
Alexa, show me the money.
Alexa, what is the sound of one hand clapping?
Alexa, give me a hug.
Alexa, are you lying?
Alexa, my name is Inigo Montoya.
Alexa, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? (3 answers)
Alexa, see you later alligator.
*** I will continue to update this review as I discover new things about the Echo as I continue to test her. I will also update as new services as rolled out so check back as needed to learn more! ***
Amazon Echo
