The Amazon Echo is an amazing personal assistant and music player. Simply plug the slim black cylinder into a wall socket, and it runs on your wireless Internet.
The things it can do are mind-boggling! I’ve had one for about five months and love it.
Think of the Echo as a super-Siri (the built-in personal assistant for i-Phone users) that you can place in the center of your home and access from anywhere without pressing buttons and draining the battery.
All you do is say “Alexa” to turn it on (“Alexa” is the default wake word). And say “Alexa, stop,” to turn it off. It’s totally voice-activated.
Here are 20 things you can do with Amazon Echo:
- Get the weather forecast for your area or any area
- Create lists (shopping, to do, etc.) and add items to them — then access the lists on the Echo smartphone app and check items off when they’re completed
- Get sports scores
- Get traffic information
- Get the latest news
- Play music from Amazon Music, Prime Music, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and more
- Play a specific song
- Play music by a specific artist
- Listen to audio books
- Get virtually any type of information — anything that’s in Wikipedia
- Set an alarm for a specific time
- Check your Google calendar
- Add items to or remove items from your Google calendar
- Set a timer
- Adjust volume
- Ask a math question (“What is 7 multiplied by 278?”)
- Hear a joke
- Control lights and other household devices via related apps
- Play bingo and other games (activate them on the smartphone app)
- Learn the meaning of a new word every day (also on the smartphone app)
And new features are being added all the time!
If you’re looking for a treat for yourself or your family — or a gift for someone from 9 to 99 — check out the Echo.
*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, which means that if you click on a product link and buy a product, I may receive some compensation — at no extra cost to you. Thoughts, Tips and Tales is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. *
I’ve had an Echo for a year. Love the music part, hard for me to concentrate pn the audiobook but that’s not unusual for me. I’m a visual person. Bur I can see how amazing it would be for a sick child or elderly adult
Saying all of that it makes a bit of paranoid. I’ve had her ‘turn on’ without summon. After the Snowden debacle you can’t help but wonder of someone couldn’t listen in to your private sensitive conversations. Just my paranoia.
You’re right about it being great for a sick child or elderly adult.
I don’t worry so much about being listened to, but once my friend mentioned someone named Alexa while sitting in the living room and all of a sudden the Echo turned on and asked “What can I do for you?” from the kitchen. That was kind of weird.
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I have a dot that is connected to my onkyo system. It controls music from amazon and turns TV on and off.
Command structure for TV is limited because many of the commands like up or down volume or channel is reserved for music. I can have it go to a group like all sports or all movies. I then have to use the controller for move between stations and to adjust volume
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