I've been thinking about getting an Echo or Home but I'm not sure I'd ever actually use it. I was hoping to get other people's opinions on it and what they use it for to see if I'd ever use it. I just bought a Chromecast if it crosses over with that at all?
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Re: Amazon Echo/Google Home
We have 1 echo and 2 dots.
Our uses:
- timers. either cooking or for our kids (you have 30 seconds to.. or bedtime in 45 minutes...)
- music / news. We listen to Tunein (CNN, etc) and Pandora. The bedroom dot is connected to a bluetooth speaker in the bathroom, so when we turn that on the audio is shifted to that speaker. Going to do something for the kids bathroom soon. Only dots can do this, the echo has a nice beefy speaker but no way to shift audio elsewhere.
- audible. Have a couple dozen audiobooks, so naturally we just listen to 1 (The Martian) over and over
- noise. Wife plays thunderstorm sounds when she goes to sleep
- automation. I got a hue starter kit and a half dozen other bulbs in different rooms. 'Alexa, turn on office' 'Alexa trigger party time (starts a few specific bulbs color cycling)' 'Alexa set kitchen to 50%' 'Alexa turn on concentrate in loft' (turns on a brighter white light for my wife's spot in the loft where she crochets. I can enable my house alarm and might get a couple of thermostats in the future that work with it.
So yeah... we can't say enough nice things about them, and they can do a lot more than that. They just added some interesting features like being able to send and receive messages through the Alexa app. Not sure we'll get much use out of that, but wouldn't rule out getting the video Echos in the future for some intercom action and/or even easier access to grandma's house for the kids
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Re: Amazon Echo/Google Home
Everything to that has already been mentioned plus:
Alarm clock, answering basic info , but mainly home automation for me. Have about 20 smart light bulbs. Can voice control lights in individual rooms, floors, or entire house. It's pretty convenient.Comment
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