You may have seen my review on the original Amazon Echo (Alexa). Everyone I know that has an Amazon Echo loves it. There are so many things it is useful for. In our Kitchen we use it to tell us the News, turn lights on and off "Alexa turn off all the lights", ordering stuff from Amazon and streaming Spotify.

Since getting our Echo, Amazon has released a number of new ways to buy one. Earlier this year they released the first generation Echo Dot. The Dot is really small, about the size of a hockey puck. A few weeks ago they updated the Echo Dot dropping the price in half, putting together 6 and 12 packs and offering them in white (in addition to black).

At this point, what Amazon is saying, is every room should have an Echo in it. And I agree. We previously had an Echo Speaker in our kitchen and I got two 1st generation Dots for my two kids. This way each kid has their own Echo in their room.

When the Echo Dot 2nd generation model was announced, I ordered 2 more Dots in white. One for my bedroom, and one for my bathroom. In fact, it's my wife who asked if we could have them in our rooms since we use them more and more. The Echo Dot in my bathroom is connected to the Sonos Play 5 which has the added benefit of giving me better sound and streaming through my house if I want.

With these two Dots, I can ask questions anywhere in my room as I am waking up and getting ready for the day. I plan to use these bedroom dots as an alarm clock, to ask Alexa the weather, to control the lights, and to ask it the time / news.

My Kids love their Dots. My daughter uses it to play Spotify (she has her own account on our family subscription) as well as ask it all sorts of questions, mostly about the weather. My son does most of the same.

The most amazing thing about the Echo is how well it can hear you say "Alexa". Compared to "Hey Siri" - which fails more often than not, "Alexa" is always something I get a response to. This is a huge deal as I have found that Siri is too slow and too inconvenient to use in our home.

The Amazon Echo is a great platform with more and more skills appearing each week. Amazon is making a huge investment in this product. I know a few folks that work on the Echo at Amazon and it's clear that the company is betting big on making this a ubiquitous product in our lives.

My only wish is that I had Alexa in my car.

OmarKnows Rating: Recommended

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