To ask you to help me persuade dh we need an Amazon echo?

[AnnMeredithPerkins]

So the echo is on sale today for £100 - so do I need one

Can't have a hive as our wiring is all wrong...(We can't have a smart meter...)

Are you an Amazon Alexa bot, trying to get us to propagate you?!

It's great. If you're really lucky your toddler will learn how to ask it to play the theme music from Postman Pat. Again. And again. And again.

Noo! Don't do it, they aren't really that useful, they don't do anything an iPhone can't, and aren't very reliable by all accounts, the only appeal is it feels very futuristic. Plus the fact they are listening to you 24/7 in order to collect data on you to sell you stuff, that's creepy as fuck.

We have an echo plus 2 dots upatairs (bought the dots for £35 each in prime day). We love it, great fun when we have friends over, also amusing to read the next day what Alexa was asked after one or two ten gins. The kids use the dots for an alarm clock too.

We use it for shopping lists, weather forecasts and always say good morning to hear a random fact about the day. My youngest asked for a random song and she played the diarrhoea song

We pay £79 a year for the unlimited music on the 3 devices.

It is 'decidedly so' that I am going to win tonight's lotto jackpot. According to the magic 8 ball. Woohoo!

I have a dot and adore it. It's really useful. Wakes me up in the morning, reminds me to get dinner out of the oven, keeps shopping lists, plays music and does wonders for my insomnia by playing soothing music for an hour while I go to sleep then shuts itself off. My home isn't particularly smart so it doesn't control the lights or anything but it was well worth the £35 I paid for it on Prime day.

I love my dot. I wasn't sure if use it much but I use it loads. I don't have it connected to lights etc but I'd definitely recommend it

Nothing on this earth would convince me to have something listening to everything my family says 24/7

I'm not a bot honest

It's a gadget and I love gadgets, id really like one as it's something new and techy, but it's still £100 and I'm struggling to tell dh why I need the shiny

Yes we can afford it,

Does anyone have their echo/dot connected to a smart socket for turning the kettle on in the morning, when on the way home etc?

I was very keen on getting this but then thinking about it I started to be concerned about a device listening to everything going on in my home and collecting the data and storing it /selling it on. So I decided against it.

Perhaps time for a solid read of the ICO guidelines.. it's going to get even stricter with GDPR coming in. With the fines (based on revenue not profit) involved, I'm pretty confident Amazon won't risk selling any data about you

I would be far more concerned about it being hacked than Amazon. Secure they are not, and yes the chances are slim that we would be targeted, but still nope.

So you're okay with a provider listening in to your private homelife?

Okay.

I keep mine in the kitchen for the radio and the timers. Also handy for adding things to my shopping list.

She will also read your kindle books, but the expression isn't great

Weirdly saw this just before i saw your thread.

www.hotukdeals.com/deals/white-amazon-echo-89-with-voucher-at-tesco-2771679

Its £89 at asda with a code on here.

Cant help you convince your dh though as i have no idea what it is!

I'm in the camp of not wanting a listening device in my home. I don't think even George Orwell predicted that we would not only want such a device but be willing to pay for the privilege.

Then again, smartphones with Siri/'OK Google'/etc enabled are doing the same thing. And quite possibly even with it supposedly disabled.

*tesco not asda!

Get the dot (I have) or the google gnome (I want) instead as it can be used outside

thoughtcatalog.com/lane-loomis/2017/01/alexa-told-me-where-the-bodies-are-buried/