Tell me about Alexa/Echo

[Ellapaella]

I'm stumped for ideas for DS1 who is 16. He doesn't know what he wants this Christmas either.
Usually it's a new phone or the latest Xbox game but he already has these and we've recently had to get him a new laptop for starting 6th form so that's the only other thing that he was really wanting/needing.
What exactly is ECHo/Alexa? He has a Bluetooth speaker for playing music already but it's not a great one so could do with an upgrade on that tbh.
I was thinking of getting him this for Christmas as a surprise present but don't know an awful lot about it. Is it the sort of thing a teenage boy would like?

The original Echo is currently 69.99 on Amazon apparently it's usually 89.99 . Is this a good deal at the moment or would it be even cheaper on Black Friday? I was going to get it for my daughter's birthday at the beginning of November but if I can get it even cheaper then I will hold of and buy it for Christmas instead.

I'm toying with the idea of the dot as it's cheaper and I'm new to this never had one before but if the original is a lot better then I don't mind paying and extra £20

My favourite thing is getting it to play 'Ace of Spades' straight onto certain devices, to get tardy teenagers awake and up.

I’m wondering whether to buy a dot for 9 year old DD. I’d want to set it up before Christmas - is that easy?
She’d want it for music - does that mean we’d need to subscribe to Amazon music? We have Prime - is that included?

Hi it takes seconds to set up.
I also have Prime but got the Amazon music subscription it's £3.99 a month.

A 9 year old would have loads of fun with the dot.

You will already have amazon music with prime and yes I'd say your 9yo would love it.

Ooh thank you! Her birthday is just after Christmas so it would be something different from the things she’s had from various people for Christmas.

As long as you have Amazon Music, in terms of music it works like a dream. I play all sorts of things on mine, use it as a timer when I'm baking, and it wakes me up at 6:20 every weekday. It also answers some questions and is great for doing calculations when I can't be bothered! It does occasionally activate itself though and I have to specifically say "Play Heart" if I want Heart Radio, otherwise it will tell me "iHeart radio is not currently available in your region". Other than that, I love it!

We love our collection of Echoes! My ds all enjoy using them and they are great for setting reminders, alarms and my current favourite is for the shopping list. If you have more than one I would recommend getting them to respond to different names. It is very annoying when all four of ours start playing the same track but slightly out of synch!

I'm afraid I will not allow one in my house because they are listening to your conversations all the time. That's why they're so cheap - Amazon is benefiting from a huge amount of data collection by you having it in your home. They know when you're home and when you're out, it listens to your family's conversations, knows what music you listen to, your schedule, your likes / dislikes and so much more, all so they can sell you things through clever advertising.

Mine must be riveting, I'm on my own Monday-Friday when the dc are at school and I don't talk to myself yet

I honestly don't beleive that they're listening to us, that is actually scary that you believe it.

Well I'm fairly sure Facebook, amazon and google are spying on me already anyway.

Presumably Alexa doesn't actually have a brain...
It's just algorithms. I know what you're saying but it doesn't concern me too much to be honest.

@Zoflorabore I do talk to myself all the time! And I also talk to the dog when no one else is at home 😁

Alexas and smartphones are totally listening to you. I was in the car in Kent speaking Spanish with my mate, suddenly Google maps voice switches into Spanish.

@Zoflorabore of course they are. I don't mean someone has their ear held to a receiver at the other end, but their algorithms are definitely picking up information that's used to push Amazon products / services onto you. They have to 'listen' all the time to 'hear' the voice cues that operate them and so they make use of the data collected. Also why else would they make the devices so cheap to buy?
A friend recently bought an Echo and popped it in the kitchen. Mentioned to her husband that the frying pan wasn't non-stick anymore and perhaps needed replacing. That evening, she opened Amazon app and was presented with a fine display of frying pans on the homepage (she hadn't previously actively searched for these on any device). Coincidence?
Of course not everyone would be bothered by this but I find it quite invasive and would rather not have one in my house.

Thinking of getting one for 11 DD. If she was listening to amazon music upstairs on an echo dot does that mean no one else can use amazon music elsewhere in the house in a different device?