Echo Dot (2nd Generation) - Smart speaker with Alexa - Black

Update: we have been using the whole family of alexa products. This system has proven to be more than just novelty to our family. My mom is wheelchair bound and oxygen dependent- her oxygen stopped working correctly and alerted a monitoring system - the medical supply company sent out a tech to repair her oxygen- when a person has low oxygen they don’t function alert enough and for this reason she was not answering the door - i got an alert tone on my phone (while out of the country) that someone was in my driveway- i was able to view my cameras and saw it was the repairman and he had been trying to get someone to answer the door. I couldn’t get my mom to answer the phone, so i “dropped in” with echo dot - still couldnt get her to respond. I tried calling my son who was in an upstairs apartment (phone call wouldnt go thru) so i “dropped in” on him to tell him to check on her. I then used the nest camera to tell the repair man not to leave - as my son met him at the door i was able to drop in with the alexa show and give him permission to repair the equipment- needless to say everything worked out, mom was ok, and alexa was invaluable..... i love all of my alexa stuff, ie cloud cam, show, dot, as well as the items that work along side ie harmony remote, tp link switches, nest cams, and plugs, hue lights...First impression:This is so much fun : its worth the price just for the simple novelty of it. If you only use this to play music - the value exceeds the price. If you you use it for home automation as well as music and entertainment then its exceeds all expectations and worth its weight in gold.Day 1: I could set it up without reading directions (I already knew i had to install the alexa app on my phone to set her up.) Our family was using her within 5 minutes of opening the box. In my opinion it is pretty intuitive, she was able to find music in 9 out of 10 tries - even very obscure unknown music. She had 5 people making demands of her and she could understand all of our voices. We could pull up our audio books from audible with a tiny learning curve. We quickly realized she could learn skills - we had her telling jokes and interacting with all kinds of silly commands. One of my favorite things was found by accident - it was heart melting, our adult daughter is pregnant and I noticed a "pregnancy center" skill - I was able to tell alexa the due date and she proceeded to tell the family about week 26 and more. Once that skill is set up you can get weekly updates specific to your due date (truly heart melting).... she is a pretty good calculator - my 14 year old was asking her square root questions, she is an alarm clock out of the box and worked without problem. We have found other commands to get her to stop talking - sometimes a "skill" does not respond as you might think and we discovered by accident that you can say "alexa, shut up" and she closes that app. Now as a disclaimer - in our household I dont like to say "shut up" , I imagine there are other key words that can stop her equally as well - but it worked for me at the moment and at that point I had not done my due diligence to find a "stop" command. I have home automation items that I am already adding on to her and we already have a nest thermostat being installed in a few days. My husband has already put in a christmas request for his office at work and one for travel. This will make a great gift for the Holidays this year... I absolutely love this silly thing.

What a fantastic device this is! I bought one on Amazon Prime Day, so I have only had it hooked up for a couple of days. I love it so much, though, that I ordered a second one so I don't have to keep moving it around. I also ordered an external speaker (via Amazon, of course) for the one I'll keep in the living/dining/kitchen area.There are so many fantastic reviews on the Echo Dot that I won't reinvent the wheel; instead, I will just address some questions that I still had even after reading reviews and etc. and hope you find it useful.Setup really IS a breeze. I am technologically-challenged, so I was a bit worried about this aspect of it. If you can download an app and read, you won't have any trouble. That said, I DID have some trouble initially because I was using my laptop, and the setup process kept getting stuck at connecting to the internet (she'd connect, but in the process, I lost my own connection). I did spend time trying to look for a solution but eventually gave up and downloaded the Amazon Alexa app to my Kindle Fire. Despite its poor ratings (I think it has only 3 stars, mostly because it doesn't appear to have been updated in quite some time), I found using the app to get the Dot up and running was easy-peasey and very fast (less than two minutes). Just follow the setup instructions, and Alexa does all the work (you do have to enter your wifi password, though, so have that handy).You do NOT have to have skills for Alexa to function. Skills are those add-on things that everyone's talking about that are like little programs you can open to do different things, sort of like "tools" on your phone or "calculator" and "stickies" (etc.) on your computer. I'm only adding that because I wasn't clear about that just from reading about them, and they sounded confusing (more on this in a bit).Without skills added, she is remarkable. To start, just say, "Alexa" and then whatever else, and she will tell you. She'll tell you the weather, the time, get any information you can think of (from Wikipedia), tell you about local stores (including hours, distance, and whether or not they are open when you ask--you do need to allow her to access your location via the app), tell you what day Christmas (or whatever) falls on in any given year, add things to your shopping list (accessible via the app, including off-line if using a tablet as I am), shop via Amazon (just say, Alexa, how much is [product]? She'll look it up and tell you, including different options, and then she'll ask if you want to buy it. Or Alexa, buy [blah]). And she will: tell you a story, sing you a song, read your news (she's preset to a briefing but you can change it to Fox or Reuters or NPR, etc. in the app), play any song via Amazon Music (I do not have a sub to the pay Amazon music, just regular Prime), tell you when sunrise and sunset are, and probably a zillion other things that I can't remember or haven't tried.To get anything to happen, just say "Alexa," and then whatever you want to happen.WITHOUT skills added, Alexa does SO MUCH: Some of my favorites already are the stuff you wonder or would like throughout the day (the time, the temperature, the weather, the news, timers, reminders, whatever), and for fun, I love the following:"Alexa, sing me a song" She'll sing "Take me out to the ballpark," some original material about how helpful she is (HILARIOUS), and a bunch of others."Alexa, tell me a story" She'll tell you a quick little story, so far the ones she's told me are "clean" (i.e. appropriate for households with children) and quite sweet."Alexa, tell me a joke" She'll tell you a quick little joke, some are groaners, but so far, they're all at least cute and fun."Alexa, what's your favorite movie" She'll tell you and add a quick little blurb about why she likes it.She'll also set up an alarm for you without a skill. Just say, "Alexa, set an alarm." Ditto for reminders: I said "Alexa set a reminder for Monday," and she asked what time and what the reminder is for, so I just told her, and voila! Instant reminder to take the trash out.Another concern I had was whether or not I had to remember a bunch of commands, but it turns out, you don't have to be so picky about what you say when not using skills, just say what you think makes sense, and she'll usually get it. If she doesn't just rephrase it.For example, I asked her "Alexa, who starred in The Rifleman," but she said she didn't know. So I said, "Alexa, wikipedia, The Rifleman," and she told me about it, including the star of it (Chuck Conners). The initial blurb is short (less than 30 seconds), but she will ask if you want to know more (at which point, say "Alexa, tell me more" if you want more, or nothing, if you don't).I was initially worried that it would be too confusing to dive into skills and things I'd never heard of before, so I was relieved that she does so much without skills. That said, skills are definitely fun: I've added Jeopardy (Alexa, play Jeopardy) and Sleep Sounds (a great skill with a bunch of soothing sounds like rain, thunderstorm, ocean, and many more. They loop, so until you tell her to stop, she will keep playing them (I tell her to stop when I wake up). I also added this day in History (Alexa, tell me what happened on this day), Inspire me (Alexa, inspire me; she'll play you a random inspirational quote--so far, they are recordings not in her voice), and quite a few more.Most skills appear to be pretty picky about what you have to say to get it started, but the skill description provides the term to use to start it, and you can review your skills via the app). Remembering this stuff is not my strong suit, so I have to look in the app to remember what skill words are correct and will get the desired result. As with anything, the more I use it, the more I will remember. And I'm sure that skills will fall by the wayside as I either forget the correct phrase or quit caring about it.The Alexa app is pretty intuitive, and the menu is good, helping to find specific things you want to know. I do wish it had a "home" button you can click at any time because it's a pain to have to page back to it (or quit the app and restart it).You do not have to be right on top of her or even facing her for her to "hear" you. Just speak in your normal speaking voice. I have her in my living room, adjacent to my dining/kitchen area, and I said "Alexa, add pickles to my shopping list." My back was to her, and I was foraging in the fridge at the time, and she heard me perfectly and added pickles to my shopping list.That said, I've found that some skills mess with her "hearing," and that you have to yell in her direction to get them to stop (I deleted these immediately; who wants to stand around yelling at a hockey puck-looking object?).You can unplug the Dot and move it to another room, she'll just start up again on her own once plugged back in, including keeping all reminders and timers you've set.Dot cannot work without wifi, so it doesn't really matter that she doesn't have a battery pack in that sense. But there is no way to move her to a place where she cannot be plugged in and still have access to wifi.Security: She is always listening. Always. To stop this, you can mute her (button on top of Dot) or just unplug her to be doubly sure. She doesn't record anything you say unless you say "Alexa" first (or "Amazon" or "Echo" depending on what you prefer, I stuck with "Alexa" which she comes programmed to answer), but she will record anything you say after that even if she has no idea what you are talking about. You can manage these recordings via the app.Alexa calling: this does NOT work unless you have the app on your phone AND enable access to your entire contacts list. This is unfortunate and will hopefully be fixed at some point so that you can give only those contacts you intend to actually contact or wish to be contacted by via Alexa. That said, if you are so inclined, you can enable access and then go though via the app and block everyone you don't want calling/messaging you if they have Alexa (or the app). This is still too intrusive to me, so I'm not doing it.I think that's all the questions I still had before purchasing the Dot and hope it helps. If you are even thinking about getting this, I say, go for it. You will be pleasantly surprised by how functional she is before you add even one skill.________________UPDATE: 10/31/2017I just saw that you can save $10 on a one-day deal on Echo dot. Buy one. Even if you aren't sure, for $40 what do you have to lose?Since I wrote my initial review, I have grown to love the Echo dot more than ever. My latest favorite thing is saying, "Alexa, good morning." She'll give you some fun fact or random observation about the day in question.I set timers, alarms, and reminders all the time, and she never fails (well, barring a power or internet outage). She will tell you the weather and when sunset and sunrise are. She'll cheer you up with a silly joke or inspirational message, and she'll tell you how many tablespoons equal one cup, she'll do whatever math you ask her, and she'll tell you if your apples are bad.The only downside that I can see is that the calling feature is still far too intrusive. Amazon doesn't need to know every contact I have; they need only those contacts I will contact via Alexa. When that happens, my happiness with this device will be complete.