Thinking of purchasing one to gift a loved one this year. I don't own one yet myself, but am impressed with commercials and its capabilities.

Is it difficult to set up? Or an easy fix?

So far it comes in three languages: English, Japanese, and German. However, it can be taught additional languages ... from what I've been able to gather.

Are you an Alexa person? Know someone who is? Google has a counterpart, and there's another contender. But from reviews it appears that Alexa is the most 'user friendly' of the bunch.

Thoughts?

Love it.

No. Terribly invasive of privacy. If the recipient likes privacy, it's a bad gift.

Also insecure.

My thoughts exactly.

One thing to keep in mind is that unless the owner of the Alexa has a prime account with Amazon, there is a monthly fee. I don't remember for sure. Maybe $18. You don't want to give a gift that will end up costing the recipient.


We love ours.

We got one with an Amazon gift card we received last year for Christmas.

It was sort of fun initially. The novelty wore off quickly, though.

I unplugged it about six months ago, and haven't used it since.

My neighbors are complaining that their new cell phones are spying on them. Seems that stuff they talk about in private now magically appears as ads on their phones.

My brother returned the "personal assistant" device that I gave him becuse he was concerned about security issues.

The gift that keeps on taking, and talking. SHUT UP!

It might depend on the person you're thinking of giving it to.

Do they have an Amazon Prime account? - they might like it
Do they listen to music, and importantly, on a streaming service that the Echo device supports? If so, they might like it
Do they have a home automation system that is supported by the echo device? If so, they would probably like it.

My wife and I answer yes to all of the above and we have Echo devices sprinkled throughout our house. We have lights, locks, fans, thermostats all setup to work with the system and can control everything by voice. We love them. For me, it's like being in Star Trek, I can walk into any room tell an AI to turn on the lights, play some music and set the temp. The only thing I can't do yet is walk up to a cabinet and ask for "Tea, Earl Grey, Hot" and have it magically appear... Though I think Amazon is trying for that with it's Alexa controlled Microwave (but even we think that's a bit silly, though it does have its usage cases, I'm thinking for people with sight issues, being able to set the microwave by voice would be very handy).

Me: "Alexa, would you make a good Christmas gift?"

Amazon Echo: "Sorry, I'm not sure."

I think I'd like to try out Alexa. If there's a good deal on "buy one get one free or half off" then maybe I'll do it.

I do not have any desire to pay a subscription fee however. I do buy on Amazon but do not have a prime account with it. So that is a disincentive for me to sign up for it. Nor would I wish that on my loved one.

Who is way more computer and tech savvy than me btw. If I'm going to gift the Alexa, I'd feel obligated to pay for the subscription for at least the first year. And that well, would be the gift that keeps on giving. Or not, depending on how well it's received.

The device itself does not require a subscription, at least as far as I could tell. It still works just fine as a standalone product even without Amazon Prime. It will answer questions, set alarms and timers, look up news info, call people, work as an intercom with other echo's, run various skills, etc.

Where you would need an Amazon Prime account would be for:
- Shopping through Amazon (I personally don't shop via Alexa anyway, I like to comparison shop and I don't trust that Amazon's going to get me exactly what I want without seeing it.
- You miss out on Echo-only deals... I've not heard of this before, but apparently it's a thing, again, I don't shop via Alexa, and if you don't have a Prime account, no loss.
- The last thing you don't get without a Prime account is access to Prime Music. This isn't necessarily a deal breaker either. Pandora, Spotify, and other streaming services work on the Echo without a Prime account, if you have one of those, you can still use the Echo to listen to music.

So, no subscription required to use the device as long as you understand that you won't have access to Prime services that you don't have access to anyway if you don't have a Prime account. The user would need an Amazon account, but it doesn't need to be a paid subscription "Prime" account.

Thanks for the add'l feedback on that.

It's a big upfront investment, so good to know an ongoing subscription isn't necessary. I don't like contracts either.

I got a Bose [bedside] CD 2 alarm WAKEUP, or sleep dream clock radio this year [and a Bose 5+ speaker system, and Bose noise-cancelling headphones, but that's beside the point], and I'm stoked (like a fire, kinda, I guess). I like smart things/ people [when kind], not dumb ones. I don't like robots/ street signs talking to me, even if I speak to them [first].

I thought I'd give my take on it. Remote controls are "handy" sometimes but I still have to get up numerous times a day to change something, check on something, do something. It's not the chair's fault. It's the floor's. Some people ONLY get exercise because they "can't afford" otherwise (having to get up and do things themselves). Either way.

M@t

We got Alexa for a Christmas gift last Xmas.
Colossal waste of $, we do not use it.

Re-gifting sounds tempting.

My sister has one. She loves it. Me, not so much. I have not connected any of the following to the internet: My furnace/air conditioning thermostat, my smart tv, etc. If you are connected you can be hacked. Not my idea of a good time.

I use ours for morning news, stock report, and weather. It's nice to find out a quick score on a game. We have our playlist connected to it and listen to music or podcasts while cooking or working in kitchen. Sometimes we will ask her for conversions of measurements while baking, or if we have a question on some world fact. It's nice, but I probably wouldn't miss it if we didn't have it.

Well, I asked the person I was thinking of giving one to this year if he'd like one or not. He was adamantly opposed to it.

Although he works in computer services, he does not spend his free time utilizing the vast array of perks at our disposal.

He even told me his office has an Alexa that just sits there since nobody uses it. They're all computer geeks, with an Alexa that sits idly by. (Maybe they wouldn't mind gifting that to me for Christmas?! or Hanukkah?!)

;-)

It's ok for radio stations, but as far as movies and such in the bathroom it can't play YouTube directly just stuff from Amazon.

You also need the music subscription and if you like classical, Alexa is really bad about finding a particular piece and you wind up having to make your own playlists on a computer that you can then play on Alexa.

It does have Firefox so you can watch videos on YouTube, Archive.org, etc but you'll need a Bluetooth keyboard to really find things by typing via the web browser.

The most annoying thing is that you have to keep telling Alexa to "go home" (i.e. to the home screen) to display the time :P

My son and his wife with 2 kids got Alexa I think 2 years ago this Christmas and they had it all setup and seemed to enjoy it. He's been remodeling, most refurbishing, their house and Alexa sat on the counter in the kitchen.

About 9 months ago, he started redoing the kitchen and it took lots of time. His wife said one night that none of them missed Alexa while it was unplugged. Not sure what they're going to do now that the kitchen is THIS close to being done.

I like my Alexa! It was a nice Christmas gift, from one of my kids. Sometimes, she's the only one who will talk to me. Everyone else is too busy, and my dog and cat don't have much to say.