How I learned to love Alexa (and Amazon's Echo)

08 Jul 2015 • engadget.com

To be clear, I fell for Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. Sure, she’s just another spin on the likes of Siri, Cortana and Google Now (time for a friendlier name there, eh Google?), but Alexa also differs in a few key ways. For one, she’s always listening, and she generally does a better job of understanding me than other virtual assistants. Alexa also has the uncanny ability to hear me even when I’m on the other side of my living room, thanks to Echo’s seven microphones.

My three minute Echo review:

I like her a lot also. Voice seems far less robotic to me than Siri and “always listening” is nice - at least until the next Snowden. Mostly I ask her for timers for Making Light and the weather, and she always obliges. Sometimes she’s stupid, but not often. You’d think after 2 hours of silence… when the alarm goes off and I say “Alexa, thanks” and she responds “your welcome” that she might also stop the alarm. Oh well, maybe next year.

I’m not sure I’d buy her again, but I’m happy to keep her around.