Alexa - NOT amateur radio

We have 2 Amazon Dot devices. We love these and are very impressed that they seem to be good at voice recognition, even managing to understand my poor voice. 

Some get very worried about it spying and harvesting all sorts of private data. The answer is simple: turn it off when not in use!

We like the idea of news, weather and any kind of music on tap and the timers, which are really useful when cooking.

I bought mine really cheaply when they were on offer.  My wife thought I was mad, but she uses Alexa far more than me!

Alexa - NOT amateur radio

A few months ago we bought an Amazon Dot at half price from Amazon. I bought it as it was so inexpensive: if it was no good, I would not have wasted that much.

What has surprised me is how effective the voice recognition is.  Even with my poor voice, it seems to understand me most times. When not in use we turn it off at the mains to prevent it picking up unintentional conversations. 

When it arrived it was much smaller than I expected. At first I wondered if they had only sent the PSU.  At a guess I reckon it is about 10cm across. Sound quality is much better than expected. It is very good.

You can say things like, "play BBC Radio 4" or "play a 1930s mix".

I am impressed. It is much better than I expected. My wife enjoys it even more!