MrWizard wrote:
Star Trek is/was the 25th century, not the 21st
i'm 69 and been a GEEK all my life, but that does not mean, i can't do some things for myself
like take a few seconds to check the weather, or write a do list
or play my own music, or do my own research on google or other places
OP here: Now this is just me, and my humble opinion. Last thing anyone, would apply to me is the description technophile. In fact I am pretty much the opposite. We will not be using echo, to turn on lights, open doors and so on. And I do admire those of you that are tech smart. And all the things you can make computers do.
For us the great value is in the music, and nature sounds it can play with a very easy user interface. Very nice to listen to say ocean waves for instance when falling asleep. And to be able to play any song you can think of
Total cost for 2 dots and 2 nice speakers was about $350. Ongoing cost for amazon music unlimited $79 per year. (assuming you already have prime)
So end of the day, did this make our lives better? YES. Is it worth the money? YES, very much so, to us a least.
As for security risk, don't doubt, there is some, but that comes with pretty much everything these days. Did any one read where Samsung smart TV's were listing all the time? So doing a personal risk assessment, I am more than willing to assume the risk of amazon, or the police listening in. Probably because, only thing they would be able to do with it, is help their people fall asleep. We are just not that interesting.
And one last thing no one has mentioned, the dot's have an off button for the mic. So one could turn it off, when not using it. Or if say you were having a "racey" conversation