Amazon Echo Dot

[swill453]

For those who own an Amazon Echo Dot could they inform me if the sound quality is acceptable and audible for speech radio such as LBC, Talk Sport, Talk Radio and Radio 4 or whether it would be better to buy the larger Echo version? I have noted the Dot is 3rd generation whereas the larger Echo is second generation. Does that make much difference?

The reviews I've read say that the 3rd Gen speaker is significantly better than the 2nd Gen, and slightly better than the equivalent Google Home Mini. I doubt if it's quite as good as the Echo, as the sheer bulk if that will give it an advantage.

Haven't actually listened to one yet, but reviews lead me to believe the sound is good enough for a room as long as it's not too huge.

Scott.

[BobbyD]

...and just noticed they're £20 already on Amazon

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Echo-Do ... KJCB4HCFRM

Those are 2nd gen, 3rd are £24.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0792KWK57/?tag=22

[Infrasonic]

https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-techn ... mazon-echo

[formoverfunction]

I have a both an echo and dot. The echo for music, the dot in the kitchen for timers, radio and quick searches.

The most recent echo is perfect for listening to music, the dot is OK.

One chore I have got in the habit of doing is "deleting" all recorded voice commands at the start/end of each month.

I do a similar thing with email, archive or delete at the end of each month.

It only takes a few moment and I'm not really that worried about anyone hearing me say "Alexa goodnight", "Alexa, timer 5 minutes" or "Alexa, play radio 4", but it's not a bad habit to develop.

[AliM2000]

I have recently bought an Amazon Echo Dot, they are really good. They are currently on sale for £20 for black Friday weekend, I would highly recommend getting one as they are very handy.

[swill453]

They are currently on sale for £20 for black Friday weekend, I would highly recommend getting one as they are very handy.

I haven't seen the current one (3rd Generation) for less than £24.99, where it's been all week. Was this a short-timed deal?

Scott.

[Lanark]

It is a complete mystery to me why anyone would voluntarily accept a 'big brother' style audio monitor into their house. I wouldnt have any of those smart listening devices if they paid me, but horses for courses I guess.

There is a move towards more and more tech having hardware based on/off switches for built in microphones and cameras, even some of the newer security focused smartphones have them now.
A good trend IMHO, I'm not that keen on 'smart' IoT stuff I can't switch off physically.
Give me dumb stuff that I can add to with cabled accessories...

Ah but does the OFF switch really turn it off?

An amazing number of people really believe these devices are not recording every sound in the room until they utter the 'magic words' "Ok Google" or "Hey Siri" - but how do you think it is able to recognise those words if it's turned off??