I've had an Echo for about 10 months now and I love it. I've know a few other folks that have one and they have also liked it. I mostly use it for the following things:
- Listen to music. Both my music which I uploaded to Amazon and the free music that comes with Amazon Prime subscription: "Alexa, play some U2."
- Ask the temperature outside: "Alexa, what is the temperature?"
- Ask what time a game starts: "Alexa, what time is the Red Sox game?"
- Ask various movie questions: "Alexa, who directed 'The Hunger Games'?"
- Ask to turn off my Wemo light in the front room: "Alexa, turn off the light in the front room."
- Ask it to be a calculator: "Alexa, what is 225 divided by 8?"
- Ask it to convert something: "Alex, how many ounces in cup?"
- Setting a timer: "Alexa, set a timer for 15 minutes."
But my favorite commands are on the fun side. They are:
- "Alexa, winter is coming."
- When you say Simon says, Alexa will repeat what you just said. When you combine that with swear words, it is very funny: "Alexa, Simon says F#@% off!"
- "Alexa, more cowbell."
- "Alexa, rock, paper, scissors."
What the future holds for the Echo, I do not know. But I do know that I want to control everything in my house through it. Google and Apple are trying to catch up with their voice recognition, but its just no where near the Echo right now.