This, and the other Echo thread will be full of these comments within the next 6 hours - but it highlights the essential 'issue' of the Echo/Dot integration.

If you just have an Echo and no other services - you'll get bored with it. It doesn't do much, really. Yes, nice to ask questions and handy to set alarms, but really - the voice assistant on your phone does that.

But the Echo comes into it's own as an accessory to a Smart Home - if you already posses one.
I have an Echo in the kitchen - this is used a lot for kitchen timers (you can set more than one - I had 10 going at Christmas for the Christmas dinner and trimmings), listening to Radio Player or playing music from Spotify. It's also handy for asking for conversion of Centigrade to Fahrenheit, logging when either myself or the Mrs has fed the cat, and playing the latest news whilst I'm washing up the baby bottles at night.
Move to the lounge, and the Dot in there controls my TV (I can change channels, or just get the TV/Tivo all starting up if I walk into the room with my hands full), control the heating (I have the Honeywell Evohome system which allows me to control the temperature in every room of the house) as well as connect to my soundbar via bluetooth for some further Spotify listening. Lastly, I have 2 lights that can be controlled in there too - again, handy if you walk in with hands full.
Lastly, in the bedroom. This Dot is my alarm in the morning (you can press a button to turn it off, you don't have to speak), it plays Lullabies to my 4 month old daughter when she's going off to sleep in her cot, controls the lights in the bedroom as well as the morning questions about how cold it is outside when you're getting dressed and deciding what to wear, or whether it will rain, plus radio/spotify duties on a Sunday morning, etc.

All with my voice.
Yes, I could get up and turn the light on. I could walk into each room of the house and alter the radiator. I could have a digital radio in each room and a connected media player for spotify (somehow) and also an alarm clock by my bed. I could buy a new timer for the kitchen (and another 9 for Christmas dinner) and I could just use the remote to turn the TV on 5 seconds later when I've put down whatever is in my hands. I could also have a scruffy piece of paper on the fridge for a shopping list with a pen that only works for 3 words when writing on a vertical surface. But I don't need to.

I wouldn't say it's life changing, but it is really useful. And it has replaced many devices, simplifying my gadgets.

And lest not forget the things you remote control don't have to be in the same room. I can turn the TV on and the lounge lights from the kitchen, when my 3yo asks to watch Thomas. I can also wish it a good morning, and she tells me an interesting fact about the day.

It's not for everyone. It needs to connect to some other things to be useful. But works great for me.

The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever the wanted to. You had to live- did live, from habit that became instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinised.

Can I have it then?

With free 50TB of online storage (at the NSA)

and controller?

Heat added. Echo is a life changer, we have 6 around the house which control the heating, lights, TV along with the regular functions of shopping list etc.

This, and the other Echo thread will be full of these comments within the next 6 hours - but it highlights the essential 'issue' of the Echo/Dot integration.

If you just have an Echo and no other services - you'll get bored with it. It doesn't do much, really. Yes, nice to ask questions and handy to set alarms, but really - the voice assistant on your phone does that.

But the Echo comes into it's own as an accessory to a Smart Home - if you already posses one.
I have an Echo in the kitchen - this is used a lot for kitchen timers (you can set more than one - I had 10 going at Christmas for the Christmas dinner and trimmings), listening to Radio Player or playing music from Spotify. It's also handy for asking for conversion of Centigrade to Fahrenheit, logging when either myself or the Mrs has fed the cat, and playing the latest news whilst I'm washing up the baby bottles at night.
Move to the lounge, and the Dot in there controls my TV (I can change channels, or just get the TV/Tivo all starting up if I walk into the room with my hands full), control the heating (I have the Honeywell Evohome system which allows me to control the temperature in every room of the house) as well as connect to my soundbar via bluetooth for some further Spotify listening. Lastly, I have 2 lights that can be controlled in there too - again, handy if you walk in with hands full.
Lastly, in the bedroom. This Dot is my alarm in the morning (you can press a button to turn it off, you don't have to speak), it plays Lullabies to my 4 month old daughter when she's going off to sleep in her cot, controls the lights in the bedroom as well as the morning questions about how cold it is outside when you're getting dressed and deciding what to wear, or whether it will rain, plus radio/spotify duties on a Sunday morning, etc.

All with my voice.
Yes, I could get up and turn the light on. I could walk into each room of the house and alter the radiator. I could have a digital radio in each room and a connected media player for spotify (somehow) and also an alarm clock by my bed. I could buy a new timer for the kitchen (and another 9 for Christmas dinner) and I could just use the remote to turn the TV on 5 seconds later when I've put down whatever is in my hands. I could also have a scruffy piece of paper on the fridge for a shopping list with a pen that only works for 3 words when writing on a vertical surface. But I don't need to.

I wouldn't say it's life changing, but it is really useful. And it has replaced many devices, simplifying my gadgets.

And lest not forget the things you remote control don't have to be in the same room. I can turn the TV on and the lounge lights from the kitchen, when my 3yo asks to watch Thomas. I can also wish it a good morning, and she tells me an interesting fact about the day.

It's not for everyone. It needs to connect to some other things to be useful. But works great for me.

Life changing, lying in bed switch on the heating in the en suite and the living room before getting up, dim the bedside lamps without moving. Switch off all the lights downstairs with one voice command.

Shopping list is not just a case of having a piece of paper and a pen. I don't know about you but I tend to not carry the SAME piece of paper and a pen 24 hours a day. I add things to shopping list whilst in the middle of cooking, or realising that we only have x amount of bars of soap/tubes of toothpaste remaining.

You can write a letter with a piece of paper and a pen but Microsoft have done pretty well out of MS Office.

The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever the wanted to. You had to live- did live, from habit that became instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinised.

I have one without any lights/TV/housey stuff integrated. Its absolutely great for playing music, radio, podcasts, news and setting alarms/reminders. Music especially, just ask it to play jazz, piano music, indie acoustic nineties music or whatever, and it will play a related playlist that goes on all day. Its also handy just saying "alexa, shut up" when the phone or doorbell goes.

I was given one of these as a gift - biggest waste of time going. Used it for a week, couldn't see the point or how it improved my life so it's now in a drawer.....

With free 50TB of online storage (at the NSA)