Happy Prime day!
- Thread starter Happy Hands
- Start date
On prime day I only buy name brand Chinese crap bolstered by sponsored reviews.
I save my off brand shopping for AliExpress day.
if you cant find certain items on aliexpress anymore, give dhgate a shot. its literally a direct copy.
i've been wanting to get either an echo or google home....google is running a counter to the prime days with a google home and chromecast for just $99. Amazon is selling their Echo for $89 but no Firestick.
I was really sad to see that amazon didnt have a deal on the fire tv or even the stick. I like the stick, it gets the job done, but Id rather have it for the tv in the bedroom that doesnt get a lot of use, and put the fire tv in the living room.
Trying to get the fire back in the bedroom? Nice.
I bought a digital copy of Lego Batman for 7.99 and I think my wife bought portable soccer goals for our daughter. That's it so far.
I want an Echo but I don't want Amazon listening to my conversations. It's creepy.
I can't stand the multi second laggy-ness of the fire stick. You are constantly wondering if it actually got the last button you pressed. Sometimes it just sits on a black screen for 10-20 seconds and you wonder if it's hung and needs to be unplugged.
It's only creepy when you haven't used it for days and during a routine conversation it yells out, "sorry I didn't understand that"
I really want to upgrade, but its rumored that a newer fire tv version is just around the corner
They had a TV with the Fire software built in on sale for $200 earlier today. I don't know if it is still up. I mean, once you get to the big electronics like computers or tvs, I'll pay $200 for anything.
Is Echo really useful? I've been thinking of getting one, but I don't use Amazon all that often and If I want to listen to music I'll stream it off my phone. My parents got one but they only really use it to listen to music.
Then no, it would not be for you. Unless you are looking into automating your home.
I have a love/hate relationship with my Echo and it seems most people do. It can be super useful, as I do have home automation but the amount of times it doesn't catch what you're saying or thinks you're saying something else can get frustrating.
I never saw the Echo as anything but an input source for home automation.
Yes, it is cool to say, play Purple Rain, and it starts, or use it as an alarm or timer, but without smart home stuff, it has no value.
I don't blame Amazon for pushing it out without the Echo being fully realized as a product yet. It's a hot item, so sell what you can. That's business. Personally, I think they should promote more smart home products by all vendors to get the full ability of the Echo for customers. But the fact is most home automation stuff is still really made for early adopters, not the mainstream.
I use it mostly to communicate with my Phillips Hue lights. Turning them on and off, changing colors and tempertures, calling up scenes. I'm also in a beta program to interface with Sonos wifi speakers through the Echo ( now Sonos is def worth the price as a smart speaker, imo ). But figuring out all of the uses of the Phillips Hue lights, even as probably the most mature smart home system, takes a lot of trial and error that I don't think the average person wants to deal with and figure out. That's before you even get into how some smart home stuff is compatible with some others, but others are not ( the smart lock I want can communicate with Echo, but not my main Samsung Smart Hub, but I can connect them through others means like IFTTT ). It's getting better, tho.
I used to think changing the colors and temperature of lights wasn't useful at all, but spend some time with it, they def allow for some cool things. Once you start turning lights on and off by voice, by motion sensor, or by using your cell phone as a presence sensor ( such as turning my bedroom lights on when I get within 100 meters of home at night ), you will not want to go back to having regular lights.
So to answer your question Bob, if you plan on other smart home items, yes. If not, no, I would not reccomend it.
Is there a home automation for keeping my wife quiet? For putting my kids to bed? That's what automation should be. At least a hologram of someone to side with me during a fight.
I can just imagine Alexa giving me the silent treatment because of what my wife told her I did. Or her starting a response with,"I just think it's funny that..." I don't need anymore female voices in my house. A wife and two daughters is enough.
I still have yet to use a Fire tablet ( or any Fire product, actually ).
Is it actually not a cheap piece of shit?
It's a functional cheap piece of shit. Good for watching video, reading on the kindle and playing games. It's not as user friendly as an ipad, but for the price it's not a bad deal.
this is pretty much what im looking for in a kids tablet. it mostly just needs to be cheap
My daughter got a fire tablet for her birthday. Both of my kids LOVE it. It has a lot of different games for them (many of them educational - colors, numbers, animals etc - they're 4 and 2). Definitely holds up to some abuse (2 year olds drop things) and has a 2-year warranty for any kind of damage.
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