[PJ-Comix]

The Streamer
“I really purchased [an Echo] because we needed something much smaller, with great speakers, to play music on,” Terri Axell of Salem, Oregon, told Slate. “I have to admit that’s what I use it for primarily.”

This is definitely my category. I use Alexa to stream at least 8 hours per day on weekdays and sometimes even more to listen to talk radio. In the evenings and on weekends we stream mostly music. However, I also use Alexa to stream my audible books.

Alexa was definitely a good investment for me because I put it to a lot of use. In addition, I have a remote speaker so I can hear talk radio right next to my computer even though Alexa itself is in the other room. I also use Alexa via my Amazone Firestick to both listen to the radio and music as well as the Audible books.

[Fungi]

I will never buy one of these. Is there a sixth category?

[TexasGator]

I use Alexa to turn on my streaming from my denon 4300 and acoustic monitor speakers.

[mythenjoseph]

As Groucho used to say “ I wouldn’t trust any group if it had me as a member” (something to that effect.) I get creeped out at anything of this within the home . Hell I have a vehicle without one computer in it as a daily driver . To have a listening device in your home is bad enough let alone PAYING for it....sucker born every minute . How come the NSA built that place out in the desert with all the servers?

[Steely Tom]

These Are the Five Types of Alexa Users: Which one are you?

I'm the smart kind.

I don't have Alexa — or any similar device — in my home.

[Yaelle]

I’m the type who is terrified of these listening devices.

[taxcontrol]

I work in cyber security as a penetration tester. I have banded these from my house. Consider that a warning.

[Vince Ferrer]

#1 Intelligence agencies.

[mass55th]

I have a Kindle Fire HD that came with Alexa. I turned it off. I have an iPhone and turned Siri off.

[M Kehoe]

Alexa, compute the ratio “Pi” to the last digit.

5.56mm

[eyeamok]

These Are the Five Types of Alexa Users: Which one are you?

The kind that makes sure she goes home afterwards.

[DLfromthedesert]

I received my Echo Dot as a Christmas gift. I got weather reports only at first. Now I mainly use it to listen to Talk Radio.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I don’t have one but it wouldn’t bother me. I live alone with two dachshunds so all the NSA will hear is “Are you guys hungry?” And a lot of barking, Olga shut up, Otto shut up.

[Nifster]

No one I know does

But then I hang out with some top notch IT security types

[BBell]

[LegendHasIt]

I’m the type that has been boycotting anything that leftist megalomaniac Bezos has anything to do with for a couple of years.

I’m the type that wouldn’t have an Alexa type device at all, even if Bezos was a political clone of myself.

I’m the type who takes the battery out of his cell phone except when actually using it.

[MarkL]

I used mine in the same way as you... Streaming. I have to admit that I use it for music from Pandora (it's too much work for me to organize my music on Amazon into playlists,) and for "bedtime stories," where I'll set a 20 or 30 minute sleep timer while listening to an Audible book. Current book is a hoot, "We are Legion, We are Bob," which it seems has become an Audible best seller. A Sci-Fi book about a man who decides to have his head preserved at the time of death, and when he is woken up more than a hundred years in the future. It's a terrific book, and very well read.

I will also use it for the time, if I wake up in the middle of the night, and for the days weather when I first wake up.

Mark

[doorgunner69]

Hell, I assume this is some sort of iPhag thing. Do not own one and still on Win 7, curmudgeon, I am.

[mowowie]

.

[ThunderSleeps]

No way. If the features are worth the risks to you, knock yourself out. Amazon et. al. may claim they don't monitor everything within pickup of the mics... Maybe that's even true. But it would be all too easy for them to switch on monitoring - say if asked quietly by law enforcement, or some agency known by it's initials...

Now, I'm not that paranoid that I think anyone would bother monitoring me. If they did, I should probably apologize to the agent(s) tasked with it for boring them to tears, the bad singing in my car, lack of porn or anything even remotely interesting, eclectic taste in music, my obsession with fail videos, etc. They should definitely get hazard pay and free psychological help.... However, I am saying it could be done with relative ease. Worse, it could be done by hackers looking to steal personal information. For me the risks of exposure to criminals and general invasion of privacy are not worth the benefits.

[Right Wing Assault]

I'm a type 6.

Why are these things women? Why are feminists not going berserk on them? I've been getting along without Cortana, Alexa, and Siri.

I don't need music, video, or people talking to fill my day. Maybe someday when I can't do things for myself, I will get one of these female slaves to do my bidding.