Alexa Show

We just purchased an Echo Show and I wanted to offer some initial comments. This is the third generation of the show and it is a great device for the price. The device might appear as an iPad married to a speaker and this is pretty much what it is. The screen is sharp and music played through the speaker has great range.

One of the interesting characteristics of this generation of the Show is that will follow you. It turns toward sound after receiving the word that activates the device. So, Cindy and I can sit on either side of the Show and it will turn toward which of us wants to issue a command. If you give it the “follow” command, the device will turn to follow you as you move. This was the characteristic that most interested us when we purchased the device. We have kids who work in telemedicine and education and wondered what they could do if they could generate video while moving about. The flaw in our reasoning was the 60 second record time. You can record a video that is stored in Amazon photos, but the limit is 60 seconds. Good enough for some demonstrations, but still not as flexible as I would like. You can make video calls to other Echo Shows.

Amazon is selling the Echo Show for $250. If you purchase two, you get $100 off. Cindy initially preordered four devices (one for us and one for each of the three families of our kids). We received the devices as soon as they became available. As a promotion when the devices were first available for immediate shipment, Amazon offered $100 off when purchasing two. They would not extend this promotion price to us. They would, however, allow us to send the devices we had received back (we had not opened the boxes) and reorder. They would just not issue a refund. We sent the four devices back and each of us ordered two as soon as the unopened boxes were in the return mail. We ended up saving $200. Despite Cindy’s best effort to talk to different managers the return and reorder process was required which ended up costing Amazon quite a bit in transportation costs. Go figure.

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