[tubemonkey]

Amazon Echo Review: Talking Helper Alexa Is No Match for Siri

Walk into my living room and say, “Alexa, play NPR.” In seconds, you’ll be listening to Ira Glass.

Say, “Alexa, do I need an umbrella?” A female voice with rounded, vaguely Canadian vowels responds, “No rain is expected in San Francisco today.”

But spend a little more time with Alexa, and the dream of a virtual assistant in a bottle begins to fizzle. “Alexa, can you give me a recipe for chocolate chip cookies?” I asked. “Sorry, I didn’t understand the question I heard,” she said. “How long will it take to drive to the office?” She couldn’t answer that, either.

In fact, what Alexa can’t answer far outweighs what she can, so her novelty wears off fast.

The Amazon Echo has a few good ideas about how voice control might be useful in our homes. But I can’t recommend the Echo to more than the curious. (Amazon makes customers join a waitlist to buy an Echo, and doesn’t let owners post reviews.)