Is It Just Me, @Alexa99?

Apparently not. A little bit of web searching pulls up all kinds of "is my Echo Dot just broken?" and "has Alexa gone nuts?" material from the last few weeks.

Shortly after I returned from that Memorial Day weekend trip, Tamara mentioned that the Echo Pop in our living room hadn't been responding.

So I tested it:

"Alexa [blue 'I'm listening' light comes on], what time is it?"

No response [blue 'I'm listening' light goes off].

Unplugged and plugged back in to reset.

Same problem.

Unplugged and plugged back in again to reset again.

Fixed.

For a little while. Seems to do that every day or so. Sometimes one reset gets it working again. Sometimes it takes two.

Same story with the Echo Pop in the bedroom.

But not the old-fashioned ("3rd Generation") Echo Dot in my home office.

At least not yet.

Maybe because I don't use it as much? Or maybe because there's been some kind of buggy software update for later, but not earlier, device generations?

I understand Amazon's Alexa division has had layoffs. And that they're planning to introduce a higher paid tier of more AI-enabled service. And so on and so forth.

I jumped on the Alexa bandwagon fairly early, and I think I was the kind of customer they were looking for when they sold the devices at cost in hope of using Alexa to drive sales in other areas.

They make additional money from me every month for their higher-tier music service.

I often add consumables to my Amazon cart based on Alexa reminders that it may be time to purchase more laundry detergent, etc.

My natural inclination is to continue dancing with the gal what brung me, but if these reliability issues don't get fixed soon I'll be looking into other options for my "voice-activated personal assistant/music streaming speaker" services.

A Preemptive Gripe About @Amazon

Per CNBC:

Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge a monthly subscription fee to offset the cost of the technology, according to people with knowledge of Amazon’s plans. ... Amazon’s subscription for Alexa will not be included in the $139-per-year Prime offering, and Amazon has not yet nailed down the price point, one source said.

My household currently boasts four Echo Dot devices of various generations (and has retired several devices over time as well). All of which I bought from Amazon.

I also pay Amazon a yearly fee for its Prime service.

And a monthly fee for its "unlimited" music service.

And I buy quite a bit of stuff from Amazon. Some of that stuff on the basis of recommendations/reminders from Alexa.

If this new AI for Alexa is a no-opt-out replacement for the things Alexa already does, and I get charged for it or can't use Alexa, I'm gonna be pretty pissed. I'll be shutting down the Echo devices, canceling the paid music subscription (which I use almost entirely via those Echo devices), and looking for another "home assistant speaker" option that doesn't pull that kind of bait and switch bullshit on me.

If it's an optional add-on, I guess I'll consider the price and decide whether I want it or not.

But what it should be is just a regular old update to Alexa, included in the price of the speakers themselves and my Prime membership.

Amazon is replaceable. Not as easily and cheaply replaceable as I'd like, but definitely replaceable. And charging existing, recurring, loyal customers more money to use devices they already bought is a great way to get them thinking about replacements.

Hopefully the story is incorrect. Hopefully if it's correct, Amazon will reconsider any poor choices it's planning to make. If neither of those is the case, it's probably going to take a big revenue and reputation hit.

Per the Recommendation of Reader Thane Eichenauer ...

... I just ordered an Echo Show 5 (on sale at Amazon for $39.99, but with a $10 off coupon code, at least for me -- not an affiliate link).

Impulse purchase? Not exactly. I had some Amazon credit sitting there from a recent refund, and happened to notice the sale. Probably no dice, except that I remembered a Twitter conversation (which I now can't find) with Thane Eichenauer, who was enthusing about getting his Echo show back after a repair or replacement.

According to the reviews I consulted, the audio quality is pretty good, although probably no better than that of the 4th Generation Echo Dot I'm currently using as my bedroom music player / book reader / alarm clock, etc.

The main selling point for me, once the price became attractive, was that now I'll have an alarm clock I can just glance at instead of having to ask Alexa what time it is (one version of the Echo Dot does have a visible clock, but I didn't get that version).

BUT! There are other interesting features. I can have it display lyrics to sing along with when listening to music. If I really, really, really want to watch a movie or TV show in bed, I can. It has a camera (with a physical cover) for video calling, or I could point it out a window and use it as a security camera that I can view from my phone.

And of course I can upgrade my wife or daughter's 3rd Generation Dot to the 4th Generation one I'm using now. They both like music, and Gen 4 has a better speaker.

So, thanks to Thane for planting the idea in my brain.

Why "Alexa?"

According to Amazon's Senior Vice President of Devices, David Limp, there are two reasons why the company's voice service is named "Alexa":

The problem was choosing a word that people didn't ordinarily use in everyday life. "Computer" wouldn't cut it. So after testing various names, the team landed on a word Alexa, that used soft vowels and an "x." It sounded fairly unique.

But the engineers also liked the name for that somewhat geeky Star Trek-ish reason. It was "a little reminiscent of the library of Alexander" which was at one time the keeper of "all knowledge," Limp said.

I suspect a third: It's evocative of ELIZA. Don't know why that occurred to me, but it did and I just thought I'd share.

We've got two Alexa-powered speakers in our home: An Echo Dot and a Eufy Genie. I bought both on sale at ~$20 each.

The Dot is more powerful in certain ways -- it has Bluetooth to connect to a speaker while the Genie doesn't, it can make phone calls to my contact list, etc. -- but they're both good at the basics. "Alexa, what's the weather?" "Alexa, set a time for 10 minutes/alarm for 6am," "Alexa, play some Grateful Dead," and so on. I like them, but obviously your mileage may vary over privacy concerns and so forth.