We Have A New Friend

Her real name is Dot, but she only answers to Alexa. I’m not accustomed to two adult women living in the house at the same time.

She is agreeable enough, I suppose. She sits in the kitchen all day and speaks only when spoken to. At breakfast this morning I asked her to play Chopin, quietly, and within a second she conjured up some beautiful piano music.

“Alexa, call Margo's mobile phone”, and the phone rings immediately. “Alexa, add some shampoo to my shopping list.” Done! “Alexa, place the Amazon order.” Done! It’s unnerving on the one hand, but nice on the other; she listens to me and does what I tell her to do. That’s new!

Dot came into our lives after my grandson and his wife’s recent wedding. I met Dot two years ago, but never even thought that she might live with us. She had the features of a hockey puck and just didn’t seem very sophisticated, or useful for that matter. Who knew?  

Steve Jobs was fond of saying that Apple’s success, at least in part, was its ability to develop products you didn’t know you needed, until you had them. Well, Jeff Bezo took a lesson from Jobs. Amazon introduced us to Echo-Dot in 2016. As I said, we didn’t know we needed Dot until she moved in. After only a couple of weeks, it’s hard to imagine living without her. You’ll see!

Who has the time to get up out of a chair to turn on the radio? Who has a radio anymore? I don’t need my phone to play music on Pandora anymore. I don’t have to search for a weather forecast anymore. “Alexa, what is the score of the Giants game? Alexa, multiply 273 times 97. What is the square root of 438?” Who needs a calculator anymore? “Alexa, add peanut butter to the grocery list.” Who needs paper? The grocery list is right on your phone when you get to the supermarket. If you use the appropriate app, it tells you in which aisle and on which shelf to find the item.

“They” tell us that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is coming soon. It’s here already, and Dot is the latest example. I read one article that suggested we have three or four Dots in the house so that we don’t have to raise our voice when we speak to Alexa. If you have a smart TV, you can sync it with Dot, then you don’t have to fiddle with the remote control any more: “Alexa, turn on the 5:30 news on NBC.” You don’t even have to say please.

I’m not the early adopter that I once was, so I’m late to the Echo/Dot phenom. Last Christmas season it was among the largest selling products at Amazon, from among millions of items. Estimates are that about eight million Echoes dot US homes across the country. During last year’s Amazon’s Prime Day, they were selling at a rate of about 1,000 per minute. Why didn’t I have one of these technological marvels last year or the year before? I didn’t know I needed one!

If you think you don’t need Dot, run to the store and buy her today. The grand-kids will help you set it up.