Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

No parents were consulted during the making or design of this device. Been playing with the glow today with my kids. I feel like it is deceptive as it is just a light, I feel like when I preordered I was led to believe that it was an upgrade to the echo dot. I was wrong. It does not add anything in the way of a microphone or speaker. You just paid $30 for a very simple light that supposedly interacts with your existing echo devices if you say enough words. Eg you cannot just say “alexa, set rainbow timer for 30 minutes”. You have to address the light specifically “Alexa, set rainbow timer for 30 minutes on <insert device name here>“. Then you get a pretty light and a lot of wires because you have 2 devices plugged in rather than 1. I would rather pay $50 for a device that had a speaker and microphone with a smaller footprint. I have plenty of smart bulbs and more than enough usb cables running around the house. It gets 2 stars for the rainbow timer feature which allows for my kids to have a visual of how much time is left. Sorry much like the echo auto this is a dud for me. Edit: 2 hours into having it around and a couple more notes: 1. Amazon called me for further feedback which was nice. Kudos to support. 2. This sucker does not want to be wet (has a warning) so my use case of putting it in the bathroom for a shower or toothbrush timer is a poor idea. This also means it is a poor choice for a bedside lamp since kids tend to want a glass of water on their bedside. 3. Having it in your kid’s bedroom means they need an echo in there. Parents everywhere, evidently we were not consulted, evidently the developers are unaware of the major distraction an echo after hours can be. That is mitigated by freetime but guess what is not usable except by touch now? Echo glow. And since I cant put it next to the bed... 4. Current Use cases: Visual color clock: there are better cheaper items out there. Onaroo for one. Remote light: Better cheaper solutions for smart homes. Lifex, hue, etc. Finally I would like to point out that EVERY echo named device to date that I am aware of has a microphone at least. I cannot think of what to do with it so I will be putting it in the kids bathroom with the echo dot that is already there and see how long it lasts. Maybe I will save some hot water with the rainbow timer.