Reply to post: Why a portable echo?

Amazon drops battery-powered Echo speaker so you can play Despacito on the go

F. Svenson

Why a portable echo?

It seems that commenters here do not understand the possible use-cases of a portable echo. Let me see if I can help here.

1. The Tap has a friction cradle, so there is no plugging/unplugging. If you elect for the "listen for wake word" option, when it is not being used as a portable it behaves like a normal echo, but with far superior sound quality to the Dot. Since there is no way to transfer playback of a stream, it's quite nice to pick up and carry the Tap to continue listening to a podcast in another room (that might even have an echo of it's own).

2. Porch/patio. When going to spend time outside, the tap is convenient, as long as it is in wifi range. Because weather, it is not possible to leave a wired unit outside at all times.

3. It's a great bluetooth speaker as well.

4. When you are OK with others putting music on, it's a lot better than unlocking and handing someone your phone.

5. It's great for parties. When we use a community center for a kid's party, we bring the Tap and set a phone up as a hotspot. The little kids are familiar with how to use the Tap and it allows them to choose their own entertainment.

6. It sounds good. IMHO, the tap has a better sound than my 1st gen Echo (fullsize).

7. It works when the power is out. A moderate sized UPS can keep the wireless and internet up for 24+ hours. The Tap happily chugs along in non-listen mode for at least 10 hours.

8. If you are paranoid about having an echo listening all the time, the Tap is a great compromise. Push-to-use eliminates that feeling of being spied upon.

9. Vacation. Tap + hotspot = music on the beach

10. Small flats. Our second Tap is used by my MIL. Her apartment is quite small and she prefers keeping the Tap close to her at a low volume so that her neighbors don't complain.

Since it is apparent that most of the commenters are either too young to have owned a boombox, too affluent to have been limited to a single device, or too permanently glued to their phones to understand the concept of not using it for something, I doubt this will advance the conversation. It is nice to occasionally point out to those unable to understand that others may have requirements different from their own, that other people do in fact exist, and have their own preferences and modalities for technology usage (and that nobody requires the approval of the diaper-and-tide-pod cohort).

-OK X-er

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