Annoying wake words
I have an echo. There are three "wake word" options, "Alexa" (the default), "Amazon" or "Echo".
My preference if for "Echo". "Alexa" isn't too bad, but there is no way I'm calling a corporation name out to wake the device.
Mind you even that is far less cringeworthy than "OK Google" or "Hey Cortana" ( the XBox is still set to use "XBox" as it's wake word.
As to the device itself? Really rather pleased with it. Voice recognition is very good and can recognise the wake word spoken in a normal voice from anywhere in the room, even when it's playing at quite high volume, and recognises almost all requests first time.
Just say "Echo, play some Joy Division" and it just does.
Sound quality is very good considering the size of the unit, with clear treble and fairly punchy bass.
What does let the whole thing down, however, is Amazon Music, which is used to manage your music and playlists for the Echo. The Windows application is shockingly bad. To upload your own music you have to drag files and folders to an "Upload" link, which then displays a "spinner" while it's uploading. That's the only indication you get, no progress information at all. It is slow, clunky, and crashes often.
The Android app is even worse, only permitting a single file to be up/downloaded at a time. It, too, crashes frequently, is unintuitive and hideously clunky in use.
This has always been a theme with Amazon kit. Excellent devices. Shockingly poor supporting software.