Echo Hide

I’ve had a new Echo Show since the day it was released. I wish I could trade it in for an Echo Hide.

This, believe it or not, is how I use my Echo Show in the kitchen.

Every time I walk into the kitchen the device lights up with a screen full of wonders such as “World Class Restaurant Servers Moldy Apples” or “It’s National Hot Dog Day!” or some other annoying buzzfeed-ian nonsense. It’s awful. Then at the bottom of the screen it’ll add a little note like, “Try, ‘Alexa, tell me about hot dog day.'” I’m never doing that, but I can’t ignore it either.

To be honest, I mostly bought the Show for setting cooking timers. I loved setting timers on my original Echo and thought it would be great if I could see them all at the same time. Except I can’t. Sure, I can say, “Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes” and then say, “Alexa, set a timer for 8 minutes.” She’ll do what I ask, but if I want to /see/ the timers I have to say, “Alexa, show me my timers,” which she’ll do, but only for a few seconds before going back to showing me another stupid headline like “Sia to release christmas album!” Who?

I like Alexa better when I can’t see her.

UPDATE, 10 minutes later: Sure enough it is possible to turn off much of the nonsense. That’s a little better.