The Echo Show 15 transformed my busy family's schedule, and I'll never look back

Digital Trends

11 hours ago

My wife and I are expecting a new addition to our family in October. With less than two months to go, that means a lot of appointments — at least one every two weeks — on top of the normal amount of meetings, deadlines, and other tasks on our schedule. With so much to do, it can be tough to know when either of us is free. The Echo Show 15 has become a keystone to our daily lives, and I can't imagine how we would operate without it.
The Amazon Echo Show 15 has long been a fun kitchen gadget that we used to play music or bring up a recipe video, but it has since been elevated to a digital butler. I connected our calendars to the device, so now we can both see when something is coming up. That means any appointments my wife has listed are shown, and she can easily tell if I have a meeting on a given day.
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I joke that my wife is the keeper of the calendar; when someone tries to make plans with me, I tell them to go through her. She knows our availability better than I do.
On top of that, the Echo Show 15 helps us stay on top of day-to-day chores. If you have never experienced pregnancy before, the last few months before the baby arrives — especially when it's your first one — are chaotic, filled with things you have never before planned for. In our case, it seems as though every spare moment goes into getting the nursery ready, and there aren't that many moments to spare.
That means we don't want to make unnecessary trips to the grocery store. Whenever my wife and I are cooking and run out of an ingredient, we can just say, 'Alexa, add (blank) to the shopping list.' This has greatly reduced (although not completely eliminated) the number of times I have to run to the store for something small that we forgot to buy.
Whiteboards are a thing of the past
Of course, it wouldn't be home ownership without random tasks popping up, right? Just this week, that has included repairing a cabinet door that fell off its hinges, calling the pest control company because of an influx of joro spiders, taking one of the cats to the groomers, and meeting with someone interested in purchasing an old desk. I'm the kind of person who forgets about something if it isn't right in front of him, so anything I need to take care of goes on the to-do list. It's my lifeline.
The Echo Show 15 makes it easy to list out those things, too. 'Hey Alexa, add 'call pest control' to the to-do list.' It's useful for when I'm busy with other things or I happen to notice something that needs my attention, like a flickering light bulb. 'Alexa, add 'replace hallway bulb' to to-do list, and add 'light bulbs' to shopping list.'
And this just scratches the surface of the Echo Show 15. I could set up individual profiles for each member of the family, and it would display that person's schedule and lists only to them through the use of facial recognition. With only two of us at the moment, it's easier to keep things grouped together — but when our kid is old enough to need their own setup, I might reconsider.
It's a digital photo frame
When not in use as a way to keep track of our busy lives, the Echo Show 15 has a mode called Photo Frame that rotates through a series of stored images. I filled it with family photos, wedding pictures, and dozens of random pictures of our cats (obviously). It's given a much more homey feel to the kitchen, and we can glance up and see a different image every thirty seconds. It also makes for a conversation starter whenever we have guests over.
The Echo Show 15 has a lot of different applications. I use it to set multiple timers while cooking, a fact that has inadvertently led me to prepare dinner much faster and finish cooking each component at the same time. It can also help with recipes, taking you step-by-step through a new dish without the need to touch the display at all.
In the morning, the Echo Show 15 is an easy way to check the weather, get a quick news brief, or my most common use, 'Alexa, turn on the lights.' It might not seem like much; after all, everyone handles tasks like this, right? As it turns out, those small, mundane things take up a lot more time than you might expect, and my Echo Show 15 has saved me countless minutes.
And besides saving time, it means I can more easily stay on top of things without breaking my flow. If I'm in the middle of a task, I don't want to interrupt myself to write down a note or shift my focus elsewhere. Voice commands make it easy to issue commands in passing without dominating much mental bandwidth, and when you already feel scatterbrained, that's a lifesaver.
The Echo Show 15 has proven useful enough over the past few years that I'm considering upgrading to the larger Echo Show 21. The built-in widget menu offers even more functionality on top of what it already offers, and it's the kind of smart device that I can honestly say makes a huge difference in the day-to-day.