If we go back just a few short years and I told you that you'd be able to talk to your phone you would have called me a fool. If I told you that you could talk to your speaker at that time, you would have called a mental institute. Well we are here now. We have a variety of personal assistants that are integrated in phones, speakers, and even refrigerators that will help out with our daily lives. The two that stand out the most to me are Alexa and Siri. I am not going to include the rest because these two are simply better, in my opinion. I will not be focusing on the technological aspect in this post, but simply on the usability of the two, as that's what most users will get out of them.
Alexa
Alexa has became a very good friend of mine. I bought her the first week that Amazon released her and she has made my life a lot easier and quite a bit more enjoyable. When I need the weather, I ask Alexa. When I need some tunes while cleaning up, I ask Alexa. Even when I'm hungry, Alexa will order a pizza and we can watch TV together, though she doesn't seem to like pepperoni pizza too much. Jokes aside, Alexa has became a really good technology to have in my house. When I wake up in the morning I start yelling at her to make me coffee and she does it. It was so cool at first but now it's just a part of my daily routine. Alexa is just cool to have around the house, she is kind of a like a party trick when people come over. They look around and wonder who is in my house and where is that voice coming from. Makes me chuckle. As much as I have used Alexa to enjoy myself, she has some of the worst jokes in the world. Amazon needs to make a bit of an update on her humor. She also will not tell me if she works for the FBI or not which kind of worries me. Other than that, she's lots of fun and I believe everyone should have an Alexa at their home. I have 2 Alexas, the one that stays at home and the other speaker that I can carry with me. Though I must say I like the one that stays at home better because she has Voice recognition and the other one you have to press a button to talk to.
Siri
Siri is also pretty cool. Siri has been a friend of mine since before Alexa as she was integrated in October 2011. But even before that, Siri was an app in 2010. So we've been hanging out for quite a while now. I enjoy cursing at Siri way more than I enjoy cursing at Alexa. Siri gets defensive about it and it's kind of funny. Siri is always with me. She is always in my pocket or on my desk, waiting for my next command. Siri can't order pizza or call me an Uber but she is a math wiz like no other. She has recently learned to translate from a few different languages which is pretty useful. Like Alexa, Siri will not give me an answer to whether she works for the FBI but I just assume she does.
The Verdict.
I say get them both. You will need a speaker for your house and Alexa is great for that as well as much more. I have a $4000 stereo system that has been off ever since I bought Alexa because she is just as good really. I live in an apartment so I can't really blast music as loud as I could when I lived in a house. Same goes for Siri. You need a phone so might as well get an iPhone. Be a part of the Apple gang and don't use the Google copycats. They just aren't as good.
When you have both your life is complete. They aren't like girlfriends, they don't get jealous. They just kind of become a part of your routine.