I've owned an Amazon Echo for over two years now — here are my 19 favorite features (AMZN)

Mark Lennihan/AP

I activated my Amazon Echo for the first time over two years ago, in December 2015. It's since become one of my favorite tech gadgets ever.

Amazon's family of Echo speakers are some of the most popular gifts right now, so many people are activating their Echo units for the first time.

Here's what you need to know: These speakers, which can respond to either "Alexa," "Amazon," or even "Computer" (for those "Star Trek" fans out there), are extremely quick to respond, and understand your commands far better than any other device I've used.

Thanks to its excellent audio system, with seven microphones for listening and a 360º omni-directional audio grille for speaking, Amazon Echo works exceedingly well wherever I am in my home. I can hear it — and it can hear me — almost perfectly.

Amazon Echo has completely transformed the way I live in my apartment. There's just so much you can do with Echo. Here's a look at my favorite features:

Honestly, the best use cases for Amazon Echo are the simplest ones. With the Echo, I don't need to bother searching for my phone just to get the time — you can ask for the time from anywhere in your house and get the answer immediately. It's a small thing, but it totally makes a difference when you're rushing in the morning.

Again, it's a simple task, but it's way quicker and better than pulling out your phone and opening your favorite weather app. Amazon Echo will not only tell you the current temperature, but also the expected high and low temperatures throughout the day, and other conditions such as clouds and rain.

Amazon Echo is the perfect cooking or baking companion because it's totally hands-free. When the timer's up, a radar-like ping will sound until you say "Alexa, stop."

Amazon Echo can play thousands of songs from Amazon's Prime Music catalogue, and Alexa works quickly to pause, skip, or change songs whenever you want.

Amazon Echo also works with Spotify Premium, in addition to Prime Music.

If you ask Alexa to "play Spotify," it'll play the last thing you were playing, picking up where you left off. But you can also ask it to play any artist or album in Spotify's extensive catalogue, or any of Spotify's fun playlists, including Discover Weekly, or any of the ones based on genres or moods. You can learn more about Spotify's integration with Amazon Echo here.

See Also:

• 9 reasons you should buy an Amazon Echo instead of an Apple HomePod
• A 58-story skyscraper in San Francisco is tilting and sinking — and residents say their multimillion-dollar condos are 'nearly worthless'
• There are 2 major reasons you should buy Apple's HomePod over an Amazon Echo

SEE ALSO: Apple's 2016 report card: Grading all the new hardware Apple released this year