Try Duck Duck Go for your searches. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the search results and lack of advertising.
Agreed! After many years on Android, i switched to iPhone last year. Their browser and OS does limit how much information other companies can access. Zuckerburg says apple is costing him $10 billion dollars a year!!!!
I probably should wait a couple years more, at least until my Samsung stops getting updates.
Using Echo Shows help keep a few thousand dollars in the bank for other smart home products.
Replacing 6 Echo Shows (mix of 5ā and 8ā) with iPads, even older models, would cost an arm and a leg.
There are no 5ā iPads either and we really like this size for certain use cases/places, like right at the front door entrance.
I really hope the next gen of Apple home products expands, especially with the rumored screen variant, hoping good new on this front come June.
Sadly right now you can really get a lot of different types of Alexa enabled products cheap, but with their inherent drawbacks as well.
Yup (I assume) they are selling it at a loss hoping to recoup that from advertising and data harvesting. Now with Alexa+ coming with a fee for non-prime members they are hoping to squeze even more money out of it.
I swear they have been making it dumber for the last couple years so when they roll out this upgrade it will seem like a huge step forward. I regularly tell Alexa its stupid (maybe with some extra words in there too) and sometimes it says "Thanks for the feedback" 
I guess I never thought anyone needed so many screens. We use none. Either totally automated, or the occasional Hey Siri, which also works on our watches. Occasionally I view Dashboards for troubleshooting. My wife never does. If it doesn't work automatically, it doesn't happen.
Haha yeah it has seemed like it has been handicapped more and more the last few years.
I know my wife had had enough of the one FireTV Cube giving her unrelated responses when she asked for a show, movie, or even basic questions.
We donāt even really use some of the Echo Shows in certain rooms, itās mostly for getting the time, weather, and maybe to trigger a device shared from Hubitat.
I got the first one so she could watch or listen YouTube while she cooked but she still just used her phone.
I talked to my wife today and she said she doesnāt care if they go, so Iāll replace them with HomePod minis, which can always be repurposed to speakers for the Apple TVs.
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I will also be investigating the open source and paid pdf alternates. Currently I limit myself to Mac "Preview", so thanks for those! I've also tried GIMP a few times in the past but it hasn't ever stuck, so I will have to check out Affinity Photo.
The Echo Shows donāt get much use for home automation, more so for other things.
Which is also why shelling out tons of $ for 6 iPads is a bit hard to swallow and sorta overkill for what weād use them for.
I really like the Google Pixel tablet that has the speaker dock thingie, but no way that thing is finding a home here.
I definitely want to get rid of the 8 Echos and 6 Echo Shows left in the house sooner than later.
Maybe Iāll look for some cheaper older iPads that will still be supported for awhile more and just get 2 for the kitchen and living room.
Really hoping for good news and future efforts from Apple in June. I think itās been a long time coming.
I like the Echo Show 8 in the kitchen. I mostly use it for timers which is nice to have them on screen. Some device commands (which does not need the screen). The random family photos is fun (I have everything archived on Prime photos). I thought it would be good for viewing recipes but that only works for one specific (terrible) "skill" and cannot be used with the app we store everything in.
If Apple comes out with something equivalent I would seriously consider it, but lets be honest it will probably cost 3x more. My first $100 Homepod Mini I invested in (to be a home hub for Homekit) totally died after about 1.5 years so I have some trust issues now. Every Echo I have ever bought still works fine 
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If you only need to view PDFs and maybe do basic editing there are tons of Open Source or free alternatives.
Evince (viewing only), qpdfview (viewing), Master PDF Editor (free version), PDF Arranger (merge, split, rearrange), lots of others out there.
These are all very lightweight and fast.
For Photoshop replacement I personally use GIMP, but also like digiKam for photo editing, Krita for raster image editing
Thanks for the suggestions... I will take a look.
What is everyone using to compress large PDF files? Our condo website chokes on anything over 15 meg and we occasionally hit this limit.
Iām really considering replacing my Alexa/echo devices with something new. Iām tired of the adds and random selling going on. Are you happy with the switch to HomePods?
For those w echo shows - ads were making me nuts tooā¦ try this (copied verbatim from a post found on Reddit):
Set your language on the Echo to English (Canada), then go to the Alexa app and change the voice back to English US (so it sounds normal)
Since I did this a few weeks back itās been great - no more ads!
It might break some regional specific skills - for example myBMW doesnāt work for me now, but I can live without [on Echo]
I'm very happy with them, I wish Siri was a bit more smarterish. A simple thing like "Siri, close the garage door in 15 minutes" (letting the smoke clear out from the Traeger smoker)
Actually, just tried it and it works now!
I'm brand new to the iPhone world with a 16e, but I read that the intelligence feature is supposed to make Siri smarter.
Yes we are. We also were tired of the big focus on Ads/sponsored content on the FireTVs and through the Echos (Dots and Shows).
I had adjusted the preferences quite a bit to reduce them, but if you turn certain things off youāll wind up also not getting things you might want. Really just got fed up messing with them, especially when you see the notification ring lit up and you check it and itās just a āLow price offer on something we think you would likeā.
The HomePod minis are very nice esthetically and have surprisingly good sound, better than an Echo Dot.
Plus they just do what they are made to do and they wonāt bother you about things you donāt care about.
We also like being able to use our iPhones directly with them more naturally. My wife will Airplay stuff right from her phone to them.
As far as the Apple TVs, same as the above. Absolutely love that Ads and sponsored content arenāt a huge focus in the interface. The interface can take some time to transition to, but itās smooth and fast.
Siri is ok for us for what we use her for at least.
The only thing I would like to be better is the Apple Home app. Just less features than Alexa right now. But Iām hoping that improves with the newer version that is expected.
I really hope come June we get more info on Appleās plans for the Home app and the whole ecosystem.
I think the biggest thing is the cost for the HomePod mini and HomePod, replacing a bunch can really rack up price wise. What we have done is replace one a month.
