This is a seriously cool little gadget! It is relatively inexpensive and it's main purpose is for shopping. It does more than that, though.What it DOES:1. It is a small battery-powered device that uses alexa and responds to voice commands as well as scanning barcodes.2. You can push a button and either talk to it or use the red light to read a barcode3. The them on which you scanned the barcode will appear in your shopping cart4. You can use the microphone voice-alexa to ask questions or pair other apps (my favorite is to I use IFFT to find my phone when I misplace it.)5. The small speaker will respond with answers, tell jokes, weather, add or check your amazon cart6. Gives you alexa exclusive deals when you ask "what are your deals?"7. Adds things to shopping lists by voice.8. Calendar - I don't use this feature, but it refer me to set up my calendar on the alexa app, so it must work. It didn't say "this is not supported on this device" like it did with news or timers (see below.)9. Repurchase things you have purchased. You can say "repurchase cat food" for example and it will look through your shopping history and give you some choices based on things you bought. Then it says "do you want to buy it?" And it will order and ship it if you say "yes." It will also offer more suggestions on the alexa app if you don't like what it found for you.10. Alexa skills. I didn't check every skill, but it does support some enabled skills (found in the alexa ap.) I found: Ask my Buddy, Dominos, fortune cookie, and Bedtime Story. I couldn't get Jeopardy to work. I didn't go through them all to see which did and didn't work. I guess you have to enable the skills to check on the ones you want. Some do work, though! Just for the "Ask My Buddy" skill alone, the wand is nice for someone older or disabled to wear this thing around to use as an alert to someone with a push of a button and a spoken sentence. they have to have wireless internet, though.11. Takes 2 AA batteries (included.) Don't know how long they last (I haven't had this long enough for them to run out,) but I usually use rechargeable ones,so I will just swap them out when I need to. It doesn't tell you battery level. It is a 5 5/8 inches long, 1 1/4 inches wide and a little over 3/4 inch thick. It comes with a sticky-backed hook so you can hang it anywhere. It also has a built in magnet so you can just stick the thing right on your fridge (that was a very insightful addition.)What it DOESN'T do:1. It doesn't tell you when you add a scanned item to your cart. This bugs me the most about the entire device. It just beeps after it reads a bar code. Then I am not sure if it found the item or just switched off. Then I have to go to the app or website to see if the thing is in there. Maybe I am not used to it enough yet to recognize the noise, but would prefer it to just say something...anything...like "added to cart", "found item", "oh yeah" or something. It doesn't have to even name the exact product. But I wish it was not just a beep. If they update this...this should totally be fixed.2. Won't play music. It plays no music, either from amazon cloud or your music library. Not even samples. No music. It will shop for CDs, but I didn't find any digital content offered when I tried.3. No news. The Flash briefing you can get on other alexa devices is not supported. Neither are movie times.4. Won't use timers or alarms. This seems like something it really should have. If you have this in your kitchen, it seems like a common kitchen thing to have a timer. Maybe it has to do with the device not always being connected (like an Echo Dot is) versus a push button connectivity (like this.) It does give you the time of day if you ask. The Amazon Tap also has the push-to-activate feature, but you can set it to voice-activate, too if you want. This does not have that choice...only the button.5. Not sure about controlling other alexa-controlled devices like light switches or thermostats. I don't have any of those so I couldn't check. It did work with the IFFT app, though so many different things can be paired with that.6. No volume control. It is about the volume of a normal speaking voice. Normal speaking is about 60dB, I would say it is close to that, but didn't measure or anything. No headphone jack. You can put your finger over the speaker hole to quiet it down a little, or hold it closer to your ear if there is a lot of background noise or if you need it to seem louder.Overall, I like it for what it is. I sort of wish it were more of an echo dot with a scanner, but it is more like a dash button with some great bonuses. It is less than half the price of the dot, so I don't know why I expected it to have as much functionality as that one! This is especially nice that you don't need various dash buttons, and can quickly order anything you remember you need; you aren't limited to specific dash buttons. This can be all your dash buttons rolled into one. It is even simpler if you have bought that thing in the past so it quickly finds your exact flavor, size, etc. It does tell you what it found so you can answer "yes" if it is indeed the item you want to order or "no" if you want another choice. I like the weather report and the ability to connect to the IFFT thing (I used that to find my phone this morning!) There is a promo now where you can get a credit for your first purchase using this to recoup the entire purchase price, so this is essentially free. Even if it weren't, I would probably get it as I like the fast ordering for certain things I want and love the alexa-exclusive deals (holiday time has some great deals.) Just a few great deals and it pays for itself. I also really like the scanner as sometimes I get an item elsewhere and can't always find that exact one on the site without a lot of typing and searching. This finds the exact item. If it doesn't, the app or website will offer you choices, it won't order just a random one.The setup required android or iphone with bluetooth and a wireless internet connection. I don't know if you can setup with a computer alone. I don't think so. You don't need the bluetooth after setup, it uses your wireless. I know people will complain that this isn't as powerful or functional as the dot, tap or echo. But it isn't supposed to be that. I thought this wand was just for scanning actually when I first heard of it, so I was pleasantly surprised that it did more than that. For the price, I think it is great. Add a timer (if possible) and scanning confirmation and I would be even more pleased. I would eve pay a little more for some music. :)