“Alexa, good morning.”
“Alexa, Simon says Librarians Rule.”
“Alexa, what is the diameter of the moon?”
“Alexa, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
You can ask her to play any songs, albums, or musicians."
There’s also a ton of skills you can activate in the app.
She tells me the weather forecast. She plays a clip from the daily show. I use her as a kitchen timer and alarm clock. She plays music for me. Once I asked her for a local radio station and she gave me a similar one in Tulsa. It’s now my favorite station. I had her hooked up to a lamp so I could turn it off from across the room. So I don’t use her for anything exciting but I use her a lot.
@therealjrn Got it. This station has a segment called “second date”. People who had what they think was a great first date call to find out why their calls and texts aren’t being returned. The DJs call the date and ask why. It’s incredibly funny. People are crazy.
If you get a zwave home automation system you can have alexa control everything in your house (I use a vera controller) I have her tied into my lights, TV (you don’t need zwave for that just a TV that takes serial command and ip to serial converter).
The GF uses alexa all the time when cooking to listen to music and set cooking timers.
@lisaviolet My 14 year old’s birthday was last month. He asked for a Dot. They were on back order so I gave him mine along with the outlet she works with. It’s apparently the one piece of technology the kids at school don’t have. I missed her- her replacement came on Thursday. I really hated having to set an actual alarm clock. I just wish I could make her male.
@Wondermeh You can’t even set up yer Silhouette, for Pete’s sake. I have something else in mind for you that doesn’t have a plug or use an internet connection.
Alexa, why are you here?
Alexa, do you have children?
Alexa, how are you today?
Alexa, who am I?
Alexa, tell me the truth!
The “Simon says” command is a lot of fun to use with a remote - especially if you are in another room and there are unsuspecting people near the Echo/Dot.
@conandlibrarian
Being a Huge StarTrek nerd, I tried to retrain both my Xbone and My android Phone to “Computer”…
both said it was too short of a phrase… Grrr…
My brother got me one for my birthday 2 weeks ago. Thankfully they were on back order and Dot wasn’t here during the burglary. Dot arrived on Friday. I’ve been reading all about capabilities and functions, and frankly, I’m at a loss for what Dot can do for me that Siri cannot. I don’t have any home automation gadgets, and Dot can’t read me my email or text messages, doesn’t have access to my Google calendar…
Honestly, it seems like Dot won’t do anything Siri doesn’t already do for me, plus Siri can read my email and texts, and access my calendar, and she’s with me everywhere I go.
There’s got to be SOMETHING I can put Dot onto, but I’m still struggling for what that might be. I have a couple Home Depot gift cards, maybe I’ll get a Z-wave outlet or light switch or something so I can give Dot purpose.
@ruouttaurmind I’m not sure the range of my phone’s voice command but Alexa can set a timer from across the room if my hands are covered in cookie dough. I can listen to music from a nice speaker with a simple voice command too or check the weather or news without picking up my phone. Plus the lighting control is pretty cool.
@conandlibrarian
A Kindle Fire, a Fire phone (the ones w the disastrous launch that were later trashbinned by Amazon), and the pre-paperwhite kindles will do this.
I carry a Kindle Fire Phone almost daily for this, because it’s small, got good battery life, reads over Bluetooth headset, and does a very fine job reading, considering the competition. And you can adjust the reading speed in the same way you can with an audiobook app.
If you have the bux, the phone is around $100 or a bit less on EBay. If you wanna activate, they work on ATT and T-Mobile. Or just load via wi-if.
So worth it to me that I bought back ups in case they become hard to find.
Wish amazon would just add this feature into the Android and IOS apps.
If your Alexa reads your Kindle book, does it respond to “pause” and “go-back-a-page commands”?
Does a Kindle dot have a built-in battery for portability? If so, one might also work for me.
@f00l “Alexa set a timer for 10 minutes” or “Alexa set an alarm for 6:30 AM.” Or you can have her do it every day or weekdays but I haven’t tried it. She does a snooze too- just yell “Alexa snooze”. No fumbling for stupid buttons. “Alexa play music” gets her to pick a playlist she thinks I’ll like from Amazon Prime.
@sammydog01
I own a tap. I kinda like it. Cute, smallish, not a terrible speaker. I use it far more than the echo, mostly as a portable speaker. When I am on-the-go, it is an enormous PITA to open a hotspot just for the fucking Tap, I don’t know why they didn’t implement data networking over Bluetooth to enable the Alexa functions, which is like, seriously easy to do, technically. Then I would use the Tap like 1000x more. If I left my phone hotspot on all the time, apart from other issues, it kills the phone battery.
The reason for wanting a portable Dot is to pair it to a BT headset and use it as an on-the-go book reader that plays over headphones, as I don’t wish to inflict my reading tastes onto the public.
@f00l No battery on the dot, but they do sell one (not made by Amazon). Maybe they’ll put a jack and Bluetooth out on the next gen Tap- it sounds like it was a relative failure. The button-less operation is why I like the dot.
@sammydog01
PS
I can use my Fire Phone as a portable on-the-go book reader because I can load the book onto the phone in the Kindle App. Btw, the voice sounds similar to the Alexa voice, not quite as good perhaps. But close.
I prob can’t use an Alexa device this way, because the device need a data connection to stream the book from Amazon.
So unless the Alexa devices get a Kindle app that the user can load books into, this won’t work for me anyway.
Can’t connect mine to the AT&T 2Wire router. Ugh
@badger65
@landrumt mine works just fine.
@landrumt which router do you have?
“Alexa, good morning.”
“Alexa, Simon says Librarians Rule.”
“Alexa, what is the diameter of the moon?”
“Alexa, How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
You can ask her to play any songs, albums, or musicians."
There’s also a ton of skills you can activate in the app.
“Alexa, open the Wayne investigation.”
@DaveInSoCal Ooh, zombie jokes.
@DaveInSoCal controls lifx LEDs
“Alexa, open the Wayne investigation.”
/giphy this
@conandlibrarian I tried this last night and it was a lot of fun.
I ignore Alexa. Alexa doesn’t seem to be much bothered. Neither am I.
I suppose it was just a 7 Day Itch.
She tells me the weather forecast. She plays a clip from the daily show. I use her as a kitchen timer and alarm clock. She plays music for me. Once I asked her for a local radio station and she gave me a similar one in Tulsa. It’s now my favorite station. I had her hooked up to a lamp so I could turn it off from across the room. So I don’t use her for anything exciting but I use her a lot.
@sammydog01 Shout out to the 918!
@therealjrn The Porsche?
@sammydog01 The Area Code.
@therealjrn Got it. This station has a segment called “second date”. People who had what they think was a great first date call to find out why their calls and texts aren’t being returned. The DJs call the date and ask why. It’s incredibly funny. People are crazy.
Alexa, tell me a fact.
Alexa, tell me a joke.
@ELUNO Alexa Tell me a Star Trek Joke --she only has like 3-4 of them though
@sohmageek
Alexa, do you love purple?
@Barney “I don’t have an opinion on that.” What is wrong with her?
@Barney Alexa, tell me that you love purple.
@sammydog01 @OldCatLady Obviously Alexa still has a whole lot of learnin’ to do.
Ask her if she can open the pod bay doors. Siri and Cortana seem to have opinions on that.
@RiotDemon Don’t do it! I tried it out and ended up being a space fetus.
@ELUNO space fetus is best fetus.
@RiotDemon
Alexa does have an opinion on this.
If you get a zwave home automation system you can have alexa control everything in your house (I use a vera controller) I have her tied into my lights, TV (you don’t need zwave for that just a TV that takes serial command and ip to serial converter).
The GF uses alexa all the time when cooking to listen to music and set cooking timers.
I love my dot!
Alexa, how many weeks until july 23?
Alexa, is Henry Kissinger still alive?
Alexa, what is the seven day forecast?
She gives me a rundown on the morning news. She tells me jokes. She spells words…
I’m gettin’ a six pack of Dots as soon as we get rich. Christmas presents!
@lisaviolet My 14 year old’s birthday was last month. He asked for a Dot. They were on back order so I gave him mine along with the outlet she works with. It’s apparently the one piece of technology the kids at school don’t have. I missed her- her replacement came on Thursday. I really hated having to set an actual alarm clock. I just wish I could make her male.
@sammydog01 where’s the Benedict Cumberbatch voice pack?
/youtube Benedict Cumberbatch smaug
@RiotDemon I would pay extra for that.
@sammydog01 he could read the dictionary to me, and I’d be excited.
@lisaviolet Whooo hoooo!!! I want Alexa now, glad we’re friends! Where’s my Dot?! Hahahahahahaaa
@RiotDemon just be prepared when he gets to those Flightless Black and White cold weather birds…
@Wondermeh are you stalking me? No dot for you!!
@earlyre thank you. I hadn’t seen this cut yet.
@lisaviolet You makin’ me cry D~…
@Wondermeh You can’t even set up yer Silhouette, for Pete’s sake. I have something else in mind for you that doesn’t have a plug or use an internet connection.
@lisaviolet Hey, I’m working on it! After all, who just purchased a monitor and laptop just for that *&y%%^$&$! machine?
@Wondermeh to use svg files you’ll also need to get the silhouette designer edition software. The basic doesn’t work with them.
Alexa, what should I be for Halloween? (I stole this from an article about asking Siri this question but it works with Alexa too.)
Alexa, who’s your daddy?
Alexa, why are you here?
Alexa, do you have children?
Alexa, how are you today?
Alexa, who am I?
Alexa, tell me the truth!
The “Simon says” command is a lot of fun to use with a remote - especially if you are in another room and there are unsuspecting people near the Echo/Dot.
You can change Alexa’s wake word!!!
What should I change Alexa’s name to?
/giphy think, think, think
@conandlibrarian Your only choices are Alexa, Amazon, and Echo. I would stick to Alexa personally.
@sammydog01 leave it to me to get so excited by the idea, I forget to read the details.
/giphy doh
@conandlibrarian
Being a Huge StarTrek nerd, I tried to retrain both my Xbone and My android Phone to “Computer”…
both said it was too short of a phrase… Grrr…
@earlyre I tried to do that with Siri on my iPhone too. No luck. She won’t change her name.
@sammydog01 echo is easier to say
My brother got me one for my birthday 2 weeks ago. Thankfully they were on back order and Dot wasn’t here during the burglary. Dot arrived on Friday. I’ve been reading all about capabilities and functions, and frankly, I’m at a loss for what Dot can do for me that Siri cannot. I don’t have any home automation gadgets, and Dot can’t read me my email or text messages, doesn’t have access to my Google calendar…
Honestly, it seems like Dot won’t do anything Siri doesn’t already do for me, plus Siri can read my email and texts, and access my calendar, and she’s with me everywhere I go.
There’s got to be SOMETHING I can put Dot onto, but I’m still struggling for what that might be. I have a couple Home Depot gift cards, maybe I’ll get a Z-wave outlet or light switch or something so I can give Dot purpose.
@ruouttaurmind I’m not sure the range of my phone’s voice command but Alexa can set a timer from across the room if my hands are covered in cookie dough. I can listen to music from a nice speaker with a simple voice command too or check the weather or news without picking up my phone. Plus the lighting control is pretty cool.
@sammydog01
How do you set a timer or alarm w Alexa?
PS I’m lazy.
@f00l I just did this today! I yelled from the kitchen, “Alexa, set alarm for ten minutes.” Worked like a charm.
@ruouttaurmind I had Alexa start reading one of my Kindle books to me today, I really liked that.
@conandlibrarian
A Kindle Fire, a Fire phone (the ones w the disastrous launch that were later trashbinned by Amazon), and the pre-paperwhite kindles will do this.
I carry a Kindle Fire Phone almost daily for this, because it’s small, got good battery life, reads over Bluetooth headset, and does a very fine job reading, considering the competition. And you can adjust the reading speed in the same way you can with an audiobook app.
If you have the bux, the phone is around $100 or a bit less on EBay. If you wanna activate, they work on ATT and T-Mobile. Or just load via wi-if.
So worth it to me that I bought back ups in case they become hard to find.
Wish amazon would just add this feature into the Android and IOS apps.
If your Alexa reads your Kindle book, does it respond to “pause” and “go-back-a-page commands”?
Does a Kindle dot have a built-in battery for portability? If so, one might also work for me.
@f00l “Alexa set a timer for 10 minutes” or “Alexa set an alarm for 6:30 AM.” Or you can have her do it every day or weekdays but I haven’t tried it. She does a snooze too- just yell “Alexa snooze”. No fumbling for stupid buttons. “Alexa play music” gets her to pick a playlist she thinks I’ll like from Amazon Prime.
@f00l The Amazon Tap has a battery, but remember you need wi-fi for any of them to work.
@sammydog01
I own a tap. I kinda like it. Cute, smallish, not a terrible speaker. I use it far more than the echo, mostly as a portable speaker. When I am on-the-go, it is an enormous PITA to open a hotspot just for the fucking Tap, I don’t know why they didn’t implement data networking over Bluetooth to enable the Alexa functions, which is like, seriously easy to do, technically. Then I would use the Tap like 1000x more. If I left my phone hotspot on all the time, apart from other issues, it kills the phone battery.
The reason for wanting a portable Dot is to pair it to a BT headset and use it as an on-the-go book reader that plays over headphones, as I don’t wish to inflict my reading tastes onto the public.
@f00l No battery on the dot, but they do sell one (not made by Amazon). Maybe they’ll put a jack and Bluetooth out on the next gen Tap- it sounds like it was a relative failure. The button-less operation is why I like the dot.
@sammydog01
PS
I can use my Fire Phone as a portable on-the-go book reader because I can load the book onto the phone in the Kindle App. Btw, the voice sounds similar to the Alexa voice, not quite as good perhaps. But close.
I prob can’t use an Alexa device this way, because the device need a data connection to stream the book from Amazon.
So unless the Alexa devices get a Kindle app that the user can load books into, this won’t work for me anyway.
But thx.