Who has Alexa?
 

Pros? Cons?

Went to a friends last week that has it. It was pretty cool but I'm sure she was listening to us.

Kids like it... Great for playing some music, getting news, weather, traffic.... Fun for the kids to ask questions to... She's not as clever as Siri... Paired with some smart devices she can also turn on my lights around the house, some electronic devices... It's not expensive, so worth a try unless you talk about state secrets at home ;-)

My youngest loves telling Alexa to turn on the downstairs lights so he does not have to be in the dark on his way down !

Picked one up a couple of months ago.

The short stack has an anemic speaker but you can pair it with larger ones.

The taller, more expensive one sounds pretty good on it's own.

She's convenient, especially in the kitchen while cooking. You can set multiple timers.

She is listening all the time but only for her trigger word.

Sometimes she will trigger on Alexa TV commercials which is kind of funny.

Have not had her mistakenly order anything yet.

Exactly! Alexa is just another product developed to passively capture your personal data and interests so they can bombard you with more specific targeted advertising. Get it and ask "Google Champion Radiators". Ten minutes later you will see a plethora of ads for different radiator deals on Amazon. e.g. Google and Facebook.

If you are into high quality sound system (which I am), Alexa is not gonna work. My friend lives in an apartment and this works well for him and his girlfriend but wouldn't cut it if you needed this music for a party.

Sonos has integrated with Alexa, their stuff is pretty good.

As for owning one, no way....

THIS. I would never have one in my house. If you just want a good sounding (IMO) stand alone music player, check out SONOS. I personally don't see the appeal of Alexa, privacy concerns notwithstanding. Maybe I'm just getting old and cranky, but how hard is it to go directly to amazon to order something? One click and you are done. I'm personally trying to REMOVE technology from my every day life more these days, I don't want to be that ultra efficient in everything I do. OK, maybe I am getting old and cranky, LOL..something about this product just bothers me, I don't know what it is..

Here is what I do during the day/week a lot

set reminders, a lot of them

take down notes on various projects I'm doing (biggest time suck running to computer to enter new info/thoughts/idea into spreadsheets/Word docs

check financial stuff

weather

Notes on customer jobs: "spent 1 hour drilling out and retapping bolts, add to invoice"

recipes

send a text to friend asking about...


Does it do all of that? What doesn't it do?

I don't care if it listens in.

I have a nice stereo for music, it's pretty old but I think the Rotel pre-amp might be able to connect if I wanted it to.

I have 3 of them in the house. I have one in my shop-garage, plugged into a Bose speaker. I love being able to change the song while I am on my back under the car covered in grease/oil. It also does conversions for me in the garage...."Alexa convert 80 inch pounds to foot pounds".

I did not know she was missing!

I don't have her. I promise.

https://www.amazon.com/alexa-skills/b/ref=topnav_storetab_a2s?ie=UTF8&node=13727921011

Come on you paranoid people. Let's get passive/aggressive.

1) change the key phrase away from Alexa, to prevent tv/radio from accidentally activating her

2). Now the fun part. Frequently, when you are not going to be near/using the device, leave a radio on, so she can hear it, tuned to the Spanish radio station or to Rush Limbaugh, or the farm report. Give her plenty of "white noise" data to parse through.

If she is near you computer speakers, a nice audio book is just the ticket. You know, the good subjects like economics 101 or learn to speak Portuguese. spectroscopy Is a fun subject, maybe Alexa is into stars and what they are made of.

doesn't do as much as I thought. I want my damn jet pack I was promised in 1976!

Or Tosh.O, Alexa, who is your favorite black president?

I got a dot last year & unplugged it because it was pretty worthless compared to Google assistant. I recently plugged it back in downstairs to use as an intercom with the new Fire tab I bought. I haven't gotten around to setting it up yet. I need to buy a Wink hub to tie everything together.

I have one. It's more of a novelty to control things with voice commands. I have a bunch of lights set up and Alexa links up with my home stereo via bluetooth. I use those two functions and the weather the most.
My 4 year old daughter loves it. She has access to any music she wants with a simple request.

Ask Alexa to tell you a Chuck Norris joke. She has several. Hilarious..

I don't get it. Maybe I'm just old. :confused:

Was talking with a friend in his U got Alexa for Xmas. Alex orders me another and it's shipped B4 I can cancel. Alexa kept talking when wife talking. Wife sex. Alexa, Shut the F up. Alexa sez: I'll be quiet now....

You were having Wife sex and it triggered Alexa?

I thought married people didn't have sex.

We get so often we no longer feel the need to talk about it. But we average 7 times per week.

Here the police had to break a door open because Alexa started a party in the middle of the night and nobody was at home. The neighbours called the cops.

#NoHypeForMe

I have :)

Does your wife know about this?

That shirt you are wearing doesn't match your shoes, and could you please play something other than ABBA?

Here's something else I want Alexa to do. I'm at Home Depot getting thinner, acetone, pipe & clamp and maybe a wire rack. But I know there's something else I need. I typically have HD-specific sharpie lists I create but it was a super busy day. I want to tell Alexa what I want at HD and when I'm there either see it on my phone or ask her.

That would be Google assistant. I use it for grocery shopping & check it off the list as I go through the store.

thanks Paul, I'll check out Google assistant.

She sometimes forgets so I have to remind her.

I think Alexa for business will be my Christmas present to myself. I think Amazon will start to build this out to be exactly what I need, and more.

https://aws.amazon.com/alexaforbusiness/?ref=b2b_esow_alexa1b

When I read the thread title....I though she had been kidnapped....lol......

Why would I need such a device.? We have enough computer/ tablets spread around the house already to place orders on. My phone controls my heating, lighting, security system whether I'm at home or out.

I’d be curious how much process is required to tap one of these things. Search warrant? That is, for the organizations that require pesky legal process. You gotta think that the government is just overjoyed that people are inviting a variety of always on listening devices into their homes.

Looks like it’s already been done:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/amazon-echo-wiretap-hack/amp

https://www.google.com/amp/s/paleofuture.gizmodo.com/the-fbi-can-neither-confirm-nor-deny-wiretapping-your-a-1776092971/amp

Lets get the PARF rolling. :)

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^^^ Funny...when playing the video, it was within earshot of my Alexa. Every question resulted in the same answer but with a half second delay.

This just in from my coworker and great friend Dave:

Dave has set up automated outlets and switches in his house so he can have Alexa turn on and off lights for him. "Alexa, turn on outside lights" and the backyard lights up for him. It's a real time saver.

Here's the good bit. His roommate set up a Christmas tree and decorations, quite against his wishes (he's not really in to Christmas decorating). So, he adjusted the parameters for the outlet the tree is plugged in to, so now you have to yell "ALEXA, TURN ON THE ****ING TREE!" for the tree lights to come on.

I thought it was a great response.