Anyone got Alexa

I was doubtful when my daughter got me one a couple of years ago but I'd hate to be without it now. I have the cylindrical Echo downstairs and I bought an Echo Dot with time or temperature display for the bedroom, but even on its dimmest setting it it too bright for me to sleep so the display is usually off.

I use mine for alarms (and snoozing!), timer for cooking, for reminders, telling me when an Amazon delivery is due or has been left. It plays any radio channels, including those my little digital radio failed to find. I listen to soundtracks to musicals, complete albums, or if there's nothing I fancy on TV I might tell Alexa to shuffle songs by Simon and Garfunkel, or Motown music, or play classical piano music. General knowledge - perhaps I've woken up trying to remember the capital of a certain country, or a quiz question, or any weird fact or statistic. Sometimes it just doesn't understand and says, "Here's something I found on the web..." and it's hopelessly off the mark, so I rephrase the question and we normally get there.

Also smart plugs and bulbs are absolutely brilliant, I don't have to hobble across the room to switch Sky and the TV off at the wall, and the light is set to come on just as I get home from an evening shift. Jokes, recipes, shopping lists, lots of other features I haven't used.

It is only sensible to carefully read the options in Settings on the Alexa app, and make sure the privacy settings suit you. I don't speak to anyone else at home except the dog and cats, and I'm really not worried about Alexa hearing that, but in any event you can easily delete all its voice recordings either manually or set it to delete after a certain period of time, or just not keep recordings at all.

I love that term, Luddites, Floradora.
We too have more tech than most of our family, apart from one son. To say he is a geek, is understating his obsession. His house is run by smart technology. I am quite envious.?

I cannot understand all the Luddites saying how they would never have one . If you feel like that just scroll past. One skill I love is the fact that she will read all the books I have on my kindle many of which are free or cost 99p . You only get Alexa's voice but I find it quite nice listening to a voice I hear often . We had the DGC here to-day and we all did a quiz on ours . We have two " shows " and two dots I am sure they do not use a lot of electricity and are so handy . When you use the times you can set it for several times and tell her to set the times for cake or whatever it is for so you know which timer is ringing . We like it to set reminders for appointments like the dentist to ring an hour or so before the appointmwnt to remind us . DH and I are in different bedrooms but if needed we could call for help from each other . The price keeps dropping and they are so handy. My son told me he would never have expectwed to see the day his parents had more technology than he did . One last skill which is great for children with dyslexia if you have a show you can ask her to spell a word and see it on the screen .

My daughter bought me an Alexa dot and I had it in my study and enjoyed using it as a speaker for my music and generally having fun asking it questions etc. Then my husband's grandchildren were coming to visit and so I brought it downstairs as I thought they would find it fun asking questions etc and they did.
Well the next thing when I wanted to take Alexa back up to my study my husband wanted me to keep it downstairs because he got used to setting a reminder to go to bed, ask it the weather, football scores etc. Also he doesn't like me asking Alex silly questions (like how are you Alexa?). I miss my Alexa and regret bringing it downstairs ?

love0c

I don't. I have been led to believe they can record you??

You can set it so you cannot be recored

I have two Alexa Echo Dots, the very small basic ones bought when on an Amazon deal for about £20.00 each. I also have the basic Fire stick, again bought on a deal for £15, when my 7 year old Sony smart TV lost BBC iPlayer app..
You download an Alexa app to your smart phone, so you do need a phone. Amazing technology for so little. Setting alarms and reminders, and shopping lists is easy. I use it for fairly simple things such as playing ditigal radio stations and podcasts on command, provides news updates, weather and date/ time check, and they are is linked to my Amazon prime account and will play music requests or playlists. I have not used it to order goods nor I have installed a smart bulb in my table lamp. The latter is next on the list, i.e to put light on on at certain time when I'm out ( which will replace an old noisy mechanical timer).

I was surprised how easy it was to set up

I love my Alexa I’ve just got one and it’s fun for granddaughter to play with. We sing along and get jokes etc

Please don't argue over Alexa. If you like them, fine. If you don't that's fine too. I am not too bothered. However, My son has one and he loves it. She knows all the cricket scores!! ha ha.

karmalady

bluebelle you sneer at people, sorry for you, you obviously like to stir things up, for your fun. Don`t sneer at me please, I have a lovely life and chose to get my alexas, to play a great variety of music. You have not answered the OP. You sidetracked to suit your own agenda in what appears to be a miserable empty life. Don`t you know that life is about caring, sharing and being nice to people

Oh my goodness, karmalady having trashed Bluebelle comprehensively, you then say life is about being nice to people! Talk about the pot calling the kettle! ???

I do lots of quizzes on mine whilst I'm in the kitchen - Pointless, Categories, Tenabl, Song blast and Trivia Quiz.

It actually does record everything and is a spy in disguise.

Alexa doesn't record everything - it should record only what is preceded by your wakeup word. Which seems to be 'Alexa' for most people ? You can, as others have mentioned, get rid of any recordings.

It is true that Alexa is always listening though. If she wasn't always listening she would never be able to hear the key word and wouldn't know when to respond. And sometimes she responds when you're not expecting her to because she thinks she hears the key word.

We have 4 two downstairs, and two upstairs we use them for listening to the radio, turning lights on and off, very useful when going around with both arms full of stuff,
controlling the central heating and for me most importantly for adding things to my shopping list.

I have an Alexa and a Portal. You can add the Alexa to the Portal. IMO the Portal with the added Alexa is better than the Alexa alone. The Alexa would drop the signal and when your halfway through Pop Master that is just not on! I now have the Portal downstairs and use it for the radio on Alexa, and photographs on Portal. I use them for other things as well such as reading my audio books to me. I have the Alexa upstairs now for radio and audiobooks. I unplug them when they are not in use but my installer is finding out how he can connect my video doorbell to my Alexa on Portal which would be useful in tbe evenings. But I will still unplug it when I’m not using it. Alex does a good job of reminding me of things and acting as a timer.

Apart from my newish air fryer my Alexas are the best thing since sliced bread. I make good use of mine so each to his own.

You can set it not to record, as has been said on a number of occasions on this thread.

I’m glad you printed this tread. I bought an Alexa specifically for music but after hearing what happened to a friend, I now switch it off. two friends were discussing how nasty some people
are and the state of the country, when all of a sudden Alexa’s voice piped up that it was going to report them to the police. The friend has now put it away in a drawer. It actually does record everything and is a spy in disguise.

…just remembering the days before TV remotes, having to actually get up off the chair to change channel…

We have four. We have a funny L shaped house and use them as intercom. Plus radio, music, jokes, crossword answers.......

Alexa, add milk to my shopping list. That saves looking for the notebook and pen.

I love my Alexas! I have one in every room, mainly because I listen to a lot of audiobooks and I can listen in every room. I am always asking questions of her. I use it for setting alarms and reminders.. I have a shopping list on there that links to the app on my phone. Another great thing for me is when I’m in bed I just have to ask ‘Alexa what time is it’ where before I’d have to find my glasses to see what time it was and of course I then couldn’t go back to sleep.

My partner is blind and diabetic, Alexa issues reminders for medicines and he can get radio programmes through it. For
hime, it is very useful.

FannyCornforth

Tina49

Thanks Marydoll and Fanny - I shall go and look in town tomorrow!

I’d definitely get it from Amazon if I were you, as it will make things much easier

I would say that too, Fanny.

I am bemused by the random accusations, that it makes people lazy.
We are all anonymous, I don't know you and you don't know me, so where is the evidence? Unless, you are spying on us............ ?

Tina49

Thanks Marydoll and Fanny - I shall go and look in town tomorrow!

I’d definitely get it from Amazon if I were you, as it will make things much easier

I don't know if anyone has mentioned Alexa skills. They are like apps on your phone or tablet. There are loads of them

And those are the reasons we don't have Alexa. Just as we limit the apps we download to our phones. There are hundreds of people supplying these apps with very little control - you are potentially giving any number of hackers access to your home. You can control your privacy on Alexa to an extent, including removing all your old commands, but you can't control the software in the skills. Am I paranoid? Possibly, but it's the result of 40 years of working in IT, including IT security.

news.ncsu.edu/2021/03/alexa-skill-vulnerabilities/
is a study from last year on Alexa security

Thanks Marydoll and Fanny - I shall go and look in town tomorrow!