Update: Do you use Alexa Poll

[FlaGator]

Just out of curiosity, of the folks that have voiced concerns on privacy by using Alexa...do you own a smart phone? Do you use Facebook on your smart phone or tablet? If so, then maybe you should review the permissions you have given to those devices.

Useful reminder that nothing is free, in spite of the implication those abstaining are unaware of the consequences of the other choices they make.

Yes, use a smart phone. Absolutely no Facebook.

Well aware of the privacy implications and the tradeoffs associated with convenience. Alexa is one that is not worth it to me.

Managing my exposure, that is all. Acknowledge it may not be worthwhile given the other tradeoffs I make, but not going to do this one anymore for what, to me, are minor conveniences.

 

[Alan]

My daughter bought me a Nest thermostat a few years ago and I grew quickly to love all the features and bought a Nest camera for all the months away we travel, and in 2016 bought a 2nd Nest camera for our place in England. At the start of this year we bought a house and moved permanently to England where we have the cameras set up in the hallway covering the front door and the other camera in the rear room covering the rear patio doors. The cameras come on automatically after we both leave the house otherwise they are off. They send us alerts on our phone with messages such as "A person was seen in the entry hall" and it is usually the postman when we look at the video clip, or "A conversation was heard in the rear room", and it is the cleaners.

The new house needed new smoke detectors so we bought 2 Nest smoke & CO detectors. While DW was cooking breakfast yesterday we had the first alert, a voice announced "Smoke is detected in the entry hall, a very loud alarm will begin if it is not cleared". DW shut the kitchen door and opened the kitchen side door and received the all clear. I was sat in the garden with her brother and his wife at the time when an alert came up on my phone "Smoke was detected in the entry hall but has now cleared".

For my birthday this year DD bought me an Echo, plus 3 Hue light bulbs and I really enjoy having them. I have integrated them with the Echo and Nest devices and while I don't usually control the thermostat with my voice I do have the lights set to come on dimmed at dusk and if a camera senses motion outside the house the lights begin to randomly switch on and off as if someone is in the house. I also have my entire music collection available through the Echo which I can control by voice which is not really any more convenient than using my phone, but I am also an Amazon Prime subscriber so there is plenty of music I don't own available through Amazon music so I say things like "Alexa, play some music from the 70's".

While I enjoy my smart devices I would say that Alexa is the least useful, but still fun to use. I'm always last to bed so I do enjoy saying "Alexa, lights out" on my way to the bedroom, which saves me at least 1 second switching off the lights manually

 

[athena53]

Just out of curiosity, of the folks that have voiced concerns on privacy by using Alexa...do you own a smart phone? Do you use Facebook on your smart phone or tablet? If so, then maybe you should review the permissions you have given to those devices.

To me, Alexa is another level of snooping. I'm well aware that anything and everything I type into my computer or smartphone can and will be saved and "monetized" (sometimes it's creepy how soon I see ads related to something I've posted) but I really cringe at the idea of that same thing happening to my conversations in my own home.

I got a free Nest thermostat from the electric company in exchange for giving them the right to cycle my A/C on and off during peak demand periods. The installers explained that I could set it up so that it turned back the power every time I left the house with my smartphone and turn it back up again when I returned. Not ready for that yet- I'd have to enable Location Sharing on my smartphone and right now I do that only when an app needs it.

 

[braumeister]

I do enjoy saying "Alexa, lights out" on my way to the bedroom, which saves me at least 1 second switching off the lights manually

Have you made any plans yet for all that time you'll have available? Seconds mount up, you know!

 

[misshathaway]

I got mine on Prime Day so maybe the novelty has yet to wear off, but I love not having to touch anything to play music or radio in the kitchen. Also, I can just add grocery items to my Alexa list as they run out, by voice. On market day I still have to transfer them to my Wegmans phone list but I had to do that before when the list was on the refrigerator white board. I've asked Wegmans to make an Alexa "skill" to streamline that or open up their API. I wouldn't be surprised it they do. They seem pretty pro tech.

Yes, I know that Amazon is reading my lists. I don't care. Maybe they will show me a targeted product ad that I am interested in because of it.

 

[Rustic23]

We have two Echo Dots. We, I, used them often the first two or three months. No so much anymore. The function that would really make it worthwhile, for me, is Alarm to music, set for a time. IE. Alexa, play country music, starting at 6 pm and ending at 11:05 pm

 

[kevdude]

Nope. And probably won't until DD moves out at the earliest. Her name is Alexis and is 12. Come to think of it, in a few years Alexa would probably cause me less aggravation than the teenage Alexis.

 

[FIREmenow]

Nope. And probably won't until DD moves out at the earliest. Her name is Alexis and is 12. Come to think of it, in a few years Alexa would probably cause me less aggravation than the teenage Alexis.

LOL! You can change the "wake up" trigger to one of several other alternatives......

 

[neihn]

We have Echos and and dots at both homes. We use them for

Controlling/setting:
- house temperature via Nest
- lights with Wemo smart plugs or light switches

Musics
Calendar
Timers
Alarms

Asking for traffic
Asking for weather
Asking for time in Germany/Vietnam or so I don't call them at 2:00am
and many other trivial questions

It is just a nice tool/toy - and we like it. We don't care much if she listens/spies on us all day long - we mostly speak Vietnamese at home

 

[Philliefan33]

I got mine on Prime Day so maybe the novelty has yet to wear off, but I love not having to touch anything to play music or radio in the kitchen. Also, I can just add grocery items to my Alexa list as they run out, by voice. On market day I still have to transfer them to my Wegmans phone list but I had to do that before when the list was on the refrigerator white board. I've asked Wegmans to make an Alexa "skill" to streamline that or open up their API. I wouldn't be surprised it they do. They seem pretty pro tech.



Yes, I know that Amazon is reading my lists. I don't care. Maybe they will show me a targeted product ad that I am interested in because of it.

Yes please, Wegmans! It would be awesome if my Echo shopping list could be automatically imported into the Wegmans app..

 

[Fermion]

All of you that have one of these devices, do this:

"Alexa, play Black Mirror: 15 Million Merits"

That is where we are going. It is a horror movie.

 

[misshathaway]

Yes please, Wegmans! It would be awesome if my Echo shopping list could be automatically imported into the Wegmans app..

Request it via the web site feedback form. If enough people ask ...

 

[Koolau]

Sorry to be a one note song or one trick pony, but when in doubt, see my tag line. YMMV

 

[Ready]

I'm sitting on my sofa with my dog resting on my lap after a long day. The last thing I want to do is get up. But it's hot in the house, so I tell Alexa to turn the AC on to 72 degrees.

Then I realize some music would be nice to listen to while I'm chilling out. So I tell Alexa to play some music. I'd don't bother to specify what music anymore. She seems to know what I like and her playlists are always really enjoyable.

So all is well now, and I'm just enjoying sitting on my sofa, watching the ocean waves, and listening to some tunes. Maybe it only saved me a few seconds of time, but not having to move off the sofa right now and disrupt my dog's nap made it priceless.

 

[RetiredAt55.5]

4 devices

We have an Echo and Tap for our primary house, and another Echo and Tap for our shore house.

We also have 4 Kindle e-readers and 3 Kindle tablets.

An Amazon fanboy.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have been disappointed in Alexa. Thankfully, I only bought an Echo Dot when it was on sale during Black Friday. Not much money wasted, IMHO.

Today I asked Alexa when sunset will be. It gave me the answer in standard time, not DST. This is typical of the kind of error that it makes just often enough that I can't trust it.

Alexa needs a lot of work.

 

[pb4uski]

I use Alexa to add items to my shopping list or to do list (which shows up on my phone), add appointments to my calendar, add reminders to do things (like... Alexa, remind me to flip the steaks in 3 minutes), play my flash briefing on my waterproof bluetooth speaker while I take my shower, etc. I find "her" very handy.

 

[OldShooter]

I've bought, played with, and become bored with enough toys that this one doesn't attract me.

For the paranoids and the paranoid-debunkers, though, remember that these things are just computers. They can be reprogrammed at any time. Tomorrow your packet sniffer may be overwhelmed by Alexa's transmissions to the mother ship. But of course today Google, Facebook, et al are already doing the same thing. Even paranoids have enemies.

 

[Cobra9777]

DS gave us an Echo for Christmas. I probably would not have bought one. We already had access to Alexa with the voice button on our Fire TV remotes. And we also use "OK Google" on our smartphones, which are nearly always within arms reach. But we set it up and have found it to be quite useful.

I get notifications about Amazon deliveries, which is somewhat useful. I check the weather, calendar appointments, set timers, play my Pandora channels, and ask questions... same type of stuff we do with "OK Google" on our phones.

But we mainly use it to control the Fire TV. We rarely touch the remote anymore. On Playstation Vue, DW and I each record a dozen or so shows on cloud DVR. One of the most common things you hear around our house is, "Alexa, fast forward three minutes."

DS uses it for lots of home automation stuff. So I might get into that at some point.

 

[RonBoyd]

Today I asked Alexa when sunset will be. It gave me the answer in standard time, not DST. This is typical of the kind of error that it makes just often enough that I can't trust it.

Alexa needs a lot of work.

I tried both sunrise and sunset yesterday and today and Alexa came up with the correct (DST) answer each time. Do you live in Arizona or Hawaii... or, perhaps, using a VPN connected to a IP address in a different time zone?

I have been using an Echo device for many years and TMK have yet to find it gave me incorrect information (correct meaning generally accepted).

 

[gcgang]

Love Alexa.

Alexa, what's the weather forecast?
Alexa, what's the definition of paranoid?
Alexa, why are some people so negative?
Alexa, beam me up.

 

[RonBoyd]

Try "What ever happened to Gypsy Rose Lee?"

If you leave out the "ever," you get a different answer.

 

[aja8888]

I asked Alexa to place an order for $10,000 worth of 6 month T-bills next Thursday at the TD auction site. She said I had to do that myself. I thought this thing was handy....

 

[Montecfo]

Place a listening device in my home?

No thank you.

 

[WestUniversity]

We use Alexa for the shopping list and for home automation. So far we have been very pleased...