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Old 06-03-2016, 01:54 PM   #21
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It is not a toy, but it sure is fun. We now have three. Yes, really. One in the kitchen which fills our house with music. DH has one in his shop/mancave in the basement. And I have a "Dot" (smaller, cheaper version) in the bedroom so I can get my news in the morning and play my wakeup playlist.

Our son lives in Chicago and loves it for checking to see if the train is on time, or to call an Uber. Love the shopping list, love checking the weather just by yelling at her, love my 7 minute workout, word of the day, joke of the day, Wikipedia, read me a book, set a timer so we can flip the steaks, blah, blah, blah. But the music is huge for us. We have a playlist created for everything, and I do mean everything. She'll even play music for a specified period of time so you can doze off to your favorite tunes.

Seriously, I don't know how we lived without her. But I'm a nerd.
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Old 06-03-2016, 02:03 PM   #22
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DW likes to find "Easter Eggs". The echo has a lot of them. Let me give you an example:

You: "Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?"
Alexa: "Shaft"

Finding them is a lot of fun. Too bad she didn't add the "damn right" to the lyric.

You can also have her play "Simon Says". We thought we could use this to control the cat. Alas, cats are not controllable whether it is Alexa or us telling him what to do.
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Old 06-03-2016, 02:46 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by JoeWras View Post
DW likes to find "Easter Eggs". The echo has a lot of them. Let me give you an example:

You: "Who's the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks?"
Alexa: "Shaft"

Finding them is a lot of fun. Too bad she didn't add the "damn right" to the lyric..
JoeWras, we must have the PG Alexa, because I just asked her that question twice, and got "Sorry, I didn't understand the question I heard". I need to take her out more.
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Old 06-03-2016, 03:18 PM   #24
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Originally Posted by FlyBoy5 View Post
And for those that are worried about it 'listening' to you all the time...I can tell you that if you have a smart phone or tablet, then I'm willing to bet you are already running apps that listen.
No matter what one might imagine... you don't have any "privacy." No matter how or what you may try, you cannot keep your life secret. For instance... do you have a Driver's License? If so, your movements can be tracked through simple "Facial Recognition" software.

Here is one article... but there are a kagillion others:

No more smiles: Changes come to Colorado driver’s licenses | FOX31 Denver
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Old 06-04-2016, 07:04 AM   #25
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JoeWras, we must have the PG Alexa, because I just asked her that question twice, and got "Sorry, I didn't understand the question I heard". I need to take her out more.
It has to work! Check your Alexa app and see what she is really hearing. If you don't get the above *exactly*, she'll play dumb. I think some of the "PG-13" versions are intentionally difficult.

For more PG, try this:
You: "Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother man"
Alexa: "Shaft"

Or something different, rated G:
You: "How much is that doggie in the window"
Alexa: ... I'll let you discover it
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Old 06-04-2016, 01:23 PM   #26
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Or something different, rated G:
You: "How much is that doggie in the window"
Alexa: ... I'll let you discover it
I asked and she said "Adding Doggie with the waggly tail to your shopping list. ... Just kidding."
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Old 06-04-2016, 01:33 PM   #27
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Sounds just like Siri.

Siri had a lot of fun teasing my husband when he had her run several sub minute timers in a row.
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Old 06-06-2016, 08:57 AM   #28
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[QUOTE=audreyh1;1740478]Sounds just like Siri.[QUOTE]

Perhaps. I just learned about "Skills."

The Best Third-Party Alexa Skills on the Amazon Echo

And I find, when clicking on "Skills" in the Alexa app, there are 116 pages (~10 per page) of these IFTTT user-created programs.
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Old 06-10-2016, 10:29 AM   #29
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DH read me parts of an article today about how a TV broadcast on the subject of Siri, made sure to never say "Hey, Siri". Meanwhile a podcast said it numerous times, and had lots of annoyed users writing it to cut it out. Their podcast kept waking up Siri, stopping the podcast.

So I said (somewhat softly) - oh, if I say "Hey Siri" softly my watch doesn't hear it.

Wrong, Siri pops right up on my watch, listening for my command.

So I said: Nevermind, Siri, you can go back to sleep now.

Siri replies: I never sleep, Audrey.

OK - so I feel a little like Dave talking to HAL......

And I can stop yelling at my watch.
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Old 07-28-2016, 02:21 PM   #30
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I've had Alexa since I bought an Echo on Prime Day. She's causing a little problem here.

DH was away on business for about ten days when I got the Echo. In that time, I became comfortable talking to Alexa throughout the day. Sometimes just quick questions, like "what's the weather forecast" or "when do the Phillies play". Now that DH is home, anytime I say something to Alexa, he assumes I was speaking to him and speaks from the other room "What? I didn't hear you". DH then gets annoyed when I tell home I was talking to Alexa.

He still hasn't spoken to her. I think she's hurt.
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Old 07-28-2016, 03:47 PM   #31
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I've had her since the beginning. Just bought Dot for the kitchen and a remote. I loaded every CD we own and created numerous play lists. No more searching for and loading CDs!
Love the shopping list which I can access from my phone while shopping.
Love her!
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Old 10-28-2016, 07:14 AM   #32
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I've had her since the beginning. Just bought Dot for the kitchen and a remote. I loaded every CD we own and created numerous play lists. No more searching for and loading CDs!
Love the shopping list which I can access from my phone while shopping.
Love her!
Where do you load your CDs to so that Echo/Dot/Alexa can play them?
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Old 10-28-2016, 07:26 AM   #33
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Where do you load your CDs to so that Echo/Dot/Alexa can play them?
You just need to download the Amazon Music App for the PC:

https://music.amazon.com/gp/dmusic/d...mo_instruct_ff


And some sort of Ripping Software:

I use free trial app called Express Rip CD Ripper (just google it and download).
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