When I bought my first Amazon Alexa and got it working, I was simply amazed. All those words and following all of mine (well, mostly) just staggered me. I had dealt with voice recognition (Dragonspeak, the old version) and was not amazed as you had to train the machine to understand you.
Today, we are moving along moment-to-moment improving the way this type of software works. In a very short time, since I bought Alexa, the software has, already, grown leaps and bounds. Things I couldn’t get her to understand, she does easily now and with more detail. I don’t pay anything for my Alexa on a monthly basis. Alexa, right out of the box, does almost all of what I required her to do.
Like?
- Timer – Alexa sets up to 3 timers for me to remind me in a few words what I wanted.
- Alarm – Alexa sets up to 3 alarms for me to remind me it’s time to do something. I have 3 Alexas in my home in 3 rooms. Since I bought them, they are semi-connected and know a bit of what each other is doing. You can set it up for more; I just haven’t. But. now, I can cancel an alarm in my bedroom from my living room or computer room.
- Looks up nearly everything.
- Talks to me if I need a quick “hello” or “Hope you’re doing well.”
- Will sing, tell jokes etc…
- Plays music for me.
- Tells me the time (great for when you are nearly asleep and don’t want to look at that glowing clock).
- Does measurements for me (like telling me how many tablespoons are in a cup to how much a does a gallon of honey weigh?).
- Always polite.
- She will order things on Amazon, if you like.
- Accepts compliments.
- Talks to me when I am not sleeping well.
- Tells me the weather for my town or anyplace else on Earth. For example, right now – Stockholm, Sweden is 42 degrees F and the weather sounds better than here.
- Will give me a one week forecast for my town.
- And dozens of other things.
I was just sitting and thinking about this and decided writing the post would do me some good as I am always praising Alexa. The cost for a small 3rd generation on Amazon is $35.
If you have Amazon Prime (for me $99/yr) you get free 2 day shipping and I get to watch all those movies (that and Netflix have me set).
Now, if I could just figure out my TV remote…
Namaste,
Scott
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