Echo skills

RumRat

were wrote: »

Me, paranoid, never RumRat.

Can see this a a burglars best friend "Alexa, is there anyone left in the house?", "Alexa is there a dog there?", "Alexa, are any doors left unlocked?" - the future of automated homes and burglary

I'm guessing here, but, the thief would already be in the house to ask the question and know the answers to those questions?...:D
The simple solution for you and others of a nervous nature is not to buy one and have a worry free life..;)
For everyone else....the future beckons...................:T

Gers

I've got TP-link smart plugs and smart bulbs which work through Echo and Dot, brilliant stuff.

Others way more geeky than me have all sorts of interesting and, sometimes, weird things linked up. As before, go to the facebook page where loads of info and help is available.

If I wake in the night I find it useful to ask the time, means I don't have to open my eyes or move around out of the sweet spot.

Weather forecast.

Saying 'good morning' gives you a factoid.

Saying 'what's up' gives you interesting information.

There are tons of skills available. Try them and see. You can always ask questions to find out information, I recently asked what a black hole was and also what 80cm was in inches.

I use it for playing music, music on my laptop, music downloaded from Amazon and also Prime music. The radio skill is very useful.

Just watch out for TV ads for 'alexa' as she responds to them. A recent radio show 'The Now Show' had my Echo playing 'Lady in Red' by Chris De Burgh and also ordering a garden fork. I hadn't set up automatic ordering so only found it waiting to be authorised. :rotfl:

Whilst I find my Echo and Dot really useful I can see an even better use for those with mobility problems / disabled. The future is coming.

Gers

were wrote: »

Me, paranoid, never RumRat.

Can see this a a burglars best friend "Alexa, is there anyone left in the house?", "Alexa is there a dog there?", "Alexa, are any doors left unlocked?" - the future of automated homes and burglary

All questions asked are audio recorded and can be played back on laptop, tablet or smartphone. Wonder if voice recognition would work on such recordings!

Tyler_Du

Alexa - wikipedia "topic" - she will read an info summary about "topic" and ask if you want the full article read.

RumRat

Gers wrote: »

All questions asked are audio recorded and can be played back on laptop, tablet or smartphone. Wonder if voice recognition would work on such recordings!

.............and you can delete them anytime you feel the need....;)

iammumtoone

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Not happy

Was loving the dot, son enjoying it as well, apart from the fact he worked out he could ask the answers to his homework sums :eek:

Discovered there is no way to get it to play play clean versions of songs only (checked with amazon and they have confirmed this ).

A couple of times myself/son have requested a random song and found swearing in it, even charts songs the original sometimes contains bad language. I do not want him to be subject to this and I am not over keen on hearing it either :mad:

I thought this was suppose to be a family friendly product, seems I was wrong

Gers

RumRat wrote: »

.............and you can delete them anytime you feel the need....;)

Yes, just go to settings.

It doesn't record unless the wake word is used first.

Gers

iammumtoone wrote: »

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:
Not happy

Was loving the dot, son enjoying it as well, apart from the fact he worked out he could ask the answers to his homework sums :eek:

Discovered there is no way to get it to play play clean versions of songs only (checked with amazon and they have confirmed this ).

A couple of times myself/son have requested a random song and found swearing in it, even charts songs the original sometimes contains bad language. I do not want him to be subject to this and I am not over keen on hearing it either :mad:

I thought this was suppose to be a family friendly product, seems I was wrong

None of the advertising material on Amazon make claims about it being a 'family friendly product' and I wouldn't want my listening pleasure censored because of children. Like TV, use a bit of parental responsibility.

buglawton

I'm astonished if Alexa doesn't already recognise individual voice 'prints' and that a password style challenge isn't an option for ordering things.
e.g. options like:
1. Needs to recognise authorised voice before it will respond to any request
2. Asks the recognised person to answer a challenge question in their own voice before authorising a transaction.

iammumtoone

Gers wrote: »

Like TV, use a bit of parental responsibility.

Thats the issue I can't use parental responsibility, there isn't a way yo turn it off to stop it It wouldn't be so bad if explicit words/songs were excluded from the random songs it picked leaving those who wish to listen to decide to ask for those songs, that I could control, within reason as I don't even know if the song may have a swear world in it as these are filtered out when on the radio etc. Whereas I know there are no swear words on the TV before the watershed.

Its not so bad for me my son is nine so its not as he hasn't heard these words before, I would turn it off completely and sell it if I had a young child.

I don't want to ruin it for those who prefer these versions either but their should be an option to choose clean or explicit versions.

Its not just about children, as an adult I also prefer to listen to clean version of songs.

This is not a problem with the echo itself (which is a great product) its more an issue with amazon music.