Its Amazon Prime Day….incase you are wondering! This is a great day for prime users because “things” are discounted…great things like the top thing that is hitting my social feeds…Alexa. As a tech nerd and the leader of Tech Wars (a gadget war between my dad and me…who can have the latest and greatest gadget) let me tell you about this AMAZING piece of technology and how I use it (everyday). I will mention that one of my favorite things about Alexa is is she is constantly developing new and bette skills. I am the owner of an Echo, Tap and 3 dots and love them all, here is why…
The Echo was my 1st “Alexa”. She (yes she) isn’t very big and fits nicely anywhere. I was (still am) impressed by her speaker and how loud she can get, sometimes she gets so loud I can’t eve scream over her to ask her to turn it down. I initially had her in the bedroom where I could communicate with her in the morning. Before I go to sleep its, “Alexa set my alarm for 5:21am”, “Alexa, play amazing 2hr midnight thunderstorms” (or any of her story telling skills). When I wake in the morning, “Alexa, snooze”, nine minutes later, “Alexa, off”. “Alexa, whats the temperature outside?”. “Alexa Play (insert whatever music I’m into at that moment)”. Did I mention she also communicates with my hue light bulbs. My lights come on in the evening and have a 30min fade till they go out in the evening. They also come on around 5:35am and go off at 7am-ish. If I wanted the lights on outside of these times zones its, “Alexa bedroom lights on”, or whatever room I want the lights on in. She is great with smart home stuff, if you are into that sorta thing. With the Alexa system, you can get “skills”. These allow you to do a variety of things from “Alexa, ask the magic 8 ball”, or “Alexa, play the name game” to bank account checking. Its NUTS! The Echo’s only downfall is she isn’t potable (yet…I think thats coming). If you want her in different rooms you have to unplug her then link her back up to the internet, kind of a pain. I still think she is worth the purchase.
Since the Echo isn’t portable, the Tap caught my eye. I wanted a bluetooth speaker for my patio and I was already in love with my echo and impressed with that technology, so I ordered a tap. The tap has a base but you can take the actual speaker any where. I take her on my patio or in my garage or really any where you want. The tap operates just like Echo but originally you had to “tap” a button on the top before making your request. However times have changed and she developed and now has handsfree capabilities. So when I take her to the garage gym its, “Alexa play 90s hip hop” and if I don’t like the song but I’m mid squat, its, “Alexa, skip”. Or if its my jam, “Alexa, volume 10” and I annoy my neighbors. When I take her on the back patio its, “Alexa, play Cody Johnson”. Keep in mind these commands will work on any “Alexa” device. I did discover that if you upgrade your prime music it will only do it on that one device. Meaning my tap has better music feature/options than my echo or dot…which is handy because the tap is portable. Since the tap is portable I purchased a sling and a carrying case for her so I don’t ruin her and she can go places, because TUST me once you get use to Alexa you will miss her when she isn’t there.
For the record, I pulled ahead in tech wars with this one because at the time when I got my tap you could only oder her through Echo, since I had my Echo I ordered a tap (maybe last prime days), using my voice. I’m still ahead.
As you can probably tell, I’m a little obsessed with this technology, so when the dot came out you could order a single or a six pack…so my Dad and I split a six pack. I took 3 dots and put them in the kitchen, office…I moved the echo to my living room (makes for a GREAT conversational piece and entertainment) and put a dot in my/master room and the tap is in the guest room for guest to work lights (I have hue bulbs in the lamps) and play music (you have to have a personal code to oder off amazon). The dot is a like a puck-ish. I think it provides a great speaker for a bedroom or kitchen. I’m not sure how she would do in a big space such as a living room. BUT you can connect speakers to her and make her louder. So if you have fancy speakers you can connect them to her and she will play through them. My brother is a victim of Alexa and has his surround sound wired through his dot. It all depends on what you want to use her for. I like her in the kitchen because she plays music or reads my audible book while I’m cooking. I can ask her measurement questions, all hands free. I have her in the office to work lights and play music while i’m crafting. I have her in the bedroom to work lights, music and tell me facts before I get out of bed.
All of these devices will respond to “Alexa” and operate the same (outside of the prime music thing). A cool feature is you can now call and message from Alexa, but only to other alexa owners and it will only work from Alexa to Alexa meaning I cannot send a sms/text message from Alexa. So I can be in my kitchen and say, “Alexa send a message to Dad”, she will ask what i want my message to say, I will tell her and she will send him a message. When he gets it it will show up on his Alexa app or when he got home there would be an orange ring lit up on top of his Alexa. You can also call using the same thing, and leave messages.
One of the newer features that I have not played with is that of “drop in”. Yes there is a gadget called drop in that is coming out with a video feature but this one works using the current Echo/Tap/Dots in your home. So if I’m in bed and I want the person in the kitchen to bring me coffee I can use the drop in feature to message them (bedroom dot to kitchen dot) to bring me coffee.
You might think all of this is crazy, and no none of this is a necessity BUT its kinda hard not to really like it. I highly suggest taking advantage of these deals and getting yourself an Alexa. Last but not least, watch THIS for a good laugh..or THIS one…heck just stay on youtube and you will laugh your butt off! Thanks for reading!
