Thoughts on Amazon Alexa?

Also fun to ask Alexa to open the advent calendar!

DD bought Alexa, despite pleading poverty, and will give dots to the 2 children for Christmas.
A week or so ago DGD (8) asked if I 'd practise times tables with her so of course I did. Asked if she practised with Mummy and was told that Mum says she's busy and she should listen to Alexa reciting tables instead.
I am scunnered!!
Do you understand why???

I had to google scunnered, but yes, I do understand why. Electronic parenting.

My young grandson likes to ask Alexa to do a burp. He thinks that’s the height of humour. At least, he used to. He’s grown out of it now.

I'm an old fossil I guess :-) Have heard of these but no idea how they work. Do you have to subscribe to something? If so, does that include the music or do you have to pay again?

Well I don’t consider myself an old fossil at all and I quite like my iPad iPhone used to love my kindle before eyes found it a bit difficult I have thought about these but never felt sure how to justify it or what it could do better than things I already own My DaB radio, my CD player, YouTube iPad for lists etc I ll keep reading and see if I m won over

They connect to your wi fi. To get music catalogues you have to subscribe through an Ap.

Alexa can read your kindle book.
They're are quizzes like 20 Questions. I like stargazing and the Stellar skill tells you what is in the sky, where you can see it and when. It activates the when you ask for a flash briefing.

Anyone else?

Seriously considering .................

but not sure of the difference between Alexa and Dot

My adult son has installed a 'dot' in my kitchen. I am supposed to drop in on him every so often. I don't. It's a bit boring. But it has a very nice tone for listening to Radio 2. Better than my radio. And the Advent Calendar has some great jokes. (So long as your mind is as little as mine ?)

I think the 'dot' is this round black thing on my kitchen counter that the sound comes out of.

It's a good timer too.

Ah! Treebee has already mention the advent calendar. Good innit Tree?!

I don't pay to subscribe to anything. But you can get Jingle Bell rock for free.

My husband got one recently for a birthday and gs was playing around and asked it to play "the poo poo song" which she promptly did to our astonishment . I'm not sure what you can do with it apart from asking for music and the weather ..lots to learn I suppose.

We use ours for traffic information, music,shopping list, leaving messages for each other but mostly for phone calling, it’s so easy to call the other Alexa’s in the family.

Ooh how do you leave messages?

Nanabilly if you install the Alexa app on your phone you will find all that you can do with the Amazon Echo.
Did you know that you can get Alexa on your Kindle fire?
I've got the Alexa app on my phone.

Chelseababy,
You can send Alexa-to-Alexa messages from the Alexa app on a compatible Android or iOS device. Alexa delivers messages to the recipient's Alexa app as well as to all of their supported Echo devices associated with their Amazon account. When there is an incoming message, lights on supported Echo devices pulse yellow, and the devices chime. On a Fire tablet, iOS, or Android device, you receive a device notification for incoming messages.
Hope this is helpful.

I got an Echo last Christmas but have to confess I never use it. I don't have Amazon Music - I thought it was in Prime but apparently not. I don't listen to the radio either except in the car so it just sits on the shelf and occasionally might answer something it thinks we've asked which can be a bit amusing.

Prime music is available to you willow. It costs an extra £7:99 per month for Amazon music unlimited. I subscribed because I love music and singing. I couldn't live without Classic FM.

Our daughters bought my DH an Alexa. We think she's hilarious though it has given my DH ideas about addressing females in a lordly tone.
We don't pay a subscription but apparently you get more services if you do. We use her for music, traffic information, weather and general queries such as capital cities, spelling, population figures and other random bits and pieces. I've learnt a few things through this thread, thank you, I enjoyed the Advent Calendar and checked my 12 times table!!

Hello everyone!