For all those who are anti "Alexa"

I have an echo show (the one of with the screen), in my kitchen.
I'm always adding reminders and events to the calendar. I hardly ever look at the proper calendar.

Eleothan I am not "disabled or powerless" but find my Echo device to be very useful.

Choosing a piece of music to listen to while up to my wrists in flour, asking, asking "her" to set a timer for one thing, and using the oven timer for another that is in the oven at the same time (Hope that makes sense?) reminders for appointments (yes, I know I can put it on the calendar, but that is on the wall in the home office, and I find it very easy just to "not" see it, even when I'm in there!)

I am NOT lazy, still work 3 full days a week, plus another couple of half days from home (no pension for another 5 years) use reference books (yes, we do have them) to help with crosswords etc, but find my Echo device useful, entertaining and (at times) fun!

I have not gone down the road of Alexa controlled lights, heating etc, so might be seen as a Luddite by some!

I am partially visually impaired so I find Alexa helpful with timers and especially as an alarm clock. I cannot see the controls on my alarm to adjust it so Alexa is a boon. She tells me the news and local weather whenever asked. She will convert metres to feet and inches or stones to kilos within seconds.

She will switch on eg a radio programme in 4 hours time if asked because 9 times out of 10 I will forget.

Grandad - Thank you. I now understand. My first step would have to be to get a gas engineer in to show me how to adjust my heating controls before considering any of this!
I have just recently changed my halogen spotlights to LED so will not be changing these until needed as they were expensive.
I might put Alexa on my Christmas list for music, radio, news, google etc.

I love alexa, I have 2 echoes and alexa on a soundbar. I can ask her to play my audible books as well as the usual, alarm, timings, weather, music. I cannot see the need to turn lights off yet but neve say never. I don`t worry about her listening in, I don`t talk to myself

GrandmaMoira, to have Alexa control lighting in a home you need to have either the wifi lighting bulbs or wifi smart plugs.

There are now various manufacturers who produce wifi Bulb lights which come as coloured, ambience or white. These go straight into relacing the bulbs that you already have and can then create various lighting scenarios depending on the atmosphere you wish to create in any room and that can be changed on demand. The scenario can be changed through the Alexa speaker or through the app on any phone. Prices vary for the bulbs but the Phillips hue bulbs are the most expensive but are by far the best on the market.

Smart plugs just plug into the sockets you have in your home and can turn off and on lights on speech demand or through the app on any phone. They are around £20 in price but that is rapidly falling as the market for them has grown large in the last year or so.

Alexa controlling heating is similar but somewhat more complicated, but if I can install it anyone can

The golden rule with Alexa wifi controlled lighting or heating is to start small with just one or two lights, radiators or rooms and build from there.

Do not feel any need to make a huge outlay at the start. indeed, building slowly with the lights enables you to consider which type of bulbs you need in each room in view of the scenario lighting scene(s) you wish to create, as that can change the entire atmosphere in any room.

Hope this helps.

GrandmaMoira- I think to get them to control the lighting, you have to buy special plugs.

I get recipes/stories for GGCs/correct time/weather/bus& train times,I move her from room to room depending what I am doing.

I do hope everyone who has had these weird experiences of ads appearing after they had been speaking about something (verbally out loud, not online) has done a couple of simple checks.
1) Is there a microphone in your device? Is it turned on or off?
2) Do you have a virus checker and a malware checker? Do you use them regularly and keep their databases up-to-date?
3) Do you have an adblocker?

If may be that your device has been invaded by a PUP and the mike is live. The cure is yours - turn off the mike and do a virus scan and a malware scan. Get an adblocker. You may find that repeating the experiment after taking these precautions doesn't produce any relevant ads.

But you can turn the microphone off! The echo doesn't have to be listening all the time!

Thank you for the info Littleannie.

I am impressed by some of the information supplied on this thread as to what these devices are able to do, I can see why people have them. I'd worry a little about the slippery slope of being under constant surveillance......... On the other hand my life's not that interesting though, probably the most subversive part of it, is right here on GN!

Minimoon and others - thank you for the information. It sounds interesting and worth a go.
Grandad - the wifi heating and lighting is way beyond my technie abilities to set up. I cannot understand how to change the controls on the heating so to set that up remotely would be impossible. I don't understand how lighting can be controlled remotely.

Hate Alexa wouldn’t have it at any price! My daughters use it but it’s too “big brother” for me. But then again I still use CD’s for my music and actually do my home stuff manually so am probably a lost cause!

Sorry, Terribull not Terribul.

Terribul - we used to have a Google Home, similar to Alexa. To get a specific piece of music you had to subscribe to Amazon Prime or Spotify Prime, otherwise it would play a radio station broadcasting music of a similar genre. I'm not sure if Alexa is similar.

It used to wake up with the command 'ok Google'. Then it started responding every time somebody said ok on the TV, with 'I'm sorry I can't help with that'.
One night it suddenly started broadcasting a talk radio station at 3 in the morning. Scared us stiff, we thought we had burglars. The second time it did it, it was turned off and consigned to a cupboard!

These devices listen to everything- your music requests, your questions, your everyday conversations, your family arguments, your political views, when you reveal your inner most thoughts and insecurities to your pets when you're alone, when you have sex and so on. They will remember them all as well. They will probably evolve to watching you too. What good choices you have made to have them in your home!

I asked Alexa to play me 60’s music while I ironed this morning.

I ask her all sorts, she’s very useful.

Grandmamoira.
Alexa is a good timer. She compiles my shopping lists. Calls my sons/daughters Alexas. Will remind me to do things. Give me recipes and tells my granddaughter stories.

Mention anything on GN and a suitable advert comes up.

I was on one of the food and dieting threads and all of a sudden up came a whole lot of adverts for larger size clothing. I obviously forgot to mention that I an a size 10/12 so an assumption was made

Grandad1943 I can see a breakout of warfare in homes where people like their central heating at different temperatures!

For us, the Amazon Alexa has become a great enhancement to the home. We have her turning on and off the heating and setting the temperature in each individual room. With a wifi lighting system, Alexa can turn on an off those lights and again raise or lower that in each individual room. The colours can be changed on each light or as a group of lights.

However, what we find most remarkable is the having the ability to switch on the heating or lighting while you are away from home by way of the Alexa App on our phones. The foregoing means that if we are not sure what time we may be leaving the office, either of us can turn on the above as we leave, rather than have heating and lighting start at a set time and run up cost while no one is there.

The Google Home speaker which we have in the garden room is better for music we find, but it's Alexa for all else and she is now installed throughout the house.

However, the best of all abilities with Alexa is at the end of the day we are able to get into bed and say "Alexa turn off all heating and lighting, and all is switched off all over the home.

Wonderfull.

Oh by the way, press the microphone button on the top, then it doesn't listen.

To answer your question GrandmaMoira, I get the news and weather, ask for conversions from American cup s or grams into ounces. It's like having a reference library in the kitchen.

There are loads of skills you can enable (skills are like apps). My grandchildren like The Magic Door, it tells you a story and you have to choose what happens next.
I like 20 Questions. The question of the day is fun too, I have amassed over 1000 points.

To understand it all, you really have to try it.

You can, ( and probably should ) switch off Microphone on Iphone/Ipad.
Open settings
Tap privacy
Tap microphone
you will see a list of apps that have requested access to the microphone and can remove access from those you wish.

We don't have Alexa, but when staying with DS & famly, it drove us mad! Open-plan living, with three generations, all with their own ideas about what Alexa should be playing - and then telling her.... Give me some peace and quiet anytime, or I might put on a favourite CD, dinosaur that I am.