Community Chat

[Tinkrbl44]

Okay, I give up ......  on GMA they are comparing "digital assistants" and I still don't know how this improves the quality of anyone's life .....   are they just gimmicks?  

Why would anyone NEED this item?

[x Hedge]

Vanity?

[excpa]

Unless it washes the dishes and puts them away, I'll pass.

[Tinkrbl44]

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@excpa wrote:

Unless it washes the dishes and puts them away, I'll pass.

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@excpa

It should also do the laundry, IMO.

[akaburtonfan]

For me it would have to scrub toilets. When a digital assistant can do that, I'll get one. 

[JJsMom]

You don't need a digital assistant, but you don't need a dishwasher, hair dryer, or remote control either.

We have the Echo, and I guess it's useful for playing music, getting weather, playing games, and turning lights on/off remotely. We have several in different rooms, and we use it as in intercom and phone. My husband uses it more than I do.

[makena]

Is her name Rosie?

[Spurt]

@Tinkrbl44

People are getting lazier and lazier..

First we got a TV remote instead of getting up to change a channel....then no need to drag out a desktop or laptop its all on your phone which is in probably in your pocket or handbag, then GPS device,....then the Irobot for vaccuming and now a "personal assistant"  How hard is it to turn on some music, or look up a recipe now, of find whats available for viewing on TV or another device, check a weather app on your phone......Now we have to have a "digital assistant" to do it for us.............And as someone else said its a bit of a vanity device either that or some like to boss something around... LOL.....

[Porcelain]

No one needs this. But, as @JJsMom said, no one strictly needs a dish washer or hair dryer either. It's a convenience. In a few years no one will bat an eyelash at the concept of using voice commands to handle assorted tasks.

I love ours. We have a few of them and I can turn on the lights in any room, whether I'm in the room or not, just by saying "Alexa turn on the (insert room here) light." I can even say what percentage I want the light dimmed to.

I can turn off the fan my husband runs while falling asleep, but which I dislike blowing on me when I head to bed later. I tell Alexa, "Fan off" while I"m still in the living room. And the fan turns off in the bedroom. I don't have to bumble around in the dark to try to turn it off without waking him.

Our porch light goes on at a half an hour before sunset every night. I don't have to do a thing.

I have the bedside lamp set to turn on in the morning as a wake up alarm as well as Alexa reading me the weather report. It's really nice.

I set up several playlists for different occasions in Amazon Unlimited. I just say "Alexa, shuffle (insert unique playlist name here) playlist." And it starts playing.

I can listen to music while in the shower and change the volume or the music track by voice. "Alexa, Volume down." "Alexa skip." This is even cooler in practice than you would think.

I can set timers without opening an app or going into the kitchen. I just say "Alexa set a timer for 10 minutes." And it goes off in 10 min. You can ask how many minutes are left on the timer if you lose track.

Once I finally get my LED lights on our tree, they will turn on by voice as well. No digging around to find a switch or remote. And I don't even have to be in the same room. (of course this can also make for some fabulous pranks) 

It's like being a rich person with a valet running around after me smoothing life over in small ways. I actually say thank you after my requests are granted, even though the machine can't hear it. Do I need it? Heck no. Do I like it? Heck yes.

All you need to do all the above is: your assistant, a smart lightbulb set, and a few wifi plugs.