Voice speaker
Every Amazon Echo owner needs to know these ten things
With the Amazon Echo, Amazon brought out the first purely voice-controlled computer. Now the second generation has been introduced
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Amazon’s voice loudspeaker Echo is in more and more homes. But there are a few things you should know before you get started with your new roommate Alexa.
Alexa and her home, Amazons Loudspeaker Echo, is now used in countless households. But as intuitive as using it by voice is, there are a few things you should know before you start using it.
Without the right Alexa app, the Amazon Echo won’t work at all. With the app available for Android and iOS, you don’t just set up the Echo. There you can also customize the Echo to suit your own taste. You can find the settings by tapping on the three lines in the upper left corner of the Alexa app and then selecting “Settings”.
+++ Amazon Echo listens all the time – here you can hear what it is recording. +++
An echo only for me
You can also personalize the echo in the settings. For example, by teaching him its location. You can also enter your work route in order to ask about the traffic situation in the morning. And you can customize your daily summary and add sports news or celebrity gossip. Alexa has exactly the information ready that you really want.
How suitable for children is Alexa?
Amazon attaches great importance to Alexa getting along well with the little ones. She always remains polite, and the jokes are always suitable for children’s ears. However, there is no explicit parental control. When the little ones want gang rap or ask for the answer for their math homework, Alexa fulfills the wish without hesitation. You should always keep that in mind. The greatest danger: If you are not careful, the children will buy things from Amazon by mistake.
How to prevent accidental purchases
Alexa can simply order products from the factory over the internet. To prevent accidental – or secret – shopping trips, select “Voice shopping” in the settings. Now you can either turn off the purchase entirely via Alexa or set a PIN code that blocks the purchases. Since you have to say it out loud in front of Alexa, it does not remain a secret from the children for long. After all, you no longer buy accidentally.
Alexa without Prime
Language purchases are only available for active Prime customers. The Echo works fine without Amazon’s premium subscription, but then has some functions less, such as music playback via Amazon Music. Instead, you can use Spotify or Apple Music, for example, or listen to the radio via tune-in. In the settings under “Music”, a service other than Amazon Music can be selected as the default.
Use Spotify properly
Unfortunately, not every Spotify user is allowed to listen to music via the Echo: A paid premium subscription is required for the streaming service. When listening to music on Spotify, it is not enough to name Alexa a title and artist – the addition “… on Spotify” must always be added.
Skills are the new apps
What apps are for smartphones, skills are for Alexa. They expand the range of functions considerably. Alexa can call a taxi via “Free Now” or have the news read out by one of the Tagesschau moderators via “Tagesschau”. New skills can be found in the app. In order to start a specific skill, you have to explicitly ask Alexa to do so, for example, “Alexa, ask the chef for a recipe for apple pie.” If you don’t do that, Alexa will at least try to find the right one on its own.
Stay clear
So that Alexa can follow you, commands should be spoken plainly and clearly, even if Alexa can handle dialects. Once the assistant gets to know her owner better, you can start mumbling at some point. If you express yourself too complexly, the smart computer is overwhelmed, even with the best standard German.
Alexa stop!
If Alexa doesn’t understand anything again or accidentally jumps on, you can silence her immediately with the simple exclamation “Alexa Stop” and reset the command. Then you can start over in peace.
Heard away
Even if the echo is always listening, it is actually just waiting for its code word. If you want to protect your privacy from inadvertent eavesdropping for a certain period of time, you can do so with the mute button microphone switch off completely. The device then signals with a red light that it is no longer listening. Only when you press the button again does Echo listen to your word again.
Baptize Alexa differently
Incidentally, you can change which code word Alexa reacts to. Very practical if there is an Alexa or an Alex in the household. The option can be found in the settings under the name of the respective echo. But you can’t be completely creative. In addition to Alexa, there is a choice of “Amazon”, “Echo” and – following the example of “Star Trek” – “Computer”. The “Ziggy” option has recently been added.
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