Helpful Info for buyers and owners of Smartspeakers (Amazon Alexa, Google Home etc.)

We’ve just mentioned smartspeakers in our previous 10 useful Christmas suggestions article. 

 

Maybe you’ve not yet purchased a voice-assistant or smartspeaker for your household, be it a Google Nest Home device or an Amazon Alexa. They both do the same things with only minor differences, so it doesn’t really matter which one you decide to buy. You could say Google is better at searching, but Alexa is more integrated into numerous services and products. 

 

What’s certain is that many more will be sold this Christmas and New Year 2021.

 

Maybe you’re planning to spend some of your hard-won points here at Prizes Drop on an Amazon voucher to finally get one? Read more about how our site works here. Apparently, the 4th generation Echo Alexa now has the best sound and fastest processor, and is garnering some great reviews. It's also quite eco-friendly.

 

The shape and size is important for the area you plan to put it, i.e. your use-case. Although a screen is handy and promotes video chat services, it’s in no way an essential part of the device: it is the mic and the speaker you’ll be interacting with.

 

After a period of adjustment (and shouting) with your device, you may well find it grows on you, beyond just asking “When will it snow?” or “What should I wear today?” or for the latest news, and more towards controlling lighting, heating or cameras around the home (even robot vacuum cleaners), or using it as an office tool: reminders, calendar, e-mail notifications (and dictation) and internet calls. 

 

 

Here are a few more suggestions. There's bound to be something you've not tried yet:
 

Miss the traffic: Alexa and Google can know your destination and let you know the fastest route to it that morning, or if there are any incidents on route which may make venturing out a pointless affair anyway.

 

You can set up your locations with names to work something like: “Check traffic between My House and Local Town.” 

 

On the subject of travel, your device can also help plan a vacation, and track the route and update you about flight departure times and even length of waiting lines at security or check-ins. 

 

Talk to pets: There are many apps such as ‘Meow!’ you can activate which will ‘talk’ to your cat while you’re out of the house, or on demand. You can also link them to pet-feeders, allowing you to control their intake on a schedule, or by command. 

 

Jokes: We all need a bit of cheering up (right now), and Amazon Alexa, for sure, can tell some really bad jokes, which in turn will be something to laugh at. Just say: "Knock, knock" or "Tell me a joke" and brace for impact. 

 

Bedtime or In-car Books: You can sign up and get access to a huge catalogue of audio books and stories for all ages via services such as Audible. Too tired to read a story to your kids? Parents can rejoice by pre-selecting a popular title read by a well-known or familiar name, and leave them to - possibly - be caught up in a good yarn. Be advised however, there is really no technological replacement for the comfortable presence of a parent and if we do get to that stage, it will be quite a sad time. On the other hand, they can help to enhance family time.

 

Easy Recipes: Need some inspiration in the kitchen? Try saying: “What’s an easy recipe for biscuits?” or any familiar food, and you might be surprised by a new twist on an old family classic. Of course, many more advanced Skills or apps can be activated for budding chefs, which include step-by-step guides you can - mercifully - pause. 

 

Wake you up to music: This can be achieved simply by asking it to, with the name of the track or album from your library, playlist or radio stations. You can adjust fade-in levels too.

 

Finance: Just say: "What is the price of Bitcoin today?" Or "What is the price of Tesla?" You can find many an app to help track your portfolio which may save on eyeballs squinting at screens. Beware of privacy concerns when guests are in the house, if you're inputting portfolio information!

 

Kids, Learning and Games: Kids love interacting by voice with smartspeakers, asking questions and listening to music. The singers in your house will be singing along, tuning their guitars etc. or buying specific songs they suddenly remember in the shower.

 

Kids can ask how words are spelled, as one useful example, as they start to understand, or get obsessed by, letters and writing. However, they can get just as frustrated as we adults, so guidance and supervision are ideal.

 

Try some of the following games: Musical Instruments, Our Dragon Story, Musical Statues, What’s the Time Mr Wolf? True or False and for every kid: Animal Game [Alexa Skills]. You can also enable the Santa app which does a number of things including track his location. 

 

Kids can request the free music stations on Alexa just by saying: "Play Songs for Kids" or "Play Disney Hits Playlist" or "Play Christmas songs for kids." You can also use Spotify etc. but the word 'Spotify' isn't as easy to say.

 

Language learning: You could try "What does a word mean in.... ?" but there are more dedicated Skills or apps including News in Slow French for comprehension practice. Re-setting your device to be in a certain language for serious or bi-lingual speakers is an effective way to get better access to the culture and lingo of a second country. 

 

Personal Fitness: Yes, many a Skill or app exists for those looking to maintain or achieve a level of fitness. This could be part of a Routine (see below).

 

Prepare for an interview: There are many apps which can aid you in your job interview preparation. You can then ask your device to throw you a random question, so you can practice a positive and detailed (hopefully honest) response. 

 

Discover more Skills: With Alexa, just say “Teach me something.” You can find specific or official Skills run by well-known names which have put some real effort into creating one. There are also a lot of bad ones at this stage, so read the reviews on the app or site.

 

Enable Whisper Mode: With Alexa, this can be found under Voice Responses and allows you to whisper to your device, and get whispered responses which may not wake up the whole house. 

 

Set up a Routine: Just saying “Alexa, Good morning” can then trigger a sequence of pre-set events around the house, from turning on (Christmas tree) lights to boiling the kettle. Just make sure there’s water in it and you’re the first one to say it. 

We hope you found ideas in this list you didn’t know your Alexa or smartspeaker could do, which are pretty cool, or useful, for your leisure time, educational time or work time. 

 

As you may see, there are various (and safety) considerations that come with integrating voice-activated events or skills, so try them out for a while, and if they don't work, modify or replace them. 

 

The more these devices grow on us, the more useful and integrated into our daily lives and habits they will become, especially in the above areas. We may begin to rely on them too much. 

 

Text your command

 

Very soon, you’ll also be able to send a text to your Alexa, as you can with Google Assistant. Why is this handy? It means you can use your Alexa app to type in a command, instead of shouting across the room. Maybe you’d just like to “Set Volume to 1”(!)

 

Alexa, Big companies, Privacy and Security

 

Will smartspeakers be maintained by big companies in the future, and still make us concerned about our data, our privacy and security? Or will they become more secure, open-source, decentralised and developed by a community of - crypto-incentivised - user-developers? This remains to be seen but a latter product may be better for everyone, just as web3 is promising to rescue users from what the internet has become. 

 

For now, it’s a good idea to check your Privacy settings, check individual apps and what access they have and manage how you want your recordings to be used or when they get deleted. All this is possible with Amazon Alexa in the Privacy settings, but remember it still doesn't protect you from data breaches, Amazon issues or people just overhearing your device. 

 

Despite all this, a diverse ecosystem of ‘Skills’ or voice apps are emerging (over 26,000) and they can be deployed to a degree that either detracts or enhances our everyday experience.

 

Prizes Drop is here to help you earn points for completing easy online tasks like watching ads or completing simple surveys. Earn enough points and you could be swapping them for a smartspeaker via a free Amazon voucher, or upgrading your existing one.

 

Sign up for your personal dashboard and put some spare time to good use. 

 

Dec 2020