If you’re wondering where you are in the pizza-cooking process and don’t feel like looking through the oven window, you can say, “Alexa, how much time is left?” and it will say: You ask it - sorry, her to set a timer, and it cheerfully obliges. Aside from listening to the radio and podcasts, I use Alexa as a cooking timer. You know, that Johnny Cash “Boy Named Sue” trick where an absentee dad gives his boy a girl’s name so he’d have to learn to defend himself.)Īnyway. “Hey, Alexa, who’s the 17th president?” But perhaps it will inspire her to learn everything so she can respond. (Small digression: You feel bad for parents who named their daughter Alexa because now she’ll be taunted all through school. I wish my life were so interesting that my conversation resulted in those ads, but no. When I went to Amazon later that day, I was served an ad for a front-facing baby carrier, trampoline, drill bit set, diamond ring and meat thermometer. My wife and I had been discussing carpet cleaners all day because Birch found a plutonium-infused dead squirrel head outside, and, after a few hours of consultation, his stomach said, “Why don’t you wander over to the good rug and geyser out that particular error in judgment.” We talked about rental cleaners, various brands available for purchase, cleaning fluids and so on. I believe that she - it - isn’t always listening, or, if it is, not all that closely. And, the company says their servers don’t store eleventy billion hours of banal domestic chitchat.
But don’t worry about this, Amazon says, because you can delete them whenever you wish. Amazon said it would not release the recordings “without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.”Īpparently so, but only after you say her - no, its name. Do you want a judge to set you a timer for 20 years? Because that’s what you’re looking at.”Īll Alexa owners were waiting for Amazon to respond by saying, “That’s ridiculous, it’s not recording anything unless you say her - sorry - its name.” But no. Siri’s in the next room, and she says it was all you. We know you were powered on and connected to the victim’s cellphone. We know the accused asked you whether the Patriots won. You can imagine cops putting it under a hot light and grilling it: The police also seized the device, which seems absurd. Granted, technically the police subpoenaed Amazon, demanding the recordings made by the device, perhaps in hopes that it overheard the crime. Those of us who own one don’t think there’s really a person in there, but apparently that doesn’t include police in New Hampshire, who have called Alexa as a witness in a double murder. The feature will begin rolling out to Echo owners in the United States and Canada soon.The Amazon voice-activated device is called an Echo, but everyone calls it Alexa.
Amazon also recently added a Brief Mode which disables the chit-chat after a command and simply adds a ding, as well as a Follow-Up Mode which allows your Echos to do multiple commands back to back without saying the hot word again. Just yesterday, the company added support for music automation. But rather than it relaying your own voice, you can say, “Alexa, announce that dinner is ready,” and this message will propagate to all of your Echo-based devices around the house.Īmazon has been on a rampage lately, aggressively adding new features to its Alexa-enabled devices. As the name implies, it will allow you to use your various Echo devices as a two-way communication device around the house. Today, Amazon is adding a much requested “intercom” feature to its Alexa-enabled devices, TechCrunch reports.
While Apple’ Siri digital assistant is still pretty limited in its functionality, despite it being the main input for HomePod, Amazon has been experimenting and adding new features at a rapid pace.
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