Do you want to check the weather
I have weather bookmarked in Chrome, one tap and I’m there.
Be reminded on a certain day of an upcoming doctor appointment or birthday
My outlook calendar at work has my schedule and requires two level authentication to access.
Set a timer to let you know it’s time to take something out of the oven.
There is a timer literally built into the oven.
Watch a tv show
I use a Roku to watch tv. I rarely turn it on to watch something specific but to discover new content or browse around for something that sounds good in the moment.
Add items to a shopping list or to do list?
Chalkboard on the wall in the kitchen
. . . when you’re at the store and you open up the shopping list on Alexa’s app, there it is.
My grocery doesn’t have WiFi and I don’t have a smart phone. I print out a list in store order, which no app would know for my particular grocery.
“Alexa, remind me on the 24th that I have a doctor’s appt on the 25th”.
Again I keep all that on my office Outlook, which none of these devices can access.
Last night something reminded me of Ward Bond, an actor friend of John Wayne’s who was in lots of western movies, and I was curious about how old he was when he died. I said “Alexa, how old was Ward Bond when he died?”.
Google or IMDB on my tablet.
You can also get news, sports scores, info on upcoming games, all sorts of things.
feedly.com, and in one tap
I’m not suggesting the thing doesn’t work I’m trying to figure out why shouting things into the aether is more convenient than tapping a link on a tablet.
Mind you I do think these things are a miracle for the disabled community. I guess quadriplegics and others with movement issues find these reattach them to the world. I think everyone should go out and buy one just so they remain on the market for that. But my hands work just fine and I don’t find picking up a tablet to be any more taxing than shouting out commands. As I said I used the Google voice commands once just for a giggle but never had any reason to use it for real.
I’m also not sure what it would be like living with someone who owns one of these. I would forever be hunting people down when I hear voices to see if they were trying to talk to me.