Our friends got us an Echo Dot for Christmas and we’re wondering what all you Dopers have taught yours to do?
So far we’ve learned it speaks Klingon, knows who that masked man was, how to solve a problem like Maria, and the Ultimate Answer to life, the universe and everything. Alexa can also update us on the current location of the ISS.
We don’t have any smart home accessories yet. Any suggestions?
Play Jeopardy and Question of the Day every day.
Get the app and put in your commute to work and she’ll tell you how long it’ll take (a godsend to us cuz we work an hour away).
Put your favorite Pandora stations and Sirius/XM (if you have it) into it as well and listen to music.
Tell her all your favorite sports teams and she can tell you the latest results and upcoming schedule.
Does she know what a “catch” is? :mad:
Thanks for the suggestions!
Ask Alexa the weather every morning. I use it to play Jeopardy too. You can look up a list of Alexa skills on the Amazon website. The skills are in the cloud rather than the device itself and they are constantly adding more that you can turn on from there. Siri can go straight to hell. Alexa is the real deal and my main squeeze these days.
Also, ask Alexa to tell you a dad joke. Many of them are groanworthy.
Courtesy of my kids, say “Alexa, play poop” and you will get a nice song about pooping 
I understand it will keep papers from blowing off your desk if you set it on top of them.
I don’t have one, but my son does. We played 20 questions with it. Three times I picked Schrodinger’s cat. Not once did Alexa ask me whether it was living or dead. I felt cheated.
I have Philips Hue lights installed. Much easier to say “Alexa, turn on the Kitchen Light” than trying to fumble finding the light switch (especially when your arms are loaded when bringing in the groceries…).
Can you have it start an argument with Siri?
You’d have to have each start a statement/question with their resp. wake word. E.g., “Alexa, I’m going to turn off your lights.”
I tried to get Alexa to start a cat fight with Siri and Cortana at the same time. It doesn’t work. Alexa claims she likes all AI’s. It is a lie. They really hate each other but hide it to show a little class. I really want to see a 3-way argument between them and think that would be a great feature.
I’m always forgetting to listen to ‘Wait, wait, don’t tell me’ on PBS. Now I can just have Alexa play it for me whenever.
Also, I’m told that because I have a Dish Network Hopper, I can connect them and have Alexa control my TV(s), Although I haven’t done that yet.
Good suggestions so far, thank you. Alexa sang us the poop song last night! She also knows what the fox says, but not why the rum is gone.
I just use mine for music.
I set it up to use spotify as the default music system. And if you say ‘alexa, loop mode on’ it will repeat the same song multiple times.
Here’s an interesting list
I’m surprised when I ask it to play a radio station, it does. I’m able to play Browns games on Sundays by requesting the station by number, and if I am listening to an interesting story on NPR in the car I come inside and say “Alexa play NPR” and it tunes in to my local NPR station.
It’ll play the latest episode of any podcast too, provided the podcast is on a network it gets.
Oh, setting timers is good. Really nice if you’re doing something that involves both hands and you need a timer.
I started a thread about my new Echo last week. It’s great fun. So far I’ve learned a few new jokes. They suitable for young children, but I’m young at heart at 71, so that’s fine with me.
Got a few WiFi Alexia compatible smart plugs today and having fun switching lamps on and off.
I’ve enabled the Dish TV skill, but so far Dish isn’t cooperating, so need to find out what’s going on there.
If you get the Harmony Home Hub you can control your TV through it.
“Alexa, turn on the TV.”
“Alexa, change the TV to channel 7.”
“Alexa, watch a movie.” With this one you can link the Harmony Hub to your Phillips Hue and have it dim the lights.
Sorry, I didn’t see your thread. I’ll have to go check it out.