An uncle gave us a Dot and I am excited to set up with a bunch of skills etc. LO and I played a lot with it in two hours as we were stuck in the house tonight. Does anyone else have one? What are your favorite uses/tips/skills/applets/accessories?
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@808love: We have one! We use it to play music (mostly Spotify) and set timers mostly. Timers are the most useful! My hands can be covered in cookie dough and I can just have Alexa start a timer for me.
We also sometimes ask it sports scores and the weather.
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We have the big one in our living room and the sit in my son's room. My son uses it to play music, mostly kids bop.
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We definitely don't use it to it's full potential but we mostly use it for playing music, checking weather, setting timers, getting news headlines, asking the time if my phone isn't on me... I know it can do so much more but music was the main reason we bought it.
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I mostly use it with my Pandora account for playing music. My daughter loves when I play "toddler tunes from Pandora music".
I also use it for timers when cooking. In the morning I ask it the weather and traffic before leaving the house. In the evening I use it to read me the news while I'm feeding the kids so they don't see anything scary on the news.
My sister has it connected to her lights in the house, while my parents use it for shopping lists.
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Cool!! I enabled a bunch of skills and will use it at home later today. We are on a trip right now so just had a temporary setup last night. I am doing a free trial with Amazon music the first month. I heard it is only $2.99 a month with an echo. Not sure if that is just a promo. Will probably check out linking Pandora before I pay for that. I am thinking of getting an evo battery pack but may wait to see if usage calls for it. The most fun we had was Twenty Questions but it was more of a teaching tool and then LO and I I played the old fashioned way after we shut it off to pack it away. LO also added 'spank LO' to my to-do list which LO was cracking up laughing bc she doesn't get spanked. Definitely see the potential but don't know if I want to invest. Does anyone have it hooked up through tv without a hub?
Does anyone have issues with it popping in and out of service? I noticed it did that twice last night. -
You can use Amazon music if you have a prime but I know there's a difference between the free with prime version and their new pay service.
We use it a lot with audible too. The shopping list is one of my favorite features. I feel like I need to sit down and look through the skills again because I'm sure I'm missing some things.
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The most useful skill we added was IFTT with a trigger for calling my phone. So I just have to say "Alexa, trigger find my phone" and it will call it. So easy and useful for someone who misplaces their phone all the time...
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So far (only have had it a week) I like adding to my shopping list, listening to Spotify, asking weather and we have it connected to our Nest thermostats.
I know it can do way more, I just need to sit down and read! -
@JennyPenny: ahhhh I need that!
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I just got my dot set up. So far I have used it for timers, playing music, and a 1 min mindfulness meditation thing. Which sounds so cheesey but I really enjoyed it. I still have to set it up for our Nest and I am looking forward to using it for recipes and such when I cook. I also added the 7 min workout and I want to give that a try.
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Mostly music and timers which are so helpful! My husband like to ask Alexa for a fart and she makes a fart noise and to say Simon says X and she'll just say X back. Seems dumb to me but he and his buddies are amused by it.
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We've had ours for a few months. Mostly we use it for music (through Pandora), shopping lists, and LO loves to ask Alexa "tell me a joke" (which we always have to explain, because usually it's a pun.)
Originally I bought a wifi switch with it, and then didn't have anything to use it for. But this year, our christmas tree was so prickly, that I used it and taught alexa to turn the lights on and off on the christmas tree. Now it controls a lamp that's difficult to get to. So that's useful.
@JennyPenny: I'm going to have to set that up.
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My daughter likes to ask Alexa to play music. We have been listening to a lot of Kids Bop.
DH has it setup to control the TV through the Harmony remote. It doesn't always work though!
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I'm excited for the future of voice activated processes. There will be so many developments within the next decade. Hint: Instead of reading up on it, just go to the Alexa app and under "skills" scroll down to the bottom to some of the categories of interest and play around with 'enable skills.' Got some crazy fun stuff loaded up but hopefully it will be practical beyond music. IFTT is all set up. I'll check out Kids bop as so many bees recommended.
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