800pods.com – Page 5 – Smart speakers and devices.

Echo Auto

With this clever little device you can add Alexa to your car. It works by connecting to the Alexa app on your phone and plays through your car’s speakers via auxiliary input or your smartphone’s Bluetooth connection. It comes with a “vent mount” you can check whether it fit your car here.

With 8 microphones and far-field technology, the Echo Auto can hear above all the background noise inside your car, music, road noise, your vehicle ventilation and air conditioning system.can hear you over music, A/C, and road noise.

The voice controlled Echo Auto connect to the Alexa app on your phones to stream from Audible, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, SiriusXM, and radio stations with TuneIn and iHeartRadio or to check the news, make calls, mangage your calendar and much more.

In addition to check whether it compatible with your car vents, you can check whether its compatible with your phone here.

Ask Alexa 4 – Stopwatch

Asking Alexa to set a timer through my Amazon Echo Show is straightforward enough.

“Alexa set timer.” “Alexa set timer for 35 minutes”. When you the time is up, Alexa sets an alarm sound and you say “Alexa stop” and its all over with.

However I do a lot of work where I need to assign time to various projects. Normally I would use the stopwatch on my phone to do that for me, but I decided to try Alexa.

“Alex start stopwatch”, all good. However I could never figure out a way to stop the stopwatch so I went back to using my phone. If I asked Alexa to stop the stopwatch, Alexa just told me how long the stopwatch had been running for. So infuriating.

However thanks to the guys at Livewire. I know have it all sorted.

To start the stopwatch, you have three command options:

“Alexa, start stopwatch.”
“Alexa, open stopwatch.”
“Alexa, ask stopwatch.”

Use any of the above commands to check the stopwatch at any point.

To pause the stop watch and then resume it again.

“Alexa, ask stopwatch to pause.”
“Alexa, ask stopwatch to resume.”

Now the command that I found so elusive.

Alexa, ask the stopwatch to delete.

Alexa will then state the “Stopwatch ended at, and in my case it was 89 days 1 hour, 13 minutes and 6 seconds”. My life has now been transformed.

Portal

Portal from Facebook is essentially a video calling device. However it is adding features that will allow it to compete in the same space as products from Apple, Google and Amazon.

With built in Alexa it can do anything that an Amazon Echo device can do, including play your music from a number of providers including Amazon Music and Spotify.

To use the video calling side of the Portal you will need a Facebook or Whats App account and you can speak to up to 7 people in a call.

The portal comes in 4 variants, the *8″ Portal Mini and the 10″ Portal are very similar, its just about the size. Portal TV essentially turns your TV in the display and finally there is the 15.6″ Portal+. The Portal+ has a better sound system that its smaller siblings and boasts a 4″ woofer.

Ask Alexa 3

If you have an Echo Show then you have the advantage of displaying images and video. I use my Echo Show to watch programs from Amazon Prime Video.

If you link your Facebook to your Alexa app you can personalise your wallpaper on your Echo Show. Open your Alexa app, go to the menu and select “Settings”, “Photos” and then log into your Facebook account.

“Alexa, what have you learnt today?” Today Alexa has been thinking about why there is so much chocolate around at Easter.

“Alexa, open Space Station” Will let you know when the International Space Station will pass over your location. The added bonus is that it will tell you other phenomena to look out for in the skies.

Whilst buying audiobooks can be expensive so why not ask “Alexa, read me a free audiobook”. There is a small selection to choose from each month. The other option is to download free books to your kindle or kindle app and have them read to you. Not the best way to listen but it is free.

For children you can ask “Alexa, read a bedtime story” and hear a professionally narrated bedtime story.

Amazon Smart Plug

Part of the beauty of owning an Alexa controlled device or even having the app on your Smartphone is the ability to control your lights and electrical devices round the home. A useful addition to you consider is the Amazon Smart Plug.

The Amazon Smart Plug will allow you to schedule lights, fans, and appliances to turn on and off automatically, or to control them remotely when you’re away, or at your command when you are home. Set the lights to come on at dusk and off at bedtime when you are away on vacation. Coming home late, turn them on so the house is lit on your arrival. Forgot to switch the lounge light on when you are in bed, simple just ask Alexa to switch it off.

Ask Alexa 2

One of the fun things about owning an Echo is the numerous questions that you can ask.

“Alexa, what have you learnt today?” Today Alexa has been thinking about ways of helping to deal with writers block. The rest of us are worried about catching Covid 19.

“Alexa, will you catch Covid 19?” “According to the CDC/NHS we do not know how it is spread from person to person”.

If you are self-isolating buying audiobooks can be expensive so why not ask “Alexa, read me a free audiobook”. There is a small selection to choose from. The other option is to download free books to your kindle or kindle app and have them read to you. Not the best way to listen but it is free.

Amazon Echo Flex

The Amazon Echo Flex is essentially an additional listening device that you can add around your home so that you can access the various SMART features of Alexa.

You can turn on lights, adjust thermostats, lock doors, and more with compatible connected devices. What it will not do is act as a replacement for a Smart Speaker as the tiny speaker is not designed for music playing though you could connect a speaker via 3.5mm aux, Bluetooth, or setting your Preferred Speaker in the Alexa app.

You can connect a nightlight or motion sensor attachment (each a $15 extra) via a USB port.

Ask Alexa

One of the great things about devices such as the Echo is the ability to voice activate actions. These are the top 5 in our household.

Alexa set timer 30 minutes.
Alexa, how long’s left on my timer?
Alexa cancel timer!
Alexa what are the lastest football scores?
Alexa play Gold radio.

To this we really need to add a 6th action. “Alexa screen off”. Our main device is an Echo Show is a naughty child called Kelly who is has a habit of turning their screen on without being asked.

Amazon Echo Dot

The Amazon Echo Dot is now on its 3rd rendering. The Dot is the most popular of all the Amazon smart speaker devices currently available.

The 3rd generation now comes with a fabric design and moves away from the plastically feel of the earlier models. More importantly the speaker is improved and so the Echo delivers a better quality sound.

Like all Alexa based devices you can use your Amazon Echo Dot to stream music from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, TuneIn and others. Listen to audiobook from Audible. What do you do with your Echo? At the moment I am enjoying using my Amazon Echo to listen to international radio stations via TuneIn.