Alexa put the kettle on - am I missing something?

[onedayatatime73]

Am yet to buy DP main present. Am contemplating one of those echo things. With a kettle. But surely the chore is filling the kettle with water. Not switching it on. Am I missing something? He drinks a lot of tea . .

[goose1964]

One thing that confuses me about these is what happens when someone else gives order such as Alexa turn the kettle off.I can imagine households where there is a practical joker that these could cause huge arguments..

How do you stop this from happening.?

[CakeNinja]

Agree, it's just a gimmick. My mums one does my head in, more specifically, my mum I suppose
How lazy do you have to be to ask someone else to check your train time or the weather?! It's not like this information is hard to access! You need wifi for it to work anyway
Don't get it myself, dds one she got from my dad last Christmas was donated to her cousin in the summer, it was gathering dust.
She has proper speakers in her room for listening to music anyway, and didn't enjoy playing the games with Alexa!

[reallybadidea]

I can imagine households where there is a practical joker that these could cause huge arguments..

That would be my household. Kids thought it would be hilarious to keep ordering the satnav to direct us to Paris when we were on holiday in France

[GummyGoddess]

I quite like ours.

It turns on the fire, lights and television, does alarms, tells me the weather while I'm wrestling toddler into a coat and wondering if I should add hat and boots, interesting facts, sings songs to toddler which miraculously calm him down, tells me news headlines, puts on the radio, reminds me of appointments, turns on white noise for toddler nap time and acts as an intercom.

Dh is the obsessed one, he's planning on integrating curtains, alarms and some other things.

It's also useful when you're out or on holiday and can turn on lights at home randomly and music to make it look like someone is home.

[SatsukiKusakabe]

I pretty much use mine as a radio/music player and nothing else, and still find it pretty handy. Sometimes I do shout Alexa is it going to rain so I know what coat to put on. The kids enjoy asking it things too.

[Namelesswonder]

Use mine loads - shopping lists, reminders, timer when cooking, listening to audio books, podcasts, news, music......the list is endless

[FelixBrown]

Normal use: go in kitchen, put kettle on, wait for it, make drink.

Alexa use: Alexa puts kettle on, you continue your activity, then go into the kitchen when it's boiled. You can then refill the kettle.

It's just about not having to interrupt yourself to go in the kitchen and hang around.

[GummyGoddess]

If you're forgetful you can also get her to turn of the upstairs lights so you don't have to go back up.

[onedayatatime73]

Thank you all. Alexa turn the lights off sounds much more useful. But forgive my ignorance - is that a whole world of reworking lights upstairs? How does it work? Surely she can't switch off wall mounted switches?

[squishysquirmy]

DH's favourite thing when visiting guests with Alexa is to shout "Alexa, buy 3 dozen egss!" Or "Alexa, set alarm to 3:15am!" upon walking through the door....
Hilarious.

[fromtheshires]

I didnt like the idea of the Echo until we got one and now I love it.

Forget you have left a light on when finally in bed nice and warm? Ask it to turn off the light.

Want an alarm, ask it to set an alarm

It can integrate with spotify / amazon music so you can play it through the speakers and not need your phone plugged in

it can set your heating without needing to get up and change it (smart heating such as hive required)

it really do some amazing things and I love it now.

onedayatatime - you buy a home hub such as hive and pop in the hub branded bulbs. The echo then talks to the hub and the hub talks to the light so you say 'turn off the light' and it does. It is really clever

[Blankiefan]

Watch out tho - it gets pricey. The echo for itself is ok but apparently its £25 for each plug and £50 per dimmable lightbulb. It all adds up if you want it to do more than tell you dirty jokes which amused us for weeks when we got ours

[QueenOnAPlate]

I have mine in the kitchen as I can choose music/ radio by voice rather than having to dry my hands and do it in my phone. There are skills you can programme on it such as 'Netflix and chill' which will turn on Netflix and dim the lights

[fromtheshires]

blankie if you have hive or nest etc, their bulbs are much cheaper. They are still a wee bit pricey compared to normal, but nowhere near £50