Pretend you're almost 60. What do you use Alexa FOR?

[Miljea]

😂 (Techy) DH has won one.

What might one use it/her for?

I am a cynic and believe it listens into everything, but heigh ho.

Shopping lists
Weather
Jokes
The time
Alarms and reminders
Ask her to fart
Ask her who is the fairest of them.all
Music

Audio books
Listening to music
Insulting it when I'm stressed
Weather
Daily briefing
telling it to fart/be a cat

We keep the microphone off unless we want to tell it something.

Well I am almost 60 and love Alexa.
I use Alexa for music - a lot. Plays anything I fancy.
I like the flash briefing, available anytime, for news.
Recipes, random questions ie general knowledge stuff.
Sleep sounds or music to fall asleep to.
Timer when I’m cooking, alarm to wake me up - mornings or daytime naps if I’m lucky.
Weather forecast.
Shopping list.
I don’t use to full capacity and others use it for appointments/ diary stuff etc.
I have 3, 1 each in lounge, kitchen and bedroom.
Enjoy!

We've got four!
Use them mainly for the radio
Asking what the weather is going to do
Getting annoyed with her when she doesn't listen
and we've got smart plugs connected to ours to turn lights on and off, it's like magic

Playing music/ the radio
Listening to audio books
Asking for the news
Weather forecast
Working out calculations/fractions
Working out how many days there are until/since
Shopping list
Reminders (7am on a Monday morning she yells at us to take the bins out)
Timers so I don't forget stuff on the hob

I don't.
Too many security issues.

Big brothers ears .... donate or gift but don't plug it in 😱

Daily news update
Weather report
Timers for cooking
Listening to the radio
Listening to music

I'm in my 30s, but not sure it makes any difference

Listen to music, set timers, ask random questions, check the weather

Switching the lights on and off

My 77 year old father loves his.

He has the smart plugs/lights, so turns them off and on. This is actually surprisingly useful after he had a knee op and was less mobile.

Plays music.

Plays YouTube on the TV.

Weather, news, traffic updates.

Does guided meditations.

Random questions whilst watching TV. (IE who played so and so in so and so).

Settles debates!

Listens to audio books.

I was quite sceptical about it but he really loves it.

Radio/music
Weather
Shopping lists
8yo DS asks it to help with his spelling and sums ( not sure that's how he's supposed to do his homework)

Ours is very underused - it's mainly an expensive way for the kids to play George Ezra and Puff the Magic Dragon 🙄

You can set up playlists with your favourite music via Amazon Music - I prefer this to just asking for a particular singer because she never seems to play exactly the songs you're thinking of!

I'd like to use mine more for appointments/diary but when I bought it a year or so ago the functionality for that wasn't great.

Handy for drop-in calls on friends/relatives with Alexa's, maybe?

Ooh I know what I use it most for! "Alexa, what is 2/3 of a cup of X ingredient equivalent to?"

Music
Radio
Alarm clock
Sleep sounds
Reminders
Timers
Games
News
Weather
Jokes
Simons Cat noises
Mystery Sound
Contacting each other room to room without bellowing (lazy)
Heads or Tails to make decisions (or pick a random number)
Audio books
Recipes
Calculations

Sorry to hijack here OP but do the dots run on mains or batteries? I want one for audio books but it has to work in a room without electricity.

Mum's 80. She uses it for radio- it's great if you like to change the channels a lot.

Time, alarms, kitchen timer.
Weather forecast.
If you have several they can call different rooms, or allow a conversation in different rooms.

They can make wifi phone calls. We haven't explored this yet, I just call my son on the top floor of the house!

DS24 listens to music.
DH listens to audible books.

I do all that plus shopping lists, reminders, asking for conversions, spellings, trivia etc.

@lootsharks they work off the mains.

Why the focus on age? Are you assuming 60 year olds are not using this stuff?

I'm 61 and I've worked with computers since 1985 (still have an original Apple Mac in my collection). I don't use Alexa as I've no need to - my house electrics, heating etc are already controlled by an app, and I have a network of 4 computers in the house.

im just over 60 use mine for planet rock and playing random tracks by my favourite artistes

Radio
Music generally
Timer for cooking

We love ours & have one in the kitchen & bedroom.

News- you have to pick which you want via the app. I recommend sky and the telegraph as they have actual newsreaders. The Guardian one is just Alexa reading out the front page, essentially.
Playing the radio- Alexa, play BBC4
Setting timers in the kitchen (it can run multiple ones simultaneously)
Checking the weather over the next day or so, or the temperature outside
Setting reminders
Creating shopping lists
Playing music (ask her to play country music, for example, or classical music for a relaxing bath- she's got a number of playlists)
Play nature sounds (if you ask her to loop them she will play repeatedly for four hours)
Lots of stuff. And if you get more than one, you can use it to communicate between ground floor and first floor without shouting.

You can buy battery bases for the Echo but not sure how long they last: www.amazon.co.uk/Battery-Base-Amazon-Echo-Generation-Charcoal/dp/B07NF22Q1X?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

That was @lootsharks !

Timing the perfect dippy egg

That's what I use mine for and I am not too shy of 60

@Boopear

You can buy battery bases for the Echo but not sure how long they last: ]]

thanks, I'll have a look.