Omg we just got Alexa

[reddressinggown]

Tell me what fun things she does

This is freaky!

Ask her to sing Happy Birthday.

Just a little bit freaky

No ta.

Whether it’s recording you or not is not the point. The point is that it has the ability to record you. Right now that’s used for marketing, but it’s becoming normalised. The potential uses for it are terrifying

"The telescreen recieved and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever the wanted to. You had to live- did live, from habit that became instinct- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.

My DS (15) puts stuff on my shopping list like dog shit, arse wipes etc then gets Alexa to play it back! He finds it hilarious, he also sets alarms at silly times too! We’ve disconnected it since 🤨

Eh, ok.

I guess you've not thought through either the legal implications or thr infrastructure required to record everyone alll the time, in the real, non fiction world?

We haven’t got Alexa, but have Siri on phone and ask regularly what is zero divided by zero! Makes our kids piss every time!

You can play trivia hero which is quite addictive!

I’ve made my son a playlist of his fave songs on amazon music and he asks Alexa to play it for him when he feels like a dance.

If you get he Alexa app you can go in their for ideas and see “what’s new”

My 5yo asked her to fart and was actually crying with laughter! When he had friends over they were asking her to count to 20 when they were playing hide and seek so they didn't have to count themselves 🙄

I agree with you @bowlofbabelfish I find the whole thing weirdly intrusive and unnecessary. Each to their own though.

Yes, lets face it - it's another toy for the kids!

My grandaughter asks it all kinds of personal stuff bout itself - it declines to answer mostly!
What's your boyfriend called?
Do you have any chocolate?
etc., etc.!!

when people say things like ‘get akinator’ what does that mean? is it like an app for alexa? my parents have an alexa and i don’t think they realise half the stuff she can do...

We play Simon Says to get her to say things about people.
Like, DS: "Simon says Daddy is silly."
Alexa: "Daddy is silly."

I also use the spelling function

It doesn’t need to record everyone all the time bluntness.

But a device that can record whenever it wants to in every home is an invasion of privacy and something that needs thinking about. It already listens for keywords - imagine a repressive state listening for the keywords it needs to identify opponents. No large scale infrastructure needed.

It’s the infrastructure of oppression. And as for how much data a state will collect - I assume you e seen ‘the lives of others.’?

Oh you buggers, now I've got mine farting like a good un (well my 12 year old has). It's going to be a long night

but what if you get your friends to act out a murder 'oh no, you killed him, we need to go and buy some bin bags and a rake' does the police get sent round? do bin bags get added to your shopping list. The temptation to talk bollocks for a giggle must be overwhelming.

Timers, weather, news headlines, alerts, singing happy birthday, asking maths questions for kids' homework but above all "Alexa, play Hamilton"
Dun dun du-dun dun DUN...

We have the echo downstairs and the dot in the bedroom. I've just figured out I can tell her to turn the heating on and I don't even have to get out of bed . We play music on it, check the weather, set alarms, add stuff to the shopping list. My son uses it to check spellings when he's doing homework and asks it to translate words into spanish , again for his work. In fact he pretty much asks it for answers to all of his home work lol

Can I play radio through Alexa

Yes you just say the name of the station and she plays it.

Bowl,I think you need to step back from the tin foil hat. If the government wished to monitor us in our own homes and record us, trust me, it wouldn't need to use a bloody echo dot, 🤣

I use mine to listen to the radio, to set timers, to check the weather forecast, to add items to my Ocado order and silly little queries like “how old is Harry Redknapp”.

DS asks it for interesting facts and jokes.

When I first got my Google Home I used to be polite ' ok Google- what time is it?' - after a year I just bark 'ok Google- time!'. If Google are using it to spy on me then good luck as all they will hear is me asking it the time, switching off my TV and lights and saying how much I hate my life.

REALLY sad question...How does Alexa work? it's on my son's kindle but do I pay extra for it? And what and how do i get it to do? Genuine question from a genuine dunce

Got 1 Saturday and I've linked it to my calendar! I love her!

i think the fact so many people refer to it as "her" and "she" is weird.
And rather unsettling.

Ojzj, only the app to control it is on your sons kindle. It's the echo or echo dot. You need to buy it from amazon. They have the second Gen dots on sale for twenty quid right now.

Basically it hooks up to your Wi-fi and then it does all the things people are talking about on here.

www.amazon.co.uk/Amazon-Echo-Dot-2nd-Gen/dp/B01DFKBL68/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=echo+dot+2nd+generation&tag=mumsnetforum-21&ie=UTF8&qid=1542655053&sr=8-1