The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169615 Message #4100266
Posted By: Stilly River Sage
01-Apr-21 - 10:16 AM
Thread Name: BS: Amazon Alexa
Subject: RE: BS: Amazon Alexa
I bought an LG ThinQ phone last year after receiving an announcement from my phone company that the towers in my area would no longer support the older OS of the phone I was using at the time. There were two unlocked models of this phone on Amazon - one with Alexa built in, one without. After determining that I didn't have to use the Alexa software on the phone, I bought that version for $100 less (some kind of Amazon promotion going on.) Nearly a year later I still don't use that Alexa, though I could to control a few things in the house. I do have two Echo dots, and I use the dot in the kitchen to listen to my Sirius XM subscription (that's another story - got it super cheap when I was about to cancel after the first super cheap introductory offer expired and this dot was offered as part of that package). I also use that to turn on and off a smart bulb that is linked to a phone app that I gave Alexa access to. The second dot is used for listening to Sirius or to radio and it lives in my sewing room, but I could also turn on that kitchen bulb from the sewing room if I wanted.
Because Jon has been talking about these recently over in the Declutter thread I gave the Amazon Fire stick (with Alexa) a test last night. I turned on the TV then pressed the speak button and said "Alexa, turn on MSNBC on Sling TV" and it did. It turned off a couple of hours later by itself before I was ready for it to do so, but the Fire sticks have always been a little glitchy so I can't say if that was Fire or Alexa acting up.