The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169615   Message #4100368
Posted By: DaveRo
02-Apr-21 - 03:04 AM
Thread Name: BS: Amazon Alexa
Subject: RE: BS: Amazon Alexa
I recently bought an Amazon Firestick Lite so I could watch online concerts on my TV (as discussed in this thread). Is has voice control, as SRS mentioned, I don't know if it's the 'full Alexa'. I've never had or wanted an Alexa speaker; my daughter has one and I find it creepy to have an always-on microphone in the house.

Anyway, the Firestick microphone is in the remote control and there's a button to activate it. Amazon's online help (there's a pdf instruction booklet but you have to pay for it!) says the microphone is only on when you push the button, but some people claim this 'obviously' isn't true. I've read how to disable the microphone - with a drill! My firestick is not usually powered up, so it's not listening.

(You can connect a bluetooth keyboard and mouse to a Firestick BTW. Makes entering browser URLs easier. )