Introducing my new houseguest… Alexa
24 Mar 2019
Dear LPG,
I am writing this on January 20th although I know that it will not be posted for a while. For Christmas my children and grandchildren bought me an Amazon echo dot and it sat on the shelf for about two weeks because I had no idea what it was or what to do with it. Did you know they were the most popular Christmas present of 2018? I had heard all about them on the television and wondered exactly what an old bloke like me would conceivably do with one.
When I received it I asked what such new technology could possibly do for me, but I soon learned. As I said, I had no idea what to do with it and the little round bit of technology sat on the shelf until my son had the time to ‘plumb it in’ for me. I am lucky, I suppose, because I have a tablet which I am learning to get on with even though I live on my own, and after about quarter of an hour of plugging and installing a new app I began to learn about the magic.
At the moment he has set it up to do two things for me. I don’t know about everybody else but I always forget to take my tablets, the medical kind, on time and so my family now have this little box reminding me three times a day to take my pills.
I also have a SAD light in my bedroom (last year’s gift) which I have never been able to use because it is mounted on the wall above my bed and I have never been able to reach the switch. So they have bought me a smart plug which works with the dot so that I can tell it to come on and off without even having to get out of bed.
I have also learned to ask it (or should I say her) some basic questions. So it will tell me the time and what the weather is like. I have seen them advertised on the telly over the past few months and written them off in my head as a gimmick that I will never need, but I have to say just being reminded about my medication makes a difference and apparently there is lots more it can do.
I am sure that, as time goes by I will learn more things that it can do for me although I don’t feel the need to have it turn on the television or make telephone calls for me yet, but even I have found a really good use for it and I have to admit to having changed my mind; now I think it is an ingenious bit of technology really, and would recommend it to anyone.
TN, Sydenham.
LPG found a basic explanation of what an amazon echo can do.
