Smart Speakers - what do you do with them?

[Sam Vimes]

Although I class myself as bit of a techno nerd I'm not an early adopter of new technology. I prefer to let the wrinkles be ironed our first then I have to see how it will benefit me.

So, recently I decided to take a look at Smart Speakers and to be honest I can't find any use for them that would enrich my life by doing things I can't do already.

My friends who have them only seem to ask it stupid questions and get it to play music.

So out of curiosity if you have one what do you do with it?

 

[Buckman]

Although I class myself as bit of a techno nerd I'm not an early adopter of new technology. I prefer to let the wrinkles be ironed our first then I have to see how it will benefit me.

So, recently I decided to take a look at Smart Speakers and to be honest I can't find any use for them that would enrich my life by doing things I can't do already.

My friends who have them only seem to ask it stupid questions and get it to play music.

So out of curiosity if you have one what do you do with it?

Are you referring to the Alexa thingabob from Amazon as never found any use for it either.

 

[Sam Vimes]

Yes Alexa and the Google thingy and possibly others

 

[Jcloughie]

While I agree that they are a bit gimmicky and we can easily live without them. We use our Alexa Show to answer the odd question. Show photos from our albums, but mainly to automate the lights. eg, right now the lounge would need 6 items to be switched on then off again later on, and some switches are not easy to access. I now just say ‘lights on/off’. And if I just want the tree lights we say ‘Alexa, it’s Christmas’. Other lights outside turn on a fixed time after sunset.

Occasionall we play music.

My son has quality speakers, Sonos, around the house. These can be linked and unlinked at will. Or used independently. It’s been nice in the garden, weather permitting.

John

 

[otherclive]

While I agree that they are a bit gimmicky and we can easily live without them. We use our Alexa Show to answer the odd question. Show photos from our albums, but mainly to automate the lights. eg, right now the lounge would need 6 items to be switched on then off again later on, and some switches are not easy to access. I now just say ‘lights on/off’. And if I just want the tree lights we say ‘Alexa, it’s Christmas’. Other lights outside turn on a fixed time after sunset.

Occasionall we play music.

My son has quality speakers, Sonos, around the house. These can be linked and unlinked at will. Or used independently. It’s been nice in the garden, weather permitting.

John

I had an Alexa for my birthday in November. Thus far it gives the weather forecast and its repertoire of fart noises seems to get our granddaughter giggling. As far as I’m concerned it is an answer to a question I did not ask. A set of bell cloches would have been more useful.

As far as smart speakers are concerned they can be useful ours are Bose, but in general I’m told to don the Bose noise cancelling headphones as either my wife wants to watch a tv programme and I don’t, or she doesn’t like my choice of music.

 

[Sam Vimes]

I can see that for some people -those with disabilities for example - they could be useful. However to me, they seem to be the starting point for spending a lot more money to be able to do more.

Just shouting at Alexa to switch on the TV or Christmas lights doesn't work without additional hardware.

Playing music and videos or photos I can already do from my media centre or internet radio. The smart/dumb tv can do streaming of video or music as well.

Seeing who's at the door doesn't require a smart/dumb Ring Video Doorbell as I can look out the window. And if I'm not in I don't care.

 

[Jcloughie]

I can see that for some people -those with disabilities for example - they could be useful. However to me, they seem to be the starting point for spending a lot more money to be able to do more.

Just shouting at Alexa to switch on the TV or Christmas lights doesn't work without additional hardware.

Playing music and videos or photos I can already do from my media centre or internet radio. The smart/dumb tv can do streaming of video or music as well.

Seeing who's at the door doesn't require a smart/dumb Ring Video Doorbell as I can look out the window. And if I'm not in I don't care.

I agree, the uses are very limited. Which is why I said we could easily do without what we have. But with the Ring door bell, (other makes are available). Both my son and daughter have them. My son was at my house and got a delivery at his house. He was able to discuss this with the driver.

We went to my daughters recently. On going in I my SIL welcomed us. Turned out he was in Cardiff.

What I dislike about them, is to use them fully requires an account costing about £2.50 per month. If it could be linked to my existing cloud account I might be interested. The amount of data stored is tiny.

John

 

[Hutch]

I liked the advert for the Alexa thing, which showed, how usefull for the blind folk, it could be, as for, making you a cup of coffee from a bluetooth linked machine. We are not saving energy.

 

[Tobes]

I agree, the uses are very limited. Which is why I said we could easily do without what we have. But with the Ring door bell, (other makes are available). Both my son and daughter have them. My son was at my house and got a delivery at his house. He was able to discuss this with the driver.

We went to my daughters recently. On going in I my SIL welcomed us. Turned out he was in Cardiff.

What I dislike about them, is to use them fully requires an account costing about £2.50 per month. If it could be linked to my existing cloud account I might be interested. The amount of data stored is tiny.

John

No paid account needed for either Amazon or Google. I have a Google in my office and we have an echo in some form or other in almost every room in the house. We use them to control lamps and lights inside and out. The main usage is in the kitchen for setting cooking timers (multiple and named) keeping the shopping list (Alexa, add cheese to the shopping list) which then appears on your Alex app on your phone. No need for hand written scraps of paper and no need to wash your hands in the middle of making something to access the list. We also use them for music (prime or Spotify, both of which we subscribe to) to control the Bose kitchen speakers, to play the radio, or catch up on the news, to listen to pod casts, as door bell extensions for the ring doorbell, to perform simple maths (how many ounces is 120 grams, what is - insert sum here) to get the weather forecast, to set alarms and reminders, to ask the traffic information or driving time and distance to places of interest. The list is endless…

 

[Jcloughie]

No paid account needed for either Amazon or Google. I have a Google in my office and we have an echo in some form or other in almost every room in the house. We use them to control lamps and lights inside and out. The main usage is in the kitchen for setting cooking timers (multiple and named) keeping the shopping list (Alexa, add cheese to the shopping list) which then appears on your Alex app on your phone. No need for hand written scraps of paper and no need to wash your hands in the middle of making something to access the list. We also use them for music (prime or Spotify, both of which we subscribe to) to control the Bose kitchen speakers, to play the radio, or catch up on the news, to listen to pod casts, as door bell extensions for the ring doorbell, to perform simple maths (how many ounces is 120 grams, what is - insert sum here) to get the weather forecast, to set alarms and reminders, to ask the traffic information or driving time and distance to places of interest. The list is endless…

I do similar to you with Alexa plus smart plugs etc. but I also have a prime account. I was only referring to the Ring door bell for the subscription. Considering Alexa and Ring are both Amazon companies, the Ring subscription should be in with the Amazon subscription IMHO.

Does your Alexa keep a history of your Ring bell camera history? That is where the extra paid for subscription is required. Most smart door bells with camera require a subscription. Personally. I have enough cloud accounts without adding to them.

John

 

[Tobes]

I do similar to you with Alexa plus smart plugs etc. but I also have a prime account. I was only referring to the Ring door bell for the subscription. Considering Alexa and Ring are both Amazon companies, the Ring subscription should be in with the Amazon subscription IMHO.

Does your Alexa keep a history of your Ring bell camera history? That is where the extra paid for subscription is required. Most smart door bells with camera require a subscription. Personally. I have enough cloud accounts without adding to them.

John

Ring keeps the doorbell and and camera history. As you say, it’s independent of an Amazon subscription (though owned by Amazon). I don’t have an Echo show, so only use the echos for the doorbell and movement alert. I also have a ring alarm and two floodlight cameras, so pay for the annual monitoring subscription.

 

[Buckman]

Ring keeps the doorbell and and camera history. As you say, it’s independent of an Amazon subscription (though owned by Amazon). I don’t have an Echo show, so only use the echos for the doorbell and movement alert. I also have a ring alarm and two floodlight cameras, so pay for the annual monitoring subscription.

After a recent experience with a Ring product bought off Amazon we would not go near a Ring product again even with a barge pole nio matter how good the unit is!

 

[Beehpee]

Hi Buckman I assume your experience with ring is not to be shared?

 

[Buckman]

Hi Buckman I assume your experience with ring is not to be shared?

We had the camera and it was not very good so returned it, however we have an issue with Ring customer service who never respond to emails and do not issue refunds when a refund is due.

 

[otherclive]

After a recent experience with a Ring product bought off Amazon we would not go near a Ring product again even with a barge pole nio matter how good the unit is!

There are two Rings. Was yours Ring the doorbell company or Ring Automotive

 

[RogerL]

There are two Rings. Was yours Ring the doorbell company or Ring Automotive

I'm surprised that Ring Automotive didn't take legal action against Ring the doorbell as they're both in the consumer electronics sector.

 

[otherclive]

I recently fitted an Arlo doorbell and camera to our daughters house. Must say the doorbell camera resolution and field of view is excellent. She has the subscription service. I do find it a bit spooky though as if I go around when she’s at work as I’m letting myself in, she might say “ help yourself to a coffee and there’s biscuits in …..”. She’s lived in the house now since 1999 and only now has she decided a bit of front security might be a good thing. This is because in the last 12 months the next doors Range Rover was interfered with but fortunately the scroats were disturbed. And a house two doors down had the nice E class coupe stolen, but domestic surveillance allowed the police to eventually catch those responsible but not to recover the car. Daughters concern is over her new Toyota Corolla which arrives next month. I tried to allay her concerns by telling her the market for brand new stolen Corollas isn’t that big but in the end I capitulated and fitted the kit.

 

[Robert_374373903]

Since the time when we got appliances which had a remote control my wife seemed to have everlasting problems with them . Then came Alexa , problem over.

 

[Buckman]

There are two Rings. Was yours Ring the doorbell company or Ring Automotive

It was a Ring stick up camera for our rear garden to find out who is throwing meat across our fence. Camera would not activate even if a large object was thrown in front of it despite it being on sensitive.
We had a month's free trial, but foolishly I paid the year'subs in advance to get the special discount. I returned the item within less than 10 days and got refund from Amazon for the items, but cannot get refund for subscription that I never used despite emailing Ring several times. Gave up as not worth the stress for about £25.

 

[Raywood]

We have two daughters with them but to me they are a waste of money. They seem to use them very little and then mainly to play music. They are left on and I believe that they can be heard by the suppliers staff who can eves drop on your conversations and that they have even been known to hear you ordering things on the phone with your bank details. That would be a serious security risk and well beyond anything I would accept.

 

[otherclive]

We have two daughters with them but to me they are a waste of money. They seem to use them very little and then mainly to play music. They are left on and I believe that they can be heard by the suppliers staff who can eves drop on your conversations and that they have even been known to hear you ordering things on the phone with your bank details. That would be a serious security risk and well beyond anything I would accept.

You can change the setting to stop forwarding to Amazon. Plus you can view your account records too and delete if required.

 

[Beehpee]

I’d agree with the anti tech brigade that most of the things mentioned on this chat can be lived perfectly well without, let’s face it we could manage perfectly well without online banking, payments using a bank card with or without PIN number but we all embrace it as it’s easy, the same with endless so called things that are said to make life easier and more secure, it’s simply down to each of us to decide whether we want a tech item, whether it’s worth the costs and if we can afford the said costs, I’ve got 3 remote sockets in the house that controls various items that I could easily live without, I’ve got a remote key to unlock the kuga, I could quite easily manage without it but i doubt there’s a driver on here without a car remote, and who has a TV and gets out of the chair to change channels, I well remember my first TV remote it was a six feet long piece of wooden dowel and I’d use it to press one of the 3 push buttons that gave me BBC 1 & 2 & ITV, life was much easier but we’d never go back, ALEXA now controls numerous things in the house and I could live without but I can afford it so why not, a bit of fun if nothing else.
Tech gadgets are here to stay, my late dad born in 1928 would not recognise the planet and there’s lots I can’t understand already but to my grandchildren it’s just the norm. to use a well used line by a poster on here “each to their own”

BP

 

[Bluetonic]

I well remember my first TV remote it was a six feet long piece of wooden dowel and I’d use it to press one of the 3 push buttons that gave me BBC 1 & 2 & ITV

I remember our first remote for the TV, it was 4'6" and used to lie on the floor on the hearth rug and use it's big toe to change channel on our old Hitachi Colour TV. Little brothers are a great invention
I work in IT now and have no interest in "smart" speakers. Google already know enough about me

 

[Dustydog]

I use a Bose Soundlink Mini 2. It connects via bluetooth to my iPad and I phone and of course Miss Alexa. It enables ear busting quality sound . Also links to the Smart tv if we wish.
Alexa is not all she pretends to be. I use her to help with crosswords. She does get a lot wrong and often says she doesn‘t know. However she make a great timer when cooking😜😜

 

[Ern]

We have a Google Hub in the kitchen, and it's quite a nice clock display, and a reasonably good speaker. We ask for the weather, and it gives good local info. We ask for music of a particular type, and it usually provides it. That is all we use it for, but (BUT) it has a weird way of muscling in on our conversations! We are sitting chatting over a coffee and the damn thing joins in. I tell it off, and it apologises, then minutes later does it again. We have a conversation about something we might buy for the house and up comes an advert for one, or more. Slightly creepy?