Interesting Little Nugget For Kindle Tablet Owners.

[mawnansmiff]

A couple of days ago I noticed a new icon appear on the top left of my Kindle Fire 10 tablet. Rather like a box within a box I had never seen it before so I clicked on it out of curiosity. Nothing actually happened other than the words "Alexa Accessories" dropped down from the top.
I was aware of the Amazon 'Echo' and 'Dot' devices that use Alexa as the voice command to get such devices to do things such as turning on the kettle, dimming the lights etc but I don't have nor desire to have any of these intrusive devices so tried to delete the annoying icon and searched the web for instructions to so do.
Long story short, it turns out that the latest software update that auto downloaded included the interactive Alexa feature and now I have read up on it I understand it a little more and it really is a blast.
Basically it responds to spoken commands such as "what day is it?", "how far away is Sheffield", "what is the weather like in New York" (flash flooding expected with overcast skies and thunderstorms) and the like. It actually is quite fun to play with, I asked where my (none existing) dog is and was told "It will come home when it's hungry"......what a scream.
It does have useful features though such as for example, requesting a three hour ten minute countdown timer (for an eBay auction perhaps), it will play radio stations on command, read podcasts to you, heck, you can even get it to tell you a story!
I'm sure there's much, much more to be found and I'm having fun doing just that, so if you have a Kindle tablet (5th generation or higher) look out for that little icon on the top left and then have some fun.
Regards,
Jay.
PS: Asking Alexa how old she is, where she was born and if she is sexy brings forth hilarious answers!

 

[mikethompson]

Something similar was available on my friends iPhone. Its answer when asked "explain the plot of Inception to me" was hilarious.
it is a dream in a dream in a dream or something, I don't know, I fell asleep

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

And here I was thinking it was glitch! :rofl: I tried getting rid of it by turning off the Kindle Fire and restarting and that didn't help either. Thanks for the heads up, Jay.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Anthony, Amazon are working on a fix to remove the icon as it is indeed a glitch that it stays there.
BTW, to get the Alexa thing to work, simply go to 'Settings', then 'Device' then simply throw the switch by the word 'Alexa'.
Go for it, it really is great fun and quite useful.
Regards,
Jay.

 

[mrenglish]

Ah, that makes sense. I wondered what that was and why my Kindle was telling me Alexa accessories were available. After the incident here in the states I decided to not use Alexa.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I have had six Kindles since they first came out. All of them seem to completely stop working if I don't use them for over a month. I am nit sure whether the battery quits or if there is something else going on. But, they are completely unresponsive to anything I have tried. But, my kids keep buying them for me every other Christmas for some reason. I think that they are just tired of me having a room full of books.
When I hear someone talk about Alexa, I think of this... it cracks me up every time.

If HAL 9000 was Alexa

 

[mawnansmiff]

"After the incident here in the states I decided to not use Alexa."
What incident would that be Mr. English?
Michael, I have one of the early 'Paper White' 7" devices that though I don't use it anymore I do occasionally charge it up. It appears to be fully functional after about ten years.
By the way, hilarious clip that was Michael!
Regards,
Jay.

 

[mrenglish]

There was an incident where Alexa was passing on the conversations of one family to another family in a different state here in the US. They said it was a glitch but the fact Alexa is even capable of doing this kind of bothered me.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I had a hilarious response last night when I asked Alexa if Unicorns were real... try it. And was surprised when I asked Alexa to sing me a song.... Alexa sang me a song and didn't sound half bad either. Asking what she looked like was replied with "a bunch of 1s and 0s. Other fun responses came from asking what Alexa's favorite movie, or favorite books were, and how old Alexa was. :rofl:

 

[mawnansmiff]

"There was an incident where Alexa was passing on the conversations of one family to another family in a different state here in the US."
MrEnglish, actually what you refer to was an incident involving a different device where 'Alexa' is always listening.
What I am talking about here, one has to press and hold the 'Home' button afore asking a question, this means my Kindle isn't always listening, much safer methinks.
Anthony, I did the ask to sing me a song thing and the lyrics were a hoot!
Regards,
Jay.

 

[elguapo]

"Alexa, tell me bad poetry" is pretty fun, there are several different ones.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I hadn't thought to ask Alexa to read me poetry. I'll have to try that. I did ask Alexa to tell me a story, and a scary story. Fun times :lol:

 

[mso489]

That's an interesting evolution for Kindle. My wife gave me a Kindle some years ago, but I'm just too fixated on paper (books). However, a friend gave my wife a Amazon/Alexa device, and we use it for an alarm clock and for sampling music and pulling in selected radio stations out of our area, etc. So I can't escape the long arm of digital technology. Hal has his arm around our shoulders and his hand in our pockets big time. (Hal is the wayward computer in the movie "2001.") "I haven't been myself lately," is Hal's famous line.