I got a new toy for Christmas.
My parents gifted me an Amazon Echo Dot. I didn’t really know what that was at the time, but my brother was there to capture the moment.
Turns out it’s a virtual assistant thing – like Siri, only it’s in your house and if you want you can connect it to your lights, garage, fan, heater…
I’m a little worried this thing might kill me in my sleep someday. Do you think it follows Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics?
I haven’t connected it to all the things because that would take all the money, but there are plenty of other things you can do with it.
You can do research.
(I should probably ask it how to hide a body – for writerly research. I swear.)
It can tell jokes – not great jokes, but you might get lucky and land on a funny one.
It can play music.
It can read your kindle books to you.
It can help you and your Canadian friends understand each other.
It can solve age-old mysteries.
And help you feel nostalgic, in light of current events.
And after all the nostalgia, it can help you cope.
It can even settle hot debates.
It can also tell you the weather, send your dictated grocery list to your phone, and…I don’t know, teach you kung fu, probably. I’ve found it especially helpful for when I need to skip songs with naughty words in them when the kids are around. “Alexa, skip!”
I just got my Echo Dot connected yesterday, so if you have this device, how have you found it useful? Do you have any tips for me?
Allison Maruska 
I’ve heard it is programmed to ignore all of its commercials on tv, but haven’t yet seen whether or not that’s true.
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How funny! I only watch shows I’ve recorded on the DVR (ergo, no commercials). That’s why I didn’t know what the thing was when I got it. I’ll have to find one of the commercials and try it out.
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Howdy Allison!
I’d be careful with hooking that thing to all your household appliances because it really could kill you. I lived in South Korea for ten years, and they firmly believe that if you fall asleep on a hot day in a closed room (doors and windows) with a fan on, it will kill you. One summer day, you’ll be taking a nap and that there dot thing will switch your fan on and BOOM no more Allison. Seriously. I’d be careful with that thing.
Huzzah!
Jack
PS Thanks for this post. I’ve been wondering what the whole dot thing was but amazon just seems to assume you know. On the other hand, do you think your folks knew what it was before they got it for you? Do you think they didn’t know what else to get you so they got you the latest gadget? I don’t know this whole dot thing is really getting depressing between fan death and oh-I-give-up presents. Sorry.
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I think they got it because “I like tech stuff.” LOL
They have a friend who has one so they’ve seen it in action. And I will follow your advice to not connect it to the fan. 😉
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Serious danger that is. I’m glad I didn’t open your eyes to the awful truth or anything then. I hate it when that happens to me.
Huzzah!
Jack
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Ask it to tell you a Star Wars joke. That’s always a real pleaser for my kiddo.
Oh and did you know it can set multiple cooking timers for you and keep track of them all?
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Ha! Love the Star Wars jokes.
And I wondered about the timers! Thanks for the tip.
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