Joseph Moran - Hacks for Alexa: An Unofficial Guide to Settings, Linking Devices, Reminders, Shopping, Video, Music, Sports, and More

Copyright 2019 by Joseph Moran.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Racehorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Racehorse Publishing is a pending trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019912318

Cover artwork credit: Amazon.com

Cover design credit: Brian Peterson

Print ISBN: 978-1-63158-530-2

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-63158-533-3

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Is it like Google that you can talk to? This question was posed to me not all that long ago by client who wanted to know what Alexa, Amazons artificial intelligence virtual assistant, was all about before deciding whether it was something worth looking into.

Although my clients impression of Alexa wasnt exactly incorrect, it was certainly incomplete, because Alexa can be so much more than simply a voice-activated search engine. Plus, for the record, you can talk to Google from any PC or mobile device (note the microphone icon on the right side of Googles search box) and Google offers its own virtual assistant called Google Assistant.

Ive also had numerous other clients, not to mention various friends, family, and neighbors, frequently pepper me with similar questions about what, exactly, Alexa is and what it can do for them.

Hacks for Alexa aims to answer those questions.

If youve had any exposure to Alexa before, in person or even just from a TV commercial, youre probably aware that Alexa can answer questions such as Whats the temperature outside? Whats a synonym for happy? or How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon? So, in fact, on a basic level, Alexa is a lot like having someone who knows a lot of stuffor at least can Google things for you very quicklyat your beck and call.

You may or may not also know that Alexa can fulfill all kinds of peculiar and/or whimsical requestsfor example, to tell a joke, roll a 20-sided die (or a 20,000-sided one for that matter), or make farting noises. But while asking Alexa to provide general information or perform parlor tricks can certainly be useful and entertaining, using Alexa this way only scratches the surface of its capabilities.

Hacks for Alexa doesnt set out to be a comprehensive guide to everything you can possibly do with Alexa. Alexas abilities are vast and constantly growing, so no book could realistically hope to accomplish that. But precisely because Alexa can do so many things, its not always clear what its capable of and how to best take advantage of it. Thats where this book comes in.

The goal of this book is to serve as a handy reference to enhancing your lifestyle with Alexa. Well spend some time exploring how Alexa works behind the scenes and reviewing the different kinds of Alexa-enabled devices that are available. (Alexa-enabled devices are those that you can talk to Alexa through.) Then well explore various handy, and often overlooked, ways Alexa can help you organize, simplify, automate, and enhance your daily life.

In this book, you wont learn how to hack Alexa, but you will learn ways to use Alexa to hack and improve your lifestyle. These include how to:

Keep organized via lists, timers, reminders, and alarms

Check your email and manage your calendar

Make and receive voice (or video) calls with other Alexa users, plus call landline and mobile phones

Use Alexa as a home intercom

Find out what traffic is like on your commute

Get detailed local weather information

Play music in any room of your home (or in every room)

Make Amazon purchases using your voice and let you know when shipments are on the way or have been delivered

Use the foundation of a modern smart home, providing voice control of lights and other connected devices

Have Alexa listen for trouble or potential intruders when youre away from home

Make Alexa kid-friendly

Manage your privacy

And much more

Here are a couple of important things to remember as you read this book:

Although Alexa has an ostensibly female name and female voice, were not going to refer to Alexa as she, but rather as it. Although it can be easy to forget sometimes, Alexa, of course, isnt a real person or female, but a genderless artificial intelligence.

Alexa is constantly receiving new and improved features, so theres a chance that certain things may look or work a bit differently than we describe in this book because of changes made to Alexa since the book went to press.

Thanks very much for buying Hacks for Alexa . I hope you find it useful.

ALEXA BASICS

Alexa, Amazons voice-operated virtual assistant, which uses artificial intelligence to respond to questions and commands, is useful not simply because of the things it can do; much of what Alexa can do can often be done from a PC or a smartphone app. Alexas utility and appeal lies mostly in the fact that you can interact with it almost entirely by voice, and do so conversationally, much as you would with a real human being. The ability to get things done by voice rather than by typing and tapping can save a lot of time and effort (not to mention keep your hands free for other tasks), which explains Alexas significant and growing popularity.

At the beginning of 2019, Amazon reported that the Echo Dotone of several Alexa-enabled devices the company makeswas its best-selling product worldwide in 2018 (this includes products Amazon sells but doesnt make itself). So, if youve recently become an Alexa user or are thinking about becoming one, youve got a lot of company.

HOW ALEXA WORKS

You dont need to know exactly how an automobiles engine works to drive one, and similarly, you dont necessarily need to know the details of how Alexa works in order to use it. But when youre planning to add an artificially intelligent virtual assistant to your daily life, its helpful to have a basic understanding of what Alexa is and what goes on under the hood.

To best understand what Alexa is, it helps to understand what its not, and its not simply a device that you buyat least not entirely.

If youre of a certain age, you may remember the seventies-era Charlies Angels TV show (and subsequent movies), in which detective agency owner Charlie was never there in person. Rather, he ran things from some distant locale and so always communicated with his angels (and they with him) via a speakerphone box sitting on a desk.

Alexa works a lot like Charlies speakerphone box in that youre talking to someone (or in this case, something) far away, and that Alexa-enabled device sitting on your end table or kitchen counter isnt really Alexa, but rather a conduit to Alexa.