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1 JAN 2018 · Today I talk about how I can control my Amazon Fire TV with my Alexa Device, and I try out Firefox on Fire TV

22 DEC 2017 · Amazon Music News: Goodbye Music Storage - Hello Hits By Location - Waking Up to Music Amazon quietly announced this week it’s retiring its Amazon Music Storage subscription plans, with plans to completely disallow playing or downloading songs from the service starting in January 2019. So in the past, you could upload your entire music catalog into Amazon and have it available to play (and for Alexa). There’s a long grace period before access to your music is permanently disabled, however. The tracks you’ve already uploaded to Amazon Music will still be available until January 2019. The shutdown affects both the free storage plan, which allowed for 250 songs to be stored in the cloud, as well the paid plan – originally $25 per year – which offered cloud storage for up to 250,000 songs. MP3 files you purchased from Amazon will stay available. If you are an Amazon Music Unlimited or  Prime Music customers you can now ask Alexa to "Play the top songs in (your city" or the "hits in (your city).  Another feature is "Play More Like This." So you could say, "Alexa, play songs similar to Billy Joel" or "Play songs like Piano Man." We all know about settings alarms with Alexa, now you can have the alarm be music. The new musical alarm feature supports Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora, TuneIn, SiriusXM and iHeartRadio. Users can, through voice commands, set daily alarms for a specific song, playlist, or radio station. You could say, "Alexa wame me up at 7:30 AM to Good Morning Good Morning by The Beatles. On Amazon Music, users are supposed to be able to ask Alexa to set a musical alarm based on just a couple lyrics. Here is the example from Amazon: “Alexa, set an alarm at 7 a.m. to the song that goes ‘I'm a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride.'” I personally can get the lyric thing to work. Amazon Unlimited Music is (currently) .99 for three months then $7.99. If you have Amazon Prime you have access to 2 million Songs. Amazon Echo Buttons Get a Game The Amazon button got lost in the shuffle of all the different devices being launched at the same time earlier this year. The buttons pair to an Echo device via bluetooth, serving as gameshow buzzers. Trivial Pursuit Tap is one of the first third-party applications to take advantage of the little plastic discs, turning the smart home speaker into a makeshift, at-home, Alexa-based gameshow. Users can connect up to four of the Buttons at once, assigning different colors to each player. I think this is one of those things that once you see it in action, it could become very popular. A package of 2 buttons goes for $20 FireFox Comes to Fire TV I haven't tried this yet, but Amazon announce that firefox will now be available on which allows you to search the web (including YouTube) Full Story Things To Try With Alexa Alexa, open Fireplace Sounds." Alexa, sing a Christmas rap Alexa, sing a Christmas carol Alexa, read “The Night Before Christmas Alexa, play Christmas Sounds. Alexa, tell me a holiday limerick Alexa, tell me a football joke

3 DEC 2017 · Support the show by going to www.alexacast.com Being Careful Checking Your Orders with Alexa Currently, when I ask Alexa for an update on my orders she tells me when an item should arrive including the item's name. This may not be a good thing as at times Alexa needs to whisper sometimes (and she hasn't been programmed for that). You can go into your app and turn of the ability for her to announce the name. Go to: Settings > Notifications >Shopping Notifications (from there you can set product names on/off News: Alexa is headed for the workplace.  The WSJ reports that Alexa for Business will also give enterprise users the opportunity to build apps and skills for calendar management, meeting room scheduling and ordering supplies. The introduction of Alexa for Business also presents an opportunity to let users access business information on their phones or outside of the building using the Alexa app on their phone. In the future, you may be able to schedule a virtual meeting with the sales team that is delivered to everyone's device. You could drop into your manager's office (or vice versa). Full Story Alexa Control Hulu, NBC, Bravo on Fire TV This feature lets you ask Alexa to “watch,” “play,” “pause,” “rewind,” “fast forward,” and more. It can also take you to an individual show, network, or specific genre of programming. Before, Alexa could control Amazon’s own video content in this fashion. But now the same voice commands work with third-party apps like Hulu, NBC, Bravo, and others that quietly launched voice support last week, including Showtime, Sony PlayStation Vue, and CBS All Access. Showtime Anytime will add the functionality soon, Amazon says. Echo Dot and FireStick Best Selling Item on Amazon Echo Dot and Amazon Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote were not only the best-selling Amazon devices during this sales holiday, but they were also the best-selling products from any manufacturer in any category on Amazon. It is estimated that there were millions of Alexa Devices sold over the holiday weekend. Alexa will be arriving in Australia and New Zealand at some unspecified point in early 2018. Full Story

26 NOV 2017 · There are some great deals on Alexa enabled items where you can save up to $50. These end on Cyber Monday 11/27 at midnight. Echo Dots are $29 (normally $50) The New Echo with Improved sound is $79 Echo Plus that comes with a philips bulb is $120 For all the great deals see http://amzn.to/2iSR2oD (aff li

18 NOV 2017 · See full notes at www.alexacast.com/32 This week we have Alexa take a look at Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for? When was the first Thanksgiving? Give me a Thanksgiving Haiku? Tell me a Vegetable Joke? MOre great conversions (Gigabytes to Megabytes) It's Turkey Time! Am I Naughty or Nice (multiple answers) Christmas Facts Skill Who is hosting Saturday Night Live Alex Let's shop Oprah's Favorite Things? Canada Now Gets Alexa!

13 NOV 2017 · What's Up Alexa? Today we learn a way go get a quick update (alexa, What's up) How to get a 7-day forecast (Alexa what's the 7-day forecast?) Best Buy Deals Use the Best Buy skill to: - Hear and purchase deals from Best Buy's Deal of the Day - Research products and get recommendations - Learn about our return policy Alexa asked me if I wanted to buy each deal. On days where there are a lot of deals, this could be very annoying. More information A Love Song Alexa, sing me a love song." Support the show at www.alexacast.com

31 OCT 2017 · How to Make Music Groups Work I was having an issue after creating a music group (Go to Smart Home in the Alexa App > Groups > Add Group I talked about this in a previous episode that you can use Spotify with this feature, but you can use the following: Amazon Music Unlimited (Individual plan or Family plan) Prime Music Amazon Music Some third-party music providers I found out one of the third party features is iHeart Radio and Pandora Once enabled, say, "Play [music selection] on [group name]," to play your music on the selected devices. Amazon has a TON of built-in playlists for those on Amazon Prime. I might start checking these out.  The bad news is Alexa won't play one of your custom playlists.  Using Alexa Routines I was excited when I heard about Alex routines. This is where you could say one command and Alexa would do multiple items.  For example, I have one called "Start My Day" it turns on my bedroom light, give's me the weather, and plays my news brief.  This is good, but that's just about everything Alexa will do. She can control smart home devices, tell you about traffic, weather, and the news. I was really hoping she could tell me my calendar and then start a random song from a playlist.  You can have routines set up to be voice activated or be activated by a timed event. For example, you could have it kick off weekdays a 7:30 am.  Alexa Has a Spooky Song As Halloween is tomorrow, ask Alexa to sing a spooky song. 

24 OCT 2017 · One of the great things about the Amazon Echo is it is constantly getting smarter. Today we talk about two new features being added to the Amazon Alexa platform. Amazon Echo Custom Lists Comes to Alexa Alexa comes built in with a shopping list and a todo list. Now you can create your own lists. For example, you can create a list for a certain store (i.e. Walmart). You could have a certain project (packing for vacation). To use the new feature, you’ll say, “Alexa, create a list.” And Alexa will then prompt you to the name the list. The list, once created, is saved in the Alexa companion mobile app for easy access. Alexa Now Recognizes Different Voices Amazon will is rolling out customized voice detection. That means users in multi-person homes will be able to get individualized experiences, based on voice recognition. So each user gets their personalized shopping list, music selections and the like. At launch, the feature is compatible with Flash Briefings, shopping, Amazon Music’s family plan and Alexa to Alexa calling, adding the name of the specific user to incoming calls. Using the mobile app, users select “Your Voice” in settings and then walk through a series of demo commands to familiarize the software with your voice. Full instructions can be found on Amazon’s help page. Support the show by clicking this affiliate to shop at Amazon http://amzn.to/2zmkGbv

21 OCT 2017 · Today we talk about sharing yoru echo with the family, getting Alexa in the Car, and a cool app for older folks. See alexacast.com/19Click to view: show page on Awesound