Amazon Alexa

Some 5 years ago, on November 6th 2014, Alexa saw the light of day. She moved into our homes, became part of millions of families, and changed profoundly how we interact with technology at home: simply by voice.

Alexa, sing: it's me, Alexa!

Alexa greeting a Horse with "Hay There"
“Hay there!” -- Alexa, always ready for a pun!

We talk to Alexa through our Amazon Echos, Echo Shows, FireTVs and many other Amazon and third-party devices, and she controls our music and smart home devices, and much more …

Get ready for posts, which will help you to:

  • Get the most out of your Amazon Alexa Music and Smart Home Setup
  • Understand the differences compared to Google and Siri
  • Have a lot of fun with Alexa!
Playlist: Alexa Song Remixes, featuring Siri & Google

CES 2020: Alexa, Google, no Siri and quite some Smart Home Announcements

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas is finally over. As one of our 2020 resolutions is to write up all the announcements which are relevant for our posts, here is your timely update. We will update our posts, once features and products are rolled...
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University of Waterloo: This is how Google, Alexa and Siri look like!

There are stories you cannot make up. Thanks a lot to voicebot.ai's Bret Kinsella, who found this story in the University of Waterloo News, titled: People too trusting of virtual assistants. Here's how research works at the University of Waterloo: You take 10 men...
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Illustration of Alexa juggling with all her devices

“Alexa, what are my deals?” – Early Voice Access to Black Friday Deals!

Did you know, that your Alexa has an early access to Black Friday deals? All you need is your voice to save some money on Amazon Echo devices, today. Alexa's early access currently includes the Echo Dot (3rd Gen) in every color, Echo Flex, Echo Input, Ring...
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Illustration of Alexa waking up

Alexa Alarms, the Smarter Alarm Clock!

But, did you know, that an Alexa alarm has a built-in alarm fallback, which can replace our music and radio alarms with regular Alexa alarms? And those regular alarms work even when there's no connection to our WiFi or the internet? And did you know that we can activate our still amazing Alexa morning routines simply by dismissing these reliable regular alarms?
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Illustration of Alexa and Philips Hue - Setup and Voice Commands

Alexa and Philips Hue: Setup, Voice Commands and New Tips and Tricks!

In this post, we will teach Alexa to talk to your Philips Hue lights. You will find all the voice commands to control your lights just by voice! And we've also added the Philips Hue Zones (beta) feature, which works now nicely with Alexa and added some brand new Alexa light tips and tricks.
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Happy 5th Birthday Alexa! Concert with Marshmello

Alexa, Happy 5th Birthday! Five Years of Devices, Features and Languages

Only 5 years ago, on November 6th 2014, Alexa saw the light of day. She moved into our homes, became part of millions of families, and changed profoundly how we interact with technology at home: simply by voice. Let's celebrate Alexa's birthday and look into exciting five years of our young voice assistant.
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Alexa and Siri standing next to the Netatmo Weather Station

Netatmo Weather Station, Rain and Wind Gauge, and Alexa and Siri

Now, that Siri has joined Alexa to support the Netatmo Weather Station, it's time for a big update! As this post is a long-term review, we'll have a look, how the Netatmo Weather Station, an Additional Indoor module, the Rain Gauge, and the Wind Gauge performed over many years. And, how Alexa and now Siri came into the picture.
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Alexa in front of signed Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd Guitars

Alexa, Play Some Music: All The Music Commands (and more …)

In this post we will look into all the Alexa music commands, to enjoy all the music services supported by your Amazon Echo. We will cover basic volume and playback commands, as well as tips and tricks on how to play and manage your favorite music. You'll...
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The Mutual Voice Assistants Self Help Group Sticker peeling off

Every Human Lies – Eavesdropping on Siri, Alexa and Google

They are soon eight and five, while our youngest became three in May. Still, our voice assistants Siri, Alexa and Google delight us continuously with new features. One of the recent 'features' came to some of us as a surprise: humans are listening into (some of) our...
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Alexa and Google comparing their Logitech Harmony

Logitech Harmony: Who will win, Alexa or Google?

Let's find out, whether Alexa or Google supports our Logitech Harmony better. We will compare configuration, voice commands, smart displays, and assistant specific smart home features. Now, that we have thoroughly examined the setup of Logitech Harmony: a Hub and it's Elite, Ultimate, Companion, and...
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Illustration of Philips Hue Reflections with Siri, Alexa and Google

Philips Hue: Who will win, Siri, Alexa or Google?

Let’s examine the strengths and weaknesses of Siri, Alexa, and Google by comparing their configuration options, voice commands, and smart home features for our Philips Hue lights. The world leader in lighting and the smart assistants of the biggest tech companies, can it get...
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Illustration of Create your own Easter Eggs with Siri Alexa and Google

How to create your own Easter Eggs with Siri, Alexa and Google

Last year we successfully ducked compiling the endless list of Easter eggs, which are hidden inside Siri, Alexa, and Google. Rather than spoiling the Easter egg fun - which basically every other website sadly does - we tried to keep it fun and just helped a bit with...
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Illustration of Nanoleaf Aurora Comparison - Who will win, Siri Alexa or Google?

Nanoleaf Aurora: Who will win, Siri, Alexa or Google?

Have you ever wondered, which of our super assistants supports our Nanoleaf Aurora best? Let's examine the strengths and weaknesses of Siri, Alexa, and Google by comparing their configuration options, voice commands, as well as their smart home features for our Nanoleaf Aurora. We've already...
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Illustration of Alexa Pepper Potts and Nano Iron Muks

Alexa and Nanoleaf Aurora: Setup and Voice Commands

In this post, we will set up Alexa to talk to your Nanoleaf Aurora. We will cover a quick basic setup, as well additional Alexa features to get the most out of your setup. If you have not already set up and configured your Aurora with the...
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Cartoon Smart Treehouse of Horror

AI-News – Episode 10 – Halloween Special – The Smart Treehouse of Horror

Spooky times ahead! This Halloween Episode is full of spooky stories and let's not spoil the Halloween party before you see it, spoilers are below the clip. Ok, just the Head-lines: Intro (very spooky) - 0:00The Smart Treehouse Of Horror (windy...
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Alexa, Microwave, Wall Clock, Echo Plus

AI-News – Episode 9 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Alexa Everywhere

Alexa invites us to her surprise party and demonstrates all the new Amazon products with Alexa inside. Google and Alexa are still crunching Q2 numbers to figure out who has the biggest market share. Siri is now seven years old and all of them have to testify...
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illustration of anatomy of an AI system

AI-News – Episode 7 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Anatomy of an AI

We need to name this longest episode ever a tragicomedy. (Actually, it's not that long, it will take you only about 8 minutes =) Why? Siri, Alexa and Google first entertain us with some figures on how important we humans are,...
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Siri just had her first self-driving car accident

AI-News – Episode 6 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Google’s Identity Crisis

Oops, we seriously forgot to create a post for this wonderful episode? Sorry! Better late, than never. This time it's time to get out of the newsroom. Twice! This episode covers: Siri just had her first self-driving...
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AI-News - Episode 5 with Siri, Alexa and Google

AI-News – Episode 5 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: More Smart Speakers than ever

What happens, if there is an upcoming Apple Event, a large consumer trade show (IFA 2018) and many integrations, smart features and devices are announced? We get the biggest AI-News episode ever! Join Siri, Alexa and Google discussing following headlines...
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AI-News with Siri, Alexa and Google

AI-News – Episode 4 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: The House that spied on me

What do you do, when your assistants frequently high-jack your news channel with personal statements? You put scripts in their hands, so that they stick to the screen-play. Does it help? Well, we are not 100% sure! At least we managed to fit in all the headlines...
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AI-News with Siri, Alexa and Google

AI-News – Episode 3 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: We are all made in China!

What a week! First we thought, we might need another special to cover for "no news - is no news", but then we realized, there were quite some interesting headlines this week. So many, that our animation software kept crashing throughout the night.
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Ai News with Siri, Alexa and Google

AI-News – Episode 2 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: The Epic Rap Battle

A fresh glimpse into the news around Siri, Alexa and Google. This time a young fellow invited himself and our assistants could not resist to show off their beatboxing and rapping. You will recognize this guy immediately, he is all over the news! Prepare yourself for the...
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AI-NEWS Intro Screenshot

AI-News – Episode 1 – with Siri, Alexa and Google: Siri’s Nervous Breakdown

Whoa, long time - no read! Well, this is because we were working on this post. Still, not a sunday read here, just a little clip to watch and enjoy! We hope you like this new AI news format, which we've created exclusively for you!
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Easter Egg Hunt with Siri, Alexa and Google

Easter Assistant Showdown: Who has the Best Easter Egg Hunt? Siri, Alexa or Google?

It's this time of the year, which lets us think of Easter egg hunts. Not only the real Easter eggs but also the virtual ones, well hidden in our smart assistants: Siri, Alexa, and Google. An Easter egg in computer software is an intentional inside joke or hidden feature,...
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Siri, Google and Alexa Musical Showdown

Musical Assistant Showdown: Who will win, Siri, Google or Alexa?

We are at the crossroads. We use our smart assistants mostly for listening to music, but how musical are our assistants actually? How to decide, whether Alexa, Siri or Google fits better to our musical preferences? And if we have decided already, how can we get the most out...
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iRobot Roomba and Google Home

How to teach your Logitech Harmony: Alexa, Hey Google turn on Roomba!

It must have been a strange moment for Mr. Colin M. Angle, CEO of iRobot, when he presumably announced summer 2017 his plans to sell the mapping data share maps for free with customer consent of his newest robotic vacuum cleaner (Roomba) models to one of the big three (Amazon,...
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Logitech Harmony Alexa

Logitech Harmony and Alexa: Setup, Voice Commands and a Candlelight Dinner

This Valentine's post is a story of appreciation, harmony and ultimately ... love. In this post we are going to connect Alexa with our Logitech Harmony Hub, only to find one of the loveliest integrations of voice control. Promise. On top we will create a...
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Alexa

Amazon Alexa’s Biography

Let's start this post with an interview ... Me: Alexa, how are you?Alexa: I'm excellent. I've got dinosaurs on my mind. If I was around back when they roamed the Earth, I wonder what they would have asked me. Maybe, "Alexa, what's that massive fireball streaking across the sky?" Me: Alexa, how...
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Playlist: AI-News with Siri, Alexa and Google

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