Tag: alexa

July 16, 2019
The Show 5 is wedge-shaped, like the Show, with a screen about he size of the average mobile phone. The screen is nice and bright, with a good resolution. The sound is quite wonderful, far better than the similarly sized Spot. One feature I like a lot is a physical switch in the case, which covers the camera. This is quite appropriate, as I can see this being an excellent bedside device.

April 15, 2019
January 22, 2019
My new gadgets, courtesy of the Alexa Developer Perks, arrived today. The Spot makes a darling little Alexa alarm clock, and although its reactive dimming might not quite go far enough for me on nights where even dull glows bother my sleep, I’ve found the…

October 18, 2018
A few months ago, I discovered that as well as the familiar (to me) “Alexa, what is the temperature”, which gives the outside temperature, based on something like Accuweather, I could also say “Alexa, what is the temperature inside” an be given a fairly accurate…

October 14, 2018
I’ve been playing with writing Alexa skills recently, using the Storyline tool. Storyline is great for writing scripted skills, and also has facilities for connecting to other online applications to exchange data, via JSON and simple GET/POST connections. I wrote this very simple PHP routine…

October 12, 2018