My best uses for Alexa

 

I had bought the first generation of Amazon Alexa from US in 2015. I was very excited with it and wanted to explore it more and even code some skills for it. That coding part didnt go as per plan . However, Alexa has been part of the daily life since then . I wanted to list down some cool uses i use Alexa for. 

1. I added my home and Office location and used it ask Alexa how is the traffic every day just before starting from home to office. It would give the time taken and route which helped me guess the traffic without looking at maps. 

2. I had a routine setup ( Series of commands grouped ) to list down the weather, top news on that day when i got up and taking care of morning activities. 

3. I have a 3 year toddler now and i have a lullaby playlist which i play it in loop while he sleeps and there are some outside noises. 

4. In extension to above, we use the skill " Animal sounds" where i play with my kid listening to various animal sounds . 

5. Ofcourse, listening to music from Amazon music with voice commands is the best use in addition to setting up Alarms and Timers. 

6. My best and fun usecase is playing with Smart bulb . I have a wipro smart bulb setup and we play it almost every day with commands , changing colours , brightness and on/off.

My favorite podcasts

 

Podcasts have now become part of consuming edutainment . 

My favorite ones are : 

The Seen and the Unseen by Amit Varma.

This is a national treasure . Host brings some great experts in a long format discussion around 3 hours and is a bliss every time we listen to it. There are lots of mindboggling episodes. I loved the ones with Jayaprakash Narayan, Chinmay Tumbe on Migration, Manu Pillai on his history books, the one on Kashmir, the one on Maharashtra politics , the one on CAA, the one with Ashwin Mahesh, the one with Madhavan of PRS and lots more. 

After Hours by HBR

This is my another favorite where some of the greatest minds from Harvard Business School discusses on the trends in the world and brings some interesting perspectives. They also give out some great reccos to watch and read. 

Finshots

5 minute size bytes on current economic affairs . A brilliant way of explanations that will calm down your curious brains.

Interpreting India

The episodes are of 30 mins and discusses some policy / governance implications related to India . 

Paisa Vaisa

A financial treasure to understand all the new products coming out in Indian financial space . 

ThinkFast Talk Smart

This one is from Stanford business school. Focusses on communication .

Harivillu

My latest favorite and this is in Telugu. Discusses some great topics and people from Teluguland . 

The Tech Magics

 Recently i came across the Paytm audio announcement box where it announces to the merchant that a payment has been received. This is so indigenous solution to avoid fraud , give a confirmation without much effort to the merchant and is a brand advertisement every time it speaks. And i marvelled at the people at Paytm for thinking such an awesome solution.

I was thinking what all other similar things i loved seeing in the tech world where it solved a problem with an awesome thinking.

My first on the list is Chromecast . I was blown away when i heard of it and experienced it in person. It was a simple thought that you can just use a small hardware piece and stream almost anything to the TV and make any TV connect to Internet. 

Next is the PayTm QR code payment and also its Audio announcement box. You can transfer the money by just scanning an QR code. It has decreased the transaction time , no touch and made it cool.

Next is the Airtel WiFi calling , this solves a bigger problem of cellular network availability using the Internet at home and is probably the biggest factor for me to continue with Airtel . 

Next is the UPI transfer mechanism ; This is mindblown . It is easier to remember an emailid than a number which is unique and be used for transferring the money. And that thought to implement the communication feature which revolutionized the world has been brought to be used for financial transactions. 

Next is the OneNote software from Microsoft. The most underrated and awesome software Microsoft has produced after Microsoft Excel. You dont need to save anything and it does tons of Auto formatting.

Next are the voice assistant devices, I know lot of work has to be done for these to work but whatever the progress done till now has been remarkable. 

What are your favorites ?

I got some answers that Google Docs . True. It has truly revolutionized the way we could collaborate.

My Favorite Alexa Skill for a 2 year toddler

 I have a 2 year toddler and 5 year old Echo . (Bad pun, :P ) 

One of my favorite pastime to engage my toddler since almost an year is to start the skill called "Animal Sound" on my echo. 

Link : https://www.amazon.com/Hugo-Animal-Sounds/dp/B0765D7LGZ/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=animal+sound+by+hugo+fm&qid=1598875864&s=digital-skills&sr=1-1

It gives sounds of animals in a clear plain way and cant recommend it enough. Try it once.