Learn the basic commands
The very first thing you’ll want to do with your new Amazon Echo is learn a few basic voice commands. Saying “Alexa: stop!” will immediately cancel whatever activity is going on; to make music louder or quieter, say “Alexa: volume up” or “Alexa: volume down”. You can jump to a specific volume level by saying a number from one to 10: “Alexa: volume one” will turn the audio down to a whisper, while “Alexa: mute” will silence the Echo altogether.
Learn the basic commands
The very first thing you’ll want to do with your new Amazon Echo is learn a few basic voice commands. Saying “Alexa: stop!” will immediately cancel whatever activity is going on; to make music louder or quieter, say “Alexa: volume up” or “Alexa: volume down”. You can jump to a specific volume level by saying a number from one to 10: “Alexa: volume one” will turn the audio down to a whisper, while “Alexa: mute” will silence the Echo altogether.
Link your calendar
One of the Echo’s many useful tricks is the ability to tell you what events and appointments you have coming up. To connect your Google calendar, simply go into settings in the Alexa app, then tap calendar>Google calendar>link Google calendar account. With this done, you can ask simple questions such as: “Alexa, when is my next appointment?”, or “Alexa, what am I doing on Saturday afternoon?” You can create new events, too. Just be warned that Alexa doesn’t have any concept of privacy: if you have any secret rendezvous noted down in your Google calendar, don’t be surprised if she spills the beans to an inquisitive family member.
Amazon Echo: the first 8 things to try
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Dr Darien Graham-Smith is a British journalist, scholar and thespian. He was born in London in 1975.
Dr Graham-Smith holds the title of Deputy Editor at the British periodical PC Pro, published monthly by Dennis Publishing, where he is responsible for coverage of technical issues ranging from microprocessor architecture to operating systems. He is an occasional contributor to the news media, appearing on BBC News 24 in December 2008 to discuss security weaknesses in Internet Explorer.