Hey everybody, it's Phil your friendly
neighborhood Modern Dad.
We are about to talk about Amazon and Echo
and Alexa and all that stuff.
Some of you are probably very familiar with this,
but if you're anything like me you've found out
that you have friends and family members who aren't.
So let's teach 'em!
But before you do that, be sure to subscribe to the channel.
Be sure to share this video if it's helpful; it will be.
Hang on, here we go!
(light jazz music)
- [Alexa] Boots and cats, boots and cats.
You know what?
I don't think I'm cut out for beatboxing.
- Amazon Alexa is everywhere.
You can't watch five minutes of TV anymore
without seeing one of the commercials.
So let's break it down.
Here's what you need to know about Amazon Alexa
and Echo and the skills that really make these things smart.
So, first, let's define our terms.
Echo is the name of Amazon's hardware,
and so far we have three Echo speakers.
This is the original Echo.
It's a nine inch Bluetooth speaker.
So you can play music from your phone,
but it's also hooked into your Wi-Fi
so it's always ready to obey your commands.
Then there's the Echo Dot.
Now this one's a lot smaller,
but it's pretty much the same thing.
It has a speaker, but it's just not
anywhere near as good.
Now to make up for that, you can actually connect it
to another speaker via Bluetooth
or with a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
And at $49 it's priced so it doesn't break the bank at all.
In fact, I keep a few stashed around my house
and the office.
- Do you like cats?
- [Alexa] I don't have a cat, but if I did
I would love her meowy much.
- Then in the middle we have the Echo Tap.
Size wise it's in between both of them
and the speaker's actually decent,
but this one's meant to be portable.
You can take it outside with you.
You can take it anywhere with you.
It'll work inside on your Wi-Fi,
or it'll work outside on your phone's Hotspot.
Now the big difference here
is that it's not always listening.
You're gonna have to push a button on the front
to get it to understand your commands.
Now you heard that right, Amazon Echo and Echo Dot
are always listening for you;
Echo Tap, you have to push the button.
Now if you don't want the Echos to actually be listening
to every word you're saying just in case you happen
to mention them, you can turn that off in the settings
or you can hit the mute button that's on top of them.
- Alexa, can you get physical?
♫ Physical
♫ Let's get physical, physical
(light string music)
- So, if Echo is the hardware, Alexa is the smarts inside.
It's the name for Amazon's always connected,
artificially intelligent assistant.
And you very quickly start to think of Alexa
as sort of a proto-person.
You ask her questions.
You give her commands.
You call her by her name.
She sets timers.
She gives you reminders.
She finds recipes.
She keeps your list of things to buy
when you're at the store.
She can turn things on and off.
She can tell you stories.
She can play games.
Pretty much anything you wanna do
there's a really good chance
that Alexa's gonna be able to do it.
And that includes, of course, ordering things from Amazon,
for better or for worse.
But she also can order things from other places.
So, while she's smart, she's not necessarily brilliant.
It's still absolutely possible to stump her
from time to time.
Alexa, is global warming real?
- [Alexa] Sorry, I don't have the answer to that question.
- Alexa, what would happen if I shot coffee intravenously?
- [Alexa] Hmm, I can't find the answer
to the question I heard.
Hmm, I don't know.
Sorry, I didn't understand the question I heard.
Hmm, I'm not sure what you meant by that question.
- So what makes Alexa so smart?
Well a good bit of that comes from Amazon,
which is constantly updating the software in the background.
But if you wanna see how Alexa really gets smarter,
we're gonna talk about some skills.
- [Alexa] My name is Alexa and I'm here to say
I'm the baddest AI in the Cloud today.
Your responses are fast, but mine are faster.
Sucker speech engines, they call me master.
- So, Alexa doesn't only rely on Amazon to make it smarter.
Anyone anywhere can code up a skill for Alexa to learn.
Now, the good news, there are thousands.
But, that's also the bad news, too.
It can be a little daunting to dive through all of them,
but start with the things you already have at home.
Have Phillips Hue lights or smart things,
you'll need the skill.
Want Alexa to call you an Uber?
You'll need that skill as well.
So there's an extra step, but it's a big one
and it gives Amazon a huge lead
over competitors like Google Home.
So, that's it for Amazon Echo and Alexa and the skills
and the differences between all that.
I really hope this was helpful to you
if you can explain it to your parents or friends
who have not gotten one yet and encourage them to do so.
I have so many uses for Alexa
it's just not even funny at this point.
Hit up the description down below for links to everything.
Every time you click on one of those
and buy something it helps us.
Be sure to share this video with anyone
you think it'll help.
That's it, we'll see you next time.
(light jazz music)
- Alexa, spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
- [Alexa] Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is spelled
S-U-P-E-R-C
C-I-O-U-S.