Best products from r/alexa

Ohh, that’s a good question.

Around the office, there’s a consensus that Headspace is one of the best when it comes to usefulness. In short, Headspace is a meditation skill that provides new meditation every day, as well as a sleep exercise to help you fall asleep easier or quicker, depending on how you look at it. It does wonders for relaxation and taking the stress out whenever there is a need to wind down. Plus, the unassuming sessions with plenty of time to concentrate on every part make it very easy to fit meditation into your daily schedule, however busy it might be.

As for the most interesting Alexa skills, it would have to be game skills. We found Westworld: The Maze (the game is curiously missing from the Alexa store) to be brilliant. It’s deeply immersive with roughly two hours of unique gameplay (it’s a maze, after all) so it will keep you enticed all the way. Plus, you don’t have to watch the show to be familiar with the setting and the atmosphere.

Make Me Smart is also a good one, offering something new on a daily basis about different topics such as economy, technology and popular culture. That’s just the type of skills we like.

In any case, if you're looking for some recommendations, we’ve tried many Alexa games. Actually, we try a lot of Alexa skills in our free time, trying to cover as much as possible. So far, we’ve also made a couple of posts on best productivity skills and best health and fitness skills for Alexa - I’m sure you’ll find some interesting. New skills are being added every month or so as we sift through the enormous Alexa skills landscape. Also - recommendations are welcome!

Use a smart plug and create an Alexa route to mute the echo for XX minutes.

Here is the smart plugs I use (I like these outlets because they remember the last state of the plug, so if the power goes out they return to that last state automatically):
https://www.amazon.com/Compatible-Function-Required-Allliances-Overcharging/dp/B07G78YSQS

Wemo WiFi plugs DO NOT remember their last state if the power is removed. Wemo plugs on a power outage will just return to the OFF state. So which ever smart plug you buy make sure you buy the smart plugs that return to the ON state if you have a power outage or you will be going around the house to turn on each smart plug or you will have to open the App to turn them all ON after a power outage.

Where we live, we get power outages every other day. They usually only last a second or two. But that second or two resets all the smart home stuff to either ON or OFF depending on the smart home product.

I use a UPS (battery backup) on all my WiFi equipment and smart home hubs to reduce the power glitches.

The Alexa routine would do the following: turn off the smart plug and then wait XX minutes then turn on the Smart Plug.

I hope this helps

GadgetAngel

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https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BFTSC7Q

>I’d like to make Alexa keep track of my todo list and keep my habits such as running, working out, studying, proud of my eating, meditating, waking up on time etc. Ideally I’d like to be able to see if a streak is active or how many days in the past week or month I’ve done it.

I'm not aware of any app/service where you can set your target for multiple activities or track historical actions, but according to Fitbit they can integrate with Alexa to tell you how many steps you are from your daily goal.

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>I’d also like it to read me a todo list that I can knock off. Such as “what do I have due today/ this week” and tell it when I’m done so it can knock it off the list. Some of these things will be scheduled weekly (I can’t program it in the Alexa app) and some will be “one off situations”

Alexa already supports multiple "To-Do" lists, would have 2 lists work? 1 you use day-to-day, and a weekly one? Then you can ask Alexa "What is is on my (weekly) todo list" and she'll tell you what you have left, and control like using "Clear my (weekly) todo list" or "Take X off my todo list"

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>Also, is there any way to make the dot to “remind you” but when you’re in the room to actually hear it and not gone elsewhere?

As far as I am aware, reminders come from the device you set them on. There is a setting in the Alexa app so that your phone get's a notification as well - Turn that on and keep your phone on you?

If you buy a Hook Home Automation RF receiver/sender hub, you can then buy pretty much any super cheap ~$5 wireless 433MHz doorbell on Amazon. At one point people were tracking compatible doorbells/other devices here. The doorbell can be setup to trigger pretty much anything, including running Alexa routines, playing songs, turning things on and off, etc. I have this in my home and it works very well. Right now, every time the upstairs bathroom light is turned on, the lights flicker, a window AC unit comes on, and Alexa plays some weird French song downstairs. I keep meaning to disable this... thanks for reminding me, I'll go do it now. ✔ haha

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The only problem :(, the young engineers/group of friends who launched the Hook startup seemed to have graduated and have found employment elsewhere and it looks like they're not selling Hook anymore on Amazon :-/ It was relatively inexpensive, less than $50. Perhaps you can find a used one on there or eBay, marked down?

Get a hub. Highly recommend SmartThings as a simple and relatively inexpensive solution. Then it's easy.

There's multiple Z-wave/Zigbee motion detectors, but if you can find a way to use one where a light switch is then this one is a gem. With some pretty easy setup in SmartThings it'll function separately as a smart switch, and a smart motion detector. Best part is, no batteries. Downside, you're limited on placement.

I hate the idea of paying for a subscription as well. I can't figure out for the life of me why I can't use Spotify on the Echo for free when I can do so on both my phone and my PC. Pretty lame.
This is not exactly what you've requested, BUT, it's the closest thing I've found to making use of the Echo to control my own music collection. I also haven't set this up yet, but I will be in the next couple of months. From what I understand, if you buy "J. River Media Center" and install the "House Band" Alexa skill (https://www.amazon.com/Philosophical-Creations-House-Band/dp/B01ATZM6N4), you can tell Alexa to play anything from your library as well as control playback over any of your zones. The downside is that I don't think it'll stream over your Echo device. The Echo is used only for control and you need to have a PC running your media player, hooked up to an amp or some other sound system like a Sonos speaker. J. River sells media devices that are essentially power-efficient mini computers with their software installed and a hard drive to store music if you don't like the idea of running a media PC all the time. Good luck!

Beat it :) good stuff, very enjoyable. Left a review. If you get a chance can you check out and review our web search skill Bola, it would be very appreciated!


https://www.amazon.com/Bola-Inc-BolaBot-Search/dp/B0773SBFR9/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

Today, I've only found two ways to get Alexa to play a Pandora station of my choosing:

1. Make Pandora the default music service and library. "Alexa, play [station name]." "Playing [station name] from Pandora."
   
2. Without changing the default music service, "Alexa, play Pandora." "Playing [last station name] from Pandora."
   
   In the second case, it seems the station selected is the last one played from any other Pandora streamer. Every other attempt to select one of my stations gets me the same results you describe. Without making Pandora the default, it acts like the Pandora skill doesn't search station names at all.
   
   From what I can tell (thread, thread), around a week ago Alexa/Pandora integration changed to a skill, and the skill does not have the same behavior as before. Users are screaming about it in the skill reviews.
   
   It seems Pandora hasn't learned a crucial rule in operations: Never make a major change to production the day before a weekend or in the week before vacation.

I spent some time researching this, and ended up getting a z-wave garage door opener off Amazon (this one). It works well, communicates over Z-wave and reaches through several walls to my Z-Wave light switches to join the Z-Wave mesh my SmartThings hub communicates with - With that said, I found out rather quickly afterward that Amazon purposely prevents Alexa from working with any type of smart door/locking mechanism, which made me sadface. I could probably still get it to work through Smart Things custom scripting editor, but honestly I'm fine just doing it through the ST app.

Yep, I did see some motion detection light switches earlier this week. I already setup Alexa-enabled smart switches with dim support for several of my lights though and I don't feel like tossing them as they're setup and working nicely - cost for two was $46 shipped vs. $60 for one with motion sensors -- and I'd have to also purchase a hub going the GE/Zigbee route. I have plenty of sockets throughout my place for the Flex+Motion sensor route, and the only thing I may need to do is sort out scheme to change the angle of the motion sensor slightly.

I have a feeling these things will sell really well so I preordered a few to get started with when they ship next month :)

Minnesota Police Scanner

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Y161FJ1

Just got approved today. The " Hennepin County Public Safety Dispatch" scanner for 55404 seems to be pretty popular.

Finally, we have launched our skill on amazon. Please share your feedback to help us improve it more:

https://www.amazon.com/GlobalSQA-Best-Wishes/dp/B074CKKMWR/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-skills&ie=UTF8&qid=1501826160&sr=1-1&keywords=best+wishes

Because you're such a nice person and have been so pleasant throughout this post. I'm going to help you out on this one...

https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#skills/dp/B072YZLQNM/?ref=skill_dsk_skb_sr_&qid=1555106007

u/DerangedDiphthong, it just went live an hour ago. Check it out and let me know if there are any other changes you’d like to see. Thanks again for trying out the skill!

Bought these on Prime Day. Happy with them. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07LCB3HQJ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looks like they agree.
Alexa compatible microwave

Hi Oscar, for some reason when I enable this skill it doesn't appear in my skill list. Is it perhaps regionalized to North America? I live in New Zealand and all my enabled skills appear on the australian alexa https://alexa.amazon.com.au

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The WoL skill also doesn't appear when I search for it on https://alexa.amazon.com.au/spa/index.htm

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Any ideas? Thanks

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One theory that I have is that the supported language prevents the skill being added to australia-based alexa services. For example, these all work

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https://www.amazon.com/Oscar-Penelo-Wake-Lan-WoL/dp/B07PGKK416

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Oscar-Penelo-Wake-Lan-WoL/dp/B07PGKK416

https://www.amazon.it/Oscar-Penelo-Wake-Lan-WoL/dp/B07PGKK416

https://www.amazon.ca/Oscar-Penelo-Wake-Lan-WoL/dp/B07PGKK416

https://www.amazon.es/Oscar-Penelo-Wake-Lan-WoL/dp/B07PGKK416

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but https://www.amazon.com.au/Oscar-Penelo-Wake-Lan-WoL/dp/B07PGKK416

does not exist.

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Perhaps this is the reason that the Skill cannot be enabled?

Here it is :)

At 60 bucks, it looks like a pretty decent deal for a small microwave.

I moved into a new 1BR apartment that has limited counter space and the microwave that came with the place is massive (like 1.3-1.4 m^3). This one is half that size and the price is in-line or cheaper with the non-voice enabled ones.

I'll probably buy it, but only because I was looking to get a new/smaller microwave anyway

https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Microwave-700W-Works-Alexa/dp/B07894S727/ref=redir_mobile_desktop?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=ods_gw_ha_sr_dc_092318