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If you’ve wished for a personal assistant to help you make it through the holidays in one piece, we have the next best thing: the Amazon Echo, better known as “Alexa.” She’s a device that sits on your counter and will answer questions and follow commands better than any family member. Here are some ways Alexa can help you this holiday season:
She can cue up your favorite Christmas tunes - Sync your Echo with Spotify or another music streaming service and Alexa will play your holiday faves on request. She won’t even judge you for listening to “All I want for Christmas is you” three times in a row.
She can book a last-minute hotel or rental car - Travel booking sites like Kayak or Expedia allow you to make hands-free travel plans by voice. You just need to have an account with your credit card deets plugged in and you can call up rates and confirm the reservation.
She can set timers for holiday baking - Call out “Alexa, set a timer for 12 minutes,” or if you need to set more than one timer - she can do up to 100 at once - get specific with the timer name by saying, “Alexa, set the Christmas cookie timer for 12 minutes.”
She can tell you about airport delays - If you know your airline name and flight number, Flight Tracker can tell you if the flight is on time.
She can order your holiday gifts - Amazon Prime-eligible items can be ordered by calling out, “Alexa, order (item name),” then confirming the buy when she repeats it. Just make sure your default credit card and shipping address are up to date first.
She can turn off your Christmas lights - You’ll need a smart plug and then all you need to do is ask Alexa to switch off your Christmas tree lights and she’ll do it.
And she can even put your kids on the nice or naughty list - Hack the to-do list feature and say “Alexa, add Timmy to the naughty list,” and his ears will really perk up when Alexa says “Okay, adding Timmy to the naughty list right now.”
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