For Christmas, I received not one, but two, Amazon echo dots. I received one from my boss, Jon Pittman, and another from my teammate, Lucas Prokopiak. Each knew that this would be the perfect gift for me. Jon’s gift was accompanied by the book, SPIN SUCKS, and Lucas used Autodesk Fusion 360 to design and create a personalized holder.
For the uninitiated, an Amazon echo dot is a voice-activated assistant. In many cases, it’s like using a search engine without the typing. Anything you can find by using a search engine, you can get using an Amazon echo dot. The default name for the device is Alexa, so once you hook it up to your wireless network, it listens for voice commands when it hears its name. You simply say things like:
- Alexa, play Todd Rundgren from Spotify.
- Alexa, what’s my sports update?
- Alexa, let’s play Jeopardy.
- Alexa, what is the capital of Angola?
Alexa responds in a pleasant voice. In addition to retrieving information and playing games, Alexa will…