Sometimes I am pushed to embrace new devices by circumstances. For example, I have an extensive vinyl record collection and was reluctant to start buying CD's until I had problems buying new releases on vinyl. Of course, vinyl always had issues: replacing needles, warped vinyl titles (I remember buying a Bob Seger album ("Against the Wind"), and each store copy was so warped the needle jumped playing it), worn-out vinyl, etc.) Of course, once I tried the CD format, I loved it: I liked being able to program/skip, shuffle and auto-repeat individual tracks: it beat the old-fashioned hassle of positioning a recordplayer arm between vinyl tracks. And, of course, being able to rip CD's onto one's PC and burn copies of custom hit compilations to disc or an mp3 player is fantastic.
The key to my own adaptation has been usability (including natural language interface, like voice recognition vs. typing) and convenience (for example, being able to put music on pause to take a phone call).
My recent purchase of a 32" LG Element LED HD television was motivated, as I mentioned in a recent post, by my new cable TV/ISP vendor, which could not hook up my old color portable via coaxial cable; I needed an HDMI connection. The screen of course is multiple times bigger and sharper than my old TV's, at a reasonably low cost. And the available of other ports led me to consider relevant devices like Amazon Fire Stick. The stick allows me to play Hulu or Amazon Prime videos on my TV while I work on other things with my PC.
As a long-time Amazon customer, I recently expanded my purchases to include Prime, an 8" Fire tablet and, most recently during the Black Friday sale, the marvelous Echo Dot speaker, which is something I always wanted but never knew it. Prime membership is something I've considered for a few years but wasn't sure what to make of a service which bundled disparate services like expedited free shipping with cloud-based music, video, and books. Now it's a no-brainer if you own Amazon devices.
It's almost impossible to overstate the beauty of the Alexa voice-recognition interface in conjunction with Echo Dot. I can simply call out, "Alexa, what's the temperature?" and get the local forecast while I'm dressing for work. (More on that shortly.) Amazon Prime Music allows you instant access to thousands of songs on demand, e.g., "Alexa, play 'Layla' by Derek and the Dominos." Lots of hits by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the BeeGees, etc. Occasionally I need to rephrase my commands, and I'm finding occasionally my requests can be fulfilled by an extra-cost subscription: I might alternatively get a song sample.
Now I already have a significant music collection (which if and when I have the time, I can upload to Amazon Cloud), but it is more convenient simply to call out a song title than to search for a relevant CD and load it into my player or PC. And I've sometimes run into pleasant surprises; for example, I asked Alexa to play an early 80's hit "I've Never Been To Me" by Charlene and heard not the original hit version (which includes a soliloquy near the end) but a more nuanced, harmonious version with an instrumental interlude--which knocked me out, an instant favorite.
There were a couple of steps which were not obvious (to me) in terms of integrating the devices. Probably the oddest setup was my location for purposes of Alexa weather app. I wrongly assumed it dovetailed into my stored Amazon home address along with other details like my Prime membership. But when I asked for my (local) temperature for the first time, it gave me San Jose, CA's forecast (an Amazon-related default?) Was it a device configuration issue, an artifact of my ISP connection?
It took combing through user forums until I came across a passing reference to the Alexa app settings. But once I found the relevant settings (not integrated across devices), I ran into a different problem: I couldn't seem to save my revised address/zip code. The solution was a tried and true techie tip: reboot my Fire tablet. I was then able to save my zip code for each device, and Alexa since then has gotten the local time (MST) and temperature correct. (I mean, Alexa always gave me the correct response--if I specified my address in the query; But now it does so without the specifics.)
On a side note: I noticed that apparently I couldn't access the Target website (I actually bought my TV from Walmart, but Target also carried my model and I was double-checking details via a search link.) It turns out that there is a known issue of Target filtering out my VPN provider; I'm be damned if I let a vendor cripple my Internet security for the privilege of buying something. I don't think I've been in a Target over the last 4 years.
