您最近是否赶上了潮流并购买了Amazon Echo？如果您像我一样，您可能已经听说过很多关于该设备的好消息，以及很多人喜欢他们的 Echo！
好吧，我决定看看所有的炒作是关于什么的，并为自己买了一个。我不得不承认，Echo使用起来非常有趣，如果你身边有孩子，它真的很有用。我的孩子喜欢让它播放音乐，我已经安装了一些技能，以便他们可以玩数学游戏、文字游戏等。
在本文中，我将讨论如何快速设置您的 Echo(Echo setup)以及如何配置它，以便您可以从其所有当前功能中获得最大收益。亚马逊(Amazon)几乎每周都会为Echo添加新功能，所以当这些新功能进入设备时，我会继续发布新文章。
设置回声
当您拿到Echo并拆箱时，您基本上会在里面看到三件物品：Echo、电源适配器(power adapter)和一些说明。首先，您首先将其插入墙上插座。在设备启动时，您可以继续从iTunes或Google Play Store下载(Google Play Store)Amazon Alexa 应用程序(Amazon Alexa app)。
下载应用程序后，继续使用您的亚马逊帐户(Amazon account)凭据登录。
登录后，继续关闭应用程序，然后检查您的Echo。默认情况下，一旦启动，顶部的环应该会亮起橙色。这意味着它已准备好开始WiFi 设置(WiFi setup)过程。
如果由于某种原因指示灯不是橙色，只需按住操作(Action)按钮 5 秒钟。操作(Action)按钮是在中心只有一个点的按钮。现在转到您的手机并转到WiFi设置部分。
当Echo上的指示灯呈橙色时，您应该会看到一个可以连接的Amazon-WVM WiFi 网络。(WiFi network)连接到该网络后，继续并在您的设备上打开Alexa 应用程序(Alexa app)。它应该会自动检测到您正在尝试设置设备，但如果没有，请点击左上角的三个水平线，然后点击设置(Settings)，然后点击设置新设备(Set up a new device)。
设置屏幕(setup screen)应该会出现，它会提醒您在继续之前确保光环是橙色的。
如果一切设置正确，您应该会在下一个屏幕上看到Connected to Echo消息。(Connected to Echo)点击继续(Continue)以继续设置。
在下一个屏幕上，您必须选择一个WiFi 网络(WiFi network)来连接您的Echo。这将是您的Echo在开机时连接的WiFi 网络。(WiFi network)请注意，您可以稍后使用该应用程序更改WiFi 网络或连接到其他网络。(WiFi network or connect)
准备好Echo 后(Echo)，下一个屏幕将显示一个进度条(progress bar)。
一切都设置好后，您应该可以开始与Echo通话了！当您打开应用程序时，您会看到主屏幕(Home screen)给您提示，然后只有一张卡片告诉您自定义Alexa。
Echo的工作方式是，无论何时你问它什么，它都会通过语音做出回应，但它也会在Alexa 应用程序(Alexa app)中创建一张卡片，你会在主屏幕上(home screen)看到它。例如，如果您说“ Alexa ”，然后说“天气怎么样？(What’s the weather like?)“，它会口头告诉你，但它也会在应用程序中显示信息。
这是您对Alexa所说的所有内容的(Alexa)历史记录(history log)。要激活您的Echo，您必须说出“ Alexa ”这个(Alexa)词(word “)。如果您愿意，您可以稍后在设置中更改此设置，但只能更改为“ Amazon ”或“ Echo ”。不过，这可能会在未来发生变化。
自定义 Alexa
一旦Echo(Echo)启动并运行，您可能想做的第一件事就是训练您的声音，以便它更好地理解您。为此，请转到应用程序，点击左上角的三行，点击设置(Settings)，然后点击语音训练(Voice Training)。它位于我在文章开头提到的“设置新设备(Set up a new device)”选项的正下方。
完成后，您应该配置您的音乐、新闻、体育、日历和交通(calendar and traffic)。为此，请再次转到Settings并向下滚动到Account部分。
这些都非常容易设置，所以我不会详细介绍。对于音乐和媒体(Music & Media)，如果您有Prime 或 Spotify(Prime or Spotify)、Pandora、iHeartRadio 或 TuneIn(iHeartRadio or TuneIn)，您可以播放来自亚马逊(Amazon)的音乐。在Flash Briefing下，您可以配置一大堆新闻节目，如CNN、NPR、BBC、HuffPost等。不过，不要对这部分太疯狂，因为您的新闻简报(news briefing)可能会长达 40 分钟！
在Sports Update下，只需搜索所有您最喜欢的球队，当您询问时，Alexa会为您提供所有这些球队的更新。交通(Traffic) 目前只允许您输入起点和终点，因此它只适用于每天在同一路线上通勤的人，即回家上班。在日历(Calendar)下，您可以登录您的Google 日历(Google Calendar)，然后使用Alexa将事件添加到您的日历中。
那么你到底说什么来激活所有这些功能呢？好吧，有两种方法可以学习命令。您可以点击左上角的三行，然后点击Things to Try或者您可以在线阅读所有命令(commands online)。
Alexa的其他内置功能是计时器和闹钟(Timers & Alarms)以及购物(Shopping) 和待办事项列表(& To-do lists)。要设置计时器，您只需说“ Alexa，设置 x 分钟的计时器(Alexa, set a timer for x minutes)”。对于闹钟，只需说“ Alexa，将闹钟设置为晚上 4 点(Alexa, set an alarm for 4 o’clock in the evening)”。如果你愿意，你也可以说AM 或 PM 。(AM or PM)
对于列表，只需说“ Alexa，将 x 添加到我的购物清单(Alexa, add x to my shopping list)”或“ Alexa，将您的短语添加到我的待办事项列表(Alexa, add your-phrase to my to-do list)”。Alexa，还可以回答简单的数学或转换(math or conversions)等各种问题。事实上，该设备似乎依赖于Wikipedia，所以这取决于你问的是谁。你可以问它“谁(Who)是X 国(X country)的总统？” 或“ X 州(X state)的首府是什么”，甚至是“命名所有大陆”之类的内容。
亚历克萨技能
然而， Alexa(Alexa)的真正力量来自技能。如果您点击这三行，然后点击Skills，您将获得所有可以增强Echo的方法的列表。这些基本上是各种公司或个人为Echo编写的小应用程序。(Echo)
技能有很多，但目前大多数都是愚蠢或无用的。然而，这份名单一天比一天好，有些真的很好。对于我的孩子，我会使用 Baby Animals、Spelling Bee、Human Body Quiz、Mental Math和Dinosaur Facts。我真的很喜欢我五岁女儿的心算技能。(Mental Math skill)
对于我自己，我使用资本一号技能(Capital One skill)，历史上的这一天和(Day)随机世界事实(History and Random World Facts)。我还启用了TP-LINK Kasa 和 SmartThings 技能，因此我可以通过(TP-LINK Kasa and SmartThings skills)Alexa控制我的开关等。在以后的文章(future post)中，我将编写有关如何使用Alexa设置(Alexa)智能家居(Smart Home)设备的说明。
在这一点上，这几乎是你可以用你的Alexa做的所有事情，这很令人兴奋，因为它现在才变得流行起来。将编写更多技能，亚马逊正在为设备添加(Amazon)许多(Lots)新功能。很酷的是，一切都在云端升级，因此设备变得更智能更好，无需任何硬件升级(hardware upgrade)。如果您有任何问题，请随时发表评论。享受！
Getting Started with Your New Amazon Echo
Have you recently jumped оn the bandwagon аnd purchased an Amazon Echo? If you’re like me, you’ve probablу heard a lot of great things about the device and how a lot of people simply love their Echo!
Well, I decided to see what all the hype was about and got one for myself. I have to admit, the Echo is pretty fun to use and it’s really useful if you have kids around. My kids love asking it to play music and I’ve installed several skills so that they can play math games, word games, etc.
In this article, I’m going to talk about how to quickly get your Echo setup and how to configure it so that you can get the most benefit from all of its current features. Amazon keeps adding new features to the Echo pretty much every week, so I’ll keep posting new articles when those new features make it to the device.
Setting Up an Echo
When you get your Echo and unbox it, you’ll basically see three items inside: the Echo, the power adapter and some instructions. To get started, you start by plugging it into a wall outlet. While the device is booting up, you can go ahead and download the Amazon Alexa app from iTunes or the Google Play Store.
Once you download the app, go ahead and login with your Amazon account credentials.
Once you have signed in, go ahead and close the app and then check your Echo. By default, once it boots up, the ring that goes around the top should light up orange. This means it’s ready to start the WiFi setup process.
If, for some reason, the light is not orange, just press and hold the Action button for 5 seconds. The Action button is the one with just the single dot in the center. Now go to your phone and go to the WiFi settings section.
When the light is orange on the Echo, you should see an Amazon-WVM WiFi network that you can connect to. Once you connect to that network, go ahead and open the Alexa app on your device. It should automatically detect that you are trying to setup the device, but if not, tap the three horizontal lines at the top left, then tap on Settings and then tap on Set up a new device.
The setup screen should appear and it will remind you to make sure that the light ring is orange before continuing.
If everything is properly setup, you should see a Connected to Echo message on the next screen. Tap Continue to continue the setup.
On the next screen, you have to choose a WiFi network to connect your Echo to. This will be the WiFi network that your Echo connects to when it is powered on. Note that you can change the WiFi network or connect to additional networks later on using the app.
The next screen will show you a progress bar as your Echo is prepared.
Once everything is setup, you should be able to start talking to the Echo! When you open the app, you’ll see the Home screen gives you a tip and then just has one card telling you to customize Alexa.
The way the Echo works is that whenever you ask it something, it will respond via voice, but it will also create a card in the Alexa app that you will see on the home screen. For example, if you say “Alexa” and then say “What’s the weather like?“, it will tell you verbally, but it will also show the information in the app.
It’s kind of a history log of everything you have said to Alexa. To activate your Echo, you have to say the word “Alexa“. You can change this in the settings later if you like, but only to “Amazon” or “Echo“. That might change in the future, though.
Customizing Alexa
The first thing you probably want to do once the Echo is up and running is to train your voice so that it better understands you. To do this, go to the app, tap on the three lines at the top left, tap on Settings and then tap on Voice Training. It’s directly below the Set up a new device option I had mentioned towards the beginning of the article.
Once you have done that, you should configure your music, news, sports, calendar and traffic. To do all of that, go to Settings again and scroll down to the section that says Account.
These are all pretty easy to setup, so I won’t go into much detail. For Music & Media, you can play music from Amazon if you have Prime or Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio or TuneIn. Under Flash Briefing, you can configure a whole bunch of news programs like CNN, NPR, BBC, HuffPost, etc. Don’t go too crazy with this section though because your news briefing might end up being 40 minutes long!
Under Sports Update, just search for all your favorite teams and Alexa will give you an update on all of them when you ask. Traffic only allows you to enter a start and ending destination for now, so it is only good for people who commute everyday on the same route, i.e. home to work. Under Calendar, you can log into your Google Calendar and then use Alexa to add events to your calendar.
So what exactly do you say to activate all of these functions? Well, there are two ways to learn the commands. You can tap on the three lines at the top left and then tap on Things to Try or you can read all the commands online.
The other built-in features of Alexa are Timers & Alarms and Shopping & To-do lists. To set a timer, all you have to say is “Alexa, set a timer for x minutes.” For an alarm, just say “Alexa, set an alarm for 4 o’clock in the evening.” You can also say AM or PM if you like.
For the lists, just say “Alexa, add x to my shopping list” or “Alexa, add your-phrase to my to-do list.” Alexa, can also answer various questions like simple math or conversions. For facts, the device seems to rely on Wikipedia, so that’s either a good or bad thing, depending on who you ask. You can ask it things like “Who is the president of X country?” or “What is the capital of X state” or even something like “Name all of the continents”.
Alexa Skills
The real power of Alexa, though, comes in the form of skills. If you tap on the three lines and then Skills, you’ll get a list of all the ways you can enhance the Echo. These are basically little apps written for the Echo by various companies or individuals.
There are a bunch of skills, but currently most of them are silly or useless. However, the list is getting better by the day and some are really good. For my kids, I use Baby Animals, Spelling Bee, Human Body Quiz, Mental Math, and Dinosaur Facts. I really like the Mental Math skill for my five-year old daughter.
For myself, I use the Capital One skill, This Day in History and Random World Facts. I also have the TP-LINK Kasa and SmartThings skills enabled so I can control my switches, etc. via Alexa. In a future post, I’ll write instructions on how to setup your Smart Home devices with Alexa.
At this point, that’s pretty much all you can do with your Alexa, which is exciting because it’s only now becoming popular. Lots more skills are going to be written and Amazon is adding a lot of new features to the device. The cool thing is that everything is upgraded in the cloud, so the device gets smarter and better without any need for a hardware upgrade. If you have any questions, feel free to comment. Enjoy!
