It’s a convenience.
I walk into a dark room with my hands full, I can just tell her to turn the light on. If I’m going out the door and the phone is already in my purse, I might ask her what the chance of rain is before I grab my coat. It’s especially helpful if I am cooking, and I don’t want to touch anything… she can not only set timers but read me the recipe too. And then of course controlling music is handy too, all touch-less.
If I wake up in the middle of the night, looking at my phone for the time would destroy my night vision and keep me up, even if then screen is set to as dim as possible. But I just ask Alexa for the time and then go back to sleep.
I use mine for a lot of things including home automation and security. One of the things that a friend suggested to me that I really like is I have it play ocean sounds when I sleep. Its very soothing and helps me get to sleep faster. I use alarms and timers a lot and of course there’s the music as well.
Yeah, I doubted the lights thing would stick before I actually set some up and began using them. I’m an older guy as well and was sure it’d be a waste of money. Nope. Same thing with asking the time and checking the weather and setting alarms and timers and playing music. I haven’t looked back once.
I also use it for nightly white noise. “Alexa, play Nostromo playlist. Loop.” (I added the MP3 to my Amazon account a while back.)
Lights are great, don’t have to get up off the couch. I mean, we all could have purchased The Clapper at any point for the past 30 years. But we didn’t, did we?
That’s because few people have their overhead lights wired to a standard AC plug.
Do you really think that’s the reason? Clapper technology can’t be integrated in a wall switch?
The reason we don’t use clappers for overhead lights? Yes.
So we can plausibly fake putting a man on the moon with 1969 technology, but we can’t put Clapper in a light switch? That’s your story, and you’re sticking to it?
Probably cost-prohibitive, for any kind of mass-market use. Assuming enough market even exists for such a thing.
What’s the pattern I’m supposed to clap to turn on some overhead lights but not the other ones in the adjacent area?
The Clapper has two separate toggles, 2 claps and 3 claps. So 2 claps can toggle on your lights, while 3 claps can toggle your air conditioner. It actually works really well and has been around for decades, but for some reason nobody cared about this stuff until we could link it to the cloud and talk to it.
I hated the clappers. They don’t function in the same way at all. You’re tell me you have your central air hitched up to a clapper. is that even… to code?
No, a window A/C. I live in NYC.
I thought a clapper was limited to like 400 watts.
Gotta be careful with stuff like that, along with them cheap power strips and space heaters.
Yeah so suggesting a clapper can replace a smart hub is like suggesting a horse can replace a car. They’re leagues apart even if they can both… go.
If I might chime in for use case, I have to small kids, so being able to do things like timers, reminds, asking about the weather or playing music while I am chasing my daughters is a God send.
Great for time outs as well.
Actually, I find the Alexa is a big help when dealing with some of the worst aspects of my ADHD, the inability to tackle important tasks that aren’t urgent later on. Nothing like setting a reminder ASAP.
No I mean if someone gave me a clapper RIGHT NOW I would not wire it up because I’m scared to wire up stuff connected to mains.
A phillips hue is easy for me to install by contrast. I run no risk of setting house on fire.
There’s no electrical work required, you just plug it in. It’s like a surge protector that turns on and off when you clap.