We thought it would be fun to have Alexa, the voice coming out of Amazon's smart speaker, in our car. We have a 20-year-old car but bought an Auto Echo.
Turns out our car can handle it. All we needed was the Nulaxy Bluetooth Car FM Transmitter Audio Adapter for $17 from Amazon. We plugged it into what us old-timers call the cigarette lighter, and then plugged our new Auto Echo into the adapter. If you have a newer car, skip the adapter. Plug in the Auto Echo with the included micro-USB cable and power adapter. Enable Bluetooth on your phone, and then turn on the ignition.
For us, Alexa's voice came on immediately. After a few taps on the app to complete setup, we asked Alexa to play music. Out came "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better," from the musical Annie Get Your Gun. It came out of our car's speakers, from our playlist on Amazon Music. We also asked Alexa for directions to a store and she gave them, turn by turn.
There was only one big problem: Static. The static was so awful we unplugged the device and messaged Nulaxy tech support. They told us to put the adapter on the same channel as the radio, choosing an empty one. That worked like a charm. We no longer have any static.
The only other problem: We hate to use our data connection to connect to the Internet, because we don't use an unlimited plan and get charged for it according to how much we use. We tried turning off mobile data while listening to music, but Alexa stopped and asked us to reconnect.
If you have an unlimited data plan, or don't care about extra charges, you can ask Alexa all sorts of things. She can read your book from Audible, play trivia games like Heads Up, set reminders, make shopping lists, play music and so on.
PRINTER REVIVAL
"My Epson 4720 printer died," says a reader. "Might be able to revive it. Clogged print heads due to reloaded cartridges from a company called Cartridge World, which worked great on my old standby HP printer. The Epson is like a Timex. How's that for a trip down memory lane?"
As reviewers, we once lined up six printers sent to us by various companies. Since we didn't use all of them at once, eventually they all clogged. Time does that. But you can check the manual for routine maintenance instructions and push a button to clean the print head. Joy's friend Frieda was ready to replace her 9-year-old Epson. But Joy ran the print-head cleaning routine for her and it was back in business.
CABLE CUTS A DEAL
AT&T lowered our $145 a month fee for Internet, TV and Internet phone to $67 after we complained about not getting phone service.
The company was charging us for phone service, claiming they had sent us a device that enabled it.
No such device crossed our doorway, so we called and said, "Cancel everything except Internet service, we'll go with YouTube TV for $50 a month." YouTube TV includes 70 channels, such as CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, and many others. Lo and behold, AT&T came back with a new offer. Instead of $145 a month, we now pay $67 a month for TV, Internet and phone.
But we still don't have the gizmo that connects our landline to the Internet. It would be a dead phone except we are paying Vonage about $30 a month for that.When we called AT&T, we were transferred twice to the wrong departments and then they hung up. We told them to skip the phone, but they said if we did that, the monthly cost would go up to $100. Oh well: $67 a month is great. We'd pay more than $80 for AT&T Internet plus YouTube TV.
Bottom line, this is a rapidly shifting industry and the big companies are losing subscribers like mad. If you don't like your plan, threaten to cancel.
ALEXA, FIND MY PHONE
We often use the Google Home smart speaker to find our phone, saying, "Hey Google, find my phone." She responds: "I can help by making your Pixel 2 ring at full volume right away. Would you like me to do that?" We wish she would cut to the chase and just ring the phone, so we decided to try asking Alexa instead.
"Alexa, find my phone," we said, after first choosing it from among the "skills" listed on the Amazon website and in the app. Unfortunately, Alexa is just as wordy as Google. She replied: "I'm going to call the phone now so listen out. If it doesn't ring it's because I can't connect or it's on silent." Duh.
INTERNUTS
HotelsbyDay.com offers room rates for during the day, when you just want to rest, relax and use the pool. The cost is half as much as an overnight stay. See also Between9and5.com.
Cardcash.com lets you buy gift cards at a discount or sell those you don't want. We saw a Ross Dress For Less card for 9% off the full price of the card. A Panera card was going for 12% off. Michaels was 17% off. Target was 10% off.
Search on the phrase "Thrillist birthday" and find 83 restaurant chains that give out birthday freebies. For example, Applebee's, Arby's, Baskin-Robbins and Peet's Coffee all give you freebies if you register your email address and birthdate with them.
Bob and Joy Schwabach can be reached by email at bobschwab@gmail.com and joy.schwabach@gmail.com.
Business on 08/03/2019