Hone your voice shopping skills now, Prime Day is Monday
LOS ANGELES -- Alexa is great for listening to music and answering trivia questions, but when it comes to shopping...well, that's another story.
If you have one of the classic Echo speakers, you know that there are no visuals to see the product in question and once Alexa makes suggestions, it’s hard to comparison shop or get the best prices.
But Amazon wants you to buy this way, and throws some special deals that can only be accessed by asking Alexa for them.
On Prime Day, many specials will be Alexa-only. Market Track, an ad and pricing analysis firm, says during last year's Amazon Prime Day, items available only via Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa were on average 33 percent off their everyday price.
The good news for shoppers who haven't got the hang of barking out your shopping orders: Amazon will update its special Alexa shopping webpage Monday to give you the exact wording you'll need to use to command the connected speaker.
And, if you can master the process, it’s a whole lot easier to just say “Order razor blades,” than it is to click a few buttons to get them. The trick, of course, is phrasing your command correctly and knowing that browsing and comparison shopping is impossible. Know your specific item and you're in much better shape.
Here are our tips for shopping with Alexa.
-- "Alexa, what are my deals?" This is a 365 days-of-the-year special Amazon offers to members of the Prime expedited shipping and entertainment service. Amazon notes that it will offer extra special voice discounts and exclusives for Alexa users. Ask for them and decide whether $10 off the price of a garden hose or $1.50 off the price of stain remover are worth it. (We were also offered $15 off the price of an Echo Dot speaker, which normally sells for $49.99.) Have a phone or computer near you so you can see what the product being touted in the daily deal looks like and comparison shop.
--"Alexa, re-order batteries." Alexa doesn't tell you how the products it usually chooses, say Amazon house brands, compare to competitors, nor can the basic Echo speakers show you a visual of what the product looks like. What it can do is reorder basic, household goods. If you’ve found a brand of battery or paper towel you like, ask Alexa to order them again for you. Alexa can look in your shopping and browsing history for the brands.
—"Alexa, what's in my cart?" or "Where's my stuff?" Ask to hear about what items you've socked away for later, and get delivery status on your purchases.
--"Alexa, update my shopping settings." Actually, Alexa won't do that for you via voice, but it's an important step all Amazon Echo owners should do pronto. Via touch, can go into the settings section of the Alexa smartphone app and add a 4 digit code as a second factor authenticator to approve each purchase. The code can ensure that you or someone else in your home doesn’t go a little batty in ordering stuff non-stop.
--Skip "Alexa, order from my shopping list." Don’t waste your time with that one. Alexa won't add to your cart from a shopping or wish list. Save your energy here.
--When you get the suggested product offer from Alexa, double check what you've ordered. You'll save lots of money and get what you want. When I tried to order paper towels, Alexa responded by suggesting twice as many as I wanted, for $24, vs. $10 for the more desired 6 count, at $10.49.
In other tech news this week:
New Macs from Apple and an iOS upgrade. Apple released two new, pricey MacBook Pro computers, at $1,800 and $2400, appealing to the high end of Mac enthusiasts, like photo and video editors. But good news, shoppers -- Apple still has the $999 Macbook Air available, even if it hasn't been updated since 2015. This week Apple also pushed out an update to the iOS mobile operating system to make devices more secure. You may now need to unlock your passcode-protected iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to connect it to a Mac, PC, or a USB accessory. The effect is to help protect your iOS device against an iPhone unlocking mechanism used by criminal hackers or other parties — including GrayKey from Grayshift, a tool employed by law enforcement to break into suspects' locked phones.
Twitter purge. The social network took action to get rid of bot followers to such widely read accounts as president Donald Trump and former president Obama. Trump initially saw roughly 400,000 of his 53.4 million followers vanish, and Obama bid farewell to more than 2 million. Most people likely saw a drop of four followers or fewer, according to Twitter. But celebrities like Katy Perry experienced a far more dramatic decline. Perry, who had 110 million followers, now has 107 million. Kim Kardashian suffered more than her famous family members, dropping 1.7 million of her 60.2 million followers. (In case you're wondering, we lost 300 followers. Who knew bots kept track of Talking Tech?)
That $10 a month service plan. We spent two weeks testing out UNREAL Mobile's new $10 a month wireless plan, believed to be the lowest priced we've seen for service. And it works. The phone turns on and connects to other phones. You can surf the web. And when you've gone through your allotted data and get throttled, CNN.com opens in 37 seconds instead of 3 seconds on an iPhone X. Click the link above to read the full report.
Microsoft takes on Slack. The popular workplace communication tool, Slack, has new competition. A free version of Microsoft Teams essentially matches Slack's free version (more features are available for those who pay for subscriptions). However, the free version of Teams is limited to 300 people, so if your company or hub exceeds that sum, you’d have to upgrade to a tiered subscription service, part of Office 365 Business Essentials, which would cost a minimum of $5 per month, per person.
This week's Talking Tech podcasts
—The comedy of Twitter with Mike Reiss of the Simpsons. Reiss explains the art of writing tweets as comedy, and reads some of his best humorous tweets on #TalkingTech.
—Apple's refreshed Mac computers. Two new, very pricey and powerful MacBook Pros have just been unveiled by Apple. But what do consumers do if they don't want to drop $1,800 or $2,400? We've got the scoop.
—Breaking news: Facebook looks to news stars from CNN, Fox and ABC to dilute stain from 2016 Russian meddling with the social network. Will it do the trick?
—How bad is UNREAL Mobile's $10 monthly wireless plan? Surprisingly good.
—How Selfies changed a Hollywood neighborhood forever. Just try to find a place to park near the Hollywood Sign.
—IOS App Store @10: How apps have changed our lives.
—How to prevent Google from knowing everything about you.
That's this week's Talking Tech newsletter. Remember you can subscribe at http://technewsletter.usatoday.com. Be sure to listen to the daily Talking Tech podcasts, and follow me @jeffersongraham on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.