Tomorrow is Easter Sunday. Should you go to church? Tomorrow I will look into the matter of how the Supreme Court has caused some serious COVID-19 clusters. Hawaii itself has had two incidents during the past few weeks.
The Major League Baseball season started on Thursday, and only one series (Baltimore-Boston) was cancelled because of COVID-19. In my posting that day, I mentioned that in the NCCA Women's Basketball Final Four oddsmakers gave Arizona a 4.76% chance of winning the championship. Well, they beat top-rated Connecticut, and now play Stanford, who got lucky at the end to edge South Carolina, tomorrow at 6PM EDT (noon Hawaii time) on ESPN from the Alamodome, San Antonio. This has to the first ever PAC-12 combination playing each other in the Big Dance final. Today, Houston vs Baylor and Gonzaga vs UCLA, who were given a 3.85% chance of winning it all. The men's finals will be played on Monday Night at 9PM EDT (3PM Hawaii) on CBS from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.
In November of last year I wrote about smart speakers, then the next day on smarter displays. Then a couple of months ago I posted...ALEXA IS WONDERFUL. She is the voice of my $60 4th generation Echo Dot, and comes with a clock. 15 Craigside also gave me one with no clock, and this one goes by the name Echo. They're equivalent, and not. Not, because Alexa comes linked to Amazon Primes radio stations and music, while Echo does only i-Heart radio, which is embarrassingly limited. While taking a bath I can ask Alexa to play music from 1962, and she does. Echo, the other smart speaker, cannot.
So, well, anyway, I just purchased an Amazon Fire TV Stick. This is a portable streaming device that more directly accesses stations like Netflix. It costs around $40, except can go down to $20 on days like Black Friday. There is a slightly more expensive 4K version for 4K resolution for $10 more. There is also a Cube at $120 for faster Ethernet and more reliable internet access.
The system comes in two parts:
- Plug in the fancy USB flash drive into one of your TV's (or receiver's) video input. This makes your TV smart.
- There is a remote control with a built-in microphone for Alexa support. Thus, you can control your doorbell, lights, thermostat, etc., just like an Echo speaker.
- Don't get confused here, for I have two Echo speakers, one responds to Alexa, and the other to the name Echo.
Setting the Fire TV stick is a three step process:
- Plug the USB drive--this is the fire stick--into one of your HDMI inputs. Note that you need to connect this drive to a wall electrical outlet with a supplied attachment.
- Using the remote control, enter the Wi-Fi password to log into your Amazon account. Add other streaming channels like Netflix.
- Turn on your TV, using your TV remote to find the correct HDMI channel, or to a receiver at any HDMI input.
- After installing batteries into the Fire Stick remote, click on any button.
- Follow TV screen instructions to finish the pairing.
That sounds easy, but, oh boy, was this a challenge for me. I did it, but it was with considerable difficulty. If I were you, I'd get someone more knowledgeable to do this for you.
There is one problem. When you talk to your TV with the Fire Stick remote controller, the other Echo Alexa (left) also connects. The Fire Stick hates that and says you can't link to both. I haven't figured out a better to way to handle this cross-talk without turning off the Alexa smart speaker, also known as an Echo. This is a small joke.
In any case, what I can do with Alexa in the bathroom I now can also do in the bedroom, plus watch Netlix, Prime, and other video channels. While the apartment is getting smarter, I'm more and more reaching a state of bewilderment.
Alexa of course comes from a variety of Amazon devices. Here is a video of one in your future car:
Oh, be aware that if you have Alexa in your home, when you play this, you could well trigger her response, as you might have already experience from an Alexa TV commercial.
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