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If there is a silver lining to our short vacations, it would be that this is the least year: less cooking, less cleaning, less travel, less shopping, and most importantly, less stress. So you might be wondering: “wHe does I feel stressed?“
Look around. You feel the absence of the entire crew: the aunt and uncle who would be in charge of cooking, the nephews who would cut wood for the fireplace, the grandparents who would make everyone laugh. Somehow, rather than downscaling production, the pandemic has turned the holiday into an elaborate one-man show.
And right now, you’re taking center stage, preparing the ingredients for a linguine with clam sauce that rivals Aunt Ruth’s. You take out the pasta, garlic, white wine, and clams, when suddenly, you remember! At 8:00 pm, you are supposed to make a video call with your in-laws from the west coast. You are going to set a reminder, when a voice in the other room says, “Is it cold? Why is it so cold? “Followed by,” I’m bored. What should I watch?
It’s at this point that that urge arises: the urge to scream, scrap your ambitious plan, order takeout, eat that tray of cookies by the fireplace, and end the night. Hell, call it a year! But instead, it’s at this point when you remember Amazon’s suite of devices, the Echo Show 8, Fire TV Cube, and Amazon Smart Plugs, that you treated yourself as (Ahem, much deserved) first gifts. So instead of waving the white flag, use this as an opportunity to put them into practice.
The Echo Show 8, with its abundance of familiar features (Alexa, your trusted helper) and not (a better, bigger screen; video and messaging capabilities; incredible audio), is your invaluable partner in crime. And your new Amazon Smart Plugs are the infrastructure that connects your entire home in an instant. With Smart Plugs, almost any device can be made “smart”. Just plug in your coffee maker, lamps, appliances, and everything else so you can control with your voice or set routines.
Then, with a series of simple commands as you go through the house, raise the temperature a few degrees on the thermostat saying “Alexa, turn the temperature up to 70 degrees”; Take care of the evening entertainment thanks to your Fire TV Cube in the living room saying, “Alexa, play Snow day on Prime Video ”(or the other 500,000 movies and TV shows); and then ask her “Alexa, set a reminder to visit my in-laws at 8:00 PM”, not only using the Echo Show 8 as a reminder but also as a means of making video calls. With the new group calling feature, up to seven friends and family can connect at once through their Echo devices. Just set up and name your group within the Alexa app. Then any member of your group can simply say “Alexa, call me [group name]”To start a group call. You can also use your Echo Show 8 device to join Zoom video calls. Just say, “Alexa, join my Zoom meeting” and Alexa can help you join your next video meeting with coworkers or your friends and family. And, for those with older relatives or family and friends who may be hard of hearing, Alexa offers a new Call Caption feature on Echo Show devices that can display the text of what the other person is saying during individual Alexa calls. .
Last but not least, get ready for your perfect kitchen helper to guide you through the complicated recipe.