What you call it

When you talk to your device, you can actually give it a few different names as a "wake" word. You see, Alexa is like the genie in the bottle. The genie is asleep until you rub the bottle three times. Alexa is listening but asleep until you say the "wake" word. It can't get out and do things unless it is called by name.

The names you can "wake" the device include:

• Alexa (obviously, you don't want to use this name if you have somebody in your household with the same name.)
• Echo (you call and the device responds.)
• Computer (if you ever watched Star Trek, this name will come naturally to you.)
• Amazon (in a sense, you are talking to the company and asking it to do things for you.)

I call mine "Alexa," probably because she seems like a real person sometimes.

Every time you address the device, you should say the "wake" word so the device knows you are speaking to it.

As Taylor Lamberta remarked, "There is a certain cadence that will eventually come naturally to you when you speak to it. Remember, short, concise, direct statements, just like you would as a caregiver speaking to your care partner."

More on this topic later.