[mmanfrin]

I think they need to pick a different name. 'Alexa' is very easy to trigger with other names, and reliably activates when I am watching any show with a character named 'Alex', 'Alexy', etc.

One side effect I've noticed is that they seem to have tried to account for it, which has made the Echo less responsive to actual requests; a few times I've stood in front of it yelling 'ALEXA' trying to get it to stop and it does not respond.

[manyxcxi]

There are three options for trigger words. There's Alexa, Amazon, and Echo.

We have ours set to Alexa (default) and when the neighbor girl comes over (Alexis) the Echo frequently wakes during conversations.

[adamrezich]

My sister was never great at keeping friends for long growing up, but it amuses me to no end that her two long-time friends she's had since she was very young... are named Alexa and Siri :v

[robterrell]

Her future college roommate: Cortana?

[mmanfrin]

I've been thinking of changing it to Echo -- using 'Amazon' just feels too corporatey.

[polpo]

A friend's Echo set to respond to "Amazon" kept getting triggered when she told her kids to get their pajamas on.

[vlunkr]

Pajamazon would be a great product name.

[cortesoft]

But that will cause issues when I play Ecco the Dolphin!

[oaktowner]

My Moto X let me set the keyword to whatever I wanted it to be: I used "OK, Computer."

[sprayk]

I briefly had mine as "ayo computa" on my Moto X. That phone was the perfect size and shape. I miss it dearly :(

[DonHopkins]

Adolph isn't very commonly used any more.

[therein]

The user should be able to pick one of these three convenient yet uncommon phrases:

- Yo Hitler

- Hello Mussolini

- Hey Stalin

[DonHopkins]

With a Kinect, you should be able to extend your right arm in the air with a straightened hand to issue a command. That would be popular with people who've sworn their allegiance to Drumph.

[secabeen]

Alexa is not that easy compared to other names. Can you identify a single word that Alexa rhymes with? It's very hard to select a good wake word.

[mmanfrin]

It's not about rhyming, it's about the dominant sounds. The 'al-' is faint, and factors less in to triggering than the 'X-ah' -- so a show could be talking about 'his [Ex a]ccepted the apology' and it would trigger. Pretty much any 'X' sound followed by a shwa would trigger it.

/Xə/ == triggering.

[te_chris]

Alex, which happens to be my girlfriends name.

[pkamb]

Strange that she's "Alexa" to begin with. "Echo" seems like a pretty strong brand, good enough for the hardware at least, and would be a perfectly fine name for the AI as well.

[return0]

plus it really rings of "website analytics"