Amazon Echo: the first 13 things to try

The very first thing you'll want to do with your new Amazon Echo is learn a few basic voice commands. Saying "Alexa: stop!" will immediately cancel whatever activity is going on; to make music louder or quieter, say "Alexa: volume up" or "Alexa: volume down". You can jump to a specific volume level by saying a number from one to 10: "Alexa: volume one" will turn the audio down to a whisper, while "Alexa: mute" will silence the Echo altogether. Once you've got the hang of these, you can start experimenting with more adventurous commands, safe in the knowledge that you can always cancel or silence any unwanted activity. Perhaps you don't like the name Alexa – or perhaps you have a family member of that name and don't want to cause confusion.