Amazon Echo

[Cotty]

Dot release date is 20th October so my Amazon order shows shipping today, delivery tomorrow.

[DavidCane]

smn159 said:

Successfully linked mine up to the Tado this evening.

"Alexa, turn the heating up" now results in a 1 degree temperature increase.

But... it does this by switching the Tado to manual mode, and it doesn't appear to have a way to switch itself back to auto. I've bodged this by using IFTTT to switch back to auto when Tado enters sleep mode and also if everyone leaves the house, but the link to Tado seems half finished to me.

Same here, although I've not tried the IFTTT bodge. How does that work to switch to auto when in sleep mode?

You can also say "Alexa, set the #### temperature to XX Degrees", rather than increasing by 1 degree at a time. (#### = the zone, XX obviously the temperature).

[joshleb]

Missus' father has one in their kitchen, has it got any use? Especially if not extremely tech savvy

We had 5 minutes fun asking it the reddit questions.

Now it is just sat there as a radio, which doesn't sound as good as they're proper radio player they have.

[Cotty]

joshleb said:

Missus' father has one in their kitchen, has it got any use? Especially if not extremely tech savvy

"When the Echo was first announced, pundits joked about how Alexa will make for a great kitchen assistant, but nothing else. Well, she certainly does lots of other things, but she still does a great job helping you out with food preparation. She can convert measurements and units for you, and she can set timers so you don’t burn the food you measured properly:
·Alexa, how many cups are in a quart?
·Alexa, how many tablespoons are in a stick of butter?
·Alexa, set a timer for 10 minutes.

If all of that’s not enough, don’t forget that she can read Dump Dinners: The Absolute Best Dump Dinners Cookbook with 75 Amazingly Easy Recipes to you anytime you want! If you don’t have time and practically no energy to cook and read, just let Alexa tell you how to dump your dinner in a pan and make magic happen. It’ll be like you didn’t even cook".

Or you can always use it to order a take away/delivery

"Create a shopping list

Forget pen and paper, or typing into your phone to create a shopping list. With the Amazon Echo you can just ask Alexa to add items to your list. Note: Each item will need to be added separately — you can't say, "Alexa, add toilet paper and oranges," and get distinct entries. Whatever you do add, ends up in the Alexa app, where you can check it off once purchased. You can also access to your lists from Amazon.com".

Edited by Cotty on Wednesday 19th October 12:07

[smn159]

DavidCane said:

Same here, although I've not tried the IFTTT bodge. How does that work to switch to auto when in sleep mode?

.

Not sure how it does it but it seems to work OK. There are a couple of recipies on IFTTT.com that do stuff when Tado switches to sleep mode though (turn the lights off, for example). I'm a bit reluctant to rely on IFTTT though as it can be a bit flakey...

[Shnozz]

Cotty kindly directed me here as I am on a spending splurge. How are people streaming radio and itunes? I am a bit crap with tech and all my music is currently on itunes with apple play. For radio I tend to use tune in.

Can I get this to stream those?

[smn159]

Shnozz said:

Cotty kindly directed me here as I am on a spending splurge. How are people streaming radio and itunes? I am a bit crap with tech and all my music is currently on itunes with apple play. For radio I tend to use tune in.

Can I get this to stream those?

Tune in - Yes.

"Alexa, stream BBC Radio 4" does the job

[Ste1987]

iTunes is sadly a no go. Amazon Music or Spotify Premium only. Got my Dot yesterday and was really surprised at how small it is, thought it would be the size of a small plate. Given that it's designed to be used with an existing speaker, the built-in speaker is pretty decent for music

[Kermit power]

Am I the only person who loathes these stupid start up words that can't be changed to what you want?

If devices are smart enough to understand natural language for the questions you ask it, why aren't they able to change the wake up word or phrase to whatever you want?

[smn159]

Kermit power said:

Am I the only person who loathes these stupid start up words that can't be changed to what you want?

Nope, I'd love to be able to change mine;

Computer
Hal
Oi you
Wake up

And so forth..

[Xaero]

smn159 said:

Kermit power said:

Am I the only person who loathes these stupid start up words that can't be changed to what you want?

Nope, I'd love to be able to change mine;

Computer
Hal
Oi you
Wake up

And so forth..

Me too, I can only imagine it's to show the brand off when demonstrating it to someone else, otherwise there seems no point in restricting it, even more so with a home device rather than a mobile

[Downward]

Sounds like it will work with hive

[Justayellowbadge]

Xaero said:

smn159 said:

Kermit power said:

Am I the only person who loathes these stupid start up words that can't be changed to what you want?

Nope, I'd love to be able to change mine;

Computer
Hal
Oi you
Wake up

And so forth..

Me too, I can only imagine it's to show the brand off when demonstrating it to someone else, otherwise there seems no point in restricting it, even more so with a home device rather than a mobile

I think it's more to do with having a discrete term to activate it - 'computer' might be great for trekkies, but I can imagine it getting activated all the time in normal conversation or the telly or the like.

I ended up disabling voice commands on the Kinect because of this, using it with media would mean it pausing or changing channel frequently because it misheard.

[ajprice]

Justayellowbadge said:

I think it's more to do with having a discrete term to activate it - 'computer' might be great for trekkies, but I can imagine it getting activated all the time in normal conversation or the telly or the like.

I ended up disabling voice commands on the Kinect because of this, using it with media would mean it pausing or changing channel frequently because it misheard.

Microsoft had some trouble with Xbox systems from that advert with Aaron Paul saying 'Xbox On' and turning people's console on when they were watching TV http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/06/16/aaron-paul-x... . If it's a common single word like 'computer' then it's going to be doing its thing every time someone in the room or on TV says the word. Alexa is a good pick up word, unless you live with an Alexa or you're in the Alexa Chung fanclub or something .

[nigelpugh7]

Downward said:

Sounds like it will work with hive

It does, works easily out of the box.

Took minuites to set up too.

Now we all say " alexa, tell hive to turn the heating to 19 degrees"

Job jobbed.

[MrOrange]

ajprice said:

Microsoft had some trouble with Xbox systems from that advert with Aaron Paul saying 'Xbox On' and turning people's console on when they were watching TV http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/06/16/aaron-paul-x... . If it's a common single word like 'computer' then it's going to be doing its thing every time someone in the room or on TV says the word. Alexa is a good pick up word, unless you live with an Alexa or you're in the Alexa Chung fanclub or something .

I'm having the same problem with the echo advert running on TV now. It keeps adding biscuits to busters list, or whatever, and this confuses the wife.

[Kermit power]

MrOrange said:

ajprice said:

Microsoft had some trouble with Xbox systems from that advert with Aaron Paul saying 'Xbox On' and turning people's console on when they were watching TV http://uk.ign.com/articles/2014/06/16/aaron-paul-x... . If it's a common single word like 'computer' then it's going to be doing its thing every time someone in the room or on TV says the word. Alexa is a good pick up word, unless you live with an Alexa or you're in the Alexa Chung fanclub or something .

I'm having the same problem with the echo advert running on TV now. It keeps adding biscuits to busters list, or whatever, and this confuses the wife.

I always find it quite quaint that people still watch adverts! The only time I ever tend to see them these days is during live sporting events, and that tends to just be the signal to get to the bar. At home, we record everything to be able to skip ads, and it's years since I last saw one.

I get that you couldn't use a frequently used simple word, but it still strikes me as odd that it won't let you figure out your own control phrase.

[Cotty]

Ste1987 said:

iTunes is sadly a no go. Amazon Music or Spotify Premium only. Got my Dot yesterday and was really surprised at how small it is, thought it would be the size of a small plate. Given that it's designed to be used with an existing speaker, the built-in speaker is pretty decent for music

Yes more like a big hockey puck.

[Podie]

Does the Dot have to be connected to a speaker?

[Cotty]

Podie said:

Does the Dot have to be connected to a speaker?

No it has a speaker but it supposed to be just so she/it can respond. You can listen to music just using the dot but they suggest connecting it to an external speaker via blutooth or a cable