Amazon Echo

[Podie]

essayer said:

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

Can you get these to interact / drive Sonos ?

"Next year" apparently.

Must admit we're really hoping this integration comes soon.

Currently have a Dot which is talking to Hive (heating and plugs) and seems to work well.

Just purchased a voice remote to see how well that works...

[Northbloke]

funinhounslow said:

For the life of me I can't get it to recognise the band Sparks, but it will play individual albums OK

"Alexa play Sparks" gets Sparks by Coldplay.
"Alexa play music by the band Sparks" gets This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us (great song).

Another novelty one: "Alexa Haiku"

Wow, those Wemo plugs are expensive (and out of stock). Almost as much as the Dot itself.

Millions of podcasts available...so far, so garbage. Needs a filter for good ones I think.

I've got a Logitech Harmony One so that could be good.
Also got a voice remote with the Amazon Fire TV which I presume will work with this somehow.
Yonomi could be interesting.

More playing...

[Chris_H]

I've started to get problems with mine. It sits 65cms away from the Sky fibre router but when listening to the radio it keeps breaking up or stopping altogether. My router syncs at the full 40Mb and I have no problem with Netflix / Amazon etc. I've tried unplugging it and rebooting the router but no long term change. Is there anything else I can try?

[Cotty]

Northbloke said:

Wow, those Wemo plugs are expensive (and out of stock). Almost as much as the Dot itself.

They should be just below £30 but as everyone was buying them after the Echo and Dot came out most of the supply dried up and anyone who still had stock upped their price some up to £60. I put it on my wish list on Amazon and when the price came down to £29 I bought one.

[GeordieSPG]

Chris_H said:

I've started to get problems with mine. It sits 65cms away from the Sky fibre router but when listening to the radio it keeps breaking up or stopping altogether. My router syncs at the full 40Mb and I have no problem with Netflix / Amazon etc. I've tried unplugging it and rebooting the router but no long term change. Is there anything else I can try?

Is it using TuneIn to play BBC stations?

There's definitely a problem (similar happens with my Sonos gear and TuneIn). It's to do with how BBC stream now, since 2015.

Some indications it could be related to Virgin...but I'm not sure.

[Chris_H]

GeordieSPG said:

Is it using TuneIn to play BBC stations?

There's definitely a problem (similar happens with my Sonos gear and TuneIn). It's to do with how BBC stream now, since 2015.

Some indications it could be related to Virgin...but I'm not sure.

Yes, it's Radio 2 on TuneIn. It doesn't happen if I use Radiosure on my PC to stream it so thought it was the Echo.

[prand]

Got my dot yesterday. A fun toy for the kitchen, found it good for music and radio.

My kids also have a new best friend, which freaked my wife out a bit, she heard my 6 yr old daughter having a reasonably coherent conversation with it. All a bit sci-fi.


I fancy a bit of a foray into home automation. Can you buy Internet enabled light bulbs and sockets (apart those mentioned above) on the cheap that Alexa can connect to?

[Cotty]

prand none of that sort of thing is cheap.

[Russ35]

Not happy

Ordered a Dot yesterday morning, had the email to say it had been dispatched yesterday teatime. Got an email midday today saying

'We’re sorry to tell you that there may be a delay in delivering your order. Please allow an additional day or two for the parcel to arrive.

We pride ourselves on meeting our promises and apologise for letting you down this time. Our priority is to get your parcel to you as soon as possible.'

So somewhere there is a Dot between the Amazon distribution centre and its next point of call.

My main plan for this is to use it for streaming radio I think. Will probably replace my old DAB tuner and just stream via the dot.

Seems to be a few people linking them in with Raspberry Pis so might have a look at what I could do with that.

Does anyone use Amazon for their music. All mine is on my NAS.

[MrOrange]

Chris_H said:

Yes, it's Radio 2 on TuneIn. It doesn't happen if I use Radiosure on my PC to stream it so thought it was the Echo.

I've had the odd problem with TuneIn. You can use RadioPlayer instead https://www.amazon.co.uk/UK-Radioplayer-Ltd/dp/B01...

[ascayman]

Just ordered a dot to see what all the fuss is about

[Chris_H]

MrOrange said:

I've had the odd problem with TuneIn. You can use RadioPlayer instead https://www.amazon.co.uk/UK-Radioplayer-Ltd/dp/B01...

Thanks for that. I've enabled RadioPlayer and am trying it now.

[Baron Greenback]

Struggling to think what I want to chimbo, this is ticking boxes but what functionality would you get without amazon prime account? Shame it doesnt have a microsd card or some sort of storage for music as hate standard alarm clock noise or random radio music! Reading couple threads up linking it with a Rasberry pie!! Thats tonight googling wondering what extra stuff you can do with it! :P

Is the dot speaker good enough for alarm clock to wake up by, was wondering dot upstairs and speaker version downstairs!

[essayer]

I don't believe you need Prime, mine is associated with a non-Prime account

[Cotty]

Russ35 said:

Does anyone use Amazon for their music. All mine is on my NAS.

Yes because I have a prime account. What I found is if you have bought a cd it adds an electronic version to your Prime Music account, plus there are lot of Prime Music albums without needing to go the Unlimited route.

[Zoon]

Baron Greenback said:

Struggling to think what I want to chimbo, this is ticking boxes but what functionality would you get without amazon prime account? Shame it doesnt have a microsd card or some sort of storage for music as hate standard alarm clock noise or random radio music! Reading couple threads up linking it with a Rasberry pie!! Thats tonight googling wondering what extra stuff you can do with it! :P

Is the dot speaker good enough for alarm clock to wake up by, was wondering dot upstairs and speaker version downstairs!

You can have Clarkson, May and Hammond wake you up.

[Baron Greenback]

Zoon said:

You can have Clarkson, May and Hammond wake you up.

Hehe

[ajprice]

Baron Greenback said:

Zoon said:

You can have Clarkson, May and Hammond wake you up.

Hehe

https://youtu.be/nJtIguS0yVs

[Northbloke]

Baron Greenback said:

Is the dot speaker good enough for alarm clock to wake up by

Yes easily, it's a lot better than I thought it would be certainly at lower volumes and with just speech. Get's a bit tinny with louder music.

I know you can set the alarm ringtone within the App settings but not sure how you choose which radio to wake up to (apart from verbally asking for it).

There is a Grand Tour app/skill, "Alexa enable the Grand Tour", with some sort of quiz on that week's program.

I've also wondered what music would be left if I cancel the Prime subscription. There's definitely all my music ever bought on Amazon plus the Tune-in stuff (which is great). I think you can load any other stuff you have as well to play. It is currently a huge (free) library though, it has had everything I have asked for.

As I only have 1 I am using it as a mobile thing at the moment, just plug it in to anything with a plug or USB. No problem.

[bristolracer]

Is it just me.
How come it doesn't react to its name when the amazon advert is on the TV?

Spooky