Amazon Echo

[tenohfive]

sybaseian said:

I have an echo in the lounge and a number of dots (some of which are connected to my sonos systems via RCA audio cables).

even thinking about getting some and using them in some of my cars

Does/will your smartphone support Google Assistant?
If so, you probably don't (or won't) need one in your car.

[silverthorn2151]

My son tells me he has changed the 'name' of his so his commands start "Computer, play Bay City Rollers" a la Star Trek. (I made up the Bay City Rollers bit).

[Higgs boson]

silverthorn2151 said:

My son tells me he has changed the 'name' of his so his commands start "Computer, play Bay City Rollers" a la Star Trek. (I made up the Bay City Rollers bit).

I did this, but, as I also watch Star Trek, I had to change it back to Alexa. Every time a character spoke to the computer, Alexa told me that it didn't understand the question.
It was funny the first couple of times, but it really stated to grate when I had to listen to it a dozen, or more, times an episode.

[GetCarter]

Higgs boson said:

I did this, but, as I also watch Star Trek, I had to change it back to Alexa. Every time a character spoke to the computer, Alexa told me that it didn't understand the question.
It was funny the first couple of times, but it really stated to grate when I had to listen to it a dozen, or more, times an episode.

You'll still have trouble with the Lexus ads!

[sybaseian]

tenohfive said:

Does/will your smartphone support Google Assistant?
If so, you probably don't (or won't) need one in your car.

doesn't work on iPhones........

besides, google assistant can't control my home lights, etc when I'm in the car.

Edited by sybaseian on Friday 17th March 09:09

[tankplanker]

sybaseian said:

doesn't work on iPhones........

besides, google assistant can't control my home lights, etc when I'm in the car.

Edited by sybaseian on Friday 17th March 09:09

On Android you could achieve this with Tasker, Autovoice and the relevant plugin for your home automation as Autovoice can intercept the Google Now voice searches. I'm not sure if it would be a strong use case to be able to control your house's lights/heating/TV from the car but you could achieve it.

I haven't tried it, but if Autovoice will work with Android Auto then you'd be able to use the car's existing voice button as well.

[sybaseian]

tankplanker said:

sybaseian said:

doesn't work on iPhones........

besides, google assistant can't control my home lights, etc when I'm in the car.

Edited by sybaseian on Friday 17th March 09:09

On Android you could achieve this with Tasker, Autovoice and the relevant plugin for your home automation as Autovoice can intercept the Google Now voice searches. I'm not sure if it would be a strong use case to be able to control your house's lights/heating/TV from the car but you could achieve it.

I haven't tried it, but if Autovoice will work with Android Auto then you'd be able to use the car's existing voice button as well.

I don't want ANDROID.........

besides, there is no voice button in any of my TVRs.

Edited by sybaseian on Monday 20th March 17:58

[Higgs boson]

GetCarter said:

Higgs boson said:

I did this, but, as I also watch Star Trek, I had to change it back to Alexa. Every time a character spoke to the computer, Alexa told me that it didn't understand the question.
It was funny the first couple of times, but it really stated to grate when I had to listen to it a dozen, or more, times an episode.

You'll still have trouble with the Lexus ads!

Practically anything that I watch on a commercial channel is time-shifted, which means that ads get the x30 treatment. So no trouble with Lexus as yet.

[Ved]

I'm using it to control the Hue lights around the house. Works very well.

https://youtu.be/4pU0F-zohKs

[tedmus]

Ved said:

I'm using it to control the Hue lights around the house. Works very well.

https://youtu.be/4pU0F-zohKs

I have 3 in the living room at the moment, floor lamp, side lamp and main room light and plan on getting a strip for the back of the TV. There is an add on for Kodi which is supposed to work with Hue to create an ambient lighting effect when watching movies etc, matches (or there abouts) the colour outputs with the main colour on the screen.

I got a starter kit from this link which is has the version 1 hub, as far as I know the only difference between that and the version 2 is the latter is Apple home kit enabled.

https://www.luzerntech.com/default/philips-hue-lux...

[Zoon]

Ved said:

I'm using it to control the Hue lights around the house. Works very well.

https://youtu.be/4pU0F-zohKs

This video is unavailable.

Sorry about that.

[Ved]

Zoon said:

Ved said:

I'm using it to control the Hue lights around the house. Works very well.

https://youtu.be/4pU0F-zohKs

This video is unavailable.

Sorry about that.

Try now.

[21TonyK]

swerni said:

Has anyone attempted to write skills yet?
I'm struggling to get it working

Aaghhhh

Not yet but this is going to be my project for a couple of weeks over the Easter holidays. Only something simple to start off but have a couple of ideas for bigger projects.

[21TonyK]

swerni said:

21TonyK said:

swerni said:

Has anyone attempted to write skills yet?
I'm struggling to get it working

Aaghhhh

Not yet but this is going to be my project for a couple of weeks over the Easter holidays. Only something simple to start off but have a couple of ideas for bigger projects.

I've not coded anything for best part of 30 years, but learning is a pleasant enough past time.

Much the same, last commercial work I did was back in 2002, since then the most I've done is half a dozen macros in Excel!

I'm just looking to play around initially but might look at something more serious over the summer.

[PixelpeepS3]

Sonos and alexa integration coming later in 2017 i have seen. it looks awesome.


the answer to all my (first world) problems

[davek_964]

Bought a Dot yesterday. My mate mentioned on Thursday night that he had one and that he'd found it pretty useful - and I thought it would make a reasonable voice controlled bedroom alarm.
Seemed OK when using it last night, and sure enough the alarm worked this morning. Handy for simple things - i.e. what's the weather like tomorrow, which I tend to want to know surprisingly often.

Linked it to my Nest last night and since I use a Harmony Elite in the lounge I'm tempted to order a second one.

ETA - just to add that the voice control seems reasonable. I told it to play Radio 2 and it did. Asked it what films a particular actress had been in and it listed half a dozen and told me to go online if I wanted more. Asked it to "play romantic music" and it did (although that was somewhat wasted since nobody else was there!).

[PixelpeepS3]

davek_964 said:

Asked it to "play romantic music" and it did (although that was somewhat wasted since nobody else was there!).

Thats where you can get it to lower the blinds, dim the lighting and stream the latest 2 weeks worth of uploads from p*rnhub

[Shaw Tarse]

I have no idea what Alexa heard the other morning, BBC breakfast was on & she played Justin Bieber Love Yourself!!

[V8 Animal]

Shaw Tarse said:

I have no idea what Alexa heard the other morning, BBC breakfast was on & she played Justin Bieber Love Yourself!!

She can be random but she is woman after all.

[Shnozz]

davek_964 said:

Bought a Dot yesterday. My mate mentioned on Thursday night that he had one and that he'd found it pretty useful - and I thought it would make a reasonable voice controlled bedroom alarm.
Seemed OK when using it last night, and sure enough the alarm worked this morning. Handy for simple things - i.e. what's the weather like tomorrow, which I tend to want to know surprisingly often.

Linked it to my Nest last night and since I use a Harmony Elite in the lounge I'm tempted to order a second one.

ETA - just to add that the voice control seems reasonable. I told it to play Radio 2 and it did. Asked it what films a particular actress had been in and it listed half a dozen and told me to go online if I wanted more. Asked it to "play romantic music" and it did (although that was somewhat wasted since nobody else was there!).

Being a total tech muppet - where does your Dot "take" the music to play romantic music from? Do you have a spotify account? Thinking I might need to switch from apple play to spotify when I install a Dot.