Anyone know about the Amazon Echo?

[eek]

Amazon music is where they dump all the CDs you buy for other people on Amazon.

+1. I open Amazon Music and my first reaction is always who on earth did I buy this for....

[woohoo]

OK, so I don't have any home automation stuff, and I don't subscribe to Amazon Music, so what could I use a Dot for?

Asking it the weather.

Is that about it? Serious question, because it looks interesting for £40 but it might just end up being another unused gadget :-/

I think you probably need to be a music or prime subscriber to get the best out of it.

My guess is the dot or echo may not be for you!

But for me going to bed, I tell it to play classical music for 30 mins or ask to play a music station. I walk the dog in the morn so will ask the temp in the morn. I get up early and will tell Alexa to wake me up.

When I'm making a coffee will ask for the news. If I'm cooking will use for timers and conversions.

Will ask it to switch lights on etc. Generally I like the music selection available and you can tell it to higher or lower volume and skip tacks.

So that's it really for me. You can get it to order things but don't use that.

So don't expect the earth, I think people like it because it's just easy to use.

[Moose423956]

My main use is listening to radio stations not available on DAB or FM, so for £40 I think it's very good value, especially as it's voice activated and I don't have to get up off my fat lazy arse. As I'm a Prime member I get access to a certain amount of free music as well.

My missus was very sceptical ("I don't want to talk to a bloody robot!") but after a few goes she loves it.

I'm sure it will develop more uses as time goes on, most of the available skills at the moment look like gimmicks to me. Hopefully, there are people out there currently taking their time to develop things that people actually need. Only time will tell....

[vetran]

OK, so I don't have any home automation stuff, and I don't subscribe to Amazon Music, so what could I use a Dot for?

Asking it the weather.

Is that about it? Serious question, because it looks interesting for £40 but it might just end up being another unused gadget :-/

Base commands

https://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/the-c...lexa-commands/

I love being able to turn the radio on & off without hunting for a remote.

Alarm & Shopping lists are cool.

and you can add skills (extra functions)

I like Amazon Music 2 million songs. But I have > 20K songs & books locally I want to trigger hence DNLA.

Its also a Bluetooth speaker connector with voice control. So "Alexa Pair my phone" will allow you to push music to the DOT and play on your HiFi.

"Alexa, stop playing in 45 minutes." - sleep timer.

Flash Briefing is cool

for a few on here:

Definitions and spelling

Get the definition of a word: "Alexa, what's the definition of [word]?"
Get the spelling of a word: "Alexa, how do you spell [word]?"

easter eggs are good

"Alexa, I want the truth."

[Moose423956]

Base commands

https://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/the-c...lexa-commands/

I love being able to turn the radio on & off without hunting for a remote.

Alarm & Shopping lists are cool.

and you can add skills (extra functions)

I like Amazon Music 2 million songs. But I have > 20K songs & books locally I want to trigger hence DNLA.

Its also a Bluetooth speaker connector with voice control. So "Alexa Pair my phone" will allow you to push music to the DOT and play on your HiFi.

"Alexa, stop playing in 45 minutes." - sleep timer.

Flash Briefing is cool

for a few on here:

Definitions and spelling

Get the definition of a word: "Alexa, what's the definition of [word]?"
Get the spelling of a word: "Alexa, how do you spell [word]?"

easter eggs are good

"Alexa, I want the truth."

"Alexa, what is the meaning of life?"

"The meaning of life depends on the life in question. 42 is a good approximation".

Try "Where is Chuck Norris". Love it.

[DimPrawn]

Seems like a solution looking for a problem to me.

"Alexa, how come for decades I've been able to turn up or down a thermostat, see what the weather is like, play some music, have an alarm clock or read the news without a having Amazon or Microsoft or Google listen to everything I say, and without having to say it five times, but now suddenly my life is now incomplete without a cheap gadget to make it all 10x more complicated than it needs to be?"

[filthy1980]

I love the echo

kids love it too although they speak too fast for her to pick up the instructions

eldest daughter last week "Alexa: Who is Boudicca?" it rattled off a few facts, homework done!

I've got mine connected to my Hue lights so can tell it to turn the lights on or off or dim by a certain percentage

this is just the beginning more and more services will come on board and link into the API, no doubt you'll be able to flick between sky channels within the year, as well as order Dominos

saw a review of the Google Home yesterday and that didn't look quite as good yet

[DimPrawn]

this is just the beginning more and more services will come on board and link into the API, no doubt you'll be able to flick between sky channels within the year, as well as order Dominos

t

"Alexa darlin, put Jeremy Kyle on, get me another extra large pizza and file my JSA claim for me, I'm 'avin a fag"

[Moose423956]

"Alexa darlin, put Jeremy Kyle on, get me another extra large pizza and file my JSA claim for me, I'm 'avin a fag"

It's called progress. I don't watch Jeremy Kyle, I don't smoke and I've never filed any sort of benefit claim in my life. But I do like pizza.

[sal]

Expecting my dot to arrive today. Plan to mainly use it for some music playback, timers in the kitchen and shopping lists. If it does that for the £39 it costs, I would be a happy camper.