Amazon Echo - anyone have one?

I ordered one of these yesterday after having a play with a friend's yesterday. My god they're cool, I'm so excited for mine to arrive.

One major thing that I think is missing is a theme for the Star Trek computer, "tea, early grey, hot."
 
BTW I found a major difference between the DOT and the ECHO. The Dot can stream to a bluetooth speaker, while the ECHO won't! I was quite surprised, as I thought the only difference was the fat the ECHO had a speaker -- but I also assumed it'd still stream to a 'better' BT soundbar. Nope, won't...
 
Throwing my 2p in.

We (the house, not me personally) got one over christmas (a dot).

I just, don't see the point, I know if I had everything set up it'd be quite cool (lighting/heating etc) but for what it is on its own I don't really like it.

The person who's present it was loves it, obviously. But all they do is google for the "funniest things it will say" and proceed with doing the same hilarious jokes, etc etc.

It's nice that it connects (automatically switching the source) to my samsung BT soundbar, but that's literally all it has done. And kind of pointless when I've got every device in the house with spotify on and control it from everywhere anyway (without trying to shout over the music to make it change to the wrong song) - and usually have a ps4 with spotify on while games are being played, so kind of makes it redundant.

It would be nice if you could just control spotify.

To control my TV I'd have to get a logitech harmony remote + hub, for what 200 quid?
Or, my tv has voice activation anyway so i can just shout at that. But I don't use it 'cus it was great (about on par with how much alexa seems to be understanding things to be fair)

And the voice annoys me.

But yeah, it seems very basic, and seems to need a lot of expensive tech to make it functional.

Early adopters and all, but I am glad I didn't buy it to be fair. I hope it carries on though and gets better as it matures.
 
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I've bought a DOT, have it connected via Bluetooth to my Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Wireless.

So far I've set it up to sync with my Google Calendar etc and Spotify for Music, will play more once I have some time.
 
My friend got one for Xmas and while it was quite funny ordering toilet roll and random bits off Amazon via voice commands and adding sex toys to his shopping list it was all rather pointless?

Yea it streams music or informs you who people are by reading their wiki page, or it lets you order an uber. Oh and some of the jokes are funny...

But once my mate put a password on buying stuff it just became another speaker to stream music?

Am I missing something?
 
To be honest for me it worth £49 just so we can choose stuff of Spotify with "voice" rather than having to faff about using a phone/tablet
 
HEADRAT said:
To be honest for me it worth £49 just so we can choose stuff of Spotify with "voice" rather than having to faff about using a phone/tablet
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Or when you're trying to feed a toddler, you're covered in whatever they're *not* eating, and you don't want to listen to whatever the current track is playing in the background to make mealtimes more bearable.

</coolstory>
 
Yep, we've got to a stage and a price point where we don't need to significantly justify the purchases of tech. At £49 it's a neat little piece of tech to have. I'm still in two minds, I feel uneasy about it being able to listen in on everything (not that I think Amazon gives a hoot what I'm chatting about) but more so these creepy hackers who hack in to children's cot cameras etc, I'm sure there's a market of weirdos who get off from listening in to people's personal conversations.
 
TS7 said:
I'm sure there's a market of weirdos who get off from listening in to people's personal conversations.
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From what I've read, people have had a look at the network traffic while echo is switched on, and it only transmits to the internet when its wake word is used.
 
I mainly use mine for Spotify and think its greay. Currently working in London staying in hotels throughout the week and having the Dot has been great for music. Skipping songs mid shower is pretty cool.
 
Can't get Alexa to play Podcasts

Won't play any of my usual EDM podcasts. So I think go to tunein, search popular podcasts it has, find out the exact name of the podcast...

"Alexa play program Tiesto's club life"
Plays random songs featuring Tiesto?!

"Alexa play program spinnin sessions"
Here is a station you might like Shaun Mendez?!

Pretty frustrating, how do I get Alexa to play Podcasts? :/
 
I get similar

Alexa, play absolute 90's
Playing 1.fm absolute 90 party zone from tune in.
Nooo, i just wanted absolute 90's!

(Although, 1.fm absolute 90s party zone is actually really good so it was an accidental good find :D )
 
wez130 said:
I get similar

Alexa, play absolute 90's
Playing 1.fm absolute 90 party zone from tune in.
Nooo, i just wanted absolute 90's!

(Although, 1.fm absolute 90s party zone is actually really good so it was an accidental good find :D )
Click to expand...

True using "tunein" or "radioplay" in the command? (Note: radio play is a skill you need to add).
 
wez130 said:
I get similar

Alexa, play absolute 90's
Playing 1.fm absolute 90 party zone from tune in.
Nooo, i just wanted absolute 90's!

(Although, 1.fm absolute 90s party zone is actually really good so it was an accidental good find :D )
Click to expand...

As mentioned use Radioplayer instead of TuneIn, it's much better for UK stations as it asks for your location when you set up the skill.

I just tried "Alexa, ask Radioplayer to play absolutely 90's" and it got it straight away.

Also, it's probably worth providing feedback to your original phrase in the Alexa app, to help them improve TuneIn.
 
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