Amazon Echo - anyone have one?

MookJong said:
As a speaker what is the sound quality like? also what are the options for using it as a radio to listen to BBC? I have a conventional radio in the kitchen currently and something like this which would be hands free is tempting. I do a fair bit of cooking so not having you touch the device would be handy.
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BBC should be accessible via the TuneIn radio app, e.g. "Alexa, play Radio 1 on TuneIn."
 
MookJong said:
As a speaker what is the sound quality like? also what are the options for using it as a radio to listen to BBC? I have a conventional radio in the kitchen currently and something like this which would be hands free is tempting. I do a fair bit of cooking so not having you touch the device would be handy.
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Its not bad, I've been streaming some music and anything above volume lvl 8 gets distorted, but its pretty loud at that level anyway.

The internet radio functionality is good too, just ask Alexa to play BBC/LBC and it finds it very reliably.
 
Mine arrived a couple of hours ago.. love it...

Hooked in to my calender, NEST, Hue lights and more to come.. looking forward to the Sonos hook up as well but it sounds surprisingly good...
 
I may be easily pleased, but adding an event to my Google calendar using Alexa, and watching the entry appear in Chrome was kind of impressive.

My intention is to set up my calendar so my mother (with dementia) can ask Alexa what I'm doing at any time. It reports scheduled events very nicely, but the tricky part will be getting Mum to ask the right question, and for me to make entries which Alexa can read naturally.

So far though Mum's very happy simply being able to find out the time or day or weather, or to fire up Elvis at the drop of a hat. It's worth the £100 just to see her smile when Alexa does as she's told.

The microphone isn't quite as sensitive as I'd hoped, but it's still proving very reliable in the same room so far. As a glimpse into the future it's hard to deny the potential here, and I've never been inclined to use voice control for anything other than curiosity value in the past.

Of course by next week the novelty will have worn off, my Mum will have failed to operate Alexa when on her own at the weekend, and my thoughts may be less positive. But for now this feels like an impressive bit of technology.
 
If they integrate more apps then it will only get more powerful. I'd like to see:

1) A Skype client, being able to make and receive calls.
2) Being able to tell it to play last week's episode of XYZ in iPlayer via Fire TV.

All software, updatable OTA.
 
Battery! said:
Mine arrived a couple of hours ago.. love it...

Hooked in to my calender, NEST, Hue lights and more to come.. looking forward to the Sonos hook up as well but it sounds surprisingly good...
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what is hue working on , is it samsung smart things?

i cant see its own app in alexa?
 
OK so mine has arrived. Took five mins to setup and is already quite impressive.

1) Have hooked it up to my work calendar and it can remind me when I have meetings scheduled.
2) Set default music player to spotify and it now happily plays my playlists on demand.
3) Gives me news briefings and weather/traffic for the area.
4) Knows when my next amazon delivery is due.
5) Doesn't listen to my wife. :D
 
welshboy said:
what is hue working on , is it samsung smart things?

i cant see its own app in alexa?
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Hue is built in to the Alexa smarthome section, it's not a 3rd party skill. You go to the Alexa app, Hue and then sync it with the hue hub by pressing the button.
 
Works really well.

-Understands voice commands reliably.
-Answers questions quickly and you can ask detailed random questions and get results 90% of the time.
-Works well with my HS100 power plugs, so I can voice control my bedroom lamps easily.

Cons:
-Can't pair additional bluetooth speakers.
-Speaker is good for questions and commands but I wouldn't use it for music. I did expect that though.
 
Em3bbs said:
Hue is built in to the Alexa smarthome section, it's not a 3rd party skill. You go to the Alexa app, Hue and then sync it with the hue hub by pressing the button.
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I don't have hue in my list. and if i type it in at the top it brings two results "smartthings" and "yonomi"


i have successfully setup nest.
 
welshboy said:
I don't have hue in my list. and if i type it in at the top it brings two results "smartthings" and "yonomi"


i have successfully setup nest.
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Nest is a 3rd party skill, not part of the main Alexa Smart Home. If you are searching with text for an option you are in the wrong section for Hue.

If you go to http://alexa.amazon.co.uk then 'Smart Home' on the side options, can you click 'Discover Devices' and then it prompts you to press the button on the Hue hub?

Although I've had an Echo for about a year from the US (have been able to turn it British English and point to .co.uk skills since this week), so maybe that's why it works in my account.
 
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Very good, but needs the IFFFT to work for uk accounts. Hears much better than siri does, slightly better than cortana over a usb mic. For some reason couldnt recognise my home station name on national rail, so chose the one before - "alexa, how is my commute?" is pretty cool. Also tried the traffic and that was good although would prefer "heavy" or "light" plus the estimated journey time rather than just the journey time. Hour 3 and happy!
 
Friend of mine tells me to tell you lot to ask your echo's and dots what the Jedi code is :p

Feel free to post the answers!
 
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