Amazon Echo

Wish this was in my impulse buy range. Would love to play with one, but can't seem to muster up enough rationale for the money.

Antichulius wrote:

Wish this was in my impulse buy range. Would love to play with one, but can't seem to muster up enough rationale for the money.

Yep. We just bought a house in April and I like the idea of automating so much (AC, heat, lights), but it's not a necessity right now.

The cheap 7" no fancy name Fire tablet is getting an OTA update adding Alexa, starting today. Doubtless it'll be on sale again for Black Friday, and probably advertising the addition.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/9bJ0OzO.png)

So it seems that the Tap got an update that allows hands-free activation now:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/09/am...

Mine hasn't gotten the update yet, and I can't seem to force an update. I've reset my device to no avail. I'm not sure if the Alexa app also needs an update, and there hasn't been one delivered to me yet either.

Just got a Echo but a Dot plus a bluetooth speaker might have been a better way to go. What I want to do is connect it to my security cameras. I think I'll be able to do it using IFTTT.

I also kind of want to find it's soul. If I can just ask her the right question I think I can trick her into revealing her soul. Once I have her soul I will be able to copy it and create a army of digital voices that I can use to take over the world. hmmmm wait a minute how will digital voices help me take over the world. They don't have arms or legs. They can't hold onto guns or drive. Dang it I might have wasted my money.

I really like that I can news and play music. I also have it setup as a wireless speaker for my laptop. Damn that soul thing really sucks. I really hope I find some other uses for this.

Jeopardy is fun...

Baron Of Hell wrote:

Just got a Echo but a Dot plus a bluetooth speaker might have been a better way to go.

IIRC, if you plug in a speaker, even voice feedback has to go through it, so you basically need to have a powered speaker on all the time.

Kurrelgyre wrote:
Baron Of Hell wrote:

Just got a Echo but a Dot plus a bluetooth speaker might have been a better way to go.

IIRC, if you plug in a speaker, even voice feedback has to go through it, so you basically need to have a powered speaker on all the time.

Plugged in yes, but with Bluetooth the Dot will default to itself if the connection is lost.
One issue I did find with the Dot/Bluetooth combo, was that it does not maintain the connection well. I have to often reconnect it through the Alexa app. However, this could be something with my setup where one of our phones is taking control of the speaker or something.

My echo drops connection with my laptop all the time so maybe it is some kind of built in timeout issue. Connection have never been lost for me while playing something.

Baron Of Hell wrote:

hmmmm wait a minute how will digital voices help me take over the world. They don't have arms or legs. They can't hold onto guns or drive.

I know what it is you're channeling.

IMAGE(https://imgur.com/Rv8GuUg.png)

That glosses over, oh, every (actually) useful thing the owner gets in exchange.

Yes, because having a live microphone sitting in your living room, controlled by a corporation, is totally worth it, as long as you get a few freebies out of the deal.

We've been putting devices they could listen through for years. Hello telephone. Hello cell phone. Hello router. Etc.

All we can hope for is the laws to protect us, but that's been thrown out the window since 2001.

Using an Echo is no different than using a keyboard to access Amazon.

Oh, is it Wednesday again already? Okay, let's hash over this circular conversation where everyone talks past each other and no one convinces anyone again. Whose turn is it to be extra condescending to people who don't share their exact priorities vis-a-vis convenience vs privacy this time? Malor's? Cool. Must be a Wednesday that starts with a 'y'.

But Wednesday doesn't start with y?

It does now:

Yednesday

From the Norse "Yodinsday," referring of course to Odin's little-known yodeling brother.

Wednesdays we wear pink

Maybe someone here can answer a question I've so far been unable to find the answer to...

We have an Echo, and Prime, and recently started the trial of Amazon Music Unlimited, with a view to it replacing our Spotify Premium subscription. My wife recreated her Spotify playlist in Amazon Music Unlimited, and can listen to it fine on her phone, and can even play it through the echo by issuing the command from the Alexa app on her phone.

What neither of us can work out, however, is how to play the playlist via voice command directly to the echo. Any for of 'Play just results in Alexa telling us she can't find that playlist.

I can't seem to find anything online about what could be causing this, as almost all results are just based on the basic voice commands we've been using unsuccessfully. We did find one forum post that suggests that the playlist has to be in the cloud, rather than on the device only (her phone), but I can't seem to find any options for where the playlist is stored...

Am I missing something? Is it just that the Echo 'Play Playlist' command doesn't work while under the trial? This is also the UK version, which doesn't differ in hardware, but I understand does differ slightly in the services it offers, but I wouldn't imagine playing AMU Playlists via voice command on echo being one of the differences, especially if the Echo can easily play the playlist when the command is issued via the Alexa app.

Make sure you have Amazon Music set as your default music app from the Echo app.

I have mine set to Spotify, so if I tell Alexa to play a playlist she only checks Spotify. For Amazon I have to explicitly say play [playlist name] on Amazon.

I've had trouble in general with getting playlists to work by voice command.

lunchbox12682 wrote:

I've had trouble in general with getting playlists to work by voice command.

Now that you mention it, I created a playlist called "Ear Worms" that Alexa could just not understand when I asked her to play it.

Funny aside: last night I was watching my wife play Breath of the Wild and every time I said "elixir" Alexa would activate.

PaladinTom wrote:
lunchbox12682 wrote:

I've had trouble in general with getting playlists to work by voice command.

Now that you mention it, I created a playlist called "Ear Worms" that Alexa could just not understand when I asked her to play it.

Funny aside: last night I was watching my wife play Breath of the Wild and every time I said "elixir" Alexa would activate.

Yep, every time I've asked Alexa to play a playlist I just end up with some random song from Prime.

Also, you made me curious if my brother has watched ST:TNG since he changed his Echo's activation word to "Computer"...

PaladinTom wrote:

Make sure you have Amazon Music set as your default music app from the Echo app.

I have mine set to Spotify, so if I tell Alexa to play a playlist she only checks Spotify. For Amazon I have to explicitly say play [playlist name] on Amazon.

Great point! I'll check that as soon as I get a chance. Thanks!

Mantid wrote:

Also, you made me curious if my brother has watched ST:TNG since he changed his Echo's activation word to "Computer"...

Wait you can do that? I thought the only options were 'Alexa' and 'Echo'?

omni wrote:
Mantid wrote:

Also, you made me curious if my brother has watched ST:TNG since he changed his Echo's activation word to "Computer"...

Wait you can do that? I thought the only options were 'Alexa' and 'Echo'?

They added 'computer' last January. And of course 'Amazon' was always an option.

I changed it to "Computer" for a bit, and I switched it back to "Alexa" the first time a Star Trek episode came on.

"Computer" got WAY more false positive activations than Alexa ever did. I'm talking about people NOT saying 'computer' and the Echo activates. It got switched back within a week.

polypusher wrote:

"Computer" got WAY more false positive activations than Alexa ever did. I'm talking about people NOT saying 'computer' and the Echo activates. It got switched back within a week.

Same, though it only took two days before I was done.