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Introducing the Amazon Echo (Smart Speaker) (1 Viewer)

Just got an Echo and Tap for Father's Day - seems like I've had the experience of doing the fun stuff the first few days and now looking to make it more functional - anybody have recommended links for reading up on this?  Any new cool stuff you guys are doing with it?  Will definitely be looking to buy the SmartHub and switches.

 
Ok, so I've got an Echo and an Echo Tap - is there a way to synch the music they are playing?  It's really nice you can play different music if you are in different rooms  but I could see several scenarios where I would want to synch them.

 
I started looking at the IFTTT site and there's some cool stuff there.  It seems like all the recipes go Alexa -> <Some app> - can you go the other way around where an app sends something to Alexa?  Just thinking about list updates and how to best manage them.  Was thinking I could send an email or text and have a list on the Echo update.

 
AAABatteries said:
Ok, so I've got an Echo and an Echo Tap - is there a way to synch the music they are playing?  It's really nice you can play different music if you are in different rooms  but I could see several scenarios where I would want to synch them.
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Not sync able, not now anyway.  Maybe a software update at some point will do that

 
AAABatteries said:
I started looking at the IFTTT site and there's some cool stuff there.  It seems like all the recipes go Alexa -> <Some app> - can you go the other way around where an app sends something to Alexa?  Just thinking about list updates and how to best manage them.  Was thinking I could send an email or text and have a list on the Echo update.
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Still an IFTTT rookie here, but check the website and the top recipes etc.. Just browsing on there through the Alexa recipes you'll find tons of stuff.

 
I read months ago that Ford's newer Sync system was going to communicate with Alexa. Can't seem to find any further information on it, has anyone tried this? 

 
My 9 year old has been saving his allowance for one of these Alexa things.  Does this $50 one need the $189 dollar one to work?

 
Random said:
My 9 year old has been saving his allowance for one of these Alexa things.  Does this $50 one need the $189 dollar one to work?
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No basically same as Echo but with a crappy speaker for commands.

If you want to listen to music will have to hook better speakers to it.

I have Echo and just ordered a Dot.

 
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Google home now serving as competition. Already better in a few ways per various reviews. Curious to see how this'll shake out over the coming months. 

 
Hilts said:
Google home now serving as competition. Already better in a few ways per various reviews. Curious to see how this'll shake out over the coming months. 
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Interested in this as well.  I own neither an echo or google home.  I have an android phone so maybe google home is a better fit??  I guess I am going to let it play out for a bit and see what develops.  I will definitely be getting one or the other.

 
I have both and right now Google Home is far behind what the Echo can do. If it can quickly catch up it will be a better unit, but right now its not close to the Echo. 

 
Just ordered a dot for $40.  Figure it's on sale and I can hook it up to my bluetooth speaker.  I will start with that and see how it goes.

 
I am trying to figure all this #### out. Just added a second floor on to our house and need to enhance our wifi coverageand make smarter bc why not the internet says I should. 

Getting the Google Wifi when it drops next week to get the wifi signal everywhere. 

Got a keypad schlage door lock that wants a Wink hub to work with my phone. Also could do lights through wink/phone. Echo or dot would be a nice to have I guess since my kids don't listen to me maybe Alexa will.  

Is the hub integral to all this or just if I want to control all via phone?

 
I grabbed a dot when they were on sale over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My wife HATES it.  She gets angry every time I say "Alexa."  I hope that changes when I finally get wrestle my media into some sort of manageable form for streaming.  As of now, It's a $40 news update while I make coffee.  

 
 My coworker let me borrow a Dor because she has one in every room of her house. I'm not sure it's anything but a gimmick. Sure the Music feature is nice to be able to just have it play a song on demand but other than having it tell you the temperature, I can't see a real need for it.  My daughter would ask it  specific homework questions and it always didn't have the answer. 

I already have Xfinity home, so I can control my lights and temperature from my phone already.  

I do see that Xfinity is one of the first companies to open access with the Dot through IFTTT commands  on the X1 cable platform boxes, so maybe that is something worthwhile in the future.  However, I already have a remote  that uses voice command so I'm not sure where else they can go with the Dot.  

 
Nick Vermeil said:
I grabbed a dot when they were on sale over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My wife HATES it.  She gets angry every time I say "Alexa."  I hope that changes when I finally get wrestle my media into some sort of manageable form for streaming.  As of now, It's a $40 news update while I make coffee.  
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My wife was not a fan for the first week or so, but now she loves it. Granted, we don't use it for everything just yet, but the few functions we do use she is digging. 

We changed Alexa to Echo b/c it was getting annoying. I'm hoping that Amazon enables the ability to change it to a custom name sometime in early 2017. 

 
Nick Vermeil said:
I grabbed a dot when they were on sale over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My wife HATES it.  She gets angry every time I say "Alexa."  I hope that changes when I finally get wrestle my media into some sort of manageable form for streaming.  As of now, It's a $40 news update while I make coffee.  
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at the very least the dot is a kick ### alarm clock for $40 . 

 
We started ordering #### off Amazon through Alexa. Mindblowing moment for my wife.  The minute you see you're running low on trash bags, you just yell out "Alexa, order kitchen trash bags."  Boom.  Trash bags show up like the next day.  There's no more forgetting crap or shopping lists.

 
Nick Vermeil said:
I grabbed a dot when they were on sale over the Thanksgiving holiday.  My wife HATES it.  She gets angry every time I say "Alexa."  I hope that changes when I finally get wrestle my media into some sort of manageable form for streaming.  As of now, It's a $40 news update while I make coffee.  
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We use ours every day for music, weather, controlling crap in the house (through SmartThings Hub), ordering crap, etc.

 
Otis said:
We use ours every day for music, weather, controlling crap in the house (through SmartThings Hub), ordering crap, etc.
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She already has an amazon ordering problem. I don't even want to tell her she can order through it. I wanted it for the media and also to make lists, recipes and what not. 

 
I guess I am "old fashion" or what not but after researching these things I just dont see the point of it.  The best thing I can see is that it just eliminates one step in the process of finding out the weather (but dont you already know that), playing music, ordering things etc.  I am not really seeing the value here.

Maybe I am wrong (probably am) and this is one of those things that once you get it you ask yourself how did you manage without it.

 
glvsav37 said:
My wife was not a fan for the first week or so, but now she loves it. Granted, we don't use it for everything just yet, but the few functions we do use she is digging. 

We changed Alexa to Echo b/c it was getting annoying. I'm hoping that Amazon enables the ability to change it to a custom name sometime in early 2017. 
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One of my daughters is named Alexis - we had to change it the first day.   :lol:

 
What's are the major differences between a hub for home automation and WeMo switches, which can be put into groups using the Alexa app?

I have one living room lamp on a WeMo outlet and a porch light on a WeMo switch.  I just got a second living room lamp, and I would like to also put that on a WeMo switch, then create a group in the Alexa app that would control both of those outlet/lamps together.

But, if I'm going to start heading down this road of slowly introducing home automation, should now be the time that I pull the trigger on a hub, rather than purchasing more WeMo outlets/switches?  What are the major differences and advantages to a hub?

 
Not sure what thread is the "smart home" thread, but I think this is the closest we have.

Got a Ring Video Doorbell Pro and installed it last night.  Totally, totally awesome.  Game changer.  Highly recommend.  

 
Otis said:
Not sure what thread is the "smart home" thread, but I think this is the closest we have.

Got a Ring Video Doorbell Pro and installed it last night.  Totally, totally awesome.  Game changer.  Highly recommend.  
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I ordered one of these a couple weeks ago but it's still sitting in the box. Maybe I'll install it this weekend.

 
East Coast Bias said:
I ordered one of these a couple weeks ago but it's still sitting in the box. Maybe I'll install it this weekend.
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It's awesome.  Only gripe so far is the video isn't smooth because the WiFi connection is just "good."  After some online research I learned that their Chime/Wifi repeater solves this.  Plugs into an outlet and extends the signal from your Ring doorbell.  I ordered one up -- we'll see.

 
Picked up the small one. Awesome for the radio alone. If Steve Jobs were still around he'd be flogging some designers some where for not making this first. 

 
Otis said:
Not sure what thread is the "smart home" thread, but I think this is the closest we have.

Got a Ring Video Doorbell Pro and installed it last night.  Totally, totally awesome.  Game changer.  Highly recommend.  
Click to expand...
We've had ours installed for about 2 months now and I love it too.  My only complaint is that we when we're at home and get the "Someone is at the door notification", sometimes it takes a good 5 seconds to pull up the video feed.  I hate that delay before being able to decide if we want to actually answer the door or not.  Not sure if it's our wireless signal (which is pretty good to the best of my knowledge) or what.

 
PlayaHata said:
We've had ours installed for about 2 months now and I love it too.  My only complaint is that we when we're at home and get the "Someone is at the door notification", sometimes it takes a good 5 seconds to pull up the video feed.  I hate that delay before being able to decide if we want to actually answer the door or not.  Not sure if it's our wireless signal (which is pretty good to the best of my knowledge) or what.
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Delays in video have been attributed to the wireless signal.  Even in a home with good wifi.  I'm trying that Chime extender thing.  Supposedly solves it.

 
Otis said:
Delays in video have been attributed to the wireless signal.  Even in a home with good wifi.  I'm trying that Chime extender thing.  Supposedly solves it.
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I actually looked on the Ring support site last night and they say you should have at least 2Mbps upload and download.  I ran the http://ring.com/speed test on my front porch with the door closed and got 53 Mbps down and 11 Mbps up with 30ms ping.  Definitely let me know if the Chime extender solves the delay for you.

And since this is the Echo thread, I should mention that I got my Dad an Echo Dot for Father's Day and he loves it so far.  He mainly uses it for streaming music.  He loves using the timer on it while he's cooking too.

 
The dot is obviously not a necessity. That said, it's a fun, handy, inexpensive gadget to have on the kitchen counter. If I'm in the middle of making meatballs or something I can just say, "Alexa, play Eric Johnson music", and seconds later EJ is playing. Don't have to stop what I'm doing, wash my hands, grab my phone, etc. Or, while following a recipe, "Alexa, how many tsblespoons are in a half cup?", or whatever. It's not going to change your life, just a little added convenience. If you have a good wifi signal it's handy, practical, and fun by the pool for calling out music requests.

And as already mentioned, ordering things on the fly is a great feature. "Alexa, order cat food". 

It's also fun just asking it random questions, such as, "Alexa, who's the greatest QB of all time?"

Not going to change your world, but you shouldn't be expecting it to for $40.

 
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I love the Echo but get more use out of the Tap.  Beach, Pool, Camping, Garage/Yard, Bedroom, Bathroom - I take it all over the place.  Great speaker.

 
Okay, my earlier post called this a gimmick, but it is slowly finding a little niche onto our lives here. However, my biggest concern is that my Dot seems to just turn itself on sometimes and begin playing random music. For three nights in a row, we were subjected to a heavy metal song called "Somebody Farted" out of the blue. (my kids and I thought it was funny)  I changed my wifi password because I figured that was the most likely culprit and one of my neighbors was messing with me. It stopped for a week or two and then we started getting a random rap song during dinner, so we ended up unplugging it for a while. What concerns me is that sometimes I look over at it and the dot is blue and acts like it is active, but it is weird. 

I am finding more things it can do, but the privacy issue is starting to wear thin on my wife. 

 
Courtjester said:
Okay, my earlier post called this a gimmick, but it is slowly finding a little niche onto our lives here. However, my biggest concern is that my Dot seems to just turn itself on sometimes and begin playing random music. For three nights in a row, we were subjected to a heavy metal song called "Somebody Farted" out of the blue. (my kids and I thought it was funny)  I changed my wifi password because I figured that was the most likely culprit and one of my neighbors was messing with me. It stopped for a week or two and then we started getting a random rap song during dinner, so we ended up unplugging it for a while. What concerns me is that sometimes I look over at it and the dot is blue and acts like it is active, but it is weird. 

I am finding more things it can do, but the privacy issue is starting to wear thin on my wife. 
Click to expand...


Weird.   Check the Alexa app to maybe get some insight. 

 
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