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***Official***Amazon Echo & Dot (Alexa) Thread (1 Viewer)

I just got the echo.  Having trouble with it searching the web for simple questions

i also Loaded some cool skills like the magic door and jeopardy

 
Alexa............

"Who's the man?"

"What's the weather?"

"How did (Your sports team) do?"

Just a few of the ones I've played with.

 
I've looked a bit at the "skills" alexa can learn.  Interested in hearing what folks typically use it for.  

 
As I posted elsewhere....

My mom has one of those things. I hate it. Only way it knows how to respond to 'Alexa' is by listening to everything that's said.

In the words of the great Joseph Heller - Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you
 
 
Blatant copy/paste from the article above for when you change the default music app to Spotify:

Amazon Echo Voice Commands

Spotify on Amazon Echo lets you control your tunes using your voice!

Just say, "Alexa!" and then...

Start Playing

  • "Play [song name]"
  • "Play [song name] by [artist]"
  • "Play songs by [artist name]"
  • "Play music composed by [composer]"
  • "Play [playlist name] from Spotify"
  • "Play [Discover Weekly] playlist"
  • "Play [genre]"
Controls

  • "Pause" pauses the currently playing track.
  • "Stop" stops the currently playing track.
  • "Resume" continues playback.
  • "Mute" mutes the speaker.
  • "Play Spotify" plays Spotify from where you left off.
  • "Next song/track" or "Skip this song/track" skips the current track.
  • "Previous" returns to the last track played.
  • "Shuffle" enables Shuffle mode.
  • "Unshuffle" or "Shuffle off" disables Shuffle mode.
  • "Volume [1-10]" sets the volume from 10 to 100%.
  • "Volume up/down" turns volume up or down.
Queries

  • "What song is playing?" Alexa will tell you the song/artist that's playing.
  • "Who is the artist?" Alexa will tell you the artist for the current track.
  • Spotify Connect

    "Spotify Connect" or "Connect Spotify" enables Spotify Connect.
  •  

 
Funny story about this...... The other night we were watching "The Big Short". Had to stop the movie a few times to try to explain what "shorting" was and a few other things, to my daughter. As I'm going through an explanation of things, she's asking some questions..... All of a sudden out of the blue Alexa says "I'm sorry, I can;t help you with that"..... We were shocked and burst out laughing. No one mentioned Alexa at all... It was hilarious, but kind of spooky.  

:oldunsure:

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hilts said:
Google home has that aspect beat easily. 
Click to expand...
Yes.  Alexa isn't very smart at Googling..

I picked up an Echo and 2 dots.  Will use mainly to play with our Amazon Music collection...  And for home automation.  Have an Insteon home starter kit arriving tomorrow.  A guy I work with has his entire home automated at this point.  Has it combined with Insteon, Hue, and Nest. 

 
top dog said:
Yes.  Alexa isn't very smart at Googling..

I picked up an Echo and 2 dots.  Will use mainly to play with our Amazon Music collection...  And for home automation.  Have an Insteon home starter kit arriving tomorrow.  A guy I work with has his entire home automated at this point.  Has it combined with Insteon, Hue, and Nest. 
Click to expand...
which starter kit did you get?

 
I got for Christmas and just set it up. We don't have a smart home or any bluetooth devices other than our phones, but it's still cool as a google substitute.

 
I got the echo last year... really under-utilised, although with my new receiver with all its bells and whistles, I already have my phone and Spotify and all that via Bluetooth and innernets on my actual sound system. 

ANYhoo, on my flight to RDU last week on JetBlue, they were doing a giveaway of ten echo dots randomly on my flight and I won one.  Have to think the dot and its lower profile might be perfect for the bathroom. 

Whats the primary difference between the dot and the full blown echo, just more speaker? 

 
Koya said:
I got the echo last year... really under-utilised, although with my new receiver with all its bells and whistles, I already have my phone and Spotify and all that via Bluetooth and innernets on my actual sound system. 

ANYhoo, on my flight to RDU last week on JetBlue, they were doing a giveaway of ten echo dots randomly on my flight and I won one.  Have to think the dot and its lower profile might be perfect for the bathroom. 

Whats the primary difference between the dot and the full blown echo, just more speaker? 
Click to expand...
I have both and the only difference is the speaker as they both seem to have identical functionality

we use our echo for music through the Amazon prime music selection which is very good and I think the sound for what we need it for is terrific

the dot sounds much more hollow, it doesn't have any bass but for normal funcionality it is very good

we have our house automated for lights, sensors, heat, fridge door and (soon) dead bolt   Between my Alexa and SmartThings, we can control most everything in the house with a voice command   It sounds lazy but to be able to say "Alexa, turn off the lights" or "Alexa, turn the heat up to 74" while you are in bed is very nice 

one issue is that the IFTTT stuff doesn't allow for the then that portion to work for alexa    I wish that if my fridge door was left open that Alexa would be able to notify me, but it's not set up that way

you can, though, have google docs note every time you ask Alexa to play a song, so it only works in the "if" portion 

 
I think it's biggest miss is to be able to simply "google something".  It's still worth it at $50...but if google had a similar product for that price point, I'd be all over that.

 
Tiger Fan said:
I think it's biggest miss is to be able to simply "google something".  It's still worth it at $50...but if google had a similar product for that price point, I'd be all over that.
Click to expand...
totally..  it's shocking that in this age and time, this thing isn't 'smarter'    ask it anything out of it's core competency and Alexa comes back with "i'm not sure what you are asking for"

 
I use my dot to listen to music in my office.  Not the greatest sound obviously but the ability to stream and listen to radio stations is awesome.  Can't listen loud anyway so I don't even notice the quality.

 
Righetti said:
totally..  it's shocking that in this age and time, this thing isn't 'smarter'    ask it anything out of it's core competency and Alexa comes back with "i'm not sure what you are asking for"
Click to expand...
Its natural language skills aren't the best either.  It seems like there is often only one good way to say something for Alexa to understand the request.

 
Righetti said:
totally..  it's shocking that in this age and time, this thing isn't 'smarter'    ask it anything out of it's core competency and Alexa comes back with "i'm not sure what you are asking for"
Click to expand...
this is where I see Goggle's version being better in time. Right now it is really good with search—you can ask it a question and then a follow up question, instead of 1-off type commands. But I've heard the smart home integration is not as good yet. I see myself eventually moving to the Google Home, but wanted the cheaper Echo dot to see how well it integrates into our lifestyle. 

 
Righetti said:
I have both and the only difference is the speaker as they both seem to have identical functionality

we use our echo for music through the Amazon prime music selection which is very good and I think the sound for what we need it for is terrific

the dot sounds much more hollow, it doesn't have any bass but for normal funcionality it is very good

we have our house automated for lights, sensors, heat, fridge door and (soon) dead bolt   Between my Alexa and SmartThings, we can control most everything in the house with a voice command   It sounds lazy but to be able to say "Alexa, turn off the lights" or "Alexa, turn the heat up to 74" while you are in bed is very nice 

one issue is that the IFTTT stuff doesn't allow for the then that portion to work for alexa    I wish that if my fridge door was left open that Alexa would be able to notify me, but it's not set up that way

you can, though, have google docs note every time you ask Alexa to play a song, so it only works in the "if" portion
Click to expand...
funny, I've been browsing the IFTTT site for useful tasks but cant realyl find one that I would say "I need that"

I dont really know why I would need a google doc spreadsheet of every Spotify song I play. lol

 
glvsav37 said:
funny, I've been browsing the IFTTT site for useful tasks but cant realyl find one that I would say "I need that"

I dont really know why I would need a google doc spreadsheet of every Spotify song I play. lol
Click to expand...
it can do things like, when you unlock the door, turn on the lights, if the garage door is open for more than 10 minutes, send me a text message etc.

 
glvsav37 said:
this is where I see Goggle's version being better in time. Right now it is really good with search—you can ask it a question and then a follow up question, instead of 1-off type commands. But I've heard the smart home integration is not as good yet. I see myself eventually moving to the Google Home, but wanted the cheaper Echo dot to see how well it integrates into our lifestyle. 
Click to expand...
I tend to agree, part of the usefulness of any of this AI stuff is being able to get questions answered.   Alexa works great to turn off the lights, set a timer or play music but sometimes you have a question like 'who killed darth vader' and it has no idea.   I'm sure that Google is reluctant to give it's platform to Amazon on this thing as they are obviously competitors but maybe they can get something like Bing which by the way sucks

 
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?

 
ClownCausedChaos2 said:
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?
Click to expand...
Not much different I don't think.  I use the Insteon line because I guy I work with has been going down the home automation path a lot longer than myself.  Insteon, Hue, Nest, and I think some others.  He said if he had to do it all over again he would have just stuck with the Insteon line as it has worked the best.  I figured why do the testing myself if he has done it for me?

All the hub does is connect the devices.  I have an Insteon app on my phone where I can control them individually or create scenes.  In the Alexa app, I used it to discover the devices once I enabled the Insteon skill and then organized them in rooms.  I can tell Alex to "turn off the livingroom" which is a room I created in the Alexa app with 3 Insteon devices.  Or I can say, "Alexa, turn the tall livingroom lamp to 50%", which is the name of the device in the insteon app.

 
top dog said:
Not much different I don't think.  I use the Insteon line because I guy I work with has been going down the home automation path a lot longer than myself.  Insteon, Hue, Nest, and I think some others.  He said if he had to do it all over again he would have just stuck with the Insteon line as it has worked the best.  I figured why do the testing myself if he has done it for me?

All the hub does is connect the devices.  I have an Insteon app on my phone where I can control them individually or create scenes.  In the Alexa app, I used it to discover the devices once I enabled the Insteon skill and then organized them in rooms.  I can tell Alex to "turn off the livingroom" which is a room I created in the Alexa app with 3 Insteon devices.  Or I can say, "Alexa, turn the tall livingroom lamp to 50%", which is the name of the device in the insteon app.
Click to expand...
:goodposting:

I'll just add that I am able to do the exact same stuff with the Hue app.  

 
top dog said:
Not much different I don't think.  I use the Insteon line because I guy I work with has been going down the home automation path a lot longer than myself.  Insteon, Hue, Nest, and I think some others.  He said if he had to do it all over again he would have just stuck with the Insteon line as it has worked the best.  I figured why do the testing myself if he has done it for me?

All the hub does is connect the devices.  I have an Insteon app on my phone where I can control them individually or create scenes.  In the Alexa app, I used it to discover the devices once I enabled the Insteon skill and then organized them in rooms.  I can tell Alex to "turn off the livingroom" which is a room I created in the Alexa app with 3 Insteon devices.  Or I can say, "Alexa, turn the tall livingroom lamp to 50%", which is the name of the device in the insteon app.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the information.  I appreciate it.  Until now, I had really only heard about the Hue and the Samsung Smartthingy.  I'll have to look into this Insteon.

 
ClownCausedChaos2 said:
Thanks for the information.  I appreciate it.  Until now, I had really only heard about the Hue and the Samsung Smartthingy.  I'll have to look into this Insteon.
Click to expand...
This is currently my favorite site for this kind of stuff.  Their customer service is pretty good (according to my buddy who has delt with them) and they have a lot of different lines and information.

http://www.smarthome.com/

 
If I already spent an arm and a leg upgrading all the lights in my house to LED (but non smart) is there a home automation system for me?

 
Got the Dot for Christmas.  I struggle with finding uses for it other than playing Spotify.  My wife has used it to add stuff to the shopping lists, but that's about it.  I suppose I could get into the habit of asking it the weather when I get up, but I know its going to be cold every day for quite a while.

 
Bull Dozier said:
Got the Dot for Christmas.  I struggle with finding uses for it other than playing Spotify.  My wife has used it to add stuff to the shopping lists, but that's about it.  I suppose I could get into the habit of asking it the weather when I get up, but I know its going to be cold every day for quite a while.
Click to expand...
My Link

 
Bull Dozier said:
Got the Dot for Christmas.  I struggle with finding uses for it other than playing Spotify.  My wife has used it to add stuff to the shopping lists, but that's about it.  I suppose I could get into the habit of asking it the weather when I get up, but I know its going to be cold every day for quite a while.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much all we do. I'll get some news or sports scores as well.

 
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