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Amazon echo


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Couldn't live without it. Tied into home automaton it adds voice control to my heating, lights, plugs and TV's. Allows me to group devices (which the native platforms don't) to control in a oner. Walk in my front door "alexa turn on downstairs lights" and they all come on. End of the night "Alexa turn off downstairs turn on bedroom" and everything downstairs goes off, bedroom lights and TV are on for me getting upstairs. Changing colours/brightness of lights, boosting the heating, listening to music plus all the general things we use it for (paired with "our groceries" so my wife and I have the same voice controlled shopping list for example) and we couldn't live without it. Have 3 in the house.

Everyone's use case is different I guess, but with the right set up is far from gimmicky. I can see how that would be the case if you dont have/use other things with it.

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1 hour ago, Peppino Impastato said:

Got one for Xmas, can honestly say it's the stupidest most pointless pathetically shit thing man has ever conceived.  It's that gimmicky and useless it actually makes me angry.

I've ordered one because it was cheaper than a new radio. f**k knows how or why you'd connect it to the lighting and heating. Switches and thermostats aren't tricky unless you're quadriplegic.

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2 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Do you need to keep saying “Alexa”? That would get right on my tits.

What if you were married to someone called Alexa? That would get right on their tits.

 

I'm going to reprogramme mine to c**t when it arrives. Ordered it in December.

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15 minutes ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Do you need to keep saying “Alexa”? That would get right on my tits.

What if you were married to someone called Alexa? That would get right on their tits.

 

My next door neighbours daughter is called Alexa. 

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Someone at work got one at Christmas, thinking it would be shite but turns out they use it a lot.

For me, the whole "smart home" thing is a little back to front. The real power of Alexa etc will be when most, or all, the devices in the home are smart and connected. People like Gaz5 are obviously getting there but hes a lot further ahead than most people.

I've got smart heating but I dont have enough other smart devices to make Alexa worthwhile. One day Im sure I will

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18 hours ago, Melanius Mullarkey said:

Do you need to keep saying “Alexa”? That would get right on my tits.

What if you were married to someone called Alexa? That would get right on their tits.

 

I've got  the small dot one. Don't have any of the smart stuff but good enough for alarms, music etc. Only thing annoying so far is when WWE is on tv and Alexa Bliss is on. Every time they mention her name the thing says "sorry I don't understand that".

3 hours ago, Peppino Impastato said:

How do you get your music on it?  Mine just says no songs matching that on library blah blah

I've got  the  music  included with Amazon prime. It plays anything which is part of the prime subscription. Think you can play spotify or link your own music via Amazon music as well.

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No you'd just do the same as everyone else that doesn't own a smart echo/dot/mini and use your fingers two flick the light switch on as you walk into a room, and not worry about the heating because you've probably got it on timer anyway.

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It's alright, relatively decent speaker on it. Only issue is for some reason whenever I'm with family or friends having a drink in the flat or at their homes, everyone seems to prefer drunkenly roaring t Alexa to change the music. It's annoying as f**k.

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Our younger son got us one for Christmas; we absolutely love it. We have subscribed to the Amazon music thingy (not it’s official name), only £4 per month after the 30 day free trial and basically all the music you could want; not restricted like Amazon Prime.

We thing the sound quality is good for such a small device; also it’s size makes it very portable.  I’d be encouraged to try to install other smart devices in the house having got this.

 

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I've got the Hue bulbs throughout the house, which I think are really good. Also got all my TV, Amp, Games Consoles etc set up with the Logitech Hub and Harmony remote.

Got an Echo Dot for Christmas and have been underwhelmed with it really, it's hit and miss with the Hue bulbs and is quite picky about names. The Harmony integration is poor and you have to ask it in very specific Syntax to do anything. 

Overall I've found the Google assistant on my phone to be more useful. I did get my Mum and Dad the full size Echo for Christmas along with the starter pack for the Hue bulbs and they love it, although I think my Dad uses it more as an Internet Radio. 

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4 hours ago, gavin_3110 said:

I've got the Hue bulbs throughout the house, which I think are really good. Also got all my TV, Amp, Games Consoles etc set up with the Logitech Hub and Harmony remote.

Got an Echo Dot for Christmas and have been underwhelmed with it really, it's hit and miss with the Hue bulbs and is quite picky about names. The Harmony integration is poor and you have to ask it in very specific Syntax to do anything. 

Overall I've found the Google assistant on my phone to be more useful. I did get my Mum and Dad the full size Echo for Christmas along with the starter pack for the Hue bulbs and they love it, although I think my Dad uses it more as an Internet Radio. 

I didnt realise it, or google assistant, worked with the Harmony hub. I might give that a go

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10 minutes ago, Mr X said:

I didnt realise it, or google assistant, worked with the Harmony hub. I might give that a go

It does work quite well if you ask it correctly, it's just a bit clunky. You need to ask it things like "Alexa, ask Harmony to start the XBOX activity". Still handy though if you can't find the remote or whatever!

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