Amazon Echo FAQ

Got mine with the £50 off and set it up yesterday. I had been waiting for it to be available in UK. Delighted with is so far , think the family we really see the benefit going forward. The issues I have so far are ;

Have set the location to Dublin but still "What is tomorrows weather like" doesnt work , have to add "in Dublin Ireland" at the end which I dont want to do every time (1st world problems).

Have set Spotify as default music player but still need to add "in Spotify" at the end or it plays from Prime Music.

No luck with tuneIn so far , have tried "Play radio station RTE 2FM on TuneIn", Newstalk, etc, cant find it.

Also I cant find some of the skills I read about - Jeopardy, fitbit, etc.

Any tips ?

I got one of these yesterday, but can't download the app as its only for UK or US iTunes accounts.

How are you guys using it in Ireland off the irish iTunes store?

Hi all,

Great thread, made my mind up to get an Echo and it arrived last night. Very impressed with what I was able to do in 20 minutes without any workarounds.

Quick question, I see a couple of people mentioning that they have access to Prime Music - how have you managed this? I have a UK prime membership and Alexa/the app indicates that I still need to sign up. If I go to my prime, it says I am signed up and then its just an endless cycle.

I know that the T&C's say you need a UK credit card or bank account - but is there a way around this?


Thanks!

Mine arrived yesterday via PM. Have it set up and impressed so far - here's a summary..
On original setup in the App I chose Alexa UK - but the App suuggested that I should instead select Alexa US because my Amazon account was 'linked to Amazon US'. Suggested that choosing Alexa UK would cause problems with language / understanding.....I chose Alexa UK anyway but I might try Alexa US in the future (unless doing so will delete all my existing settings / skills etc. - doesn anybody know?)
Accepted a Dublin address but like poster above, it (she?) doesn't recognise the location when I ask 'What's the weather like' (responds that it can't get weather for that location) - whereas 'What's the weather in Dublin' works fine.
Time is one hour off for some inexplicable reason.
Spotify working very well - haven't tried asking for a song yet without specifying Spotify - will try this later.
Prime Music doesn't work (system responds that I need to have a Prime account - which I do....) - I think this is probably because of IP Geofencing rather then any issue with the Echo itself - i.e. Prime Music doesn't work on my other devices.
Audible works perfectly.
Connected to my Hue bridge and found all lights without any problem except that it doesn't seem to recognise scenes / rooms already set up in Hue App - only individual lights. There is a facility in the Alexa App to group light together (i.e. to facilitate 'Turn off the kitchen lights etc.). I will keep experimenting with setting scenes etc.....is it just me or doesn't everybody want to be able to be able to say "Alexa - Set Condition Red"...:-)
Connected no problem to my Evohome Total Comfort Connect - giving individual control over the heating in each room via Alexa - which is awesome! However it doesn't recognise the Hot Water as a room / zone - which is a bummer because the one thing the missus wanted was to be able to say "Alexa, boost the hot water". Looks like the IFTT route suggested above won't work until / unless IFTT support is added here. I am going to email Honeywell support on this.
Random results with TuneIn - it has found RTE Radio 1 and played it at least once, but on other occasions either has great difficulty understanding the station name and on other occasions has found it (verified in the App) but no sound plays.
Accepted Uber login details so I should be able to order an Uber car (will try over the weekend). A tip on this - when you set up Uber with Alexa, the default pickup location (for orders placed using Alexa) is the location of the Echo device (i.e. the location of the Echo as specified in the Alexa App). However, after setup you can (if necessary for accuracy) ask Alexa to "Ask Uber to change my default pickup location" - and you will then be prompted to select from your Home or Work pickup location as specified in the Uber App itself.
Apart from trouble with 'RTE Radio' (maybe I need to try a British accept) Alexa generally understands everything I say.

Now if only she had the LCARS voice......!
See engadget.com/2016/09/06/star-treks-iconic-computer-voice-may-live-on-in-your-phone/

Just realised that I have a music account that's associated with my Amazon US account, which is a new one on me. I forsee pain

So has anyone been able to make "How's the weather like?" work without specifying Dublin? (if the location is set to somewhere in Dublin of course)

BobbyT28 wrote: »

People have to remember that it only after being released to the UK market. Hopefully with time the intergration will improve and that IFTTT etc will be supported.

I myself have been a little underwhelmed but that maybe because I am still waiting to get my Hue setup and Harmony hub. I also am only getting into the whole automated / Smarthome thing.

The one thing that is buggying me is, they way it does not reconise any and I mean any IRish radio stations at all.

And again this evening traffic was "Unavailable"! even though it worked earlier that morning.

BobbyT28

I'm getting it to recognise all radio stations . I think adding the phrase "on TuneIn" helps. For example. "Play RTÉ radio 1 on TuneIn". Can't get weather to work at all even though I've set up and saved my location in Dublin in Alexa app. Also can't find a way to change from audible UK store to US . I use both Amazon stores but my audible account is still on US store.

BobbyT28 wrote: »

I've tried

2FM
NEwstalk
RTE Radio1

Must be my thick Dublin accent!!!

I couldn't get any of those three either, but Today FM worked a dream.

Donegal here, so another extreme !

Jonnie_Onion wrote: »

I'm thinking of setting up a fresh Amazon account and transferring it across - if I can get a refund on Prime. Had the same experience with chat, except they suggested trying a fake (!) card number.

So seriously what's the deal with getting Music on Prime? I've just set up a new account and got a Prime trial, but it looks like there's no way around needing a UK card. Can anyone help?