Amazon Echo FAQ

richardw001

For those of you who have run out of questions to ask the echo - this is a cool site

https://echotricks.com/

jobless

v10 wrote: »

Just got my new echo delivered yesterday from amazon uk. Even though it was ordered through a UK Amazon account it was setup for US.

It worked fine in US configuration (except time, weather etc) and then when I switched to a Dublin address (wouldn't accept anything outside Dublin) I found it couldn't find pretty much any TuneIn stations and 90% of the time just said TuneIn wasn't reachable right now or something along those lines.

Anyway changed address to Northern Irish address and now works fine again, finds all stations I listen to no problem, i.e. Today FM, FM104, 2FM etc.

All I say is "Alexa Play FM104 radio" .. no need to mention TuneIn.

While I'm here .. Is there any skills worth installing as an Irish user ?

Exactly the same as what happened to me.... As for Irish skills u might be waiting a while

degsie

jobless wrote: »

Exactly the same as what happened to me.... As for Irish skills u might be waiting a while

Maybe someone will develop a 'Alexa, when is the next Luas/Dublin Bus/Dart/Rail strike' skill

adox

Really looking forward to my Dot arriving in the next couple of weeks, especially using Spotify.

Still mulling over what way to connect it up and what to connect it to.

Atomic Pineapple

Is anyone using Google Play Music with it?

Patrickof

Got one in the Us on Friday, brought it home, connected up my amazon account, spotifybut left my address as the amazon delivery address (dublin, but with a 22222 postcode).

Pretty much everything works fine, though for some reason my commute to work is 1,200 miles!

Tunein seems to be the only exception. It says it cannot connect to Tunein.

Anyway, I emailed Amazon to say it wasn't picking up tunein and they think its because I used my amazon.com address first, then put in my .co.uk one and its a bit confused.

They said their support dept will straighten it out and in 48hrs tunein should work fine.

News is OK, have it set to Sky News and BBC 4, but it would be good to have RTE or other local headlines available.

Now, can't wait for the Sonos interconnect, guy in Amazon shop in San Francisco said he has Sonos himself and its rumoured to be out in the next month.....but online i says early 2017.

First impressions: Wow, I would recommend it.

Now to find some good deals on smart sockets and light fixtures.........

Cabaal

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

Is anyone using Google Play Music with it?

It won't work,
Google integration is a no go,

You can of curse pair a mobile etc with the Echo and just stream Google Play music to it via Bluetooth though, works just fine

v10

Patrickof wrote: »

News is OK, have it set to Sky News and BBC 4, but it would be good to have RTE or other local headlines available.

I have mine giving me RTE news headlines when I ask for news (Flash Briefing) but you could easily use breakingnews.ie or any other with an rss feed.

Atomic Pineapple

Cabaal wrote: »

It won't work,
Google integration is a no go

Purposely blocked or just no integration? Bit of a shame if it's purposely blocked, with Chromecasts in most of the TV's some integration with them would have been interesting.

Cabaal wrote: »

You can of curse pair a mobile etc with the Echo and just stream Google Play music to it via Bluetooth though, works just fine

Have a really good soundbar that I do that with so probably not worth getting the echo for that.

Radioheader

I am not a techie, but I like it so far.

Downsides so far:
Can't install the alexa app on my iphone
Doesn't recognise my town, because it is not a city; so can't get the weather here
Can't use tune-in for newstalk
Great speakers for my iphone; works very well with nest; great for setting timers; great for setting reminders; great for oddball questions
Still a bit to go; useful gadget, but Ireland needs to be fully enabled to take full advantage.

degsie

v10 wrote: »

I have mine giving me RTE news headlines when I ask for news (Flash Briefing) but you could easily use breakingnews.ie or any other with an rss feed.

Care to share how you achieve this?

v10

degsie wrote: »

Care to share how you achieve this?

Go to Amazon developer website and log in with the same account associated with your echo. Click on 'Get Started' under Alexa Skills Kit, then Add new Skill.

Leave Language as US English and choose Flash Briefing Skill API, then follow the few simple steps as far as the Test stage. No need to publish as it's only for your own use. It'll then appear under your skills in your alexa app. Then just enable it.

You'll need an RSS feed to add, so for RTE I used http://www.rte.ie/news/rss/news-headlines.xml

jogdish

Hi,
I am thinking of getting am Echo dot from Amazon UK. Just some questions,

1. Can I ask it to play RTE1 radio?
2. Whats the sound like with the Dot?
3. Is there anything important that wont work when in Ireland?
4. Will it only control Phillips Hue bulbs?/same for sockets - what ever the brand name is.
5. Anything I should be aware of?

Thanks

Zascar

I use Google now a lot for reminders and adding taks, how is Amazon at integrating into these?

bk

The dot isn't out yet, but I have an Echo, which is almost the same.

jogdish wrote: »

Hi,
I am thinking of getting am Echo dot from Amazon UK. Just some questions,

Can I ask it to play RTE1 radio?

Sort of, via tunein radio. Problem is tunein radio has a lot of problems with understanding what station you want via voice. Instead much easier to get it to play via the Alexa app and then control via voice.

jogdish wrote: »

Whats the sound like with the Dot?

The dot has a tiny speaker, only suitable for minor sound notifications, not for music. The idea of the dot is to use it connected to good quality speakers, either over bluetooth or 3.5 audio cable.

jogdish wrote: »

Is there anything important that wont work when in Ireland?

- You have to say "in Dublin", "in Cork" when asking about the weather, extremely minor.
- As mentioned tunein radio voice control is poor.
- Commute time only seems to work for Dublin.

jogdish wrote: »

Will it only control Phillips Hue bulbs?/same for sockets - what ever the brand name is.

Works great with both Philips Hue lights and Belkin Wemo plugs.

jogdish wrote: »

Anything I should be aware of?

You would probably want either a Spotify Premium or Amazon Prime Music to make the most of it.

Bullish

I bought the Amazon echo on the prime preorder discount.
I was thinking of selling it initially due to the restrictions that i found with it.
I could not use prime music ( now sorted thanks to this thread and revolut)
My account was linked to amazon.com and i dont have a prime membership there, i had to have a UK credit card to transfere my account to amazon UK.

I use smart DNS to access amazon prime video ( thats really good)
The Echo personally i wouldn't have bought if i had done my research, as i have a really good stereo system and i would have bought the dot and plugged it into it. That said the sound is good from the Echo for such a small device.

I have spotify premium working with it and it works well.
I have Echo controlling my Nest thermostat and that was a breeze to set up.
I have a few Wemo smart sockets and they are working well with voice control.
I found like a few others getting tunein to work is flakey but it appears to improve over time, not sure if its the echo learning or me!

My Next thing to get will be philips hue bulbs, Does anyone have these ?
Can i switch them on and off with the old light switch ( do they remember their last state)

Overall i am happy with the Echo now

bk

Bullish wrote: »

The Echo personally i wouldn't have bought if i had done my research, as i have a really good stereo system and i would have bought the dot and plugged it into it. That said the sound is good from the Echo for such a small device.

Given that you bought it for 100, rather then the current 150, you could probably sell it on adverts, etc. and maybe even make a profit! And then buy a dot.

Alternatively I think Amazon have a 30 days no argument return policy.

Bullish wrote: »

My Next thing to get will be philips hue bulbs, Does anyone have these ?
Can i switch them on and off with the old light switch ( do they remember their last state)

I do, brilliant system and work well with the Echo (and Logitech Harmony too).

You can turn them off with the regular light switch, but if you do, you then can't control (turn them on) with the philips hue app, echo, etc. as obviously they then have no power (for the wireless control).

I solved this, by also buying these Philips Hue wireless switches, which I've placed nest to the old switches:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0148NMVX8/

I also covered the old switch with these covers, to stop them from being accidentally used (out of habit), while still leaving them available if needed later:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BabySecurity-Single-Electric-Socket-Cover/dp/B000X1DNIM/

I find these very handy to make the hue lights easily usable for no techy visitors, etc.

Zascar

I heard you have to have the full Echo before you can buy a dot is that correct?

I'm not bothered with the Speaker as I wont use it for music much but Id love a Dot for now to experiment with, can I just buy one on its own?

Plus does anyone know if it can work with www.climote.ie ?

mrcheez

Nope no need for Echo if buying dot. Don't recall reading anything like that at any point even for version 1.

bk

mrcheez wrote: »

Nope no need for Echo if buying dot. Don't recall reading anything like that at any point even for version 1.

When the dot was first released, you could only order it by using an existing Amazon Echo using your voice! That was just a gimmick, the dot definitely doesn't need the full size echo and you can now freely order a dot on the website.

bk

Zascar wrote: »

Plus does anyone know if it can work with www.climote.ie ?

It doesn't seem to, at least for the moment.

wrongtarget

Just submitted a Skill for certification that tells you what's the estimated time of arrival for the next Dublin Bus on the stop of your choice (you provide Alexa with the bus stop number for the time being)

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Obviously this doesn't work with google music. But can you just connect your phone to it via a wire or Bluetooth and play google music through it (without the voice command options)?

Zascar

bk wrote: »

It doesn't seem to, at least for the moment.

I emailed them and they said they use SIM/GPRS technology and no plans to change that.

So what smart thermostat do work with Echo? I'm thinking of changing companies and I want one that I can use on my phone. Would be cool to use with an Echo too. I know Nest works however I beleive Nest does not let you control water and 'boost' it for an hour etc like some of the other do.

wrongtarget

I don't think that's accurate, Zascar.
I can't post links but Google for "nest water heat" and click on the second result, titled "Can I have a Nest Thermostat installed if I have a hot water ...".

degsie

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

Obviously this doesn't work with google music. But can you just connect your phone to it via a wire or Bluetooth and play google music through it (without the voice command options)?

Connect via bluetooth only, works fine.

wrongtarget

Would anybody mind sharing the link to my tweet here showcasing my Echo skill? My twitter is missthetarget

Basq

wrongtarget's AskAlexa Skill

Vico1612

Zascar wrote: »

I emailed them and they said they use SIM/GPRS technology and no plans to change that.

So what smart thermostat do work with Echo? I'm thinking of changing companies and I want one that I can use on my phone. Would be cool to use with an Echo too. I know Nest works however I beleive Nest does not let you control water and 'boost' it for an hour etc like some of the other do.

I'm using Honeywell Evohome with Echo .
Basic functions for now ( Set Living room temperature to x degrees works , but you can't yet set a time )

jobless

wrongtarget wrote: »

Would anybody mind sharing the link to my tweet here showcasing my Echo skill? My twitter is missthetarget

https://twitter.com/missthetarget/status/786113803020820480

very impressive ... do you have a github for it?