Amazon Echo FAQ

vanti

wrongtarget wrote: »

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)

Is there any update on this - it would be really useful

deadl0ck

Great thread all
I should have my dot tomorrow.

Should there be a new Thread for Skills ?
People can add to it as they create new skills and it would be easy to find "Irish" skills.
What do y'all think ?

deadl0ck

alanhiggyno1 wrote: »

I tried that it don't work.any of u guys get it to work

Same with me - It won't let me set the address.
I type in Mullingar as my nearest town, and it suggests "Mullingar, IE" but when I click on that it says "Could not set your address. Please ensure you have correctly entered a complete address"

Any ideas ?

o1s1n

Managed to get my first Belkin Wemo. It's more fun than it should be

Have a large hifi setup in the sitting room with the Dot running into it. So listening to music now boils down to 'Alexa, turn on the stereo', 'Alexa, play X on spotify'.

Next Wemo will be booting up two arcade machines!

BobPresto

o1s1n wrote: »

'Alexa, play X on spotify'

In the app, or browser, go to settings/music & media/choose default music service, and you can set Spotify as your music player. Now all you have to say is "Alexa, play The Police"

bk

BobPresto wrote: »

In the app, or browser, go to settings/music & media/choose default music service, and you can set Spotify as your music player. Now all you have to say is "Alexa, play The Police"

It doesn't seem to work for most people in Ireland, certainly doesn't work for me. Perhaps yours is set up as a US Echo?

o1s1n

BobPresto wrote: »

In the app, or browser, go to settings/music & media/choose default music service, and you can set Spotify as your music player. Now all you have to say is "Alexa, play The Police"

No way! ah man, that's a million for this, I thought it was locked to that Amazon music thing. Saying 'spotify' all the time was driving me mad

mrcheez

o1s1n wrote: »

No way! ah man, that's a million for this, I thought it was locked to that Amazon music thing. Saying 'spotify' all the time was driving me mad

I find I have to say "on Spotify" for about 10% of requests.. particularly when asking about specific song by specific artist.

I'm thinking a nice skill to add would be to find out when an artist is due to play in Dublin.. I think it's already in the Spotify api.

Also "recommendations" based on current artist

https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/get-recommendations/

Corholio

On the RTE flash briefing thing. I've got the skill set up and enabled but when I click on 'Manage in Flash Briefing' it's not included in the options there and can't turn it on. Any ideas?

BobPresto

Corholio wrote:

On the RTE flash briefing thing. I've got the skill set up and enabled but when I click on 'Manage in Flash Briefing' it's not included in the options there and can't turn it on. Any ideas?

You need to switch your account over to US. I did it before just for that but playlists on Spotify stopped working so I switched back.

mik_da_man

bk wrote: »

It doesn't seem to work for most people in Ireland, certainly doesn't work for me. Perhaps yours is set up as a US Echo?

Worked fine for me on both accounts once it was set as default....

deadl0ck

Has anyone outside of Dublin managed to set their location?
It seems a postcode (not eircode) is required (like Dublin 7) for it to be accepted as valid...

mrcheez

Mr.S wrote: »

How do I get the echo dot to say weather (dublin) without saying Dublin?

Simular, how do I get it to say the news headlines? at the moment, when I say "whats in the news" etc it starts to play my news card but just says the weather but says "weather not available"

I'm on a US account.

You can disable the weather-reading part of the news headlines via the News section of the app

Stoner

Saw this skill for lightwaverf and Alexa on Amazon today while looking for deals
Description

With the LightwaveRF Skill and Alexa, you can now interact with your LightwaveRF lights, switches and dimmers by voice. To get started, select the ‘Enable Skill’ button in the Alexa App to link your LightwaveRF account and discover your device(s).

When using the skill, you need to specify by name which device to use. 

There are two ways to define these names:

* Use the names you set up already – these are shown in the LightwaveRF app and can be changed, or

* Create an Alexa group, such as Bedroom or Downstairs, and add the device to the group. More information is available at http://amzn.to/2965dCE.

Once you know the name or group of your device(s), you can say the following: 

* If you have switches or non-dimmable lights, you can turn them on/off, for example: “Alexa, turn on my Bedroom lightsâ€.

* If you have dimmable lights, you can change the brightness, for example: “Alexa, brighten Downstairs to 60 per cent", or "Alexa, dim the Living Room lights".

For more information please visit http://lightwaverf.com/how-it-works

Find more information about connecting smart home devices at http://amzn.to/291lR7u.

2012paddy2012

Deadlock .....does it work fairly OK

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

I'm getting this for christmas, I've used google music for years and prefer it to Spotify as you can upload your own music to the cloud as well. There's no way Spotify can do that is there? Ideally I'd like to avoid paying for both each month but I'd really miss the live albums etc I've downloaded that I have on Google Music.

degsie

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

I'm getting this for christmas, I've used google music for years and prefer it to Spotify as you can upload your own music to the cloud as well. There's no way Spotify can do that is there? Ideally I'd like to avoid paying for both each month but I'd really miss the live albums etc I've downloaded that I have on Google Music.

No. Not possible with spotify. You could just use the echo as a Bluetooth speaker and play Google music that way.

mrcheez

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

I'm getting this for christmas, I've used google music for years and prefer it to Spotify as you can upload your own music to the cloud as well. There's no way Spotify can do that is there? Ideally I'd like to avoid paying for both each month but I'd really miss the live albums etc I've downloaded that I have on Google Music.

Might be better off with the Google Home, but don't think it's out for Xmas?

bk

Dr.Winston O'Boogie wrote: »

I'm getting this for christmas, I've used google music for years and prefer it to Spotify as you can upload your own music to the cloud as well. There's no way Spotify can do that is there? Ideally I'd like to avoid paying for both each month but I'd really miss the live albums etc I've downloaded that I have on Google Music.

It sounds like Google Home might be more suited to you. It obviously fully supports Google Music. It isn't officially in Ireland yet. But maybe you could buy one from ebay or if you know someone in the US over the next few weeks you could ask them to pick it up.

mrcheez

Sorry if it's been asked before but does anyone know if the "Fire TV Stick Voice Remote" works with Echo ?

Or is it that the "Echo Voice Remote" works with Fire TV ?


Want to pick up a single remote for both in the sales.

i.e. do I go for:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Alexa-Voice-Remote-Amazon-Echo/dp/B01GP0NLPE/

or

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Voice-Remote-Amazon-Fire-Stick/dp/B00ZJEZKT8/

?

From what I can read in the comments the Fire Stick one doesn't do this... or perhaps it does in a new update?

mrcheez

Ah... seems only the new Fire TV Stick Voice Remote (v2) can do both. Not yet released in the UK.

https://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/B00ZV9RDKK/

...Also if you have an Echo this remote works for it as well...

(in the reviews) ... hmm might hold off for the v2 Fire TV Stick so which ships with this controller.



EDIT: Asked Amazon Echo staff and they said that even the new remote control for Fire TV cannot be used like this for Echo. I guess the reviewer lied.

deadl0ck

2012paddy2012 wrote: »

Deadlock .....does it work fairly OK

Works good except for Rte news as I don't want to switch to a US account in case I screw up spotify and possibly some other stuff

Cabaal

Amazon Music has launched in UK
They have an echo plan

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ref=dmm_hfup_gri_ech_sfte/b?node=11368385031

mrcheez

Cabaal wrote: »

Amazon Music has launched in UK
They have an echo plan

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ref=dmm_hfup_gri_ech_sfte/b?node=11368385031

nice they let you try it for free for a month

Irish Gunner

Just ordered the Dot and the Echo from John Lewis so will be collecting them next time over in London

Hopefully want to use the Dot upstairs and the Echo down

I know you can use the Dot for alarm calls but can it be set to a TuneIn radio station or is it just that standard alarm sound, which I see you can amend. Can Alarm be set to wake up to station?

mrcheez

Irish Gunner wrote: »

Just ordered the Dot and the Echo from John Lewis so will be collecting them next time over in London

Hopefully want to use the Dot upstairs and the Echo down

I know you can use the Dot for alarm calls but can it be set to a TuneIn radio station or is it just that standard alarm sound, which I see you can amend. Can Alarm be set to wake up to station?

Not yet, though I'm pretty sure they will have this in a future firmware update

mik_da_man

Cabaal wrote: »

Amazon Music has launched in UK
They have an echo plan

https://www.amazon.co.uk/ref=dmm_hfup_gri_ech_sfte/b?node=11368385031

I wonder will this make the UK Echo Spotify not work as well as it has been?

bk

mik_da_man wrote: »

I wonder will this make the UK Echo Spotify not work as well as it has been?

Would just cause people who like Spotify to buy Google Home instead, which already handles Spotify better as it is.

givecredit

Anyone using the Alexa listens app with echo? Currently only works on USA account. Developer working on a fix for uk.
A few more requests for a fix might do no harm.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.willblaschko.android.alexalistens

Ark rose glenn

In ireland and i purchased a amazon echo alexa and i cant download the app... is there anyone in ireland using one and if so how will i get the app or get it set up ..do i send it back or is there a way of doing it . thanks