Amazon Echo FAQ

Thelomen Toblackai

mrcheez wrote: »

Had a song in my head but couldn't remember the name of the song for Alexa to play it, so I asked:

Alexa, what's the song that goes like "no need to run and hide" ?

Answer: "Playing a sample of Wonderful Life by Black"


bingo!

Does this only work under certain conditions ? Anything I ask it says it can't find a single with the lyrics.

mrcheez

Thelomen Toblackai wrote: »

Does this only work under certain conditions ? Anything I ask it says it can't find a single with the lyrics.

Not sure.. it probably only works with music that's on Amazon Prime and/or more mainstream songs.

parmenion

Hi I've read this entire thread and ordered the Dot after 50ish pages. I'm still waiting for delivery but I'm wondering if the GH is a better fit now reading comments from BK? I've Fire Tv's with kodi, Hue lights through the house and wemo switches as well as harmony hubs controlling all entertainment. BK or anyone with experience in both could you give me your opinions on what would be better for my setup? TIA and thanks to everyone on this thread.

bk

parmenion wrote: »

Hi I've read this entire thread and ordered the Dot after 50ish pages. I'm still waiting for delivery but I'm wondering if the GH is a better fit now reading comments from BK? I've Fire Tv's with kodi, Hue lights through the house and wemo switches as well as harmony hubs controlling all entertainment. BK or anyone with experience in both could you give me your opinions on what would be better for my setup? TIA and thanks to everyone on this thread.

Everything you listed will work just fine with your Echo dot, but they will also work perfectly fine with GHome too (with the exception of Fire TV, though voice control of video at the moment is still purely a gimmick IMO).

I do find that GHome understands me better and handles radio stations, spotify, weather and commute times better. However it isn't a massive difference.

GHomes AI is further along and more natural, while Echo supports far more devices and services. Neither is perfect for now.

I'd say keep the Dot for now and enjoy it, after all it is only £40. You could always get GHome later and put the dot in another room (what I've done), sell it or gift it.

BTW I assume you are hooking the Dot up to another speaker? Because the Dot's own speaker isn't great for music and GHome's speaker would be much better then it, more equivalent to the full size Echo.

parmenion

Hey thanks BK, I have Bluetooth speakers I can pair with it but I'm not really into music so I was just going to use it for smart home devices. The ability to run activities in Harmony will be cool along with the Hue light scenes and "turn on xmas lights" Disappointing to see that Harmony skill is only available in US at least for a month or two so Yonomi it is.

adox

I have a Harmony remote(touch) that I love, its my second Harmony. Am I right in saying if i bought a harmony Hub Id be able to use my Echo Dot to control my Harmony(through Yonomi for the time being) I.E. I could say "Alexa turn on tv" "turn on netflix" " turn on apple tv" etc?

parmenion

adox wrote: »

I have a Harmony remote(touch) that I love, its my second Harmony. Am I right in saying if i bought a harmony Hub Id be able to use my Echo Dot to control my Harmony(through Yonomi for the time being) I.E. I could say "Alexa turn on tv" "turn on netflix" " turn on apple tv" etc?

That's what I'm hoping to do. From reading the thread here it looks like activities work and maybe simple volume up/down.

bk

parmenion wrote: »

Hey thanks BK, I have Bluetooth speakers I can pair with it but I'm not really into music so I was just going to use it for smart home devices. The ability to run activities in Harmony will be cool along with the Hue light scenes and "turn on xmas lights" Disappointing to see that Harmony skill is only available in US at least for a month or two so Yonomi it is.

Then I think you will be fine with the Dot, it does a pretty good job of handling HA tech and it is nice and small and inconspicuous, I think you will be happy with it.

The official Harmony skill doesn't do anything more then Yonomi does, it just turns on and off harmony activites, so really no lose. In fact yonomi is better as you can get it to do multiple things on one command, for instance, turn on tv, turn off lights, turn up the light behind the TV, etc.

adox wrote: »

I have a Harmony remote(touch) that I love, its my second Harmony. Am I right in saying if i bought a harmony Hub Id be able to use my Echo Dot to control my Harmony(through Yonomi for the time being) I.E. I could say "Alexa turn on tv" "turn on netflix" " turn on apple tv" etc?

Yes I'm doing exactly that at the moment.

Again control unfortunately is limited to turning on/off activities only.

jobless

looks like iffft is supported for uk devices now

degsie

jobless wrote: »

looks like iffft is supported for uk devices now

As is ifttt

mrcheez

jobless wrote: »

looks like iffft is supported for uk devices now

Got a link?

jobless

mrcheez wrote: »

Got a link?

If u look at Alexa part of iffft website it now says USA and uk

mrcheez

jobless wrote: »

If u look at Alexa part of iffft website it now says USA and uk

https://ifttt.com/amazon_alexa

FYP

parmenion

Ok got my Echo DOT and first impressions are.... Great, very easy to setup and got WEMO and Hue lights working within minutes. It probably helped that I'd read through this thread. Had a start at using harmony activities through yonomi and didn't get this working, however it was late and only had a short time to try. Will try again over the weekend although I did read today that the Harmony skill will be available next week in UK.

NomadicGray

parmenion wrote: »

Ok got my Echo DOT and first impressions are.... Great, very easy to setup and got WEMO and Hue lights working within minutes. It probably helped that I'd read through this thread. Had a start at using harmony activities through yonomi and didn't get this working, however it was late and only had a short time to try. Will try again over the weekend although I did read today that the Harmony skill will be available next week in UK.

How do you find having a mix of Hue and WeMo lights? I think I'd prefer to stick to one brand and have a few hue whites, but I've been keeping an eye on wemo bulbs just in case there's any deals.

fitzie79

I have an option of getting the Echo from the US next week or even the Amazon Tap. Will they work in Ireland if brought back from the US - any limitations?

Also is the Echo worth the extra over the Tap or is the Echo dot possibly the best option if I have a bluetooth enabled soundbar?