Amazon Echo FAQ

Cabaal

loughrey2887 wrote: »

why get the Philips Hue starter kit from Amazon Germany when it's basically the same price in the UK with free shipping and will get here much faster? You're not really saving much when you had 8 euros shipping.

There was 30e in the difference (even after shipping) when the item was on deal of the day, so it was worth getting it from amazon.de as it was at the lowest it ever was on the site during the deal.

Its gone up in price since of course,

reni10

Can the Echo work with other lightbulbs like the Xiaomi smartbulbs etc.?

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

paulbok

reni10 wrote: »

Can the Echo work with other lightbulbs like the Xiaomi smartbulbs etc.?

Can't link as I'm posting via phone, but the Amazon echo website has a works with page to check compatibility.
If you use a system like Smartthings you may have further compatibility options and if IFTTT supports your other devices, bulbs etc, you can definitely link them.

I'll be using IFTTT to work my Evohome heating controls as Alexa has no direct link to that particular controller and it still has no Smartthings integration.

Vico1612

paulbok wrote: »

Can't link as I'm posting via phone, but the

I'll be using IFTTT to work my Evohome heating controls as Alexa has no direct link to that particular controller and it still has no Smartthings integration.

Evohome has direct integration ( the Europe integration seems to be active since yesterday - I linked my Evohome account this morning )

donegal.

yeah delivery just arrived.

loughrey2887

Damn, I missed out on that, how much did it come to from Germany?

loughrey2887

How are people setting the traffic setting to an Irish address? When I do it I get a message to say to make sure i'm entering a UK address.

paulbok

Vico1612 wrote: »

Evohome has direct integration ( the Europe integration seems to be active since yesterday - I linked my Evohome account this morning )

Is that for the connected thermostat?
I know there is a honeywell smart heating & cooling controller that has direct access and it and the lyric thermostat are the only ones listed on the works with Alexa site

ajd1969

Hi all, expect echos are arriving daily - mine expected tomorrow. I have been playing around in the meantime with Alexa App and Lexi, but having no luck getting the App to accept my Irish address - anybody able tp do so since the UK echo launch. I will be using it with Hue lights etc. Also have Honeywell heating system but don't have a Honeywell controller that will play nice with smart home devices.

BobbyT28

ajd1969 wrote: »

Hi all, expect echos are arriving daily - mine expected tomorrow. I have been playing around in the meantime with Alexa App and Lexi, but having no luck getting the App to accept my Irish address - anybody able tp do so since the UK echo launch. I will be using it with Hue lights etc. Also have Honeywell heating system but don't have a Honeywell controller that will play nice with smart home devices.

Mine just got delivered to Local PM this evening after only being delivered to Depot at 14:00 today. Nice:D:D

Zascar

I'd love one of these but tempted t wait for the Google Home. However, can anyone guess as to how long it will be before it's available in Ireland?

Hootanany

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Mine just got delivered to Local PM this evening after only being delivered to Depot at 14:00 today. Nice:D:D

Where can you get the app? Amazon says wrong country?

Arbie

ajd1969 wrote: »

Hi all, expect echos are arriving daily - mine expected tomorrow. I have been playing around in the meantime with Alexa App and Lexi, but having no luck getting the App to accept my Irish address - anybody able tp do so since the UK echo launch. I will be using it with Hue lights etc. Also have Honeywell heating system but don't have a Honeywell controller that will play nice with smart home devices.

Accepted my Irish address from the day of the UK launch. Some people seem to have trouble with Traffic feature not recognising address but works fine for me.

BobbyT28

Anyone having trouble linking Spotify account? Tried signing in through Alexa all and it just sits on chrome page
http://layla.amazon.com/partner-authorization/establish

It's like it can't authenticate!!

BobbyT28

Hootanany wrote: »

Where can you get the app? Amazon says wrong country?

I use apitode. To get the apk. Works perfect

Cabaal

Picked up my echo this morning, happy enough so far
Lights from Amazon.de have been delayed by 24-48hrs by the carrier which is annoying,

Happy with the sound quality from the speaker, could see myself buying another one...though will likely buy the dot

ajd1969

If using IOS you need to log in to UK (or US) iTunes store to download App. Some people using (older) version of US App have been having trouble setting up a UK echo and/or transferring a US bought Echo to U.K.
I was able to link Spotify account but it took a few attempts, same thing linking other accounts. I have not been able to link my audible account yet.

BobbyT28

BobbyT28 wrote: »

Anyone having trouble linking Spotify account? Tried signing in through Alexa all and it just sits on chrome page
http://layla.amazon.com/partner-authorization/establish

It's like it can't authenticate!!

Was finally able to link Spotify account by going to http://alexa.amazon.co.uk/ on my PC. Again it took about 7 attempts but finally worked.

Go to http://alexa.amazon.co.uk/ - settings - Music & Books - link spotify account

Cabaal

So, I got my echo, I'll have my hue lights but what else can I do and how?

I have a standard oil heating system, it just has a timer switch, how can I change this system to echo?
It doesn't have zones setup but if I could somehow control upstairs and downstairs it would be great (guessing I'd need a plumber for that part)

sweetie

Cabaal wrote: »

So, I got my echo, I'll have my hue lights but what else can I do and how?

I have a standard oil heating system, it just has a timer switch, how can I change this system to echo?
It doesn't have zones setup but if I could somehow control upstairs and downstairs it would be great (guessing I'd need a plumber for that part)

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057652391

reni10

Anyone know if you can have the Echo Dot connected to a bluetooth speaker in one room via bluetooth and also have the internal Echo Dot speaker active at the same time?

The reason I would do this is I could have 1 Echo Dot in the Living Room and have it also connected to a Bluetooth speaker in a Bedroom and use either an app on my phone or my FireTV voice remote to issue the commands to the Echo Dot and have the responses come back through both the Echo Dot speaker and the Bluetooth speaker at the same time so would not need to buy another Echo Dot for the bedroom!

Cabaal

After having a play around with the echo I must say I regret not buying a second one at the lower price,
I might pick up some dots instead though, handy just for bedroom alarm and light control and stuff

I'm thoroughly fed up because mine has been stuck at North West RDC since early yesterday morning. Fcuking annoying.

Thor

Just got mine last night (collected from Parcel Motel)

Loving it so far, but sadly I have not connected devices in the home already, so going to need to start looking at the best ones to get. If anyone has any recommendations on the cheapest things to be looking at getting, please let me know.

Zascar

For the people who start using it - please tell us how you get on - what's really good, what doesn't work etc. Very interested to hear the scope of abilities. I think a lot more will come as they develop it further and open up the platform

wrongtarget

Just picked it up from my PM locker this morning.
I'm very impressed by how well she understand/recognizes everything I said. Disappointed that IFTTT is not working at the moment though, had a few projects in mind that depend on that.

Also, I was able to change my address to a Dublin one but still when I ask her for the weather without specifying the location (since the default is set to Dublin now) she says she doesn't have forecast information for that place.

But if I ask "how's the weather like in Dublin?" it works. Is this expected? Is Ireland not yet compatible with these kind of questions?

bk

Summary of my experience so far:

- It has a fantastic ability to pick up your voice from across the room, really impressed.
- Doesn't seem to have any issues understanding both Irish and Brazilian (English) accents.
- Sound quality is excellent, no problem filling a large shared living room and kitchen. Haven't even tried to turn it up to 10 yet, would annoy the neighbours.
- Spotify is excellent on it, it has no problems guessing what you meant, even if you don't know the exact name of the playlist, etc.
- Great for setting timers for cooking.
- Great for controlling lights (Philips Hue).

Not good:
- No IFTTT support on UK accounts! Really disappointed with this.
- No support for Logitech Harmony setups yet (seemingly rumour has it is in Beta). Was hoping to use IFTTT to partly control it in the meantime, but see above point.
- TuneIn radio doesn't work well at all. Can never find stations (unlike Spotify). However it works ok if you initially find and play the sation via the phone app, but not ideal.

So far I'm pretty happy with it and hope it will develop more features quickly (Harmony, IFTTT). The best I can say about it is the the girlfriend is lovign it and using spotify and timers extensively already! Will be getting a Dot for the bedroom speakers and probably a Netatmo Thermostat (kick myself for missing out on the bundle deal they had on it last week!).

Edit: oh also to add, I'm finding that you can speak quickly to it. I was assuming you would have to speak slowly and clearly, but no, it doesn't have any problems with normal speech.

grahammck

I'm defaulting to the alexa.amazon.com/ site so cant get the skills for the UK - any idea how to change? My location is set to Dublin. Thanks

bk

grahammck wrote: »

I'm defaulting to the alexa.amazon.com/ site so cant get the skills for the UK - any idea how to change? My location is set to Dublin. Thanks

To be honest, you might be better off with a US account! US accounts support IFTTT, UK don't and I don't think any of the UK skills are actually applicable in Ireland.