Amazon Echo FAQ

adox wrote: »

I know you can specify a future time you want to enquire about, ie "alexa ask Big Sky will it rain at 9pm tonight". Thats as much as I tried. Will give it a go later when home and see if it can forecast rain for the weekend etc and report back.

Both "Alexa asked Big Sky will it rain this weekend" and "Alexa will it rain in the next seven days" worked perfectly. Gave percentage chances of rain, most likely day/time of rain etc.

mrcheez wrote: »

Handy to know... will hang on to my Prime for a while yet.. was going to cancel it this eve.

Is it the free trial of Prime you have? Even if you cancel now, it will still remain valid for the duration of the trial. I took the offer again this year (in OH's name this time!) and cancelled it a week ago. It's still valid until 13th December anyway.

I usually cancel these offers asap so that I don't get caught out Aside from this time of year, Prime isn't really a good deal for Irish customers. I'm still considering the Amazon Unlimited Music offer though - just waiting a few more days until I instigate that trial. Just getting to grips with the Dot here ...

Also, The Guardian is not showing up on the skills for me? I was sure I saw it there when I set the Dot up yesterday. When I do a search there are no results.

Quick Questions:
If I get an Echo(dot) will saying " ...play Lyric FM/ Radio 1" just work? ( specifically those stations. If not, how much effort required.

Would the above be suitable for a 100% tech phobic person, once someone sets it up for them?

Audio for a bedside table, night time listening before sleep.

Petroglyph wrote: »

My Echo is on the way. Just wondering if this is possible. I want to get a bluetooth speaker for upstairs and one for downstairs. Can the echo control which one is playing the music? Can i use the echo speaker downstairs and the new BT one upstairs? Thinking of the sonus 1.

Just to be sure.. you say "Echo" rather than "Echo Dot"... make sure you have ordered the Echo Dot if you want to use bluetooth.

No you need to use the app to control which one is used (I'm sure they'll update this later to allow you to use your voice).

A way around this is to turn off the upstairs one and then turn on the one downstairs and it automatically transitions. But you can't have both on at the same time and switch between them.

Another suggestion is to go down my route and get two Dots, and you can then instruct each Dot to pair with the respective speaker and play both at the same time (or one Dot at a time for Spotify since Spotify can only play on one device at a time.. TuneIn can play on multiple at the same time though)

Petroglyph wrote: »

Thanks for that. Its actually the echo we've ordered, not the dot. I wanted it as a speaker in the kitchen. If I got the sonus 1 for upstairs, would it be easy to switch between the two?

Not sure.. I think so...

https://www.wired.com/2016/08/amazon-echo-adds-sonos-voice-control-stable/

i know its a little off topic but has anyone purchased a decent bluetooth speaker to pair with the dot for under 50 euro?

Zascar wrote: »

This is very good https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anker-Wireless-Bluetooth-Radiators-Subwoofers/dp/B0109TWZ54/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1480944655&sr=1-3&keywords=anker+speaker

thanks!

Just chimming in folks,

Firstly its amazing how well this thing can pickup your voice when sat even beside a speaker.

What Ive noticed:

Radio Stations
1. Out of the box following setup I was able to ask "Alexa, play TodayFM on TuneIn Radio" it worked.

2. Following this I asked "Alexa, play 2FM on TuneIn Radio" it worked.

However I changed my location on the Dot to o'Connel street as some suggested (as you know the product is not localised for ireland... yet.?)
The next evening I played todayfm successfully but 2fm was not working (Maybe the stream was broken but Ill try again this evening.
I had seen similar discrepencies earlier in this thread so Im guessing anyone that had issues playing 2fm may have had their location entered.
So its either your time or your 2Fm you have to sacrifice!

At a distance in a Kitchen Dining area plenty of echo/reverb LOL!
I had the radio on fairly loud and I found that in this environment it was at least 30% better having the top of the Dot facing you e.g. as if it were wall mounted with buttons facing outwards from the wall.

I am currently following steps to get it communicating with eventghost to Plug into my home automation, a bit of work but an awesome device all the same.

N

Orion wrote: »

It's not the product. It's Bing Maps that is crap for addresses in Ireland. Why they use that pos is beyond me.

I had 2FM working I thought but can't anymore. Other stations work fine.

Changed my address to the US and "Alexa, play 2FM" works fine.

The weather thing is dodgy, so use Big Sky for this.

Mister Gooey wrote: »

Hi, I can get Amazon Music to play on my Android phone but not on my Amazon Dot. Any ideas why?

Do you have prime membership?