Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

scamalert · 27-09-2019 11:59am

amazon is going mad, those earphones look like hearing aids. glasses wtf , ring is totally aimed at some hipsters or smth.

like the dot with clock but then again, you can ask for time if you have alexa in vicinity or just look it up on phone.

dont see most of these picking up, not to mention ridicilous pricing.

deadl0ck · 27-09-2019 12:07pm

Didn't realise that we now have whisper mode - when was that made available to us ?

Panrich · 27-09-2019 12:15pm

I like the look of the studio. 3D audio and Dolby Atmos sounds like something different. I’d have to see some reviews though before deciding.

Mr.Crinklewood · 30-09-2019 7:30am

BBC stations no longer available on TuneIn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/tunein-changes

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/bbc/149559-echo-owners-take-note-bbc-radio-leaves-tunein-on-monday.amphtml

Bummer1234 · 30-09-2019 9:13am

Mr.Crinklewood wrote: »

BBC stations no longer available on TuneIn

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/tunein-changes

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/bbc/149559-echo-owners-take-note-bbc-radio-leaves-tunein-on-monday.amphtml

The BBC’s live radio streams are no longer available via TuneIn on the following platforms in the UK.

So that means its still available in Ireland then so yea? Working away for me on Tunein for the time been.

paulbok · 06-10-2019 9:20am

The ability to answer Ring doorbells and cameras on all Alexa devices by voice is available in the UK now, do should be available here soon.

paulbok · 06-10-2019 9:22am

deadl0ck wrote: »

Didn't realise that we now have whisper mode - when was that made available to us ?

This is a Godsend when setting an alarm at night, nice not to have her roaring confirmation back at you.

jogdish · 16-10-2019 9:25pm

Currently am an (annoyed) Google home mini user and thinking of switching to one of those soon to be released echo dots. Can someone answer if the dot can do the following:

Play RTE radio 1 and BBC world service etc all natively - i.e not casting not via tune in.

Can I have a routine set up to say 'bed time' and it will play BBC Newshour / NYT 'the daily' poscasts/radio

Ask it to wake me up to the radio

Currently not able to do almost all of the above via Google home hub

limnam · 16-10-2019 9:36pm

Anyone know of a way of playing bbc?

They've pulled from tunein and the bbc skill seems to be region blocked

Grumpypants · 16-10-2019 11:58pm

jogdish wrote: »

Currently am an (annoyed) Google home mini user and thinking of switching to one of those soon to be released echo dots. Can someone answer if the dot can do the following:

Play RTE radio 1 and BBC world service etc all natively - i.e not casting not via tune in.

Can I have a routine set up to say 'bed time' and it will play BBC Newshour / NYT 'the daily' poscasts/radio

Ask it to wake me up to the radio

Currently not able to do almost all of the above via Google home hub

Lots of the stations have their own skills to listen directly, the issue is they are hit and miss. So rather than a lot of messing You are better off just having one radio player skill that plays them all.

Routines are good. Ill say Alexa goodnight and she'll turn off the music, knock off the lights bar one in the hall. It will wait 60 seconds so i can get to bed.

In the morning my alarm is at 7.50. The RTE headlines are read, sky sports news headlines, weather for the day, my google calender appointments for the day and then it kicks off a spotify playlist as the lights slowly start rising up.

When I'm up out of bed, I'll say alexa I'm heading down stairs. She'll knock off the music and lights in the bedroom and turn on today fm in the kitchen.

She'll turn on hall lights, heat the house to 18 degrees and turn on the hot water as i near home. When i open the door the kitchen lights turn on.

I can say alexa play peppa pig and she'll turn on the tv and find peppa on netflix and start playing it for the kids.

paulbok · 18-10-2019 8:13am

limnam wrote: »

Anyone know of a way of playing bbc?

They've pulled from tunein and the bbc skill seems to be region blocked

Works fine via TuneIn in Ireland.

ThunbergsAreGo · 18-10-2019 8:33am

Grumpypants wrote: »

Lots of the stations have their own skills to listen directly, the issue is they are hit and miss. So rather than a lot of messing You are better off just having one radio player skill that plays them all.

Routines are good. Ill say Alexa goodnight and she'll turn off the music, knock off the lights bar one in the hall. It will wait 60 seconds so i can get to bed.

In the morning my alarm is at 7.50. The RTE headlines are read, sky sports news headlines, weather for the day, my google calender appointments for the day and then it kicks off a spotify playlist as the lights slowly start rising up.

When I'm up out of bed, I'll say alexa I'm heading down stairs. She'll knock off the music and lights in the bedroom and turn on today fm in the kitchen.

She'll turn on hall lights, heat the house to 18 degrees and turn on the hot water as i near home. When i open the door the kitchen lights turn on.

I can say alexa play peppa pig and she'll turn on the tv and find peppa on netflix and start playing it for the kids.

How do you do the last bit? Assume I need a certain TV? Or a fire stick?

Raoul · 18-10-2019 8:56am

paulbok wrote: »

This is a Godsend when setting an alarm at night, nice not to have her roaring confirmation back at you.

I can't seem to get it working. Any tips?

I turned whisper mode on but she is still shouting at me while the wife is trying to sleep beside.

paulbok · 18-10-2019 11:20am

Raoul wrote: »

I can't seem to get it working. Any tips?

I turned whisper mode on but she is still shouting at me while the wife is trying to sleep beside.

I have to ask the obvious question, are you whispering to her?
To Alexa, not your wife.

You also need to enable it for every device by whispering to each.

limnam · 18-10-2019 9:20pm

paulbok wrote: »

Works fine via TuneIn in Ireland.

Ah,

I think I need to change the region on my amazon account then, it might be uk.

Cheers

limnam · 18-10-2019 9:24pm

limnam wrote: »

Ah,

I think I need to change the region on my amazon account then, it might be uk.

Cheers

Looks like it's set to ireland.

Are you just saying "alexa play bbc radio x" ?

Grumpypants · 18-10-2019 11:45pm

Try radio player if tunein isnt working.

Grumpypants · 18-10-2019 11:48pm

ThunbergsAreGo wrote: »

How do you do the last bit? Assume I need a certain TV? Or a fire stick?

Firestick, I've the 4k one but i assume the normal does the same. My LG has a thing to link to the device in the hdmi. Called something like simplink.

grogi · 19-10-2019 8:47am

Grumpypants wrote: »

Firestick, I've the 4k one but i assume the normal does the same. My LG has a thing to link to the device in the hdmi. Called something like simplink.

The thing is called HDMI-CEC. It is a protocol for the AV devices to talk to each other.

There are many features of this protocol, but the most common use cases are:
* Power-Off sync - when master display switches off, other devices switch off too
* One touch play - when device starts to play content, the TV switches on and changes input
* AV volume control - use any remote (exp. the TV one) to control volume of the AV receiver.

Various manufacturers name the HDMI-CEC feature differently. LG calls it SimpLink, Samsung AnyNet, Sony BraviaLink etc.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_Electronics_Control

paulbok · 20-10-2019 8:01am

limnam wrote: »

Looks like it's set to ireland.

Are you just saying "alexa play bbc radio x" ?

"Alexa, play BBC radio 6 on TuneIn" works for me.

Unless a station had it's own skill and you have it activated, ( like 8 Radio), you need to add the "on TuneIn" bit.
Have the region set to Ireland I think.

Spon Farmer · 20-10-2019 1:12pm

I have an I-Box Century Internet radio with Alexa.

There is no option in the Alexa app to change the wake word.

Is this simply because if the brand?

youcancallmeal · 22-10-2019 3:35pm

Has anyone been able to get the LG TV skill working? It seems like a lot of other IoT skills it only works if you are in UK or US

gerrybbadd · 22-10-2019 4:07pm

youcancallmeal wrote: »

Has anyone been able to get the LG TV skill working? It seems like a lot of other IoT skills it only works if you are in UK or US

The Skill will only work in the UK AFAIK. This is stated by LG as well unfortunately. Have an LG tv myself, and would love to see this working

Cushie Butterfield · 30-10-2019 2:01am

Spon Farmer wrote: »

I have an I-Box Century Internet radio with Alexa.

There is no option in the Alexa app to change the wake word.

Is this simply because if the brand?

No, you can only change the wake word for Alexa devices (not for the Alexa app itself).

Spon Farmer · 30-10-2019 11:05am

Cushie Butterfield wrote: »

No, you can only change the wake word for Alexa devices (not for the Alexa app itself).

I don't understand what you mean.

I wasn't trying to change the name of the app (what would be a reason for that?). I was trying to a speaker to use the name Echo as it's wake word, because that is what is used here for the Amazon Echo.

I've since had reason to register the Echo to a different Amazon account and it does seem that only Amazon Alexa devices and not third party Alexa certified devices can have custom wake word.

markc1184 · 31-10-2019 1:36pm

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this but i recently got a samsung tv which can be controlled by Alexa on my echo dot. I have that setup and working now no problem. I also have my lights and a table lamp linked up. The lamp is connected to a tp link smart plug. Up to now I was able to have Alexa switch this on outside of the plugs schedule but since I got the tv, whenever I ask Alexa, it says "Did you mean Samsung TV". Its as if the TV has taken preference over everything else. Is there anyway i can get everything back working with their individual commands?

scamalert · 31-10-2019 1:42pm

markc1184 wrote: »

Apologies if this is the wrong place to ask this but i recently got a samsung tv which can be controlled by Alexa on my echo dot. I have that setup and working now no problem. I also have my lights and a table lamp linked up. The lamp is connected to a tp link smart plug. Up to now I was able to have Alexa switch this on outside of the plugs schedule but since I got the tv, whenever I ask Alexa, it says "Did you mean Samsung TV". Its as if the TV has taken preference over everything else. Is there anyway i can get everything back working with their individual commands?

did you try to unplug dot and let it cycle in case theres update, sometimes alexa seems to be stuck on previous device/s.

markc1184 · 31-10-2019 3:40pm

scamalert wrote: »

did you try to unplug dot and let it cycle in case theres update, sometimes alexa seems to be stuck on previous device/s.

Yeah it has been unplugged a few times and still the same. I might try to repair everything again over the weekend and see if it sorts it out.

Shefwedfan · 17-11-2019 8:32pm

Any sign of Alexa guard working over here yet?

20/20 · 17-11-2019 8:48pm

Shefwedfan wrote: »

Any sign of Alexa guard working over here yet?

What is it. ?

Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

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