Amazon Echo
 

I totally dig this thing. It really proves that voice control is the wave of the future. Sound quality could certainly improve, but overall, there's a lot of power locked up in this device. The future should be interesting.

It gets a bit confused when I ask it to play Miranda Lambert and the wife starts shouting No! No!

IFTT is a new feature. When I get back home I'm going to cook up some recipes and give em a try.

Anyone else doing interesting things with their Echos?

Still waiting on ours, how long have you had it? We ordered in January but your post reminded me to check and they claim we'll have it anytime between now and May 27.

I'm mildly interested in IFTTT, the Philips Hue lights can use it.

I suppose you could tell your Echo to turn certain lights on, etc.

I think we've had ours since late January. I had no idea they were still on backorder.

Had one since Jan. After the initial voice training/set-up, it's remarkably accurate at answering questions. The sound is also very good when playing music lists. The most asked question after music play, is weather q's..saves time by not having to go online with computer. Was well worth the $100, prime members get half price.

This is one of those devices that would be fun to play with for about a week, then once the novelty wears off, it would just add to the clutter.

I thought that, too, when I ordered it. I figured for $99 I could afford to play around with it. But, its turned out to be quite useful and we use it every day. Big surprise there.

What does this device do? Plays music by voice commands?
I think it's way faster to just type what you need.

Might be great for a paraplegic or full time juggler, though.

Amazon Echo - Official site - Request an invitation

And I thought that motion was on another trip - this time to the Amazon forest - and had just heard an echo!

Lamarr is good for a laugh.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_eewlRCfewQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

"Connected to the cloud and always listening" - really? I'm not interesting enough to spy on, but holy crap does that sound like a great way for somebody to listen in on your personal life. How long until these start getting hacked?

Haha. I am in Brazil at the moment, but far south of the Amazon :)

I just discovered this thread when searching for the Amazon Echo but what is Phillips Hue? I see that it is lighting but is it just bulbs and some sort of control device?

anyone?

Montana gets the best mushrooms!

Yes, not cool. Nobody has to listen, with the voice recognition either. If someone wants to start a large scan activity, it can be automated to scan your conversations.

I said this here before, when reading 1984, I always thought it'd be tough for a government to install the technology needed for big brother. Now we are self-installing these and even paying for it ourselves. Plus, nobody has to sit there and listen in on the other end. It can all be automated.

I bought the tap. It may still be hacked, but at least in normal mode you have to hit a button before you speak, so it isn't constantly scanning the room

G

I feel the same way.

Eventually, I'd like to be all Star Trek and say "Computer" then issue instructions. But I'd have to be very convinced of the security of the device. Not seen anything convincing for Echo.

Yes, Hue is LED lighting, connected to your home wifi with a hub. Some bulbs are color changing, some are white only. You can also buy cheaper "smart LED" bulbs at Home depot, etc. that will work with Hue. I have a bunch of GE smart LED bulbs on my hue that were about $10-11 a piece.

You can use IFTT 'recipes', as mentioned above by Motion to have your Hue lights do certain things if you want.

The basics of IFTT is "If (this) happens, then do (this.)"

A good example would be . . . . if you have a IP webcam on your front porch, you could have your hue lights flash when the motion sensor goes off. Etc. You could have the lights change color if you get a text or an email. Etc. Etc.

Fun stuff!
I've found that there's a certain threshold amount of 'smart' lights that ends up being enough though. I think having the whole house on 'smart' lights would just be annoying in a way.

You can Siri and Cortana with you so they win in my opinion. Unless you want to order Bresciani socks from Amazon...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
Huxley believed the salad would become extinct, after people keep choosing the double bacon super stacked deluxe cheeseburger.
Each and every time.

Nature is self-regulating.