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.

By default Siri is always listening as well. I turned that feature off after it randomly responded to conversations. Creepy....

A step closer to IoT (Internet of things)...AI, etc. Watson, are you listening?

Indeed...hell, I wouldn't even want one of those clapon/clapoff things listening :)

Here you go guys, was only a question of time:

Police Requests Amazon Echo Data To Help Solve A Murder: Alexa, Who Did It? : TECH : Tech Times

G

Timely,just watched a movie on Netflix last night called I.T. stars Pierce Brosnan.
Drama /thriller worth watching !! Deals with this theme. High tech and the dangers
running amok. Check it out.

We've had ours for about a week and so far it's getting used quite a bit. We have it hooked up to our nest home thermometer so you can ask it to adjust the heat without getting up or finding a phone. I'm a compulsive google user so I ask it a lot of questions about definitions of words, or meanings of phrases...it's a fun toy and something I imagine will continue to be useful.

We got three of them at Christmas, one for each kid and one for me. They have been fun to play with so far for sure. The kids love asking Alexa questions and some of her responses are pretty funny.

[QUOTE=onewhippedpuppy;9281581]By default Siri is always listening as well. I turned that feature off after it randomly responded to conversations. Creepy....[/QUOTE

Mine responds to the tv when her name is mentioned!

I don't care if voice commands are "the wave of the future", I will not be talking to one in my home. It would just seem to add to the noise clutter of a busy house, have the threat of being hacked/spyed on, and enabling lazy people to become more lazy.

+1 SmileWavy

But can you place an order for PP car parts on it? Is Wayne listening in now?

I'll get one when the user can pick the name. I'd like to say "Computer: look up Earth's ancient pop culture for..." in my best James Kirk voice.

That, or I'd want to call it Shenana (she-nay-nay). "Shenana, play Rhapsody in Blue, please."

I am looking at this and the Google Home. I think Googles responsiveness to layers of questions is better....but still not where I would pull the trigger. I would like to use it for selecting music from my 50,000 song NAS, but so far neither will do it. Music is from Google or Amazon cloud service. No thanks. Interesting though.

Seriously agree... have we become so lazy we can't pick up our phone and ask google a question?

There is a great possibility for a comedy skit here...

Couple getting busy in the bedroom:

"OH GOD! OH GOD!"
Siri: "In monotheism, God is conceived of as the Supreme Being and principal object of faith"
"FASTER!FASTER!"
Siri: "The final line-up for Faster Faster was formed in July 2007 by five musicians. Kyle (vocals), Randall (vocals/guitar), Ryan (guitar), Steuart (drums), and Joey (bass) were all previously members of other local bands in and around Brunswick"
"OH BABY!"
Siri: "Oh Baby is an American sitcom series that ran on Lifetime from August 26, 1998 to March 4, 2000"

Got an ECHO Dot for xmas, still figuring it out, but pretty cool, will adjust my NEST and my HUE lights.

You can change the "wake" word to anything. I imagine there is a reason for Alexa. Something to do with the syllable combination?

I got one for my Dad for Christmas. They don't have any smart home stuff, so looking for suggestions on what would be cool for a 75 year old, besides questions, weather, etc.

Alexa...start Jeopardy

Got 2... Mostly for my kids! Paired with smart sockets and light switches, they allow the 5 y old to shout "Alexa lights on" before heading downstairs (not get scared) or "nightlight on" at night if he wakes up. Very good at that... It will occasionally tell good jokes too...
Make sure to turn off the amazon purchase option, way too easy to buy things !!!
All in all it suffers from lack of a manual, I'm sure it can do so much more but like every smart device it comes "as is". Alexa is also not as smart as Siri, or OK google... from experience. But for home automation, news, music, it's cheap as hell... $39 for echo dots over xmas, get a couple plus some smart sockets and you have some serious home automation <$150 !