[Closed] Amazon Echo - What do I need to know

That's about all we do with it. If you have more than one then making announcements is better than shouting around the house.

Just explore the avaialable skills - like calling people on their phones via voice (supported via EE), or using the shopping list features etc. But don't spend money now, just wait and you'll probably find the uses present themselves as time goes on.

If you have more than one then making announcements is better than shouting around the house.

Good shout. We have selectively deaf children so I was thinking about getting some dots for Christmas so I don't bellow up the stairs every time a meal is ready. Would obviously be added benefit of kids then having use of music, alarms etc in their rooms.

Being able to snooze to or playlist and wake up to another is brilliant.

I would probably recommend smart bulbs over smart plugs for lamps - as well as being able to turn them on/off you can also dim them, change the colour temperature etc, and you can set them so they come on 'slowly' (over a second or 2) which is a nice touch

What other essential functions / hardware should I be considering?

I asked the same thing last week

Turns out most of this stuff is still just party tricks, and calling it "smart" is pushing the definition of the word.

I was thinking about getting some dots for Christmas so I don’t bellow up the stairs every time a meal is ready.

Get them on 'Black Friday' because being Amazon made they are heavily discounted.

calling it “smart” is pushing the definition of the word.

I dunno. When you announce that dinner's ready it knows what you're saying and rings a dinner bell before your announcement. Likewise at bedtime it plays a lullaby.

It is very good at parsing speech. You can say stuff like 'Alexa, would you be so kind as to increase the illumination?' and it turns on the lights 🙂

It is very good at parsing speech.

Can't wait to try this out tonight....

"Alexa, Would you convey the message to the oldest sibling of my firstborn offspring that it his turn to accompany our canine companion on her post-repast gyratory perambulation"

When you announce that dinner’s ready it knows what you’re saying and rings a dinner bell before your announcement

That's just because it recognises the words "dinner" and "ready"  together. When it can recognise that the '82 London Phil. recording of Mozart's piano in Cmajor is notable for it's interpretation, and that recording is different to the more recent Berlin version, and asks me which one I'd prefer, then I might raise a Bond-alike single eyebrow in surprise before answering...

Anyway, if dinner's ready, you need this...

I use reminders and timers all the time. Countdown from N is useful in the gym. Echo shows are good for video chat and displaying security cameras. Good for showing recipes too.

I bought two smart plugs and a smart bulb with ours.

One plug is wired into the central heating (it isn't HIVE - or similar- compatible) and controls when the heating comes on/off. I reckon it's saved 10x the cost of the original set-up simply by not having the heating on with nobody home (we say "Alexa I'm home" and it turns the heating on - simple as that. Helps that the heating warms the house in less than 10 mins)

The smart bulb is nice - it can be set up to sunrise / sunset like those expensive wake-up lights. It will also reflect a time-of-day type light (less blue in the evening etc).

The second plug gets used once a year. It's name is "christmas" which gives you an idea of what it controls.

Aside from playing radio/spotify and kitchen timers we haven't found anything else it could be useful for....... (I used it for shopping lists for a bit, but my wife couldn't be bothered so that died out)

I use reminders and timers all the time. Countdown from N is useful in the gym.

Not knocking the echo, but I find having a clock with a proper second hand is so useful in the gym - I just watch that for isometric holds etc.

Its good to set up scenes - I say Alexa goodnight and it turns all the cheaper third party sockets off at bedtime to avoid the journey around the house

You can also have the sockets turn the light on at dusk - it then turns it on at a different time each day, adjusting for the darkness hours

I think it should be able to do cleverer stuff like turn off the daughters bedroom light if she (her phone) is more than 500m from the house - never got around to that yet - maybe with IFTTT?

Not knocking the echo, but I find having a clock with a proper second hand is so useful in the gym – I just watch that for isometric holds etc.

it listens all the time, even though the blurb says it doesn't. try having a conversation about something very obscure in listening distance to it. Then a little while later, start googling the same subject. It already knows...yes i have ordered a tin foil hat from amazon...

unless the wake word is used the voice isn't sent out from the device to the cloud - that's been proven in independent lab testing.

it listens all the time, even though the blurb says it doesn’t.

As fuzzywuzzy said, it listens all the time but only for the wake word. It transmits nothing unless you say it. Most people who say stuff like 'I talked to my wife about X then that evening it came up in STW ads' often forget that they have Googled it, or their wife has googled it or something.

Amazon really don't need to process everything we say - this would cost an enormous amount to do, and there's no point because they already know as soon as someone does a web search for it. Huge expense, marginal gain.

That’s just because it recognises the words “dinner” and “ready” together.

No, you can use all sorts of different words. It's not just matching words, it's using meaning extraction which is a widely available AI tech these days.

I was thinking about getting some dots for Christmas so I don’t bellow up the stairs every time a meal is ready.

If you don't need the playback functionality, what you want there is an Echo Flex.

we say “Alexa I’m home”

Mine turns on the lights when I come home based on my phone location.

Huge expense, marginal gain.

... and huge reputation risk if they get busted.

Conspiracy theory bollocks I'm afraid. Sorry. All other things aside there are thousands of very clever security professionals who would just love to catch the likes of Amazon with their pants down, if [insert company / device here] were listening to you they'd be on it like a tramp on chips.

and huge reputation risk if they get busted

Not to mention the criminal proceedings and epic fines they'd get all over the world since they've said they aren't doing it.

It arrived earlier. So far have set up Goodnight routine where it turns off all lamps (plugged in to 3rd party smart speakers) and tells me tomorrows weather. Need to work out how to introduce time so turns hallway lamp off after 30secs (gives me time to get upstairs)

Also set a morning routine to turn on lights, read me news then turn on radio

Plenty more to play with

Mine turns on the lights when I come home based on my phone location.

Go on then, how do you set that up?

Not to mention the criminal proceedings and epic fines

Right, not that I personally think thy're doing it, but Amazon's pre-tax profits in the last quarter alone was over $5.5B there's probably no fine anyone can impose that would make a dent in the co's net worth, and given that most folk think that Siri, Alexa, Google et al listen all the time anyway, the reputational damage would be minimal. Do you really trust Tim and Jeff?

To me this is the same as VW, and all those other car manufacturers, they were absolutely fine with cheating.. and it's made little difference to them in the long term; so far about $30B in fines and costs, but sales have returned to growth, as has the share price, and according to polls most folk have "great faith" in them and think they make "excellent" cars. To think that other huge Mega-Corps haven't sat up and taken notice of that experience, is naive.

Amazon’s pre-tax profits in the last quarter alone was over $5.5B there’s probably no fine anyone can impose that would make a dent in the co’s net worth

Oh they could. For a start, lots of jurisdictions have laws that set fines based on the company's worth or assets, for this reason. And it expressly says they aren't doing it in their T&Cs and every time it's come up. This would be peanuts compared to VW gate, because not that many people really care about their NOx emissions.

And it expressly says they aren’t doing it in their T&Cs

uh huh...well, that's alright then...

Edit: as I said, I don't think they are. But really, I mean c'mon;  "I'm not robbing you" said every robber in history...

This would be peanuts compared to VW gate, because not that many people really care about their NOx emissions.

Molly, most folk couldn't a monkeys what data Apple, Google and Amazon have on them, c'mon you're really not that naive are you?

It's really good at translating - at least English-German. I am however, with the tin foil hat brigade on the rest of it.

I couldn’t care less if it’s listening to to my chat.

Any idea how, on a goodnight routine, I can get it to turn off one smart plug 30 secs after the others? If that is not possible how will it turn off all plugs or a group 30 secs after issuing the command?

But really, I mean c’mon; “I’m not robbing you” said every robber in history…

But that presupposes they are actually breaking the law. And if they are, and they are caught, then they will be punished significantly. Loads of countries' governments have no love for Amazon. Look at the EU lawsuits for minor patent infringements and anti-competitive practices. Large scale fraud would be a different ballgame.

Molly, most folk couldn’t a monkeys what data Apple, Google and Amazon have on them, c’mon you’re really not that naive are you?

A huge number of people do, and they are the kind that will sue the bollocks off Amazon. Privacy is always in the news.

A huge number of people do, and they are the kind that will sue the bollocks off Amazon

Nah, the kind of people that worry about their data are the sorts of folk who don't have a smart speaker in their house (you excepted obvs)

Any idea how, on a goodnight routine, I can get it to turn off one smart plug 30 secs after the others? If that is not possible how will it turn off all plugs or a group 30 secs after issuing the command?

I never worked out a way to add a delay to a command (through the standard app/routines stuff, probably doable with some IFTTT script). I ended up getting an Spot in the bedroom and initiate the good night routine from there...

Any idea how, on a goodnight routine, I can get it to turn off one smart plug 30 secs after the others? If that is not possible how will it turn off all plugs or a group 30 secs after issuing the command?

Take a look at the Routines section of the phone app (in More/Routines).

In there you can create a simple script, triggered by a word, button, at a time, triggered by movement on an Alexa-aware camera...whatever.

Then in the script, turn the lights on, add a 30-second timer, turn one light off, another timer, then turn the other off.

This one, for example, turns on our downstairs lights if somebody goes down at night for a drink...

Awesome. I discovered routines yesterday so have not set up something similar based on trigger word.

I'm looking forward to playing around and introducing more routines like this.

Above looks slick. Want to get a few smart bulbs and plugs.

I have a number of Echo's around the house now used mainly for turning on / off music (sonos) and announcing to teenage boys that they do actually have to do that chore that mom's asked them to do five times already. It's a pain that it lost the ability to turn on BBC radio on the sonos a while back - not sure why as it works if just through echo speaker.

Interestingly there was an TV advert right next to our Fire TV cube (which is an alexa device) and it doesn't react to the wake word via TV.....some sort of embedded don't wake command?

We have six smart plugs (Teckin are good, compact and cheap - £40 for four) and a couple of smart bulbs (Peteme - £24 for two).

These are all hooked into the SmartLife app which adds some options and makes them visible to Alexa.

Things I have set up:
- separate bedtime routine for my girls. I say "Alexa, it's _____ bedtime". She wishes them good night, turns the light to 1% deep pink, sets volume to 1, plays sleeps sounds. All turns off automatically at 11pm.
- wake up routines with various levels: going from gentle warm light and a whispered good morning, all the way to 100% bright daylight and "Wake Up Boo" played at volume 11. 😈
- "Alexa, it's party time": sets the girls' lights to disco mode and plays Little Mix synced through both their Alexas.
- hall light comes on automatically at sunset and turns off at 11pm.
- leaving routine: I say "Alexa, that's me away", she wishes me a good day, stops all audio and turns off lights and plugs.

I never worked out a way to add a delay to a command

There is a "Wait" command in the Routines. Can be anything from 1 second to four hours.

@Jamze: what motion sensor are you using for that routine?

@Jamze: what motion sensor are you using for that routine?

I bought the Echo Flex with the motion sensor add-on to try it out, although I think there are a few Alexa compatible ones. Samsung does them I think.

Works well - just sits in a plug socket at the bottom of the stairs. It seems to need a reboot now and again though.

Also if you have any security cams you can use the motion detection element of those too to trigger Alexa to do something. My outside lights are triggered by the cams, and turn themselves off again with a similar timer. Saves having dedicated PIRs.

Thanks - I have a bunch of PIRs around the house for our unused alarm system. I've been looking at a few options to do something with them. There are replacement alarm panels available which then hook into smart homes

We have six smart plugs (Teckin are good, compact and cheap – £40 for four)

these are the ones I got. Work well but two of them took a bit of faffing to set up and find Wi-fi network. Seen fine now that they are up and running

It’s a pain that it lost the ability to turn on BBC radio on the sonos a while back – not sure why as it works if just through echo speaker.

@pedlad

Yeah, the BBC broke this with their move off TuneIn and forcing people to BBC Sounds. You can fix it with a bit of IFTTT. Now on mine, I can say 'Alexa trigger Radio 6' and it comes out of the Sonos. 'Alexa stop' stops it.

You need to add the IFTTT skill to Alexa, and the Sonos/Alexa applets to IFTTT.

two of them took a bit of faffing to set up and find Wi-fi network

The trouble with plugs is that they are in walls and often close to the floor, so wifi reception can be pretty sketchy especially if they are already far from the router. Repeaters help.

Speaking of Wifi: how do people handle the security?

My router lets me broadcast a second "guest" network, so I use that for the smart plugs, lights, etc. That way they are isolated from my main network and I'm not handing my network key to some dodgy bit of low cost Chinese electronics that communicates to external servers.

Also if you have any security cams you can use the motion detection element of those too to trigger Alexa to do something. My outside lights are triggered by the cams, and turn themselves off again with a similar timer. Saves having dedicated PIRs.

Of course, that relies on your WiFi being up and running, and possibly internet access.

I never worked out a way to add a delay to a command (through the standard app/routines stuff, probably doable with some IFTTT script).

From reading up it looks like the Wait task in routines is relatively new so worth looking at this this again. It is really easy to do.