Amazon Echo Club

[tubemonkey]

New Feature

Wi-Fi Tethering Now Allowed

Latest Software Version: 3389 -- New and Enhanced Features

Wi-Fi tethering - connect an Echo or Echo Dot to a Wi-Fi hotspot on a mobile device.

Edit: I fail to see the purpose for this.
.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

New Feature

Wi-Fi Tethering Now Allowed

Edit: I fail to see the purpose for this.
.

It could be handy if you have your own hotspot device and the home WiFi goes out.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It could be handy if you have your own hotspot device and the home WiFi goes out.

Or you want to install a Dot in your car, although I'm pretty sure that ambient road noise would render Alexa deaf.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

It could be handy if you have your own hotspot device and the home WiFi goes out.

Or if you travel with it, same reason that captive portal support was a big thing for some.
But I don't understand....previously,would the device have somehow known that you were using a hot spot rather than a home wireless router and actively refused to work? Did it check the ISP, or the brand of device or something?
Why is a phone hotspot different than any other wifi access point?

Or does this feature simply mean that it now more gracefully supports intermittent connections, and won't keep complaining when the hotspot gets turned off?

Originally Posted by wodin

Or you want to install a Dot in your car, although I'm pretty sure that ambient road noise would render Alexa deaf.

Yeah, someone here reported trying that early on, which is another reason I don't understand what's new about this tethering feature.

[wodin]

Not sure, but I think it has always supported hot spots, and in fact the Touch touted the ability. But there was some confusion as to the Echo and Dot's ability. I have to admit that was one of my questions when the Touch was released.

So... Jeff's kids figgered they could alleviate the confusion and at the same time brag about an "improvement".

[tubemonkey]

New Feature

Select Music Service Preferences

You can choose which service Alexa uses to play your music for station and general requests. By selecting a default, Alexa will automatically use that service without you specifying the service name.

1. open the left navigation panel in the app
2. select Settings
3. select Music & Media
4. select Choose default music services
5. select Amazon Music or Spotify from Default music library
6. select Amazon Music or Pandora or iHeartRadio from Default station service
7. select Done

Finally; I've been waiting for this feature for some time now. I'm sick and tired of always having to say "on Spotify". My default settings are now Spotify and Pandora.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

New Feature

Select Music Service Preferences

1. open the left navigation panel in the app
2. select Settings
3. select Music & Media
4. select Choose default music services
5. select Amazon Music or Spotify from Default music library
6. select Amazon Music or Pandora or iHeartRadio from Default station service
7. select Done

Finally; I've been waiting for this feature for some time now. I'm sick and tired of always having to say "on Spotify". My default settings are now Spotify and Pandora.

Can you select Tunein Radio as the default? I don't mind saying Tunein, it just rarely plays what I want.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Can you select Tunein Radio as the default? I don't mind saying Tunein, it just rarely plays what I want.

Well I just tried and I can only choose Amazon Music.

I doubt it would have worked anyway with my station choices. They never fixed a problem I reported very early on that they agreed was a problem. Most of my stations have the word Metal in them. The response is always something about genre stations only being available on a service I don't use even though I am requesting specific stations and even though I request Tunein.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Can you select Tunein Radio as the default? I don't mind saying Tunein, it just rarely plays what I want.

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Well I just tried and I can only choose Amazon Music.

I doubt it would have worked anyway with my station choices. They never fixed a problem I reported very early on that they agreed was a problem. Most of my stations have the word Metal in them. The response is always something about genre stations only being available on a service I don't use even though I am requesting specific stations and even though I request Tunein.

Yeah, TuneIn is a no go. They could ditch iHeart for all I care. I'd like to see TuneIn replace it as one of the default station choices.

As to metal, it'll rot your brain! You need to listen to that Michael Bubble guy

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Yeah, TuneIn is a no go. They could ditch iHeart for all I care. I'd like to see TuneIn replace it as one of the default station choices.

As to metal, it'll rot your brain! You need to listen to that Michael Bubble guy

Michael Bubble would make me puke. And how do you know my brain isn't already rotted out?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Michael Bubble would make me puke. And how do you know my brain isn't already rotted out?

LOL

[tubemonkey]

New Features

Washington Post Election News

With the National Conventions just days away, the new Washington Post election skill can keep you up-to-date on the race to the White House. Get poll data and tap into a daily politics brief, curated specifically for Alexa listeners.

To enable this skill—or any of the more than 1,500 skills now available for Alexa—go to the "Skills" section of your Alexa App, then just ask:

• "Alexa, ask WaPo Elections for the Politics Brief"
• "Alexa, ask WaPo Elections for the polls”

Alexa, tell me a Political Joke

When you need a break from hard-hitting election news, Alexa is here to help. Just ask:

• "Alexa, tell me a political joke"

I got an Echo this week during the Prime Deals day and so far I really like it. I've only made it through the first half of this long thread, so apologies if any of my comments/questions have already been addressed.

A little bit disappointed that it only really does two-way to do lists and calendar info via Google. Yuk! I never use Google stuff. I was hoping to use it with my iThingies and Macs, but that seems to be way more of a hassle than it is worth, and not two-way. But I kind of suspected this would be the case, so not surprised.

So far my only real complaint is that while listening to Prime Music stations the volume varies widely between songs. I tend to set the volume around 3 or 4 to keep it quiet enough to concentrate on other things I'm working on in my study. Basically I'm using it for background music. Some songs will be so quiet I cannot hear them, but others are way too loud. I need to adjust the volume rather frequently. I realize the volume will vary on songs as they are recorded with different settings, but Amazon needs to figure out how to better compensate for that. Listening to local FM via the Echo seems to have less volume fluctuations, but I hate all the commercials.

If I go into the Alexa app (computer or phone), select TuneIn and click on some of the Internet Only stations, I find that I mostly get Alexa stating that the selected station is no longer available. They really need to purge the list of unusable links, or at least let us purge it.

Other than these minor issues it seems to work really well. It seems to understand my commands really well. Definitely worth the $130 she cost.

Oops forgot to mention this other issue. I like that I can connect my iPhone to the Echo via BT and listen to my iTunes music. I don't have that many songs, so I don't do this very often. But when I do connect the iPhone via BT and leave it connected even when not listening to music or anything, I occasionally get interruptions on the Echo if the iPhone rings, or I walk away and then back into the room, or plug a wired headset into the iPhone. So I quickly learned to only connect the iPhone to Echo when I'm listening to music from iTunes. Otherwise I leave it disconnected.

[koland]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

New Feature

Wi-Fi Tethering Now Allowed

Edit: I fail to see the purpose for this.
.

If you are using one of the home phone+wifi cellular solutions, that may be the only wifi you have. I know at least a couple of people with those verizon @home phones that walmart sells (just set up up for an elderly relative, as the $15/month phone service is 1/3 the cost of a landline and has free long distance).

Not that I can see how the echo would be able to detect the source of the hotspot and refuse the ones that were cell based before. If it could, you could always bypass that by using a wifi router that extends your hotspot to a small secure network.

I was using the tap on a job site this week - no wifi there, but used my phone for hotspot. Tap then for streaming radio, at a volume the phone could not have provided.