Amazon Echo Club

[koland]

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.

Did you set up Spotify (and have a premium subscription) and Pandora? Those seem to be the only two it allows you to pick, one for music, the other for streaming, as an Amazon alternative. I don't particularly like that you must set up a named playlist to get it to play your Amazon music. I ask for a genre, it finds a very small list with similar keywords. I'd rather listen to whatever I have in that genre.

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.

My Tap uses Tunein for streaming radio stations (the ones that are usually over the air, but have internet streams). Even knew which of the local stations was the best for NPR here.

If you don't set up the iHeart Radio info, it won't ever try to use it.

Tethering is a good feature to have access to when the normal WiFi service goes down. However, if you are using your phone for a hotspot you better have a good, generous data plan. I know people with Verizon who pay more than I do for my T-Mobile unlimited data plan, and they only have 2 to 5 GB. That won't last long if you are using the phone as a hotspot for multiple devices. And the phone data over cellular is usually slower than a good landline cable based WiFi connection. Those same people with Verizon tried using their data for streaming movies on their phones and tablets and had all kinds of issues because the movies would pixelate and freeze a lot. And they said they only got to stream 3 or 4 movies per month before they ran out of data. My T-Mobile data is unlimited, but it only streams at about 12 MBps speed and I suspect it would have the same pixelation and freezing issues. My landline WiFi service is 65 MBps and that makes a huge difference! The Echo doesn't do video of course, but listening to music several hours per day will still eat up a data plan.

[tubemonkey]

I don't have a data plan; so no tethering for me. If my wifi goes out, I've got lots of downloaded content I can listen to.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by koland

Did you set up Spotify (and have a premium subscription) and Pandora? Those seem to be the only two it allows you to pick, one for music, the other for streaming, as an Amazon alternative. I don't particularly like that you must set up a named playlist to get it to play your Amazon music. I ask for a genre, it finds a very small list with similar keywords. I'd rather listen to whatever I have in that genre.

I don't have or want Spotify or Pandora. I haven't tried them for quite a while, but I could never get them to play anything I liked the last time I tried them.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by koland

My Tap uses Tunein for streaming radio stations (the ones that are usually over the air, but have internet streams). Even knew which of the local stations was the best for NPR here.

If you don't set up the iHeart Radio info, it won't ever try to use it.

I use TuneIn for my local stations too. It's like having a voice activated clock radio.

I used iHeart initially, because Pandora wasn't available yet. When Amazon finally added Pandora to the lineup, I ditched iHeart.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I don't have or want Spotify or Pandora. I haven't tried them for quite a while, but I could never get them to play anything I liked the last time I tried them.

That's too bad. I haven't experienced that. I use them all the time. In fact, those two are my default services - Spotify for my music library and Pandora for my station service.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

That's too bad. I haven't experienced that. I use them all the time. In fact, those two are my default services - Spotify for my music library and Pandora for my station service.

Well you don't listen to good music like I do - Metal.

When I had tried them I kept getting pop or rap music and I don't care for either. This is going back quite a ways, so maybe I should try again at some point.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Well you don't listen to good music like I do - Metal.

When I had tried them I kept getting pop or rap music and I don't care for either. This is going back quite a ways, so maybe I should try again at some point.

Isn't Kenny G metal? I listen to metal, but it depends on how it's defined. These groups are frequently defined that way, though some of them are questionable -- AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Ozzy, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep, Van Halen, and Vanilla Fudge.

Anyone else finding the Amazon Alexa app for iOS to be as useless as teats on a boar hog? It rarely works correctly on my iPhone or iPad, especially when using the Now Playing feature. It just shows a blank screen or spinning wheel a lot of the time. By contrast, the Amazon Alexa web page app works really well. I'm guessing the Android and Fire OS versions probably work well.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Anyone else finding the Amazon Alexa app for iOS to be as useless as teats on a boar hog? It rarely works correctly on my iPhone or iPad, especially when using the Now Playing feature. It just shows a blank screen or spinning wheel a lot of the time. By contrast, the Amazon Alexa web page app works really well. I'm guessing the Android and Fire OS versions probably work well.

I haven't had any issues with the web, Android, and Fire OS apps. I can't comment on the iOS app because I no longer own an Apple device.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I haven't had any issues with the web, Android, and Fire OS apps. I can't comment on the iOS app because I no longer own an Apple device.

My iPad occasionally shows what's playing, but the iPhone never does. I attached a screenshot of a blank screen because that is all I get. the web app works very well, except it keeps logging off after an hour or less. That is rather annoying.

ETA: I tried to update/edit the device names in my iPhone Alexa app and it returned errors. I then went to the web Alexa app and changed the device names. However, I could never get the iPhone app to show the updated device names. The iPad app did and works a lot better than the iPhone app. I think there is something seriously messed up with the iPhone version of the app. I finally uninstalled it and then re-installed it and now it shows the correct device names. I think the iPhone app must be having difficulty phoning home to the Amazon mothership!
...

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Isn't Kenny G metal? I listen to metal, but it depends on how it's defined. These groups are frequently defined that way, though some of them are questionable -- AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Ozzy, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Uriah Heep, Van Halen, and Vanilla Fudge.

No smiley after Isn't Kenny G metal? Are you serious? He's sort of jazz.

Some of those very old bands are metal. How about Ministry, Lamb of God, Damage Plan, Slayer, Meshuggah, Kittie. The last couple on Metal Assault Radio were Malevolent Creation and Cannibal Corpse.

[Blossom]

That's too heavy for me. I'll stick with my big hair bands. Def Leopard, Poison, Bon Jovi, Warrant, White Snake, Damn Yankees...etc You can tell what era I grew up in.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That's too heavy for me. I'll stick with my big hair bands. Def Leopard, Poison, Bon Jovi, Warrant, White Snake, Damn Yankees...etc You can tell what era I grew up in.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

Doesn't really matter what era you grew up in. I was a teenager in the 70's and I don't listen to much of that stuff anymore, but I still love me some Hendrix.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

No smiley after Isn't Kenny G metal? Are you serious? He's sort of jazz.

Some of those very old bands are metal. How about Ministry, Lamb of God, Damage Plan, Slayer, Meshuggah, Kittie. The last couple on Metal Assault Radio were Malevolent Creation and Cannibal Corpse.

I forgot the smiley. Kenny G makes me want to rip my ears off.

But then, so do those bands you listed. That ain't music, it's screaming! I hate that kind of metal. So three cheers to Alexa for making it difficult for you to hear it.