Amazon Echo Club

[wodin]

My bedroom Echo tried to send me a $150 doll house during last week's news about the six year old who ordered one for herself. I wonder haw many actually got sent out.

Originally Posted by wodin

My bedroom Echo tried to send me a $150 doll house during last week's news about the six year old who ordered one for herself. I wonder haw many actually got sent out.

Probably not that many, except for those who failed to turn on parental controls and/or approval codes. And even then they have the ability to cancel the order up until right before it ships. And since Amazon notifies you of pending orders, there is little excuse for not catching the order soon after it is erroneously placed. And even if they didn't catch it, perhaps they walk around with their head up their backsides all the time, they can send it back to Amazon at Amazon's expense. So it really is not a big deal, although I'm sure many will blow it way out of proportion just like the pseudo-journalists we have these days tend to do.

It is pretty simple concept: Don't want any unplanned children, then take precautions. Don't want any accidental orders from Amazon, then take precautions. No physics or neural science involved. Just plain old common sense. And for those who are too stupid to use common sense, well you can't fix stupid...

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Probably not that many, except for those who failed to turn on parental controls and/or approval codes. And even then they have the ability to cancel the order up until right before it ships. And since Amazon notifies you of pending orders, there is little excuse for not catching the order soon after it is erroneously placed. And even if they didn't catch it, perhaps they walk around with their head up their backsides all the time, they can send it back to Amazon at Amazon's expense. So it really is not a big deal, although I'm sure many will blow it way out of proportion just like the pseudo-journalists we have these days tend to do.

It is pretty simple concept: Don't want any unplanned children, then take precautions. Don't want any accidental orders from Amazon, then take precautions. No physics or neural science involved. Just plain old common sense. And for those who are too stupid to use common sense, well you can't fix stupid...

Hey do you want a surprise child? I'll gladly give her to you. That one was an I'm what, I haven't had that time of the month in over a year.
She is very grown now.
But yes, precautions are always good.

My living room Dot finally updated to the latest FW, so I'm now going to try out the wake word "Computer" to see if that works better than the other three choices.

[tubemonkey]

I've been using one of my Dots as a BT speaker for my LG Tribute HD. The Dot's speaker is much louder than the phone's.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I've been using one of my Dots as a BT speaker for my LG Tribute HD. The Dot's speaker is much louder than the phone's.

Yep, phone speakers, even in a lot of expensive smartphones, tend to be lackluster. The Dot has a surprisingly good speaker. I would never try to rock out with it, but for music where you can keep the volume down to 70% or less and for voice sounds it is more than adequate.

I initially hardwired my living room Dot into my Sony sound base system that is connected to my TV, Blu-Ray player, and Fire TV. That was awesome sound because it was using the Sony sound base system, but I quickly realized that having the Dot sit inches away from the sound system produced a huge amount of awakenings. Every few minutes the Dot would light up the blue ring and mutter something. And that brought to my attention another issue with my set up. I had hardwired the Dot into the AUX port of my sound system. Unless the AUX input was selected, I could not hear the Dot. So when watching TV, a Blu-Ray disc, or the Fire TV, the sound of the Dot was muted because each device is own a separate input. This rendered the Dot usable only when the AUX input was selected, which was rare. I rarely sit in the living room to listen to music or talk to my Dot. I usually have the TV, Blu-Ray player, or Fire TV on instead. Since the Fire TV also plays my music, having the Dot attached to the same sound system was a waste of a good Dot. So I soon unplugged the Dot from the sound base and moved her over to the lamp table next to my recliner where I could talk to her and use her to answer questions, control home devices, etc.

BTW, I've only had the wake word set to "Computer" for one evening now, but it does seem to have lessened the number of times Dot gets awakened. If I had to rate the wake words from most false awakenings to least, I would list them like this:

1. Alexa
2. Echo
3. Amazon
4. Computer

YMMV of course, as not all Dos are installed near a TV or stereo system.

[tubemonkey]

As a standalone device, I use my Dot frequently to listen to radio stations (internet and broadcast). My favorite is British Invasion Radio from Pandora.

[tubemonkey]

I miss the volume ring. I hate button volume control. It's way too slow.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I miss the volume ring. I hate button volume control. It's way too slow.

Just say "Alexa... volume 4", or 6 or whatever you want. I rarely use the volume ring (or buttons) at all.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wodin

Just say "Alexa... volume 4", or 6 or whatever you want. I rarely use the volume ring (or buttons) at all.

She has a hard time hearing me, 'cause I keep the volume up loud.

Speaking the volume number only gives you whole numbers. If you use the ring or buttons or the Alexa app slider you get a few volume settings in between the whole numbers.

[tubemonkey]

How to add Google’s Voice Assistant to Alexa on the Amazon Echo and Fire TV

Anyone plan on doing this? I won't because I rarely ask my Echo any questions.

The two leading voice assistants are Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s unnamed voice assistant. While Alexa is capable of doing more, Google’s voice assistant tends to respond to knowledge questions more accurately with the help of Google’s search engine. Thanks to an open source project, it’s now possible to unofficially add Google’s voice assistant to Amazon Echo and Fire TV devices as an Alexa Skill. This allows you to simply say “Alexa, ask Google …” followed by any question to hear Google’s answer. Here’s how to set it up on your Amazon account.

When you add “Ask Google” support to Alexa, you’re adding a voice interface that can read Google’s knowledge graph answers. While it’s a very powerful addition, it isn’t exactly the same as Google’s Home speaker. Because this is an unofficial implementation of Google’s service, there is no pre-made Alexa Skill to enable, so you’re going to have to create your own. While that may sound difficult, and the guide below may seem long, the entire process is just a series of copy & paste values that you need to enter into various forms.

Credit goes to tartanguru on GitHub for creating this Alexa Skill, the Adrian Smart Project team for creating the Google search module, and Alexa Mods for creating a guide which heavily influenced the guide below.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

How to add Google’s Voice Assistant to Alexa on the Amazon Echo and Fire TV

Anyone plan on doing this? I won't because I rarely ask my Echo any questions.

Nope, I'm not interested. Besides I suspect Amazon will likely block it sooner than later.

[andyh2000]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

How to add Google’s Voice Assistant to Alexa on the Amazon Echo and Fire TV

Anyone plan on doing this? I won't because I rarely ask my Echo any questions.

I might give it a try. Google seems to be a lot better for questions such as "what time is <shop x> open today?".

Andrew

[ApK]

I may try it. i like Google's "AI", and also it might give me impetus to touch the Alexa skills dev stuff that I signed up for but haven't even looked at yet.
When I have some free time.