Amazon Echo Club - Page 274

OtinG · 03-30-2020, 10:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Can you switch the background for each day?....

Create images for each day? Yes, you could.

Change images each day? Yes, but you would need to do it manually. I don’t think there is anything in the FW that would do it automatically. The only settings for using the FW to toggle through a gallery of images will toggle every few minutes at the longest pause setting.

I also thought about using a different Moon photo for each Lunar phase. But again, no built in FW mechanism to do so.

Probably a lot of possibilities for someone to create some cool skills based on backgrounds.

OtinG · 03-30-2020, 12:57 PM

Another good type of background for the Show 5 clock faces is with images of your kids, grandkids, and fur and purr babies! Although as the “shelter at home” orders drag on you might see too much of them as it is!

........

alee · 03-31-2020, 01:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Can you switch the background for each day? Obviously the Sun background for Sunday, the Moon background for Monday, and Saturn for Saturday. The others are a little trickier, but how about

Tuesday: named for the Norse god of war, so use Mars
Wednesday: named for the king of the Norse gods, so use Jupiter
Friday: named for the Queen of the Norse Gods, so use Venus, as at least that's also a godess, not a god

Thursday's the really tricky one. Since the Roman god of thunder is also Jupiter. Hmm....

In French, and probably other languages, Wednesday is named after Mercury. I don't know how it was decided that Odin corresponded to Mercury.

pdurrant · 03-31-2020, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alee

In French, and probably other languages, Wednesday is named after Mercury. I don't know how it was decided that Odin corresponded to Mercury.

English has much more Norse influence than the continental romance languages. Mercury in no way corresponds with Odin.

ApK · 03-31-2020, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

English has much more Norse influence than the continental romance languages. Mercury in no way corresponds with Odin.

Still might make Mercury a good choice for the Wednesday image though.

pdurrant · 03-31-2020, 10:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ApK

Still might make Mercury a good choice for the Wednesday image though.

Yes, leaving Jupiter for Thursday.

If there was some way to automate the image changes. Hmm... a timed GIF?

OtinG · 03-31-2020, 12:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Yes, leaving Jupiter for Thursday.

If there was some way to automate the image changes. Hmm... a timed GIF?

An animated GIF might work, although I think GIFs are only 8-bit with only 256 colors, so there were would be a dithering issue. PNGs can also be animated and they have millions of colors. Not sure how long the pause between frames can be though, nor whether animated PNGs are supported or just regular PNGs.

BTW: Amazon was actually fairly generous on their support for image/video file types, as you can see at this link.

Quote:

Photos: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF, most TIFF, HEIF, HEVC, HEIC, and some RAW format files.

Quote:

Videos: MP4, QuickTime, AVI, MTS, MPG, ASF, WMV, Flash, HEIF, HEVC, and OGG.

Quote:

RAW File Types: Nikon (NEF files), Canon (CR2 Files), ARW (Sony), CRW (Canon RAW CIFF image), ORF (Olympus) files, DNG files, and some others.

wodin · 03-31-2020, 02:55 PM

My Echo Loop arrived Sunday, and so far it's been performing as advertised. It's not nearly as ugly as the pics on the website depict, tho' it's also not the height of fashion. It's just sort of a black titanium ring, slightly larger than a black band but not unwieldly so.

Battery life seems better than expected, after a full charge yesterday morning (6:00 AM) until 10:00 PM it had 80% charge left. At that rate it should last several days.

I haven't had a chance to evaluate it's usefulness as I have been hunkered down at home teleworking, and since I have an Echo in every room, it's kind of redundant. I did have occasion to use it from my lanai to control some lights inside, so that was useful.

BLUF: I'm not yet convinced that it's worth the $130 early bird price.

tubemonkey · 03-31-2020, 04:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wodin

My Echo Loop arrived Sunday, and so far it's been performing as advertised. It's not nearly as ugly as the pics on the website depict, tho' it's also not the height of fashion. It's just sort of a black titanium ring, slightly larger than a black band but not unwieldly so.

Battery life seems better than expected, after a full charge yesterday morning (6:00 AM) until 10:00 PM it had 80% charge left. At that rate it should last several days.

I haven't had a chance to evaluate it's usefulness as I have been hunkered down at home teleworking, and since I have an Echo in every room, it's kind of redundant. I did have occasion to use it from my lanai to control some lights inside, so that was useful.

BLUF: I'm not yet convinced that it's worth the $130 early bird price.

Too bad Amazon won't let people create their own wake words. Otherwise, you could use "my precious"

wodin · 03-31-2020, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Too bad Amazon won't let people create their own wake words. Otherwise, you could use "my precious"

Yes, except the ring doesn't have wake words, there is a button on the band that you press once for Alexa, long press for Google Assistant or Siri, and double press to "Call your top contact". More Here.

The button is flush with the surface of the ring so it's hard to feel if you have your thumb on it, but after a while muscle memory gets it (nearly) every time.

OtinG · 03-31-2020, 04:45 PM

It looked like plastic in the Amazon photos, so that is a plus that it is metal—more durable for sure.

I would think the battery life should be fairly good since it doesn’t have a display. I guess it has WiFi and/or BT though, but WiFi shouldn’t be too big of a battery drain. And it isn’t always listening if you have to push a button to use voice commands, so that will conserve battery too.

I still think it would have been way more cool as a Star Trek communicator badge to wear on a shirt!

Even better if they used Scotty’s voice instead of Alexa’s voice!

Does it even have a speaker? I’m guessing probably not...

tubemonkey · 03-31-2020, 04:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OtinG

I still think it would have been way more cool as a Star Trek communicator badge to wear on a shirt!

Even better if they used Scotty’s voice instead of Alexa’s voice!

Now that's a thought. I like it

I still use a Star Trek style flip phone. Let's here it for old school

tubemonkey · 03-31-2020, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wodin

Yes, except the ring doesn't have wake words, there is a button on the band that you press once for Alexa, long press for Google Assistant or Siri, and double press to "Call your top contact". More Here.

The button is flush with the surface of the ring so it's hard to feel if you have your thumb on it, but after a while muscle memory gets it (nearly) every time.

Hey, that's no fun. Wake words woulda been uber cool... talk to the hand

wodin · 03-31-2020, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OtinG

It looked like plastic in the Amazon photos, so that is a plus that it is metal—more durable for sure.

I would think the battery life should be fairly good since it doesn’t have a display. I guess it has WiFi and/or BT though, but WiFi shouldn’t be too big of a battery drain. And it isn’t always listening if you have to push a button to use voice commands, so that will conserve battery too.

I still think it would have been way more cool as a Star Trek communicator badge to wear on a shirt!

Even better if they used Scotty’s voice instead of Alexa’s voice!

Does it even have a speaker? I’m guessing probably not...

The band is titanium, but there is a bulge on top (where a stone would be set on a normal ring) that I think is plastic. At least when I tap it with my other ring it sound duller than the band.

It pairs with my phone with Bluetooth, and uses the phones calling and texting features, but I haven't tried those yet so I don't know how they work.

Yea a Star Trek communicator badge would be cool, but then the volume would have to be way louder (and less private) than holding you hand near your face allows.

Yes, there is a speaker/microphone opposite the top bulge and it seems to be sensitive/loud enough. But probably not for noisy environments.

And BTW, Scotty's communicator was a flip phone.

OtinG · 03-31-2020, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Hey, that's no fun. Wake words woulda been uber cool... talk to the hand

LOL! Or while giving a one finger solute say, “Register your complaint here!”

03-30-2020, 12:57 PM	#4097
OtinG Old Gadget Guy Posts: 1,913 Karma: 6854865 Join Date: Jun 2018 Device: Oasis 3, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad mini 6, iPad Air 2020, Alexa Devices	Another good type of background for the Show 5 clock faces is with images of your kids, grandkids, and fur and purr babies! Although as the “shelter at home” orders drag on you might see too much of them as it is! ........ Attached Thumbnails

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03-31-2020, 02:55 PM	#4103
wodin Illiterate Posts: 10,279 Karma: 37848716 Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: The Sandwich Isles Device: Samsung Galaxy S10+, Microsoft Surface Pro	My Echo Loop arrived Sunday, and so far it's been performing as advertised. It's not nearly as ugly as the pics on the website depict, tho' it's also not the height of fashion. It's just sort of a black titanium ring, slightly larger than a black band but not unwieldly so. Battery life seems better than expected, after a full charge yesterday morning (6:00 AM) until 10:00 PM it had 80% charge left. At that rate it should last several days. I haven't had a chance to evaluate it's usefulness as I have been hunkered down at home teleworking, and since I have an Echo in every room, it's kind of redundant. I did have occasion to use it from my lanai to control some lights inside, so that was useful. BLUF: I'm not yet convinced that it's worth the $130 early bird price.

03-31-2020, 04:45 PM	#4106
OtinG Old Gadget Guy Posts: 1,913 Karma: 6854865 Join Date: Jun 2018 Device: Oasis 3, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPad mini 6, iPad Air 2020, Alexa Devices	It looked like plastic in the Amazon photos, so that is a plus that it is metal—more durable for sure. I would think the battery life should be fairly good since it doesn’t have a display. I guess it has WiFi and/or BT though, but WiFi shouldn’t be too big of a battery drain. And it isn’t always listening if you have to push a button to use voice commands, so that will conserve battery too. I still think it would have been way more cool as a Star Trek communicator badge to wear on a shirt! Even better if they used Scotty’s voice instead of Alexa’s voice! Does it even have a speaker? I’m guessing probably not...