Amazon Echo Club

[twowheels]

Wow. A $200 device is garbage in a few short years. Throw-away society is the best...

[ApK]

Originally Posted by twowheels

Wow. A $200 device is garbage in a few short years. Throw-away society is the best...

Maybe not the best poster child for the cause. This was basically a failed experiment. They took a risk, it didn't pan out, and not all that many exist in the wild. I can forgive this more than, say, selling billions of cell phones with planned- obsolescence support policies, non-replaceable batteries, etc, and then intentionally repeating it every few years.
Or many examples of products that are simply built too cheaply to withstand normal use, and are unrepairable. Those are better poster children for disposable society.

[tubemonkey]

Now all your home’s Alexa devices work like an intercom

Amazon Alexa users can now use the “Drop In” feature to talk with all of their Echo devices at once, Amazon announced on its blog. Previously, Drop In messages could only be sent to one other Alexa-enabled device at a time -- a user with an Alexa device in the bedroom could “drop in” on a device in the kitchen and have a two-way conversation.

Now, you can use a device to send a message to all Echo devices in the house at once. This could be helpful with asking group questions like, “Does anyone want anything from the grocery store?” according to the Amazon blog. To start a group Drop In conversation, you can ask Alexa to “Drop In everywhere.”

A similar function has been added to the reminder feature. Users can now choose “all devices” when setting a reminder for the reminder to be played across all Alexa hardware. To enable the feature for all reminders, go to Settings in the Alexa app, then Reminders and opt into “Announce on all devices.”

[wodin]

Uhh... That's new? There has been the "announce" feature for years. I'm not sure about the Reminder every where, but it seems like a no brainer to me, that's the way it should work.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by wodin

Uhh... That's new? There has been the "announce" feature for years. I'm not sure about the Reminder every where, but it seems like a no brainer to me, that's the way it should work.

Previously, you could only do it on one Echo at a time. The new feature allows you to do it on all of the Echos in your house at the same time.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Previously, you could only do it on one Echo at a time. The new feature allows you to do it on all of the Echos in your house at the same time.

Again. that's how it always should have been. So Jeff's kids are spinning an oversight correction into new and wonderful feature.

[John F]

A possible warning...

I updated my Alexa app on my iphone, and I have encountered 2 problems...

1) My routines didn't work. These were voice activated routines, for example: "Alexa Good morning". Editing didn't fix the problem. I needed to delete and re-add the routines.

2) I have two harmony hubs, and voice commands no longer work on one (they actually go to the other Harmony Hub). I can use them in routines, but not through voice. They show up in scenes.

I've spent a couple hours this morning trying to solve the problem (deleted the, enabled/disabled the skill, scanned for scenes, no luck.

Also, I have an ongoing problem with routines and notifications with my iphone. Use used to get a sound with the notification text, now I only get the text. This has been going on a while. I called Amazon about it, and they passed it on to the dev team. I get a call every day asking if the problem is still persisting, and have I updated to the latest version of the Alexa app.

[mlewis78]

I have not ever set up any routines with my Echo Alexa speakers. It would be great if it would do the basic things very well. I am very tired of hearing it announce "Playing on laptop _____: VERY LOUDLY that hurts my ears, after I have adjusted the volume to play a youtube video or a podcast or something else. I asked today why it plays this so loudly and it answered that I can say "Alexa Volume Down." I said but I say that every day and you still play this laptop thing so loud that it hurts my ears. The Echo never gets it.

[wodin]

Alexa will soon be able to launch Android and iOS apps using voice commands

Amazon is working on a new feature for its Alexa voice assistant that will let the software launch Android and iOS apps using voice commands, a first for Amazon’s assistant and a bold expansion of its strategy to position Alexa as a platform-agnostic alternative to Apple’s Siri and Google Assistant. Called Alexa for Apps, the new feature is launching today in preview form, meaning Amazon is working with select developers on how they’d like to make use of it.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by wodin

Alexa will soon be able to launch Android and iOS apps using voice commands

I get why Amazon wants to do this, but I can't see it going anywhere. Developers aren't going to implement voice-activated features just for Amazon, they'll do it for android and ios too, without requiring additional Amazon bloatware to make it work. Or am I missing something?

[OtinG]

The whole voice control thing is a huge MEH for me. Whether it is Alexa, Siri, or any other one I've used, I mostly argue with them. This stuff is still in ite infancy and has a LONG way to go to be useful and accurate on a meaningful level. By the time I argue with a voice service and redo commands 3 or 4 times, I could have done the same thing via my iPhone or tablet and got t right the first time. it is oly a time saver when it works, and it rarely works that well. I rarely use Siri, but with Alexa it improves a bit for a while then it inevitably takes a running leap back into the abyss.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by OtinG

The whole voice control thing is a huge MEH for me.

Every now and then I'll ask Google a question via my phone, and results are usually better than I expect. For recognizing and understanding general information questions, Google clearly has Alexa beat.
With Alexa, we use voice primarily for:
1 Controlling lights - works >95% of the time, a nice convenience.
2. Asking to play specific songs. Sometime requires a few repeats or rephrasings but works well enough that we keep doing it.
3. Setting timers, asking for conversions or basic math calculations, especially in the kitchen while cooking. This is genuinely useful and works surprisingly well in this limited domain, probably up toward 99%.

Weirdest annoyance lately: We recently had to mute the mic on our living room Dot, because it would respond when we talked to the Kitchen Echo, no matter that I'd be three feet from the Kitchen Echo, facing it, talking in a near whisper, and the living room Dot is 25 feet behind me, with a running fan and A/C unit between us, the Living room would routinely respond instead.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by ApK

Weirdest annoyance lately: We recently had to mute the mic on our living room Dot, because it would respond when we talked to the Kitchen Echo, no matter that I'd be three feet from the Kitchen Echo, facing it, talking in a near whisper, and the living room Dot is 25 feet behind me, with a running fan and A/C unit between us, the Living room would routinely respond instead.

The exact thing happened to me, also - well, close enough. I changed the living room Echo’s name to “Echo” so I can still use the voice feature when I actually am in the living room.

[CRussel]

I wish Amazon gave you greater flexibility in names. We have a first gen Fire TV Cube in the living room, and a 3rd gen Echo Dot in the kitchen. Periodically, one or the other will decide that it is the boss, and start answering for the other. What a pain. The only good thing is that a recent software update allows the Cube to cancel a timer in the kitchen.

That kitchen Dot is used all the time. Conversions, updating shopping lists, timers, reminders, even weather forecasts. All get regular use. I really like that I can have multiple, named, timers going at once.

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by CRussel

...

That kitchen Dot is used all the time. Conversions, updating shopping lists, timers, reminders, even weather forecasts. All get regular use. I really like that I can have multiple, named, timers going at once.

Yes. Our kitchen Alexa gets far more use than any other. Radio, music, timers (multiple) mostly. The convenience of voice control while you're up to your elbows in flour/raw meat/batter is, of course, wonderful.