Amazon Echo Club

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by issybird

Every time I’ve spoken to Alexa this morning, she’s responded by first saying, “Howdy. And good morning.” Make it stop! I’ve never interacted with her on a quote unquote personal level. Why, Jeff, why?

And a minor quibble in the great annoyance, howdy? This is New England! Fingernails on chalkboard stuff.

Funny thing is I'm a native Texan (multi-generation) and have been around over 6 decades now. Yet I've rarely heard the "howdy" greeting. We get blamed for it, but I think it is more Hollywood generated than anything. Probably goes back to the era of popular western movies and TV shows in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Of course I grew up the Austin area and it tends to be way different from most other parts of the state, but even when I lived in rural areas I rarely heard "howdy".

I haven't heard Alexa say it yet, but she says a lot of stuff which I tend to ignore. Siri has started adding unnecessary conversation after she completes a command. For example, when I ask here to turn off the White Noise feature after I wake up in the mornings, she now says "Okay" after it turns off. I hope the two of them never get to talking to one another though, I would hate to have to throw away a bunch of devices!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by OtinG

LOL! Yep, they pretty much do what they want. I'm pretty sure they think we are their pet humans and that they are in charge. Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to my last little fur ball last week as old age finally took her at age 19. Too quiet around the house now.

I'm sorry for your loss. While 19 is a good long life for a cat, it's not nearly long enough.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by OtinG

LOL! Yep, they pretty much do what they want. I'm pretty sure they think we are their pet humans and that they are in charge. Unfortunately I had to say goodbye to my last little fur ball last week as old age finally took her at age 19. Too quiet around the house now.

The cat of my heart also lived to 19. I didn’t want another after her, but perhaps you should consider it? In any case, I get it and I’m sorry.

[DiapDealer]

After 2+ weeks, two "delay approvals", and one CS phone call, my $25 4th Gen Dot is finally out for delivery. They tried extremely hard to get me to cancel my order and reorder the $50 version, but I win!

Not sure why they're trying sell the 2020 4th Gen Dots for the same price as the 2022 5th Gen versions in the first place, but ....

[mlewis78]

I use ambient noise on my Echo when I go to sleep at night. It was taking longer than it should after I said "play ambient noise." It would say "OK, here's ambient noise." Pause and then "welcome to ambient noise. what do you want to listen to?" and then I had to say "play Ocean."

Now Alexa goes into a long list of what it can play in ambient noise. The list seems endless, so I say "stop. Alexa, play Ocean." Then it plays ocean sounds from Amazon Music and not from ambient noise. It would be nice if I could just say play ambient noise ocean. When I just say play ocean, sometimes it recommends that I use ambient noise or some other app. What a waste of time when I'm just settling down to go to sleep.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

I use ambient noise on my Echo when I go to sleep at night. It was taking longer than it should after I said "play ambient noise." It would say "OK, here's ambient noise." Pause and then "welcome to ambient noise. what do you want to listen to?" and then I had to say "play Ocean."

Now Alexa goes into a long list of what it can play in ambient noise. The list seems endless, so I say "stop. Alexa, play Ocean." Then it plays ocean sounds from Amazon Music and not from ambient noise. It would be nice if I could just say play ambient noise ocean. When I just say play ocean, sometimes it recommends that I use ambient noise or some other app. What a waste of time when I'm just settling down to go to sleep.

Create a routine that includes whatever "going to sleep" actions you typically do, like turning out the lights (assuming smart switches or bulbs, of course), giving you tomorrow's weather forecast, and playing Ambient Noise Ocean. Then assign that to a phrase, like "Alexa, Good Night" and you don't have to fight her any more.

[John F]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Create a routine that includes whatever "going to sleep" actions you typically do, like turning out the lights (assuming smart switches or bulbs, of course), giving you tomorrow's weather forecast, and playing Ambient Noise Ocean. Then assign that to a phrase, like "Alexa, Good Night" and you don't have to fight her any more.

I'm guessing that the above won't help with what mlewis78 posted. I think mlewis78 is saying there is no direct command to play the ocean ambient noise?

[John F]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

I use ambient noise on my Echo when I go to sleep at night. It was taking longer than it should after I said "play ambient noise." It would say "OK, here's ambient noise." Pause and then "welcome to ambient noise. what do you want to listen to?" and then I had to say "play Ocean."

Now Alexa goes into a long list of what it can play in ambient noise. The list seems endless, so I say "stop. Alexa, play Ocean." Then it plays ocean sounds from Amazon Music and not from ambient noise. It would be nice if I could just say play ambient noise ocean. When I just say play ocean, sometimes it recommends that I use ambient noise or some other app. What a waste of time when I'm just settling down to go to sleep.

When I say "Alexa, play ambient noise ocean", my echo plays ocean sounds.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Create a routine that includes whatever "going to sleep" actions you typically do, like turning out the lights (assuming smart switches or bulbs, of course), giving you tomorrow's weather forecast, and playing Ambient Noise Ocean. Then assign that to a phrase, like "Alexa, Good Night" and you don't have to fight her any more.

Originally Posted by John F

When I say "Alexa, play ambient noise ocean", my echo plays ocean sounds.

I hope Amazon pays you both well for figuring out and disseminating these workarounds for the stupid breaking changes their developers make!

[mlewis78]

Originally Posted by John F

When I say "Alexa, play ambient noise ocean", my echo plays ocean sounds.

I will try this next.

[mlewis78]

Does anyone know if there is a way to turn off the yellow notification signal when I know I don't want to hear it? I'm OK with hearing about a delivery that was made, but it keeps trying to sell me things. I do not order anything through Alexa.

[DiapDealer]

If you know it's a notification you don't want to hear, just say "Alexa, delete my notifications".

You can also turn off shopping recommendation notifications in the Notifications->Amazon Shopping section of the Alexa settings. I can't remember the last time I was presented with an unsolicited shopping rec.

[OtinG]

FYI: Amazon just expanded their free, ad free, list of songs for Prime members from 2 million to 100 million songs. That’s a 50x increase! I think they also expanded podcasts to ad free also.

From a Wall Street Journal article:

The tech giant is essentially offering its Prime members the full functionality of Spotify’s free tier but without ads. While paid tiers allow users to select any specific song on-demand, free tiers are more limited in that users can only listen by shuffling albums, playlists and artists’ catalogs. Amazon also offers Prime users a few all-access playlists to which they can listen on-demand.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by OtinG

FYI: Amazon just expanded their free, ad free, list of songs for Prime members from 2 million to 100 million songs. That’s a 50x increase! I think they also expanded podcasts to ad free also.

From a Wall Street Journal article:

My kids will like that. For me, asking for a song by name is the only use I have for music on Alexa.

[tubemonkey]

I have a premium Spotify account. Shuffling songs doesn't cut it when I want to listen to a particular song or an album in sequential order. Since Spotify does not have the American album versions of my favorite British Invasion bands (Beatles, Kinks, etc), I had to create playlists for those albums. Growing up, I listened to those albums in order. So playing the official British versions doesn't work for me since the next song I'm expecting isn't the one that plays.

Spotify + Alexa = a winning combination.