Amazon Echo Club

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by Catlady

I appreciate the suggestion, but there isn't really a lot of metal; it's not in a firebox in a real fireplace. I don't have an outlet farther away on that wall, and even if I did, the insert isn't supposed to be used with a normal extension cord. And the Wemo plug worked in the past, albeit with occasional problems.

When I was fooling with it yesterday, I did try removing the smart plug to a different outlet in another room, with nothing plugged into it, just to see if I could set it up, but it's still impossible.

Yep it sounds like the plug bit the dust. One more suggestion, more for emotional outlet than anything: Take Wemo smartplug outside, lay on hard surface like concrete, and smash the begeezes out of it with a hammer. That way you get in the last word!

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

you don't have your Christmas tree up yet?

I figure I've got to wait till at least after Halloween. I bought a terrific tree last year and I am counting the days.

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Famous last words?

Just wait, there'll be a Black Friday deal that you can't resist

Yeah, that's what I figure.

Originally Posted by OtinG

Yep it sounds like the plug bit the dust. One more suggestion, more for emotional outlet than anything: Take Wemo smartplug outside, lay on hard surface like concrete, and smash the begeezes out of it with a hammer. That way you get in the last word!

Ah, if only I could. But I think I'll settle for putting it in the electronics recycling bin.

[mlewis78]

I have never had or used a smart plug. Probably should in case I can't get up. I have a very bad arthritis knee and using a cane since last December. I can walk in my apartment without it, but I always take it outside with me to use. If I ever get a total knee replacement, I would need much more help than a smart plug can give me. It is actually good for me to get up often to keep the joints moving.

[issybird]

The tree goes up the weekend after Thanksgiving weekend! But if you want to push it forward as far as Black Friday, I’ll look the other way.

Right after the October Monday holiday, I went for an after dinner walk and was appalled to see that one of my neighbors had their Christmas candles lit in all the windows! Too soon, folks! When it comes to holidays, you gotta pace yourself. No point in getting sick of it by the time the day itself rolls around.

My favorite Christmas short story addresses this issue:

Christmas Every Day

[tubemonkey]

On 01 Nov, Christmas music begins. I have a couple dozen playlists in Spotify to get me in the mood

[OtinG]

After myself and my siblings had left the nest and would come back to my parents's home for Thanksgivings, Mom would have us (and later on the grandkids) help her put up the Christmas tree and decorations before we headed back to our own homes later that weekend. That was more because we were scattered over a large geographical area and so right after Thanksgiving was likely the last time we would all be gathered together before Christmas.

I live alone, so I never decorate for the holidays. Most of the family is gone now, so there doesn't seem much point to it anymore. Plus the cats would probably trash the decorations if I did, are squirrel the smaller items away in their little hiding places. I learned the hard way never to leave a BT earpiece lying around. Anything they can pick up is subject to being pack-ratted away somewhere secret!

[booklover6]

My Echo Show 5 (1st gen) will not connect. Keeps saying my Wi-Fi password is wrong. I've tried everything and nothing works. SO frustrating. I know if I contact support they'll tell me to do everything I already did. This morning I factory reset it and it still won't accept my PW. The PW hasn't changed and everything else is connected. It's not the PW!

Not asking for help, just wanted a place to vent. Maybe it's time for a trade in to the newer model. But that would be sort of dumb, as I only use it as a slide show to view pretty nature pics, for the most part. I have it on a shelf next to my desk top.

Maybe if I throw it out the window or up against the wall a few times it will start to cooperate!

Thanks for letting me yell at the top of my fingers!

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by booklover6

My Echo Show 5 (1st gen) will not connect. Keeps saying my Wi-Fi password is wrong. I've tried everything and nothing works. SO frustrating. I know if I contact support they'll tell me to do everything I already did. This morning I factory reset it and it still won't accept my PW. The PW hasn't changed and everything else is connected. It's not the PW!

Not asking for help, just wanted a place to vent. Maybe it's time for a trade in to the newer model. But that would be sort of dumb, as I only use it as a slide show to view pretty nature pics, for the most part. I have it on a shelf next to my desk top.

Maybe if I throw it out the window or up against the wall a few times it will start to cooperate!

Thanks for letting me yell at the top of my fingers!

I sympathize with you. My Show 5 gen 1 has always been a piece of junk. It does connect to the internet, but it sucks at viewing my photos or being a fancy clock. It excels in being a super-annoying advertisement and tip distributor though. Sometimes it works okay for music, but it is contrary even at that. I'm tempted to use mine for target practice.

[booklover6]

Well the trick was to leave it unplugged for 24 hours. Who knew! After I factory reset it, it still wouldn't get past the wi-fi screen. But after being unplugged, I never saw that screen, I had to log into Amazon as one normally would after resetting. Maybe there was a memory cache stuck on the other screen, though normally when resetting to factory that doesn't happen. At any rate, I'm back to my pretty pictures on my Show 5, although, OtinG, I'm getting those annoying messages you mentioned. I never got those on this device before. I'll have to check my settings. (On my Spot, there's no way to turn off the suggestions and other helpful messages)

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by booklover6

Well the trick was to leave it unplugged for 24 hours. Who knew! After I factory reset it, it still wouldn't get past the wi-fi screen. But after being unplugged, I never saw that screen, I had to log into Amazon as one normally would after resetting. Maybe there was a memory cache stuck on the other screen, though normally when resetting to factory that doesn't happen. At any rate, I'm back to my pretty pictures on my Show 5, although, OtinG, I'm getting those annoying messages you mentioned. I never got those on this device before. I'll have to check my settings. (On my Spot, there's no way to turn off the suggestions and other helpful messages)

I'm not around my Show 5 at the moment, so I can’t go look at the Settings menu, but I know there is a location where you can check off several checkbox options to prevent the various kinds of Tips and ads from displaying. However, you will still get some from time to time. Every time I change my clock or go into the Settings menu, afterwards I will get a few minutes of Tips and Ads, but eventually they stop. Also, Amazon updates the FW and sometimes they add more Tips and Ads categories which means you have to go into Settings and turn the new ones off too. They really need a single menu option that basically tells the Show 5 to stop displaying ALL Tips and Ads, but I doubt that will ever happen.

Plus the FW is rather flaky and buggy. I think companies like Amazon and Apple are using engineers to write the FW code rather than software developers. That was standard procedure before the computer age, but bad in todays computerized world. For example, the way you set up clocks is totally non-intuitive and often just doesn't work correctly. It often takes two or three attemps to get it to display the clock the way you want it to. And adding photos via Amazon Photos can sometimes take an hour or more before the Amazon servers update and you can see the new photos.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I sympathize with you. My Show 5 gen 1 has always been a piece of junk. It does connect to the internet, but it sucks at viewing my photos or being a fancy clock. It excels in being a super-annoying advertisement and tip distributor though. Sometimes it works okay for music, but it is contrary even at that. I'm tempted to use mine for target practice.

And once again, you have helped me resist the temptation to buy a Show!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Catlady

And once again, you have helped me resist the temptation to buy a Show!

But I love my Show 5 gen 1 and have never had any problems with it.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

But I love my Show 5 gen 1 and have never had any problems with it.

If you only use it for music, it is likely a decent choice. If you use it for a clock or photo viewer, the FW sucks. Besides the FW fiasco, mine cannot hear a stick of dynamite go off 10 feet away. It is as deaf as Hellen Keller. Even putting my mouth a few inches from the mic I have to nearly yell to get it to hear me. My other Echos (all 5 of them) have no hearing issues, but the Show 5 does. I grant that some of the issues could be due to a bad batch of units with faulty parts, but a lot of its faults are FW related.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by OtinG

If you only use it for music, it is likely a decent choice. If you use it for a clock or photo viewer, the FW sucks. Besides the FW fiasco, mine cannot hear a stick of dynamite go off 10 feet away. It is as deaf as Hellen Keller. Even putting my mouth a few inches from the mic I have to nearly yell to get it to hear me. My other Echos (all 5 of them) have no hearing issues, but the Show 5 does. I grant that some of the issues could be due to a bad batch of units with faulty parts, but a lot of its faults are FW related.

I use it for Spotify, radio stations, short stories, old time radio, podcasts, news, alarms, timers, weather, cartoons, short videos, etc. As to the display, I have some kind of nature slideshow going on.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by OtinG

I'm not around my Show 5 at the moment, so I can’t go look at the Settings menu, but I know there is a location where you can check off several checkbox options to prevent the various kinds of Tips and ads from displaying. However, you will still get some from time to time. Every time I change my clock or go into the Settings menu, afterwards I will get a few minutes of Tips and Ads, but eventually they stop.

Thanks, I found it, now I have my nature pics again!