Amazon Echo Club

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by ApK

Yup, here too. Their infrastructure must be getting slammed. Lucky for me there is nothing I'm shopping for today.

Neither am I per se, but I always check a few items to see if they are on sale. But even the regular website is totally screwed up at the moment. Sure tired of seeing doggie photos and that "we are sorry" statement. I also noticed that the few Prime Deal items I looked at were bogus as for as the savings. They give a list price which is way inflated over the price that item typically sells for, then try to pawn off a few dollars savings as a 44% sale when it might be a 20% sale at most. Typical Amazon BS.

[ApK]

This may have something to with the Amazon issues today:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wir...-prime-day/amp

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by ApK

Yup, here too. Their infrastructure must be getting slammed. Lucky for me there is nothing I'm shopping for today.

Some issues at the Canadian site (OK, a LOT), but I was, finally, able to order a new Echo Dot (with a mini-plug combo) for a very good price, and check out. Took patience and the F-5 key.

Originally Posted by ApK

This may have something to with the Amazon issues today:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wir...-prime-day/amp

The outages won't be related to the strikes. But do point out that even the biggest can run out of capacity. Too bad they couldn't use Azure to expand their infrastructure dynamically.

[OtinG]

I wonder if perhaps it could be related to a concerted major hacking attack against Amazon. In this day and age it would not surprise me to see a foreign, or even American, group try to make a statement or simply attempt to disrupt a major American business on a key day for them. I doubt this is the case though. I suspect it was simply Amazon not being adequately prepared--as usual.

I was still having major issues with the Amazon USA site even late into the evening. If I knew what I wanted to look up I could type that specific item and it usually found it. But trying to browse deals was a joke. For example, I typed "SD card" into the search box under the Prime Day category and it returned either the doggie pictures and "sorry" message or it returned a page showing about 400 pages of hits, but only the first page would display, all the rest returned doggie pictures and "sorry" message! Cute dogs though.

I haven't tried much today, but so far no doggie pics. I did manage to find and buy a Sandisk 32GB Extreme Pro SD card, but of course it wasn't on sale. Most of the sale items I looked at were not very good deals, and many had inflated list prices. But as I recall, this is typical for Amazon's Prime Day event--mostly hype with very few good deals. The best deals are around Black Friday and Monday and during Lightning sales.

[tubemonkey]

Alexa/Echo Built-in Apps

• Books
• Audible
  
• Kindle Books
  
  
• Music
• My Music Library
  
• Amazon Music -or- Prime Music
  
• Spotify --> premium subscribers only
  
• Pandora
  
• iHeartRadio
  
• TuneIn
  
• Deezer
  
• Gimme Radio
  
• SiriusXM
  
  
• Speakers
• Sonos
  
  
• Video
• Fire TV
  
• TiVo
  
• Fios
  
• Frontier
  
• Dish TV
  
• DIRECTV
  
• Optic HUB

[ApK]

TM, when you list DirectTV as a built in app, what do you mean? Can Alexa officially control DirecTV equipment now like it can Dish?

ApK

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ApK

TM, when you list DirectTV as a built in app, what do you mean? Can Alexa officially control DirecTV equipment now like it can Dish?

ApK

It's my understanding that it will. You can find the listings here:

Amazon Alexa --> Music, Video, & Books

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It's my understanding that it will. You can find the listings here:

Amazon Alexa --> Music, Video, & Books

Well I'll be darned. Now I just need to figure out what it can do.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by ApK

Well I'll be darned. Now I just need to figure out what it can do.

You can now use Alexa to control your DirecTV set-top box

Amazon first announced an update to its Alexa Video Skill API back in March that would make it easier for set-top box makers to add DVR and playback controls via voice, but it’s taken a little while for its initial partners to enable the feature. TiVo added it to select devices back in May, and now DirecTV is joining the club with an announcement today that its Genie HR44 DVR, among other DirecTV set-top boxes, finally supports Alexa.

With the update, you should be able to use your voice to ask an Alexa-enabled Echo device to record TV shows, change channels, and perform other playback functions for your DirecTV set-top box. Commands like, “Hey Alexa, record that show,” can be used for specific programs, and you can also specify for Alexa certain networks like HBO if you’re looking just to channel surf.

Alexa voice control arrives for select DirecTV set-top boxes

If you have DirecTV and you're fed up of having to use an old-fashioned remote to get to the content you want to watch, starting today, you can just holler at Amazon's Alexa voice assistant to do the work for you. Alexa is now compatible with the Genie HR44, HR54, Genie 2 and Genie Mini set-top boxes.

You'll first need to connect your DirecTV account to Alexa, which you can control with (for instance) an Echo, a mobile app or the new Fire TV Cube. It's then a matter of using your voice to play, rewind and record shows, or change the channel. You can search for what you want to watch too, such as movies starring a certain actor. It's a far cry from the old days of voice control, before remotes existed, when you would just ask a child to get up and switch the channel on the TV itself.

[OtinG]

Charter/Spectrum says they will soon allow customers to use the newest AppleTV to replace their Spectrum set-top box. That would be something to look forward to in the future if we could substitute the crappy, low-end boxes used by TV services with our own. We would potentially get faster operation, better operation, and not have to pay the $10/mo fees to rent a worn out POS from the TV service provider. They would need to allow for DVR recording though, otherwise it would be a no go for me. I rarely see anything worth watching, but then when I do there always seems to be multiple shows airing at the same time. DVR is a must.

I would also like to see Alexa and other similar devices be able to control media streaming services like Sling, DirectvNow, Playstation Vue, Hulu, Netflix, etc. There is some capability already for Hulu and Netflix, but not enough. But at any rate, they need to drastically improve the ability of Alexa type systems to interact with other services. Plus the one thing that will always be problematic is that these voice command services are connected to huge retail services, so more likely than not they will always push their paid services into the forefront.

[wodin]

Alexa can crank the bass on your Echo when you ask

Amazon is giving you more control over audio with an Alexa update that lets you adjust the equalizer and sound modes using your voice. So if you think the music you're listening to on your Amazon Echo could use a touch more low end, asking Alexa to increase the bass should do just that. More specifically, the bands you can tweak are bass, midrange and treble. Alexa can also switch your Echo to a number of EQ presets as well, including for movies, music, sports and TV.

[wodin]

Amazon’s Echo Show now lets you use Alexa by tapping instead of talking

Amazon is rolling out an update to its Echo Show smart display / speaker that enables “Tap to Alexa,” a new way of activating the digital assistant by using the touchscreen instead of voice commands. Tap to Alexa makes Alexa available to people who are unable to easily interact with Alexa by voice, such as users with speech impairments. But it might also prove to be a convenient option for anyone who’s just tired of talking to a gadget.

[CRussel]

Wonder if it will be available for the Show Mode on my Fire? Would be handy in the kitchen when I don't want one of the other devices to answer.

[tubemonkey]

Me: Alexa, add more bass.

Alexa: Bass has been added to your shopping list.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Me: Alexa, add more bass.

Alexa: Bass has been added to your shopping list.

Does Monkey like seafood?