Amazon Echo Club

[tubemonkey]

Amazon reportedly met with the creator of an Echo-like device in 2013 before launching its own now-dominant smart speaker 2 years later

Big companies like Amazon don't steal from little companies like Ubi; that wouldn't be ethical

Amazon has reportedly met with multiple tech entrepreneurs over the years to apparently discuss acquisitions and investments only to turn around and create strikingly similar products of their own, per a Thursday Wall Street Journal report.

One of those entrepreneurs was Leor Grebler, who launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2012 and raised $36,000 for his voice-activated Ubi device. It landed on the market well ahead of Amazon Echo's mid-2015 debut.

Grebler told the outlet he began meeting with Amazon in late 2012 to discuss his technology, with the impression that Amazon may have wanted to acquire Ubi or at least license the tech. Shortly after in 2013, he conducted a demo of his device and disclosed proprietary information in a meeting with a group of Amazon execs, which included two who would later be found to be involved in the Echo speaker project, Grebler told the Journal.

"They saw all the things we wanted to do with the device [like] music and shopping," Grebler told the WSJ. "It was almost a road map for the product."

Prior to the demo, Amazon told Grebler it would be terminating its nondisclosure agreement, which both parties signed earlier on. Grebler told the outlet the move gave him the impression that Amazon was more seriously considering acquiring Ubi.

Amazon went radio silent following the meeting, and news later surfaced in late 2014 that Amazon was planning to unveil its Echo device, which later hit the market in June 2015. Grebler said he lacked the funds to take Amazon to court.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by ApK

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.
...

Yup, my experience is when Alexa doesn't know the answer, Google usually does. I've gotten into the habit of just asking my phone when I want an answer. Alexa is mostly used for controlling IoT stuff and music.

My wife, on the other hand usually doesn't have her phone with her all of the time, so she does a lot of arguing with Alexa.

[mlewis78]

Originally Posted by 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.

Agree. I do not want to call any of them "Computer." I have the gen 3 Echo, Show 5 and Fire TV Cube in the living room. I use the name Echo for the Show 5, Alexa for the Gen 3 and I have turned off the microphone on the Fire TV Cube. The Cube always answered to Alexa first and I didn't want that. Why don't they pick out some other names or allow us to assign names to these?

I also have a Tap in the same room in the kitchen area, so I disabled the hands free feature and have to press on it to communicate with it. I hardly use that one. I have the original Echo in the bedroom now. I bought the Show 5 for the bedroom, but the light bothered me and it kept coming back on a few minutes after I told it to turn off the screen. I use it now with the fire tv cube when my TV sound does not work. Lately the TV speakers are good. They may go off at any time.

[tubemonkey]

Amazon's redesigned Alexa app puts your most-used features up front

Amazon’s Alexa app is finally getting a much-needed revamp. Starting today, the Alexa app will have a whole new home screen with updated navigation that highlights Alexa-centric skills and a more personalized experience. Third-party skills have also been moved off the main screen in favor of more first-party features.

The main screen will now have personalized suggestions based on your Alexa usage. So if you use Alexa to play music a lot or control your smart home, you’ll see those commands prominently featured on the screen. According to Amazon, customers will see controls for currently active features, so you could, for example, adjust the volume level for the Echo Buds right then and there. First-time users, on the other hand, will see suggestions on how to get started with Alexa, as well as how to use other Amazon services like Amazon Music or how to add to their Amazon shopping list.

more...

[ApK]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Amazon's redesigned Alexa app puts your most-used features up front

So the main change I see today is that "Recommended Skills," which are nothing but advertisements in my book, now dominate the home screen.

So the big update is more ads pushed in my face.

Any one know how to get "recommended skills" out of the way?

ApK

[OtinG]

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.

And,

Originally Posted by issybird

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.

My 6 month old Echo Show 5 is very deaf. I have it in my living room and I assigned "Alexa" as the wakeup voice since it is too deaf to hear whatever the TV blurts out. I mostly use it as an annoying "Tips" clock and to see the lyrics of songs that I play. The latter works fairly well when there are lyrics for that song in her database, but the clock constantly wants to show me more tips, even though I’ve set it to NEVER show any, EVER! She dims her backlight every few minutes to attempt to go to the Tips screen, but since it is not set up to allow that she brightens the screen again. Occasionally she goes to Tips anyway, @#$%^. I just don’t understand why Amazon wants to force Tips on us. WTH. Advertisements I could understand, but Tips? BTW, the constant Tips dimming of screen ritual goes on all night too, making it a really crappy bedside clock, hence why it is in the living room.

Since the Show 5 is so deaf, I left my Echo Plus 2 in my living room and assigned her the "Echo" wakeup word. She hears very well, as do all three of my Dots. Yesterday I put my face within a foot of the Show 5 and repeatedly yelled "Alexa" so I could get her to play a song. She repeatedly ignored me. I have cats for that, I don’t need her doing it too! I finally yelled out for her to play a certain song. My Dot 2 which is two rooms over and in the bathroom for light control purposes heard the command, and since she also uses the "Alexa" wakeup word she started playing the requested song. So Show 5 is deaf one foot away, but Dot 2 can hear from around two corners and 30 feet away.

BTW, I’ve spent much time with Amazon CS trying to get the Show 5 to hear, but to no avail. CS is stuck on reading a transcript and being oblivious to anything else useful. I’ve read lots of complaints from other Show 5 owners of deafness, so I suspect they used a bad batch of microphones. Plus I think I read that she only has one microphone, so that probably isn’t enough. When she works, she is great, hence why I kept her. But she needs a lot of improving for the next generation.

As far as the Alexa voice capability, I realize Google voice is likely much better. But I’m very averse to inviting anything related to Google into my home. I simply don’t trust that company, and for a very good reasons.

My major complaint with Alexa is she constantly screws up commands/questions, and she has a nasty habit of forcing her preferred song versions on us. I can ask for a song title and before I even have a chance to tell her the artist name she is announcing that song by the worst artist imaginable. Trying to get her to stop and play the correct one is a major PITA. And once she starts talking, good bleeping luck getting a word in edgewise! If she doesn't have that song, she goes into a very long winded push to listen to some crap I could care less about. They really need to add a Listen and Keep Your Mouth Shut menu option for her.

[mlewis78]

I agree about Alexa getting way too chatty with advice for things that have nothing to do with what I asked.

I have a new kindle fire HD 8 Plus, which includes Alexa. I had to turn Alexa off in it, because when I asked my 3rd Gen. Echo to play something, I kept hearing the chimes from the kindle fire. My Show 5 is named Echo, so Alexa is on both the gen 3 and the fire. I also have the fire tv cube with Alexa and I had to turn off its microphone.

I discovered on my fire through Amazon Music Unlimited an album by Glenn Miller that I had not heard of before but like a lot. It's Glenn Miller GIs in Paris 1945. I have played it on the fire and can play it on the Gen 3 if I do it through the app on my phone, but it will not play it on the Gen 3 if I ask for it. I tried saying it a few different ways and she just "doesn't know that one." Doesn't matter that it has already been played on it.

There were numerous, say every half hour, notifications that keep the yellow ring on my two Echoes about the tropical storm warnings starting early Monday and went through this afternoon. I didn't want to hear it but don't want to turn off notifications because I like to have it when Amazon stuff is delivered. I wasn't expecting any packages, so I eventually unplugged the Echoes. The notifications keep changing the time of the storm warning -- extended until 8pm, extended until 8:30pm, etc., etc. This happened recently when there was another tropical storm.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

I agree about Alexa getting way too chatty with advice for things that have nothing to do with what I asked.

I've said before that she needs a setting one level above "brief mode" called "just say OK and keep your comments to yourself." Brief mode is not great because she only beeps instead of saying "OK" and too often beeps and makes odd sounds for no determinable reason at all.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by ApK

I've said before that she needs a setting one level above "brief mode" called "just say OK and keep your comments to yourself." Brief mode is not great because she only beeps instead of saying "OK" and too often beeps and makes odd sounds for no determinable reason at all.

Alexa, take a Maalox...

[tubemonkey]

Amazon Echo Loop - BEYOND My Expectations

Steve DOES -- Jul 4, 2020

The Amazon Echo Loop has arrived! Well, for me anyway... This items is currently an invite only purchase. I was lucky enough to be picked to test out the ring. The ring seemed kind of gimmicky so i was on the fence about making the purchase but, i'm happy that i did. Watch the review to see how my experience with the Echo Loop has been.

[John F]

Any rumors on a new Echo (it is currently unavailable at Amazon)?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by John F

Any rumors on a new Echo (it is currently unavailable at Amazon)?

I haven't heard any. The current one (3rd Gen) is less than a year old, so it seems unlikely given its past release history. I'm just speculating, but maybe they're having supply issues due to the pandemic or they're holding stock back for Prime Day / Black Friday.

Release History

• Echo Gen 3 --- Oct 2019
  
• Echo Gen 2 --- Oct 2017
  
• Echo Gen 1 --- Nov 2014 / Jun 2015

[John F]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I haven't heard any. The current one (3rd Gen) is less than a year old, so it seems unlikely given its past release history. I'm just speculating, but maybe they're having supply issues due to the pandemic or they're holding stock back for Prime Day / Black Friday.

Release History

• Echo Gen 3 --- Oct 2019
  
• Echo Gen 2 --- Oct 2017
  
• Echo Gen 1 --- Nov 2014 / Jun 2015

Thanks for the info. It slipped my mind that the 3rd gen was released so recently. I thought that one of mine was a a 3rd gen, but it is actually a second gen.

And, they are now available again (in stock August 23rd).

And I missed it when I did a search. I normally search and hit the prime check box, and the Echo doesn't show up.

[Bilbo1967]

My Echo Spot's screen has just started to flicker (except in night-time mode). Very annoying.

I have raised it with Amazon and they have said they will see what they can do, but it is a long time out of warranty so I'm not hopeful.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

My Echo Spot's screen has just started to flicker (except in night-time mode). Very annoying.

I have raised it with Amazon and they have said they will see what they can do, but it is a long time out of warranty so I'm not hopeful.

I hope they do something for you.

I thought the Spot was discontinued. It disappeared last Oct, then this May Amazon brought it back. It's currently selling for $90, but was selling for $50 on 15 June (its lowest price ever).