hi carol,
firstly the size.
the echo is roughly the size of a tube of pringles.
it's just over 3 inches in diameter and just over 9 inches tall.
it only has 2 buttons on it on the top one with a dot on that can be
used to activate Alexa instead of speaking and the other button is used
to switch the microphones on and off if you don't want her to listen to
you.
this could be handy as last night i was watching coronation street and
kathie said to alex i'm sorry and the echo woke up and said that's ok
theres no need to appologise.
theres a ring of led lights around the top and at first glance you would
think that is all it is but the entire ring of lights is the volume
control witch you can twist clockwise or anti clockwise.
you don't need to use this as you can just tell Alexa to set the volume
from 1 to 10.
the speaker in the echo is pretty good and goes to a pretty high volume.
there is an alternative to the echo that will be out next month which is
called the amazon dot.
this is the same diameter as the echo but is only an inch and a quarter
tall.
it still has a speaker in it but obviously much quieter but other than
that it still does everything that the echo can do.
this model does have audio out connection so you can connect better
speakers to it if you want to and of course the big difference is that
this smaller model costs just under £50 compared to the echo costing
just under £150.
as far as tv and music are concerned i don't know if it can broadcast tv
channels other than if someone creates one of the scripts to do this as
an add-on and i haven't looked closely enough in that catagory yet but i
suspect it's going to be more about movie tracks.
but as far as music is concerned there are several choices.
if you have a prime account with amazon you get access to i believe over
a million songs just by saying the title or artist.
included with your echo is free storage for 250 tracks that you can
upload to their server and then play just by telling Alexa to play them.
and finally you can pay to have much more storage space which allows you
to upload tens of thousands of tracks to control with Alexa but i
haven't checked what the cost of that is yet.
pete.
--
pete gurney <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 15:40:44 +0100
"Carol Pearson" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender
"carol.pearson29" for DMARC) wrote:
Wow, Pete, impressed so far.
Could I ask just a few more questions, please?
What TV stations are available and what about Music?
Finally, can you just describe the Echo - size, etc, how good a speaker it
has and whether you can connect it to better speakers.
Thanks if you, or anyone else, can do this for me.
Perhaps I should read extensively and find out but can't do that right now
... so thanks for all help.
Carol P
,
On 30/09/2016 14:03, pete gurney wrote:
hello carol,
there are lots of things you can do with the echo by installing scripts.
there are hundreds of them available already and just a few that i have
installed so far are:
Play Radio
with this one you can just say "alexa ask play radio to play station"
and there are more than 400 different UK stations available including
community ones.
National Rail
with this one you can ask Alexa to plan a journey and she will ask where
you are leaving from and where you are going to and then she will tell
you the times of the trains any changes involved and weather there are
any problems during the journey.
you can also set up a regular commute and be told if there are any
problems today.
Tube Status
you can ask Alexa how any of the london tube lines are running or just
say all lines and she will report any delays and what is causing them.
Hive
if you have the british gas hive heating control installed you can ask
Alexa to set the temperature to whatever you want and if you have them
you can control their lights and plugs as well.
the only thing is that as far as i can tell you can't tell the heating
to turn on or off it has to be already on.
and for some reason there are two Hive scripts and you need the one
called Hive Complete for it to work.
Google Calendar
with this one installed and linked to your google account you can just
say to Alexa make an appointment and she will ask you when and what time
it is and what it is for and then confirm she has every thing correct
and then she will create it and you receive a reminder notification on
the phone when the appointment is due.
as i said there are -hundreds of these scripts covering everything from
games, music, movies, smart devices, -sports, health, and much more.
lots of them are really for the American market but there are still
plenty suitable for use in the UK.
pete.
pete gurney <pete@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
On Fri, 30 Sep 2016 13:38:55 +0100
"Carol Pearson" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender
"carol.pearson29" for DMARC) wrote:
OK, tell me, folks, what do you get with the ECHO? I gather you can have** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:-
BBC radio and games from the comment below and also use Alexa. What else?
Carol P
On 29/09/2016 16:08, Chris Moore MBE wrote:
Am not a prime member either and got a notification from Amazon to say** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:-
that my Echo would arrive on Saturday. Was totally surprised when it
arrived yesterday on launch day.
It was super simple to set up. I just plugged it in, and it fired up
after a few seconds automatically. The unit told me to download the
Alexia app. After launching the app, you are guided through all the
steps. You are asked to sign out of your current Wi Fi and look for the
Amazon Echo one. From there you give Alexa permission to join your Wi Fi
network.
You are then taken on a tour and that is it!
I was installing skills, playing a game of 20 questions, launching BBC
radio, getting sky news updates in no time.
Great convenient little device. Not as intelligent as Google now or Siri,
but more fun.
The TTS is excellent and so is her understanding of my mild geordie
accent. You can even help Alexa within the app get better at
understanding you.
Chris
On 29 Sep 2016, at 08:17, Jackie Brown <jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx>** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:-
wrote:
I am not a Prime member, so am hoping mine will arrive this weekend,
(though
I am away and won't be able to play with it until Monday at the
earliest.)
I have downloaded and signed into the Alexa app, so will take it from
there
when I get my hands on it.
Kind Regards,
Jackie Brown
Emails: thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx
jackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Check out my website: www.thebrownsplace.info
Read my EyeWrite blog: www.thebrownsplace.info/?page_id=136
Follow me on Twitter: @thebrownsplace
Skype: thejackmate
-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf ;
Of
Chris Moore
Sent: 29 September 2016 05:30
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Amazon Echo
Got mine up and running in 2 mins, no sighted help required
Sent from my iPhone
On 28 Sep 2016, at 22:40, Michael Cassidy <mike.cassidy137@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:
Hi all.assistance.
Mine is connected and running fine. I required a little sighted
Mikewrote:
On 28 Sep 2016, at 18:44, Iain Lackie <ilackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
afternoon trying to get ours to connect. So far, so bad. I hope othersDon't talk to me about the Amazon Echo. We have just had a frustrating
aren't having the same experience as us.
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