Amazon echo

bermary

Are these any good and do you need a smart phone to operate them or can you operate them from a windows 10 laptop

I_have_spoken

I can certainly use mine from Windows 10 web-browser once I set it up with the iOS app, just goto http://alexa.amazon.co.uk/

Some people claim you can set it up from scratch using just a browser - http://www.windowscentral.com/using-amazon-echo-windows-10

Are these any good

Depends on what you want to do. My review from Amazon is **ooo

This was quite fun for a few days, then the many weaknesses became apparent.

1) It's totally oriented around shuffling "playlists" of artists, it's awkward to get it to play an album from beginning to end using voice commands
2) You need at least Amazon Prime or better Music Unlimited to get any value from it
3) It desperately needs a 'skill' to use BBC Radio player and radio listen again
4) The BBC radio streams are poor quality low bandwidth via Tunein
5) Many of the tracks on Amazon Prime are truncated to a few minutes length
6) The Amazon Music app on iOS doesn't work with Echo, you need to use the lame Alexa app
7) Can't read emails from gmail or send txts
8) Can't read Kindle books (in UK)
9) Most of the Skills available in UK are, frankly, rubbish shareware
10) Bluetooth processing is quite slow, so you have lip-sync problems when used with iPad videos.
11) The weather forecast is, outside of London, useless as it never mentions storms an wind

London50

Take a look at the Amazon dot {does more or less the same thing music wise and is far cheaper} you can always upgrade to the Echo later.
I have both and although I agree with above more apps and skills will come along , or wait 'til next year for the Google home

forgotmyname

Seen some reviews and tempted, a fraction of the price of the Google Home.

But as usual with tech stuff, what they demonstrate in the US often doesnt work over here.

pappa_golf

forgotmyname wrote: »

Seen some reviews and tempted, a fraction of the price of the Google Home.

But as usual with tech stuff, what they demonstrate in the US often doesnt work over here.

yup the mains plugs are different

Gers

I got one early one. Easy to set up via my iPad. App now on iPhone too.

No smart home stuff here so can't comment. It's not as useful as I had envisaged but is it for radio broadcasts and prime music. That works well. It's very useful for the middle of the night when I want to know the time.

For complicated reasons Amazon refunded me the cost and allowed me to keep it so I have no complaints. :j

Skills are coming.

imho

On the Alexa App you can go into settings and click what news alert you want. I clicked Sky and BBC.
I use Amazon music as I am on Prime it has 2.5 million songs but if you pay £7.99 a month you can then search 40 million songs. But I find the 2.5 million enough.

You can link up Google Calender for appointments.

To have news from newspapers you have to pay a subscription for that as well.

I thought it was going to be better than it was but I will still keep it.

The USA version has many more apps you can use.

SalsaDanca

The Amazon Echo gives you voice access to internet services. You need to ask yourself:

1. Which internet services do you frequently use?
   
2. Do those services have a Skill that enables the Echo to connect to them?
   
3. If you use a free version of the services, does the Echo Skill support the free version or would you have to upgrade to a subscription service? eg. you really need an Amazon Prime subscription, and to listen to music you need to pay for Amazon Music Unlimited or Spotify Premium.
   
4. Do you actually need to get access to your internet services when you're not using a computer or other device? If you're always in front of a computer or playing with your phone, you probably won't get much benefit from an Echo. If you frequently think "I must remember to do xxxxx the next time I'm on the internet", you'll find an Echo much more useful as you can just ask it for what you want.

I've got two Echo Dots. The one in the lounge doesn't really get much use, as I'm usually using my laptop. The second Echo Dot in the bedroom is really handy - I don't like alarm clocks that make any noise or have a bright display, and I can ask it for the time instead of squinting at a clock. I have just installed a Tado central heating controller which can be programmed over the internet, so I can tell Alexa to turn on the central heating without getting out of bed.

Dreamnine

I bought one but find it pretty useless. Going to sell it soon.

Mainly use it for timers, to ask the weather and play TuneIn radio.

[Deleted User]

I don't get this. I must be getting old. Why not just use your smartphone and a Bluetooth speaker?

JP1978

Since buying the dot, i worked out I can use google on my Samsung S6 for this but I have Alexa controlling the harmony hub remote control and the Nest thermostat.

Alexa, tell harmony to turn on TV
Alexa, tell harmony to watch Sky TV etc
Alexa, tell nest to turn up temperature by 4 degrees....

Am sure more will come in time.