Reply to: Amazon Echo

[v8gaz]

Do ya think I could shout unlock car through your letter box and rob it?

No. They have quite sensibly only allowed 'lock' not 'unlock'.

[northernladuk]

Forget the Amazon Echo. You want a LingLong DingDong..

China unveils its answer to Amazon's Echo: The $118 LingLong DingDong | Daily Mail Online

[original PM]

Yay - BMW app now available. Alexa can now lock my car.

Also, given the lack of UK centric discussions available I threw one together at echotalk.uk - feel fee to try it and report any issues.

Do ya think I could shout unlock car through your letter box and rob it?

[greenlake]

Yay - BMW app now available. Alexa can now lock my car.

[v8gaz]

yeah I think more and more services is come online over the coming months

I use launderapp on occasion and noticed they're already available on the echo

Yay - BMW app now available. Alexa can now lock my car.

Also, given the lack of UK centric discussions available I threw one together at echotalk.uk - feel fee to try it and report any issues.

[filthy1980]

Clientco - a 'telematics' insurance company just demo-ed one of these, the 'innovations guy' used it to check his balance and bonus miles and it told him how he could adjust his diving to reduce his premiums. Apparently the API is pretty open and there are already hooks into Dominos pizza, JustEat, Audible etc, so pretty soon you will be able to check your bank balance, get news and weather, order a pizza and listen to an audiobook while munching.

Its the future.

yeah I think more and more services is come online over the coming months

I use launderapp on occasion and noticed they're already available on the echo

[pjclarke]

the App is now available in the UK. Not that it does much.

Clientco - a 'telematics' insurance company just demo-ed one of these, the 'innovations guy' used it to check his balance and bonus miles and it told him how he could adjust his diving to reduce his premiums. Apparently the API is pretty open and there are already hooks into Dominos pizza, JustEat, Audible etc, so pretty soon you will be able to check your bank balance, get news and weather, order a pizza and listen to an audiobook while munching.

Its the future.

[DiscoStu]

After a week playing with my Echo I've decided it's not very good yet. It's just a voice controlled radio and music player and hopeless when it comes to asking for information.

I ask it lots of questions Google Now would have no problem answering and I'm met with 'Sorry, I don't know that' or something similar. Hoping for some improvements soon.

[firestarter]

You'd be a a fool to let Google essentially plant a voice recorder into your house picking up on everything you say...

Do you have a smart phone?

[minestrone]

The google home...

The new Google Home speaker will reportedly cost $50 less than the Amazon Echo - The Verge

When these things have a 'please make conversation with my wife in the other room' setting I'm buying.

it's happening...

Amazon will give you $1M if your AI can chitchat for 20 min

20 minutes should just about cover the nightly "my job is tulip" chat I get.

[TheBA]

You'd be a a fool to let Google essentially plant a voice recorder into your house picking up on everything you say...

But it's okay to let Amazon essentially plant a voice recorder into your house picking up on everything you say...?

[kevpuk]

Right, installed and up and running....usual fun asking daft questions, with relatively successful results. Managed to get my Tado heating system linked in, and now just listening to News headlines

[boxingbantz]

The google home...

The new Google Home speaker will reportedly cost $50 less than the Amazon Echo - The Verge

When these things have a 'please make conversation with my wife in the other room' setting I'm buying.

You'd be a a fool to let Google essentially plant a voice recorder into your house picking up on everything you say...

[VectraMan]

Coolio - well, mine was delivered yesterday, but I haven't opened it and setup yet.....task for this morning, as WFH!

Shouldn't it be able to open itself when you ask it to?

Part of me wants one and part of me is horrified by the very idea.

[kevpuk]

Same here, setup was pretty easy though the app crashed first time on the iphone when setting up the echo (restart fixed it). Also, has a website option for the same settings.

The speaker as most reviews said is ok, not great but ok. The echo is in the main bedroom so not blasting out sound so its fine for me. The speech recognition is fine and the echo responds surprisingly fast, even when placed miles away from the wi-fi router.

Switching lights on and off was very easy to setup, I'm using wemo plugs from Belkin and just worked.

The news updates are good, playing music is good. You can also get updates on the traffic for your commute but it doesn't work well if you ask how is the traffic to say X destination.

I have a few audio books and again just worked straightaway, though would be nice if you could select the books without remembering the title, so say ask for a list of titles in the collection.

Was pretty cool last night asking Alexa to play classic fm for 30 mins and setting up wake up reminders.

Coolio - well, mine was delivered yesterday, but I haven't opened it and setup yet.....task for this morning, as WFH!