I agree that that functionality needs some work, but this is at least a good start. Hopefully it will keep improving.
________________________________________ From: viphone@googlegroups.com [viphone@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Sieghard Weitzel [siegh...@live.ca] Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 4:56 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: Echo? About groups I can only say that I find Amazon really has to improve that functionality. Currently if you group let's say all your Echos in the house into a group called Housegroup you couldn't take let's say the kitchen and living room echos and make them into another group. I think you should be able to make any group by voice command, while you have to do it manually with Sonos it is certainly a lot more flexible. Regards, Sieghard -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com <viphone@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Ekstrand, Pamela A. -ND Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 1:53 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: RE: Echo? Yes, it's great for all of these things. We also use it to play radio stations all over the U.S. You can say "Alexa, play KFI on iHeart Radio on the house group", for example. Alexa will play the station, in synch, on multiple echos that you have set up in different rooms and have defined as a group. We have the original Alexa in our office,, a dot in the kitchen, and another dot connected to our receiver in the living room. It's very handy. Pam ________________________________________ From: viphone@googlegroups.com [viphone@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Alan Lemly [wale...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 4:42 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Echo? I'll add to Sieghard's excellent overview that Alexa and the Amazon Echoes are great for listening to podcasts. You don't even need to enable any additional skills to do this. You just need to know the name of the podcast. For example, you can say "Alexa, play AppleVis podcast" and she'll play the latest episode of that podcast. Very convenient. Alan Lemly Sent from my iPhone > On Mar 30, 2018, at 3:25 PM, Sieghard Weitzel <siegh...@live.ca> wrote: > > You have to download the skills, some you can ask Alexa directly to enable > them but others you have to use the Amazon Alexa app on the iPhone since > things like Netatmo weather station, Lyric WiFi thermostat and so on require > you to put in your login name/email address and password. > I find a lot of the more trivial skills fairly useless because you have to > remember the correct phrase to talk to it so that can get a bit tideous. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: 'RobH.' via VIPhone <viphone@googlegroups.com> > Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 12:47 PM > To: viphone@googlegroups.com > Subject: Re: Echo? > > Are Skills on it from the start, or downloaded, or whatever; I really hadn't > followed the plot on these until Bro' was on about his latest gismo for an > hour on the phone. Got cramp, then got bored listening to him! But > fascinated really. > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mama Peach" <mamape...@charter.net> > To: <viphone@googlegroups.com> > Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 10:15 PM > Subject: Re: Echo? > > > There are tons and tons of skills as mentioned, and many of them are really > fun dice, card and adventure games. You can do so much with the Echo devices. > I have an Echo Spot and I have a fire tablet that also has Alexa on it. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Sieghard Weitzel > Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 12:41 PM > To: viphone@googlegroups.com > Subject: RE: Echo? > > I assume this refers to the Amazon Echo smart speaker which works with > Amazon's digital assistant Alexa. > Google has their line of google Home speakers which of course use the Google > Assistant, in that respect Google is pretty boring, Apple has SIRI, Amazon > has Alexa and Google has the "Google Assistant", very impersonal. > Anyhow, just as with the Google Home speaker line-up, there are a number of > Echo speakers available. The most popular ones I think are probably the Echo > Dot and the regular Echo. Both are round cylinders, about 3.3 inches in > diameter and the Dot is only about 1.5 inches tall, a regular Echo is > probably about 6 or 8 inches tall. The Dot also has a 3.5mm output jack which > allows you to hook up larger speakers for better audio or you can connect it > to a receiver or Sonos player. You use the word "Alexa" to get it to listen > and then ask your question, it can set alarms, timers and do conversions as > well as answer a bunch of questions about countries, people etc. You can also > enable so-called "Skills", basically think of them as apps. We have the > Philipps Hue light bulbs at home as well as a Netatmo weather station and > Honeywell Lyric WiFi thermostat. I can ask Alexa to turn on the lights, ask > the temperature or humidity of the Netatmo outside or inside modules or tell > it to set the temperature to 21 degrees or whatever. > Alexa can also tell all sorts of jokes like Knock Knock jokes, dinosaur jokes > etc., she can sing songs, tell stories or poems, and as for timers the nice > thing is that you can set multiple timers which I still can't believe SIRI > can't do after being around for what, 6 and a half years? In the US/Canada > and Mexico you can also make free phone calls via the Echo to any landline or > cellular phone although I must say the quality is often disappointing. Also, > if you have multiple Echos throughout the house of even one in a different > location but on the same Amazon account you can use them like a hands free > Intercom, when I'm in the bedroom and want to talk to my wife in the living > room I can simply say "Alexa, drop in to the Living Room" > and after a couple of seconds my wife hears a few beeps and then there is an > open two-way line where you can just talk. > > Regards, > SieghardI can simply say > > -----Original Message----- > From: 'RobH.' via VIPhone <viphone@googlegroups.com> > Sent: Friday, March 30, 2018 11:24 AM > To: viphone <viphone@googlegroups.com> > Subject: Echo? > > hi, often saw threads or comments about "Echo", can't remember what this is > or does or whatever. An app to do something with something else; all so > vague. > Enlightenment please, hearing a lot more lately as popular without any of > them saying Why! > > Thanks, BobH. > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: > mk...@ucla.edu. 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