Amazon Echo - no thread yet?

McCheese

McCheese

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If I wanted to primarily listen to music, I'd go with Echo. If I wanted to do lots of other stuff, I'd go with Google Home. I really like Amazon's music service and I'm not too fond of Google's (but I haven't used it a ton, either).

I also forgot to mention that I use voice commands to control the lights in my house (I used Lifx bulbs). Google Home is also much better than Echo at this: more responsive, fewer bugs/issues, and much better at understanding me. For example, I have two groups set up: bedroom lamps and living room lamps. For Google Home, I can say "Ok Google, turn on the lights" and it will turn on both sets of lamps. However, with Amazon Echo I have to separately say "Alexa, turn on the bedroom lamps" and "Alexa, turn on the living room lamps."
 
Abefroman

Abefroman

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Tarrant said:
So I'm looking at getting an echo but I can't ever foresee using smart lighting. My homes switches were all wired in great locations and i can turn on quicker than telling the app to do it. Is there some other unforeseeable reason I need smart lighting?
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I use smart lighting a lot. Combined with IFTTT I make custom triggers and things for it to do. Lights go on when my alarm goes off. When I come home the oustide lights turn on and let my family know I am home. When watching a movie it will auto dim and change the lighting for the home theater simply by saying a phrase.

I would check out IFTTT for examples and things and figure out if you find that appealing or not.
 
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McCheese

McCheese

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Tarrant said:
So I'm looking at getting an echo but I can't ever foresee using smart lighting. My homes switches were all wired in great locations and i can turn on quicker than telling the app to do it. Is there some other unforeseeable reason I need smart lighting?
Click to expand...

I thought I wouldn't like smart lights, but now I can't live without them. Being able to turn lights on/off from bed, forgetting to switch a light off and being able to do it from another room or from my phone app, walking in the door with armfuls of groceries and being able to turn on the lights hands-free...it's just super convenient.

Also, with some bulbs you can change thousands of hues of light, different colors (romance time? get some red shading going on!), and dim/brighten via voice. When I watch a movie or game of thrones I just tell Google to dim my lights and it makes a nice movie theater environment.

And then there's the IFTTT stuff that was just mentioned. I don't dabble in that, but my brother does and he loves it.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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It's going to be for mostly music, so I guess I'll lean to the Echo then.

Maybe the cheap old man part of me just doesn't get some new tech anymore. I can turn on my own damn lights.

Also, I'm not a fan of dim lighting either...maybe it has to do with my partial colorblindness but I have a harder time interpreting colors in dim lighting as opposed to full or none at all.
 
meStevo

meStevo

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Other non-switch uses for our lights:

- I have motion sensors now for my smart lighting (kitchen, upstairs hallway) and they activate different modes based on time of day.
- My downstairs lights also flash briefly when an alarm on any echo goes off (such as 'you have 10 minutes with the kindle before you have to turn it off and go to sleep')
- 'Alexa, Trigger Party Time' starts a slow color cycle of all downstairs color bulbs.
- Color tones based on activity, wife turns on 'concentrate' which is a bright, sterile temperature where she sits and does crochet stuff.
 
Tarrant

Tarrant

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The only thing in that list that sounds neat to me is the party time lights for the kids.

This isn't to say that there isn't a good purpose for them and I'm not diminishing the reasons you all use them or the ease they bring you. I think I'm just channeling a lot of my dads attitude and practicality towards something like this is all. In my current place I don't see a need. Maybe someday...just not now me thinks.
 
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McCheese

McCheese

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I've gotten so used to voice-controlled lights that I've actually found myself starting to say "OK Google, turn on..." when I'm in hotels.
 
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Palum

Palum

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Echo is great as a speaker, but it's not portable while still having the form factor issues/restrictions (ie it's a hybrid tweeter/woofer cone) so it has overemphasized mids and faux bass. It's still a high quality speaker, it's just not a replacement for a real sound system, nor do you get the convenience of a real portable Bluetooth speaker that you can take with you hiking/pool/etc. But I use it all the time for music anyway, it's handy and good enough for easy listening.
 
meStevo

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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We're thinking about getting one of these for our one newer Dot we have (we have 3). Makes it portable and attaches it to a speaker.

https://www.amazon.com/Cordless-Spe...87526&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=dot+speaker&psc=1

61l8qYF%2BRVL._SY500_.jpg


My 6 y/o now has a dot in his room, falls asleep listening to Kids Bop or The Martian, lol.

61UIYcq40cL._SL1000_.jpg


We also have one of the wands, wife uses that when she doesn't want to yell across the room to turn on the living room light, since it's attached to the fridge.

Amazon Dash Wand With Alexa: Amazon.com: Grocery & Gourmet Food
 
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meStevo

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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My son yesterday used his Dot as a confessional, begging for his Switch after a bad day - not realizing it would send those messages to us (the Alexa app)

 
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Adebisi

Adebisi

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Picked up some Philip's Hue gu10 for my basement. Gonna test this shit out
 
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Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
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These lights are awesome.

Didn't like that one G10 single recessed basement light shining over me while I was watching tv?

Turned it off.
 
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edko

edko

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They actually shipped 1 free dot, but cancelled the one on my wife's account. 1 per house, I guess. Fine by me.
 
Reht

Reht

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edko said:
They actually shipped 1 free dot, but cancelled the one on my wife's account. 1 per house, I guess. Fine by me.
Click to expand...
Nah, count yourself lucky. They straight up cancelled mine after order confirmation and delivery date email and i only ordered one.
 
edko

edko

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Reht said:
Nah, count yourself lucky. They straight up cancelled mine after order confirmation and delivery date email and i only ordered one.
Click to expand...

Did you at least get the 5 dollar email?

Mine did come today.
 
Adebisi

Adebisi

Clump of Cells
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I bought a Hue motion sensor for my basement dungeon to it'll turn on the lights when I'm just passing through.

The hue stuff is so neat.

I'm going to turn the dungeon into my smart home lab.
 
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