Amazon Echo - no thread yet?

Lenas

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I had my first run-in with Alexa this weekend and it basically consisted of people calling her a cunt and requesting Peter Frampton music.
 

meStevo

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Support for wifi switches and outlets added with the latest update.

Amazon Echo Can Now Control Your Smart Home | TechCrunch

Last post in this thread was in February... since then they've added traffic (set home and destination in the app, then ask 'how's traffic' every morning on your way out), Pandora, scores for sporting events (current score, next game) and important stuff like rock, paper, scissors and rolling dice.

Between it and our Xbox we're a nanny away from never touching anything in our house ever again.
 

Vaclav

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Awesome to hear - mine is still another three months out - but glad the see expansion is coming to it just as I anticipated it would.
 

Palum

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Is there a Mrs. Roddenberry voice pack yet? No joke I would pay obscene money.
 

Obtenor_sl

shitlord
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Got access to the SDK.

Just published a rubykit for developing apps using their official SDKdamianFC/alexa-rubykit · GitHub
smile.png
 

Vaclav

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Got mine today, really like the music functionality of it already.
 

Palum

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HOLY SHIT I JUST GOT THIS TODAY THIS IS THE BEST FUCKING THING EVER #%uy)(!@#y$u%riohawdoad

No, but seriously if you get an invite $100 for this thing is a no brainer. I will say that the random questions stuff (natural language querying) is still kind of weak. It does basic trivia pretty easily but simple things that Google can parse thatshouldwork are a non-starter.

Example: "Alexa how many horsepower does a 2015 Scion FRS have?" doesn't work but I can type into Google "scion FRS horsepower" and it gives the little 'summary box answer' right there without doing research.

On the flipside voice recognition itself is pretty decent and it fairly intelligently finds the resources to complete the command.

Example: "Alexa play I can't stand it by Eric Clapton" and it automatically pulled up the free Prime music and found an album with it and played the song.
 

Obtenor_sl

shitlord
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There's a shitload of apps being developed right now. I've seen an app to check on BART schedules (San Francisco rail), that can order domino's, bus arrival times and reminders. I setup my usual route to work and Alexa will tell me which way is fastest (I'm in LA so it's important). I would guess for someone in say NYC knowing first thing in the morning when you wake up that certain trains are being delayed or something might be of use (albeit sporadically, but still cool nonetheless that you get that reminder from nowhere at 7:30AM before you head out).

There's also a Demo of an app used for Learning Japanese. I'm thinking of porting some recipes to create a cooking assistant: "Alexa, I want to cook a turkey dinner" and the app would guide you "First step is to set the oven to 350F" "Alexa, done" "Now, take the turkey and do x-y-z"... etc. You could sell different books with different types of recipes into it, or just feed off from a cloud service or something.
 

Palum

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This definitely needs youtube app integration... amongst other things. I guess I could try using it as a bluetooth speaker with my cell phone app.
 

Intrinsic

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My wife asked it, 'what does the fox say?' and it gave a Norwegian answer. Prompted us to Google for more easter eggs.

Amazon Echo and Alexa Easter Eggs | Android Forums

Pretty neat little device though. The flash news, music playing, traffic report, grocery list stuff works well. But I agree about the random fact stuff. I tried a few with the same result, stuff that Google would show in a fact box but Alexa can't understand.

Would love to see app development and what can really be accomplished with this thing. Oh we haven't set up the Amazon Families thing yet so it can differentiate between my voice and hers.
 

Xexx

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I got an invite to this yesterday, havent decided if its worth it just yet to pull the trigger and get it.
 

Column_sl

shitlord
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It's not worth it. Got it for the wife for Valentines day, received it last week.

She likes it in the Kitchen, but it doesn't really do anything special. Your phone and tablet pretty much do the same shit

Also the Bass is terrible on the speakers for music. I just ended up making it talk to the Bluetooth in the house so it can run through the stereo system.
 

Intrinsic

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Unless you just love gadgets and playing around with new shit for the sake of doing it, it isn't really worth it at the moment. Maybe a Gen 2 one or more custom apps.
 

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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Ours still gets used pretty much every day, whether it's some music while cleaning/doing the dishes, the weather, traffic, setting an alarm to check the dryer or BBQ, or my 3 year old cracking up as he tries to find things it responds to (you are awesome, i love you, etc). Wife and I went through a half dozen chapters of The Martian while playing Diablo last night.

We'd probably use the shopping list stuff more if we weren't already using an app that's easier to share between us that we've used for years (Our Groceries).

I got pinged for a review, so wonder if a traditional product page is going up soon for it.
 

Palum

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I like it a lot. It's my easy sound system and I don't have to have my phone/tablet/PC/TV on or in use. For $100 it's a good deal IMO. $200 I wouldn't have bothered knowing what I do now about the lack of natural language search. That's really my biggest draw - I could be a ton more productive (in a fucking around in leisure time sense) if I could ask it questions I'd have to alt-tab to on my PC, get my phone out, etc. Just dumb shit I use my phone for now around the house. "Alexa what's the hours for Costco today" or "Alexa what is the thickness of the front plate on a Russian T-34-85?" I mean that would be invaluable.