Electronics

[mima]

I actually GOT my invite this afternoon even though I ordered this morning.

[gardenman]

Yeah, the invites seem to come out about 18 hours after the buy button goes live. It's smarter for Amazon to do it that way. Can you imagine how many calls they'd get if the invites went out and the buy button wasn't active?

[mima]

On 1/9/2015 gardenman said:

Yeah, the invites seem to come out about 18 hours after the buy button goes live. It's smarter for Amazon to do it that way. Can you imagine how many calls they'd get if the invites went out and the buy button wasn't active?

Good thinking. I'm so thankful for these boards or I wouldn't have known about the echos and I wouldn't have read this morning that "maybe" I could order. Glad I checked. Well, I've been checking every day anyway. LOL

[Jordan2]

On 1/9/2015 mima said:

I actually GOT my invite this afternoon even though I ordered this morning.

I got my invite today but ordered last night. If I waited today I wouldn't be getting it by Feb 23.

[glb613]

I haven't read all of the posts so be kind. What is an Amazon Echo and why do we need one?

[Hellodemocrat]

This is the Coolest thing.

[Hellodemocrat]

On 1/9/2015 glb613 said:

I haven't read all of the posts so be kind. What is an Amazon Echo and why do we need one?

Go to the first of this and there is a link. So neat.

[Campion]

On 1/9/2015 glb613 said:

I haven't read all of the posts so be kind. What is an Amazon Echo and why do we need one?

You don't NEED it--but, it is essentially a radio shaped like a cylinder. It responds to voice commands and ties into the Internet via Wifi and also Bluetooth. It plays IheartRadio, Prime Music, gives weather reports, the time, and can look up stuff on Wikipedia (sometimes) and if it doesn't find what you're looking for, it puts a search on your Kindle. You can also command it to be a timer --so it works well in the kitchen. And you can ask it how much time is left or when the timer will go off.

I have one--and I get a kick out of asking "Alexa, what time is it?" or "what's the forecast" and then commanding Alexa to play me classical music, the news, or relaxation music or a playlist I've created.

[gardenman]

On 1/9/2015 glb613 said:

I haven't read all of the posts so be kind. What is an Amazon Echo and why do we need one?

Echo is sort of a personal assistant with somewhat limited capabilities now, but lots of potential. Echo is essentially a bluetooth speaker that's also equipped with seven microphones that listen for one of the two key words ("Alexa" or "Amazon") to activate. Once it hears the key word Echo will listen to your request ("Alexa, play i-Heart radio station," "Alexa play my X playlist," "Alexa play tune-in radio," "Alexa set a timer," "Tell me a joke" "Answer a question," "add something to my shopping list," "add something to my to do list," etc.) and route whatever you're saying to Amazon's servers where it will be interpreted and a proper response sent back through Echo.

Those who already have an Echo say the speaker capability is quite good and most are very, very pleased with it. Mine should be here around the middle of next week. Amazon's rolling them out by invite only. Echo currently also works with Apple, and Android devices through the Echo app where your lists and other things show up.

Amazon's just scratching the surface with Echo now. Eventually it can become a control center for everything in your home. The device itself is pretty simple in that it relies on the cloud for most of the work. The on-board circuitry is largely devoted to communication back and forth to the cloud and nearby devices. I expect to see it ultimately made into a whole house voice control system where you'll be able to use it as the ultimate universal remote to control everything in your house by voice command.

[Marp2]

Does anyone know if there is an equivalent command to something like Alexa off or Alexa mute? If one is streaming music or the unit is responding to a request and quiet is needed to take a phone call for example how does one control the unit or halt what it is doing?