Looking to purchase an Echo. Should I wait for V2 to come out??

[leehop71]

Well I feel like I wont ever use the Echo once I have the Dot so to me, the cost of the Echo is a waste and Amazon is forcing someone in my shoes to make two purchases.  Not sure how it works if someone else who already has an Echo orders a Dot for me on their account. It would most likely be connected to their account huh?

I'm not totally sure if a Dot can be used without the Echo.  The Tap surely can.

The advantage of having BOTH the Echo AND Dot, is the Dot will let you connect to bluetooth devices, and directly with wire connection.

For me, the Echo has a nice sound, but I have the Bose Soundlink Mini.  Without the Dot I can't play the Echo on demand playlist on my Bose.  (Once you own a Bose, it spoils you.  Nothing else compares.)

[Grumpyjarhead]

Well I feel like I wont ever use the Echo once I have the Dot so to me, the cost of the Echo is a waste and Amazon is forcing someone in my shoes to make two purchases.  Not sure how it works if someone else who already has an Echo orders a Dot for me on their account. It would most likely be connected to their account huh?

I'm not totally sure if a Dot can be used without the Echo.  The Tap surely can.

The advantage of having BOTH the Echo AND Dot, is the Dot will let you connect to bluetooth devices, and directly with wire connection.

For me, the Echo has a nice sound, but I have the Bose Soundlink Mini.  Without the Dot I can't play the Echo on demand playlist on my Bose.  (Once you own a Bose, it spoils you.  Nothing else compares.)

Oh I know about the Bose sound. I had a Bose Wave a few years ago. Id love to buy a new one and connect the Dot to it so I can put it outside on the deck when I have guest over. Im not sure the speakers in the Echo would be strong enough for everyone to hear as background or party type music if people are chatting and kids are playing in the area.

[markv]

(Once you own a Bose, it spoils you.  Nothing else compares.)

Just curious, do you work for Bose? Lots of comments in your posts like the above...
My Klipsch reference towers, surrounds, and Polk 300-watt subwoofer might change your mind 

[leehop71]

(Once you own a Bose, it spoils you.  Nothing else compares.)

Just curious, do you work for Bose? Lots of comments in your posts like the above...
My Klipsch reference towers, surrounds, and Polk 300-watt subwoofer might change your mind 

No I do not work for Bose.  Apples to Oranges what you are describing.  Show me something that will equal the sound of the Bose Soundlink Mini.  Something I could carry in one hand.

[leehop71]

Huge difference in size between these 2:





And this one:

[markv]

No I do not work for Bose.  Apples to Oranges what you are describing.  Show me something that will equal the sound of the Bose Soundlink Mini.  Something I could carry in one hand.

My bad ... guess I have big hands 

[leehop71]

No I do not work for Bose.  Apples to Oranges what you are describing.  Show me something that will equal the sound of the Bose Soundlink Mini.  Something I could carry in one hand.

My bad ... guess I have big hands 

  -  HUGE hands!

What's nice about the Bose I can take it on the road and run it from my phone. No, it won't compete with the output and the area your stuff can cover, but the size and portability of it is nice. Again, haven't heard anything this size that competes. Not saying there isn't, just haven't heard it yet.

[DParker]

Well I feel like I wont ever use the Echo once I have the Dot so to me, the cost of the Echo is a waste and Amazon is forcing someone in my shoes to make two purchases.

Amazon isn't forcing you to do anything.  If you want an Echo, buy an Echo.  If you think the Dot is a better fit for your wants/needs then cancel your Echo order and wait until the Dot becomes generally available and order one.  All Amazon is doing is rewarding their existing Echo customers by giving them first crack at a limited availability first release of the Dot at a discount, just like they rewarded Prime customers by giving them first dibs on the Echo...also at a discount.

Not sure how it works if someone else who already has an Echo orders a Dot for me on their account. It would most likely be connected to their account huh?

Initially, yes.  But they can then sell it to you, disassociate it from their account and you can associate it with yours.  That's why you see so many of them for sale on eBay and other places.

And yes, you can use the Dot without and Echo.

[jwlv]

When it comes to technology, there's always going to be something better and cheaper down the line.

Who were the first buyers of the Intel Pentium computers? What did it cost then? What does it cost now? How much more advanced is the current Intel Core i7 CPU compared to the first Pentium CPU?

At some point, you've got to decide that you're going to jump in. Echo is no longer new. It's matured quite a bit in the 1 1/2 years that it's been around. Could there be something better down the line? Most certainly. But if you're going to wait, there is always going to be something better.

Just by reading this forum, you can see that a great deal of us are very enthusiastic about the Echo and all its possibilities. Many of these possibilities might never come to fruition. But most of us are very happy that we did take that first dive and very few regretted it.

[Grumpyjarhead]

Im sure the Echo can do a lot of things that I may not use at the beginning. It will take me a litttle getting used. Right out of the gate I will want it to do a few things.

First, play my Pandora and itunes music from my iphone.

Second, give me reminders at certain times of the day. (can it even do this?) Id like to say "Alexa, remind me to pick up Joey at 6pm") and at 6pm she will turn on and give me my reminder .

Third. order items from my Prime account. Not exactly sure how this shopping cart thing works. Id like to say "Alexa, add dog food to my shopping cart. Alexa, add paper towels to my shopping cart". Then at the end of the day, tell her to order all items in my Amazon cart.  Can it do this? Ordering one item at a time would be a waste of S&H charges for Amazon and the delivery drivers would be at my house every single day dropping off single ordered items. Consolidated orders would be better for everyone.

Can Alexa wake up at a certain  time on her own and make audible communication? Id like her to wake up at 6:30am every day and say "Goodbye (insert wifes name), have a good day today. This is about the time my wife will be leaving the house.


Id also like to tell her to turn on my HT system. The TV, DVR and AVR are all currently  plugged into a Tripplite UPS so Im not sure if it would be possible to take control of these devices using HUE. I keep telling myself that I cannot get too deep, money wise, into this home automation so its just baby steps right now.


Im still looking into the HUE technology and would love to tinker with it but the lighting I would want to control isnt plugged into the walls. Its all hardwired recessed lighting. Can the Echo control recessed lighting? I can't even count how many times my kids leave the kitchen lights on and walk out of the room or house.

[kilofox]

Im still looking into the HUE technology and would love to tinker with it but the lighting I would want to control isnt plugged into the walls. Its all hardwired recessed lighting. Can the Echo control recessed lighting? I can't even count how many times my kids leave the kitchen lights on and walk out of the room or house.

There are a couple of ways to "control" your lights. You can get a smart bulb i.e. Hue or get a smart switch. The advantage of a smart switch is that it works with dumb bulbs. In the case of your recessed lighting, it makes more sense to me to control them via smart switch... and it will be cheaper too. Echo works with Wemo, Wink, Smartthings and others.

As far as the kids leaving the lights on, you can get semi-smart switches that turn off when they sense a lack of motion in a room... but thats all they do.

Personally I like Smartthings as it gives you the most flexibility. Smartthings uses Z-Wave and Zigbee technology to control "things". Things can be: bulbs, switches, motion detectors, door locks, cameras etc etc. There are tons of Z-Wave/Zigbee devices out there by many manufacturers including those who you may already know. Lutron, GE etc etc. Home Depot and Lowes have many items and quite often you can score a deal here and there.

Hues are nice.... and I have some because I like colored lighting in my living room. Else where I use Z-Wave/Zigbee switches and bulbs.

[DParker]

Im sure the Echo can do a lot of things that I may not use at the beginning. It will take me a litttle getting used. Right out of the gate I will want it to do a few things.

I think that's probably been true for most everyone who's acquired an Echo.  But once you become more comfortable with talking to a metal can (and having it talk back to you) and figure out the idiosyncrasies of the system you'll almost certain begin to explore more ways to make use of it.

Second, give me reminders at certain times of the day. (can it even do this?) Id like to say "Alexa, remind me to pick up Joey at 6pm") and at 6pm she will turn on and give me my reminder .

Unfortunately, not quite.  What you can do is set an alarm for a certain time ("Alexa, set an alarm for 6 PM") and the Echo will play the tone of your choice (configured via the Echo app on your phone) at the specified time.  Currently there are no features that result in voice notifications.  Echo speaks only when spoken to.  But...this is something that I and a few others I know of are trying to address via integration with other systems (see my thread here: http://www.echotalk.org/index.php/topic,438.0.html).

Third. order items from my Prime account. Not exactly sure how this shopping cart thing works. Id like to say "Alexa, add dog food to my shopping cart. Alexa, add paper towels to my shopping cart". Then at the end of the day, tell her to order all items in my Amazon cart.  Can it do this? Ordering one item at a time would be a waste of S&H charges for Amazon and the delivery drivers would be at my house every single day dropping off single ordered items. Consolidated orders would be better for everyone.

I've not used that feature yet, but I do believe that's how it works.

Can Alexa wake up at a certain  time on her own and make audible communication? Id like her to wake up at 6:30am every day and say "Goodbye (insert wifes name), have a good day today. This is about the time my wife will be leaving the house.

My answer to your first question applies here as well.

Id also like to tell her to turn on my HT system. The TV, DVR and AVR are all currently  plugged into a Tripplite UPS so Im not sure if it would be possible to take control of these devices using HUE. I keep telling myself that I cannot get too deep, money wise, into this home automation so its just baby steps right now.

I'm doing that right now.  But it requires integration with a home automation system (like SmartThings, which is what I use) that in turn controls some sort of IR blaster device (like the Harmony Home hub from Logitech...also what I'm using).  For things like that you're getting into hacker/tinkerer territory.  It's definitely doable, and not really difficult if you're technically inclined.  But it's not plug-and-play either (nor cheap).

Im still looking into the HUE technology and would love to tinker with it but the lighting I would want to control isnt plugged into the walls. Its all hardwired recessed lighting. Can the Echo control recessed lighting? I can't even count how many times my kids leave the kitchen lights on and walk out of the room or house.

Echo doesn't control anything directly.  What it does is integrate with other home automation controllers (like the Hue hub, Smarthings hub, Wink hub, etc) and act as a voice-control interface to those systems.  So the first thing that determines what lights can be controlled is which HA system you adopt.  Secondly, Echo's home automation control vocabulary is currently limited to things that map to "on", "off" and dimmer-type functionality (expressed as a % of full-on, though the word "percent" is not required...more on this in a second).  The result is that you can say, "Alexa, turn the <insert-name-of-light-or-other-device-here> on", or "Alexa, turn the <insert-name-of-light-or-other-device-here> off", or "Alexa, set the <insert-name-of-light-or-other-device-here> to 50 percent" (or just "Alexa, set the <insert-name-of-light-or-other-device-here> to 50").

This applies to ANY device that is supported by your HA system and that responds to on/off/dim commands.  And through a little trick of interpretation you can also use that capability to control smart thermostats (like the Nest and/or Ecobee3 currently) by saying things like, "Alexa, set the temperature to 76 degress."  Echo will key on "temperature" to know you're referring to the thermostat device, and the number 76 as a variant on the dimmer % (so you're limited to a max temperature setting of 100...which should be an acceptable limitation), which she then forwards on to the service that controls the thermostat.  She supports direct integration with the Nest and Ecobee web servers, but you could also get her to control non-supported thermostats through your home automation system with a little configuration tinkering.  I have 2 Ecobee3 thermostats (1 upstairs and 1 downstairs) that I can control via the Echos, but in truth it's a capability I rarely use.  The main idea behind smart programmable thermostats is that you set them up to do automatically do what you want without any action on your part.  If I'm regularly overriding that programming with ad hoc commands then I'm not really using the thermostats to their potential.

[DParker]

Personally I like Smartthings as it gives you the most flexibility.

I'm a ST user as well, and for the same reasons.  But see my earlier caveat about needing to be more technically inclined to successfully use ST than other HA system.  Not only to take advantage of the flexibility offered by ST, but also to deal with the all-too-frequent hiccups the system experiences.  It's a work in progress, and is experiencing some growing pains that make it a not-quite-ready-for-the-general-consumer-market solution.

Hues are nice.... and I have some because I like colored lighting in my living room. Else where I use Z-Wave/Zigbee switches and bulbs.

Hue bulbs are Zigbee bulbs, which is why GE Link and a few other manufacturer's Zigbee bulbs work just fine with the Hue hub.

[mike27oct]

The Dot was offered for pre-order to Prime members, not only to current Echo owners.  Anyone with a prime account can order one now.

All this chatter about my speakers are better than your speakers . . . . comon' guys!  And just because someone goes on and on about how he likes his Bose mini speakers doesn't indicate he works for Bose!

To the OP: so cancel your order for Echo before it is too late, pre-order the Dot now (because you do not need to own an Echo to have a Dot work).

So, delivery of Dot and Tap are not too far away now, and I look forward to having mine so I can plug the Dot into my stereo system that blows anyone's Bluetooth speakers away -- including my own! 

My main concern about the Dot is that it will be sitting on the entertainment center cabinet, next to the TV and all the other related gadgets.  So, I hope the TV does not activate the Dot, like people have reported about their Echos.  I thought, how dumb is that to have them so close, but now I have to be dumb, too, since the Dot needs to be near the stereo to connect both together.  I promise I will not post here asking why does the Dot start talking every time Alex Baldwin comes on TV to pitch the Echo and says Alexa a dozen times!

[Grumpyjarhead]

To the OP: so cancel your order for Echo before it is too late, pre-order the Dot now (because you do not need to own an Echo to have a Dot work).

You cant order the Dot unless you have an Echo. Amazon does not currently allow anyone, including Prime members, to order the Dot through the website. Its strictly through the Echo as of right now