Had the full sized echo since launch, we have it in our kitchen, it's still used daily to get weather reports, set alarms when cooking and to stream music - and with IFTTT being supported as of yesterday, I will connect it to my Wemos for controlling lights too.

My lad cant walk past our Echo without asking it for a joke!

I've had mine since October and use it each day. A cheap price for access to the web and basic automation. I think it is interesting because it is both brilliant and yet still has much more it could do. I bought the Dot as a cheap way to try out the technology and I am glad that I did.

I would like another, to use one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen. I use mine for alarms, timers, news, weather, the time at night, general knowledge (any Wiki knowledge, capital cities, films, etc.), fun facts, word definitions, conversions (currencies, weights, etc.), calculations, lame jokes, turning on/off and dimming Hue lights, listening to radio stations (so easy to swap between stations), listening to music, and to read books (Audible).

Naturally you can use a smart phone for any of this, but Alexa seems a lot easier, especially if you are getting other things done at the same time. It was especially great when I recently had an operation and even turning in bed to get my phone was uncomfortable. The small speaker in the Dot is fine, although you can always connect to an external one if you so wish.

we have one, use it for music mainly, so will comment based on that. I think its excellent, but you need to have Prime (or Spotify) so you can make use of the music side of things. You can upload your own music to playlists via the music app, but its limited to 250 songs unless you pay more.

also, for the echo dot, you'll need a speaker that takes bluetooth, or an aux in, because as a standalone speaker its not up to much.

You'll also need internet.

Overall though its really good. You can switch radio stations (it uses tuneln), and ask for specific artists/albums (even latest album by so and so). you can louder music. Thats just the tip really. Its one of those things, if you use the features, and you've got the infrastructure around it (ie music streaming/Hive etc) its an absolute bargain for what it does. I've had for a few weeks and love it.

Saying all that, in the interest if balance, If you have little kids, once they cotton on to how it works, it becomes a living nightmare....

Does anyone know if this will connect to a sonos 1 speaker?
Currently on holiday and thinking of ordering it for a Christmas present

Found this on another site which might give the Dot another use......

"If you're like me and all you're trying to do is call your kids from the living room and tell them to come down from their room, I have a pretty cool workaround.

First use your phone or laptop to create a sound message. "Kids, Come down to eat" save as "kidscomedown.mp3" file.

Use Amazon Music app on PC to upload it in your library like you would any other song you want in your library.

In the Alexa App, go to menu, Music and Books, Use the drop down to find your kids room Echo.

Go to My Music Library.

Go to Songs, Find the file you created "kidscomedown.mp3" and press play. It will then play on the kid's echo. This works for songs and even works remotely from anywhere in the world, doesn't have to be in your house. I use it from my work. I have one that says "don't forget to clean your room" or "put away dishes in the dishwasher", etc."

Hi Guys,
I have strange issue with Harmony + Alexa integration.
I enabled the skill and linked harmony account, but it did not discover any activities?

Did anyone face the same issue?

Guys again please help
I can't find any switches to work with echo
I need something to dim the lights
The tp
Link plug is only on and off

Wow and did they honour it?

Currys/PCWorld mistakenly put the price at £42 per pair for about 20 minutes, when they were trying to match this Amazon's offer.

I bought one and have to say I think it works a lot better than the hey Siri function on my iPhone 7 which seems very slow and laggy in comparison

Anyone recommend home automation switches that work with Alexa
I am aware of tp link plug but it's expensive and some what unattractive

Just incase you are wondering, this is not like the other Echo Dot deal. On this deal, if you buy two, the price per unit is £42.49. Not like the other deal where it was £42.49 for two devices.

Just a heads up :smiley:

Just two.... I ordered 10000 and bought a house hhaa

How much does that cost and where to buy it from please

Why didn't you order one a few weeks ago when they were £39.99?

FYI the Harmony Skill is now available in the UK from your Alexa app :smiley:

YAY

hi guys.
our lass wanted the other one of these (Google is it? £120?) but we can't afford that, especially for something I don't think she will use in 6 months.

sorry rubbish with technology. but how does this compare to that one?

Thanks for the replies, despite having no need for one. I'm about to pass John Lewis, so.......

Happy to help! Can't remember where I found out, but yes it's about time we get IFTTT support too - I've been hacking my way around it though...

Oh wow IFTTT is now working on my Echo Dot! Thank you so much for pointing this out.

I keep reading about these, just in passing, and am wondering if to throw my money at one or not. I don't use anything most do on here, but for alarms, weather reports ect it sounds quite handy.
Can you just tell it to play the radio and it does it? That could be handy, even with the tiny speaker. Does it run on batteries? Or plug only?

Same on Argos, PC World, Currys & John Lewis. Ordered two for the discount, picking up tonight!

Up there with 3D TV and VR.

For me, spotify works perfectly fine... Not sure what the advantages of amazon music are.. Ask alexa to play a track, 9/10 times she gets the correct track, if she doesn't just ask her again but with the artist's name. Albums and playlists are all good too. At first I thought it would have been abit of a novelty but I use it increasingly..

I love mine, (in the lounge) hooked up to hue lights over the house and tplink (Kasa) socket for xmas lights, also have a harmony hub and spoke to Logitech yesterday regarding direct integration and they said should be this week hopefully :smiley: so fingers crossed.
as a side not i find the inbuilt speaker perfect for background music.
Getting another for Xmas to go in the kitchen.

Just wanted to say thanks for all the responses to my question asking how much people actually use theirs. We use Spotify a lot, but comments suggest it's not as good with Spotify as with Amazon music. Seems good value for what it is though. Thanks again everyone.

I have a full echo and a couple of dots. I use everyday to control my lights, kettle etc as well as music and audiobook streaming.

The full echo has a much better speaker than the dot, but the latter is perfectly adequate if you don't mind a slightly lower quality sound.

It would be much better if it had wider and better support for other music streaming services, but I can't see amazon letting that happen anytime soon and prime music is just about ok.

ATM you can only use a third party skill, Yonomi, which basically acts as a bridge between the Harmony Hub + Alexa. Logitech are yet to release their Skill in the UK, but have done for the US and say it's coming to the UK soon.

I don't believe you can use Yonomi to make the TV change channels, you may be able to, but you'd need a ton of setting up activities etc.

I have it set up so that it can turn on / off my AV system, but not change channels atm. Yonomi is also great if you have Sonos set up albeit a bit clunky, but Yonomi is a great bridge until Sonos/Logitech actually get their Alexa Skills up.

Any good with Spotify ?

Can't wait for the Evo battery to come out in the UK (gets released on the 18th in the US); I'm hoping it will make my dot truly wireless. If the reviews are good, I will certainly get a second then for the bathroom.

I have a Harmony Hub, so I can tell the Dot to turn on the TV and it will? Change channels etc.?

Now that is cool. Seriously cool.

You don't need a skill for IFTTT, just go to https://ifttt.com/amazon_alexa and connect them. Then set up your skills on IFTTT, and off you go - first test for me, "Alexa, trigger add bread" adds bread to my Tesco basket.

Thanks, I'll hold off buying one until it's supported

Will these connect to my NAS and play music from there?

Why waste your time with prime which only has 2 million songs when Amazon unlimited has 40 million and is only £3.99 per month

There are 44.99 in Argos

Thanks for posting this! I didn't know IFTTT support had been released

hmmm...ok, just searched the skills section of my Alexa app for "ifttt" - couldn't find anything other than an unofficial "maker" app that I wouldn't suggest using as you have to give it some credentials that will allow a non-official, unauthorised 3rd party access to you devices.

Am I doing something wrong...would love to finally get IFTTT setup with Alexa.

IFTTT supported as of yesterday.....WHAT!!! :confused:

...been waiting for IFTTT for ages! :smiley:

I've had my Dot for a couple of months, use it to turn off my Christmas tree lights via a TP-Link HS100 WiFi plug and also to play Spotify. You can also get it to voice-voice control Kodi (on any platform) if you don't mind doing a very small amount of legwork and have a little bit of technical know-how (or can just follow a walk-through!)

Anybody got one of these? Do you use it all the time or does the novelty wear off pretty quickly?

Just got a Dot and it's great. I find the speaker just fine for streaming from Prime music. It's not super loud but too much louder in our flat and the neighbours would hear it anyway.

I've had mine since October and use it each day. A cheap price for access to the web and basic automation. I think it is interesting because it is both brilliant and yet still has much more it could do. I bought the Dot as a cheap way to try out the technology and I am glad that I did.

I would like another, to use one in the bedroom and one in the kitchen. I use mine for alarms, timers, news, weather, the time at night, general knowledge (any Wiki knowledge, capital cities, films, etc.), fun facts, word definitions, conversions (currencies, weights, etc.), calculations, lame jokes, turning on/off and dimming Hue lights, listening to radio stations (so easy to swap between stations), listening to music, and to read books (Audible).

Naturally you can use a smart phone for any of this, but Alexa seems a lot easier, especially if you are getting other things done at the same time. It was especially great when I recently had an operation and even turning in bed to get my phone was uncomfortable. The small speaker in the Dot is fine, although you can always connect to an external one if you so wish.

Yeah, a whole year of Christmas cracker jokes....just perfect !

My lad cant walk past our Echo without asking it for a joke!

I see it is $39.99 in the USA. Does anyone know if it varies in features? Obviously the voice will be American.

It's almost been on sale more often than at full price, hah.