The main problem with any Alexa Echo device is the really hopeless way it deals with questions, in 99% of cases, at least it feels that way, it fails to come up with any meaningful example. For example, the other day I said Alexa Good Morning, this invokes it to give you a snippet of historical information, so it said on this day Boris Becker was the youngest Wimbledon Champion (Wimbledon was moved a week forward recently, so that's why it said last Sunday he was champion in 1985). I then asked Alexa who is the youngest ever Wimbledon champion, something it just appeared to know and it said I can't help you with that. In fact if you own an Echo device, this is the most common thing it says. It's great for home automation, for playing music, adding reminders, timers, appointments, it's dire and I mean dire as an all encompassing assistant. It's probably the best device for skills. It seems you need a combination of Alex and Google Home for it to be a perfect device, hence Apple will come in and do exactly that, take the market share as they always do, because it's Apple and people think they do it better, and to be honest they probably will do it better than Google Home and Alexa Echo devices as an all in one device.
The best hope is to enable Google Assistant on Echo devices as I linked to above.
terencetcf to ferrarian
10 Jul 174#4
For majority people you are either being monitored by the government, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc, unless you don't use smartphone etc. Why worrying so much?
sicklysweet
10 Jul 174#1
Amazon don't sell this so I wouldn't bank on it being discounted during the Amazon prime day/s.
I have this, Amazon echo and Amazon echo dot.
I don't rate the google home at all, the sound quality is really very poor in my opinion and I can't link it to my premium/paid for Amazon music account, it has to be Spotify or google music premium accounts only to select music you want to play!
The echo dot, linked via Bluetooth, to my existing radio is by far my favourite, but the echo (large one) is great too.
All comments (47)
sicklysweet
10 Jul 174#1
Amazon don't sell this so I wouldn't bank on it being discounted during the Amazon prime day/s.
I have this, Amazon echo and Amazon echo dot.
I don't rate the google home at all, the sound quality is really very poor in my opinion and I can't link it to my premium/paid for Amazon music account, it has to be Spotify or google music premium accounts only to select music you want to play!
The echo dot, linked via Bluetooth, to my existing radio is by far my favourite, but the echo (large one) is great too.
terencetcf to sicklysweet
10 Jul 172#3
I can't believe someone would say Echo sounds better :confused:
One thing that I would choose Goolgle Home vs Echo is surely the support for Chromecast & Chromecast Audio.
daskapital to sicklysweet
10 Jul 171#14
I have both too, I agree about the quality on echo being better but I found asking simple questions google is 10000x times better. I ask amazon echo stuff and it says hmmmmm i don't know .... or sorry im not sure about that... google meanwhile actually looks it up and reads you search results. Plus you can do follow up questions with google that you cannot do with echo. I was always puzzled why echo can't look stuff up .. it's supposed to use bing, so why does it often say I don't know.. why doesn't it bloody look it up then?
WalkerboyUK to sicklysweet
11 Jul 17#40
Erm... Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is that I can't use the Echo to stream via Google Music, so is it really any surprise the Google device doesn't stream Amazon Music?!?
And the Echo Dot doesn't have a Bluetooth speaker, which renders it useless if you're trying to play music from another device - may as well just connect that device directly to independent Bluetooth speaker.
EN1GMA to sicklysweet
11 Jul 171#44
isn't that the same as not being able to link the dot and echo to my google music account.
ferrarian
10 Jul 17#2
Crazy, why would anyone pay Google to give up your own privacy.
terencetcf to ferrarian
10 Jul 174#4
For majority people you are either being monitored by the government, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, etc, unless you don't use smartphone etc. Why worrying so much?
alakagom to ferrarian
10 Jul 177#6
you think you have privacy now, cute..
fishmaster to ferrarian
10 Jul 17#24
There are at least 22 agencies monitoring your browsing history, this was made legal in 2016. So if you're worried about privacy you need decent software security enclave, then there's the hardware backdoors such as Intel ME etc etc. There's no such thing as 100% privacy anymore. Which is why I like Apple's approach to security, they are a company which actually try very hard to make their products secure and no backdoors for the governments.
sicklysweet
10 Jul 171#5
I hate the sound of the google home! Even the digital radio sounds weird and far too much bass it's reverberating on volume 3 :confused:
BuzzDuraband
10 Jul 17#7
It's in direct competition with Amazon for one day only. Although the Americans are getting the sweeter end of the stick.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a bundle somewhere...hopefully.
Shovon
10 Jul 17#8
Been waiting for this! For those of you who actually want a Google Home and have been waiting for a price reduction, what do you say? Pull the trigger now for £99 or wait for further reductions?
terencetcf to Shovon
10 Jul 171#9
Wait longer and you can get google home v2 for the same price in 2018-19
placidsheep to Shovon
11 Jul 17#38
I have two... paid full price... this is a bargain! :smile:
Shovon
10 Jul 17#10
Can't wait that long!:laughing:
Was talking about in the next few weeks!
Although, have a feeling Google might give up on these in a year or so.....:neutral_face:
jayofcastleford
10 Jul 171#11
I have google home it's awesome
setdosa
10 Jul 17#12
Seems in USA google has offered Google Home + ChromeCast for $99. We always loose on those kind of deals here.
daskapital to setdosa
10 Jul 17#15
This always comes up on USA stuff. That it's cheaper in dollarydoos... while it may be a little cheaper, USA prices often do not include local sales taxes or VAT/GST. So when you add them on top, you rarely save much these days. And if it is significantly cheaper, you could always use someone like borderlinx to purchase it in USA and ship to UK.
baggs1981 to setdosa
11 Jul 17#46
True.. but at least we don't have to be American.. or in America. :wink:
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
-ck12111
Top comments
http://alexamods.com/guide-install-ask-google-alexa-skill/
there's also this >
https://github.com/tartanguru/alexa-assistant
The main problem with any Alexa Echo device is the really hopeless way it deals with questions, in 99% of cases, at least it feels that way, it fails to come up with any meaningful example. For example, the other day I said Alexa Good Morning, this invokes it to give you a snippet of historical information, so it said on this day Boris Becker was the youngest Wimbledon Champion (Wimbledon was moved a week forward recently, so that's why it said last Sunday he was champion in 1985). I then asked Alexa who is the youngest ever Wimbledon champion, something it just appeared to know and it said I can't help you with that. In fact if you own an Echo device, this is the most common thing it says. It's great for home automation, for playing music, adding reminders, timers, appointments, it's dire and I mean dire as an all encompassing assistant. It's probably the best device for skills. It seems you need a combination of Alex and Google Home for it to be a perfect device, hence Apple will come in and do exactly that, take the market share as they always do, because it's Apple and people think they do it better, and to be honest they probably will do it better than Google Home and Alexa Echo devices as an all in one device.
The best hope is to enable Google Assistant on Echo devices as I linked to above.
I have this, Amazon echo and Amazon echo dot.
I don't rate the google home at all, the sound quality is really very poor in my opinion and I can't link it to my premium/paid for Amazon music account, it has to be Spotify or google music premium accounts only to select music you want to play!
The echo dot, linked via Bluetooth, to my existing radio is by far my favourite, but the echo (large one) is great too.
All comments (47)
I have this, Amazon echo and Amazon echo dot.
I don't rate the google home at all, the sound quality is really very poor in my opinion and I can't link it to my premium/paid for Amazon music account, it has to be Spotify or google music premium accounts only to select music you want to play!
The echo dot, linked via Bluetooth, to my existing radio is by far my favourite, but the echo (large one) is great too.
One thing that I would choose Goolgle Home vs Echo is surely the support for Chromecast & Chromecast Audio.
And the Echo Dot doesn't have a Bluetooth speaker, which renders it useless if you're trying to play music from another device - may as well just connect that device directly to independent Bluetooth speaker.
I wouldn't be surprised to see a bundle somewhere...hopefully.
Was talking about in the next few weeks!
Although, have a feeling Google might give up on these in a year or so.....:neutral_face: