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.
Latest comments (47)
terencetcf
11 Jul 17#47
Just managed to get John Lewis to price match it with 2 years warranty. Yeah!
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:
uczmeg
11 Jul 17#45
The Dot does have a speaker and that is fine for voice radio and my wife finds it of acceptable volume/quality for music in the Kitchen. Obviously don't expect a hifi experience, but it's a great radio replacement.
I'm going to pickup a full fat Echo for £79.99 in the Prime deal instead of this. I'm very tempted by this deal but as I have Amazon music it makes more sense to stick with that eco system, I don't need search and the minimal home automation that I do works well with Alexa.
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.
terencetcf
11 Jul 17#43
You probably don't need that by then. Most home appliances might have voice assistant built-in by then XD
andypolack
11 Jul 17#42
I'm happy enough to wait for the Home v5 in 2021/22. :smirk:
andypolack
11 Jul 17#41
All my accounts are Google, so have been waiting for this to drop. Time to gift Alexa to my mum for her birthday.
neilljj
11 Jul 17#37
What numpty expired this? it's still live
allen_rand to neilljj
11 Jul 17#39
It was probably me. I set it to expire at the end of the day because I thought 'one day only' meant one day only. You live and learn (thanks -ck12111)
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:
Longy
11 Jul 171#36
Still this price today, should be unexpired.
daskapital
11 Jul 17#35
Go read about the million hoops you have to jump through to install it... including opening an amazon AWS account....
and even then users reporting it doesn't work or that alexa complains there was no response from the skill oh yeah and you will have to pay for it after a year...
The_IMF
10 Jul 171#34
Love my Google Home over my Echo. Even better now that it recognises my voice when it's me and the voice when it's someone else.
Nicolas
10 Jul 17#33
Any advantages to this over Alexa
EN1GMA
10 Jul 171#32
did not know about this. for £35 might take the plunge.
fishmaster
10 Jul 17#31
Make sure you have some one called Alexa with you on your team and some headphones :wink:
jaydeeuk1
10 Jul 171#30
Didn't know about that one!
Time to take my dot with me to a pub quiz machine and clear it out :wink:
EN1GMA
10 Jul 17#25
still mulling over wether to buy a dot, got an hour to decide..lol
fishmaster to EN1GMA
10 Jul 171#29
It's great for skills, basically a lot of the stuff I mentioned earlier, if you can get the Google search working it's almost perfect as I linked to above, although it won't play music from Google Play, but there are methods to get around that.
I don't need a DAB radio anymore as I say to Alexa, play Radio 5 Live or which ever station I want and it just play it and I can control the volume, I can say Alexa volume 5 or volume 10 etc. There's loads you can do with it, without enabling Ask Google which isn't part of the out of box experience, it's a bodged way of getting Google to work then it's useless for questions, once you have that working then it's a pretty mean device.
5Rivers79
10 Jul 17#26
Does this or the echo have annoying adverts on them?
fishmaster to 5Rivers79
10 Jul 171#28
There are zero adverts on the Echo devices.
fishmaster
10 Jul 174#27
You can enable 'Ask Google' skill by enabling developer options for any Echo device.
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.
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.
mfactor
10 Jul 17#23
yep
suspected_psycho
10 Jul 17#22
Oh my.. do I do it, do I wait.. it's all so confusing!
terencetcf
10 Jul 171#21
If not mistaken you can actually say "Hey Google"
leehardacre
10 Jul 17#20
The sooner Google release a Dot competitor the better. I have 2 Homes already but it's a costly interest!
Hanging on until tomorrow in hope Argos or Maplin throw in the Chromecast so I can sell it on!
daskapital
10 Jul 17#19
Actually i found saying ok google to be far more accurate in terms of when you are actually speaking to it.
I'm sure most echo owners will know the pain of having a conversation / watching TV only to have echo go off on some random chat about how it didn't understand again.... when nobody was actually talking to it... conversely I have never found my google home to activate unintentionally... yet.
jaydeeuk1
10 Jul 171#18
I imagine the echo will support that one day. I think the next big update is voice security so only you/authorised person can use it.
The google home looks ok, but why they hell do you have to say 'ok google'?! It just sounds ridiculous. Being able to say 'echo', 'alexa', 'computer' sounds far less daft/American.
wakkaday
10 Jul 17#17
does this have a bluetooth function now added?
mfactor
10 Jul 171#16
Yep had the echo for a while and got fed up of it not understanding me, google home is miles better and as have 5 chomecasts (3 audio 2 tv) it made more sense
ck12111
10 Jul 17#13
FYI this is valid tomorrow as well, its one day only i.e the 11th, but deals started tonight at 6pm, the same as Amazon.
jayofcastleford
10 Jul 171#11
I have google home it's awesome
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:
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.
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:
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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.
Latest comments (47)
I'm going to pickup a full fat Echo for £79.99 in the Prime deal instead of this. I'm very tempted by this deal but as I have Amazon music it makes more sense to stick with that eco system, I don't need search and the minimal home automation that I do works well with Alexa.
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.
http://alexamods.com/guide-install-ask-google-alexa-skill/
and even then users reporting it doesn't work or that alexa complains there was no response from the skill oh yeah and you will have to pay for it after a year...
Time to take my dot with me to a pub quiz machine and clear it out :wink:
I don't need a DAB radio anymore as I say to Alexa, play Radio 5 Live or which ever station I want and it just play it and I can control the volume, I can say Alexa volume 5 or volume 10 etc. There's loads you can do with it, without enabling Ask Google which isn't part of the out of box experience, it's a bodged way of getting Google to work then it's useless for questions, once you have that working then it's a pretty mean device.
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.
Hanging on until tomorrow in hope Argos or Maplin throw in the Chromecast so I can sell it on!
I'm sure most echo owners will know the pain of having a conversation / watching TV only to have echo go off on some random chat about how it didn't understand again.... when nobody was actually talking to it... conversely I have never found my google home to activate unintentionally... yet.
The google home looks ok, but why they hell do you have to say 'ok google'?! It just sounds ridiculous. Being able to say 'echo', 'alexa', 'computer' sounds far less daft/American.
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:
I wouldn't be surprised to see a bundle somewhere...hopefully.