Sorry completely wrong in my statement . Older systems are catered for and a beta is available for Alexa
stuff.tv/new…ers

So it is shown that both amazon and sonos just want us to pay more money for items we were told would intergrate all our systems. Spent fortune on Sonos, now to use with the Alexa app I have to pay £200 for new speaker that I don't need.
Top that with Amazon issuing new equipment that is supposed to work better. I give up no more innovative advances for me between phones, games consoles and smart homes it is just getting to expensive for a few months of speaking to a device

Walmart have already listed the Google Home Mini. Doesn't appear to even have a line out, which is a deal breaker for me.

Google event is today


Likely to be new Google Home products matching each of Amazon's price points - I'll certainly be waiting.

I've got two Goodmans Modules which cost about £10 each and I can group them in Spotify or Tunein to have the same music playing in both rooms, so I don't understand why these more expensive devices can't do this.

Which holidays?

Ditto. Very handy for the shower speaker!

IOS app just updated...

The Echo Plus has an integrated smarthub which means for some devices such as Philips Hue bulbs, you won't need a separate Philips Hue hub to control the lights through the Echo. It technically has slightly better sound quality but it doesn't seem noticeable in reality.

Can someone explain what the difference is between this one and the Echo Plus please? :smile:

I do find myself shouting at her. I thought it was just because our honeymoon was over.

Are you sure it’s not your wey aye-fi connection?

The original has bluetooth, and the dot has a line out and bluetooth.

I have noticed though that in the past few weeks, Alexa is substantially worse at hearing what I say. I wonder if this is to do with the launch of the second echo? Has anyone else noticed the same?

Yeah not me either. I got excited but was mistaken.

Should've waited for Google Home anyway. Do your research.

Hmph. I set it up on my phone, it worked once when I tried it, then on my wife's, and now doesn't work at all! Never mind, I'm sure there will be others... In fact no reason why they can't build it into the Alexa app!

Simple concept - if people think it's a good deal, they vote hot.

Where do you think RRPs come from? Do you think discount from RRP is guarantee of a deal? If so I recommend you stay away from furniture shops.... :wink:

Move it to the kitchen then and use for other things!

If you are in the market for one of these types if things, google are supposedly announcing a new google home 2 in early october. Might be worth waiting and seeing if that has any killer feature this doesnt.

Why do people insist that RRP can not be classed as a deal? By that logic we should encourage companies to overprice everything, then go crazy over their headline '80% off sales!'.
Jesus Christ, you guys must love SportsDirect.

IMO, if something represents good value for money, then it's a deal.

I might be wrong but I think they have completly stopped selling the original echo now. I guess refurb deals might still come up

Would be great if the £50 off promo still works on black friday!, even if they only knock £10 off the echo then for 3 units thats £30 saving plus the £50 promo!
They did it on Amazon prime day on the echo dots, they reduced the echo dots by £10 or £15 each, had a promo code for buying 3 units (£25 I think) and the amazon prime now £10 discount also worked meaning they what should be £50 a unit worked out about £23 each !

Any guesses or facts or how long the £25 off or £50 off promos will last? Still weighing up but may wait for dark friday

I'm guessing they may not sell v2 cheaper than this.

I think they will have massive discount on the original echo come Black Friday.

It probably won't work on a UK Amazon account. When I got my first echo I had to use my US Amazon account for about 18 months until they were released in the UK. If this isn't the case of order one right now.

Bought 3, won’t be cheaper than circa £73 each even on Black Friday.

No point to buy now. Just wait for Black Friday

Don't worry, I confidently predict that your original will become a collectors item and be worth hundreds in a three years :grin:
Glad I only paid £79.99 for mine, I would def use it more if the speaker was bit more powerful. Would like to hear this new one in action to compare and I like the new finishes too (apart from the sliver which looks like a waste paper bin)

They do have interesting conversations together:

Well, you'll have a bit of a job finding a new original now & as for the vuln, it's hardly anything anyone needs to really worry about (unless you're the sort of person who has burglers with "l33t ninja sk1llz" breaking in to hack your devices)!

Have they stopped making the Echo Dot? I have one but hardly ever use it now .. it seems to be getting thicker instead of smarter.

I have two echodots that I'm thinking of selling.
She just can't understand my Geordie accent.

If you've been thinking of getting one, make sure its a 2nd gen one as Amazon have fixed quite a vulnerability with it now.

It must be hard to make out all the little people from your ivory tower..

It's true, had a few "last warning" emails from Amazon over the years, the key is to have a good selection of accounts and stop making returns when you receive the email for that account.

Yeah I bought one for £79.99 on Prime day. Kind of obvious now that it was only that price due to a new model arriving

They integrate well with Phillips hue but that’s about all we use them for these days.

does it have an aux?

Not available in the UK yet. Sign up for updates on the amazon site and they'll let you know when it's available.

Why not?

You don't need any other device to use it other than wifi.

You can say "Alexa connect to my iPhone" and it will connect with bluetooth so you can stream any audio from iPhone. If you use Spotify you can play on Echo and your phone becomes the remote control as soon as you open the Spotify app.

You wouldn't buy one really if it was a tenner...I bet you a tenner you would ? :wink:

I've read through but don't think this has been mentioned yet:

Alexa will be a part of BMWs & Minis from 2018:

honestjohn.co.uk/new…ni/

It's absolutely not, there are quite a few accounts of it happening. Unsurprising really as Amazon's good returns policy means it sees a lot of abuse, so it's inevitable that they have some sort of system for banning customers they suspect may be abusing it

Thats utter rubbish

No they wont

I’m running client version; 1.24.2680.0 and bridge version 2.1.162.0 and i’m Not seeing anything about enabling drop in?

Anybody want any vue vouchers from the Tesco promotion? I have a few left that need using tonight, I put a discussion up but it’s not getting noticed.

Alexa. How many suckers are out there?

Absolutely F. millions of 'em, Nigel.

Money has never been so easily extracted from them. Just get one to buy and they all follow like sheep. Anyway, don't interrupt you might make one of the suckers 'think' before parting with their hard-earned. He he he. :dizzy_face:

lol

It's more a case of the two companies falling out. Their devices have plenty of competing services - both support Spotify, for example. Amazon's OS is basically on Android. Too much spitting out of dummies.

Blocking Netflix because they have Prime Video would be damaging to Amazon as Netflix spends a small fortune on Amazon's web services - they're a pretty big customer of Amazon's..

I'm in the US at the moment. Any guesses as to whether it will work if bought back to the UK? I know US versions of the Echo and Dot worked fine in the UK, but I suppose the Spot probably requires extra software support.

If it worked with Chromecast Audio I would buy it as Google Home looks dead in the water. Shame they have gone with fabric rather than the drilled aluminium look for the second gen Echo. The Spot does seem the best model.

Oh just updated!!

The app hasn’t been updated yet :disappointed:

Yeah i wish this also had a google backdoor i mean its not like google main source of income is adverts.

Has anyone got "drop in" working yet?

Crap thread.

The dots are worth it just for the ability to plug in to your amp and play music by request but also as a wake up alarm and calendar.

Haven't really spotted what's better on the 2 yet but I did miss page 2 out and haven't done any research yet

its unlikely these stay at this 'low' price. i ordered my gen 1 on day 1 at 99.99 ... as you know, its normal price is 150 so expect a price hike within days of release

flog it now before everyone knows this is coming out, otherwise it will be worth nothing.

Correct. They did them at £99 a couple of times in between as well I think, as a lightning deal generally and before that black friday.

It was £99 from a RRP of £149. They then sold them on prime day for £79 i think.

It was £75 on pre order for gen 1

I meant Bluetooth for sound out on the echo 1. This was added to the 1st Gen echo a few months ago.

I bought the full fat Echo over six months ago. Definitely has Bluetooth.

Well the 1st gen has a 2.0" tweeter, so despite them claiming the new 1 is just as good I reckon the 1st gen has better sounds anyway.

The new Plus is about the same height as yours, so that's probably more comparable and that's about the same price and still only has a 0.8" tweeter.

Looking forward to dealing with Cortalexana

you can change the name in Hue or assign to groups in the Alexa app. Not found it to be a restriction, but Alexa does tend to listen 'more' to the end of a command and gets confused for me as I've lots of 'lights'

Theres rumor that you can change the 'OK Google' hotword soon. Event is on the 4th of October.

My advice would be if you have SONOS already the Dot(s) would be better value to control your speakers, once the Alexa/SONOS update occurs. Fingers crossed this will be next week.
I have 3 Dots I find very useful, but am really looking forward to controling my SONOS zones
hope this helps
Cheers

Just use Bluetooth?.

Best I've come up with for Alexa nicknames is single device groups - so for example, "office" is in the group "study".

Wouldn't care if they were a tenner.. just don't need one.. what use are they. Just s gimmick

Agreed, I have both and Home is far better, certainly for my use cases: integration with google music ( my own collection upto 50K of uploaded music), chromecasts and smartplugs and lights. This should make the google stuff competitive on launch. So good news for home automation in general as quality improves and prices drop

How are these Alexa posts ‘deals’ ? Since when is posting the proper price of something a ‘deal’?

Agree, saying 'hey google' just sounds daft. Fine if you're american, or a 12 year old kid though.

Being able to say 'Alexa', or 'Computer' is far far better, and add in the google search skill and I don't see much advantage using google home.

Alexa improving all the time, granted still behind google in some areas, but some of the gadgets look very interesting. The connect looks pretty cool.

Alexa support on Sonos is due in the next few weeks. Legacy Sonos will be able to be controlled via Echo Dot far field microphones etc.

Sonos' have a press conference next week where they're unveiling their updated range with far field mics built into the speakers. Possibility that Google Assistant may also become supported, alongside Alexa.

pocket-lint.com/new…out

I assume this will 'talk' to my version 1?

Iirc, Microsoft and Amazon have teamed up together to integrate Alexa & Cortana, it may take a bit for them to get it working seemless.

Of course, make you own Alexa devices (as you can Google home) the software is out there.

I’ve got both a Google Home (kitchen) and Echo Dot (bedroom).
Both get mainly used for controlling the Philips Hues in the respective rooms and both pretty on par with the request but GH is slightly better as can give nicknames to smart devices as well as there set up names where dot can’t.
Also use google home to load up Netflix on the kitchen tv with a chromcast.
But at the current states of them id think I’d choose the Echo range purely because it feels more natural and easy to say Alexa turn on the *** lights than either OK Google or Hey Google.
And if your repeating the phrase often as we do you’ll understand.. just rolls off asking a name instead we have to pause to think to say Hey Google then a command.
Now if google was to change the start phrase to a single word preferably a name that I would trump Echo I think..

how is RRP a good deal?

i honestly don't understand this website sometimes.

guess no extra discount codes?

i got amazon prime so this will also be great for music

Can anyone explain the practicality of these? Besides being used as a Bluetooth speaker for my phone?

I've only seen the South Park episode based on them, dont know all to much aha

Thought they were supporting sonos ? Will it be first or 2nd generation I only got it for this. In other words the consumer is conned again by another manufacturer

I guess in a way if they did offer Google services, there would be no reason to buy the Google Home.

best in terms of combination of features but I fear it compromises on everything; and not sure I want people seeing me in the state I'd be in front of my alarm clock!

ahh right so i will still work then, hoping for an extra discount code to?

I think i will contact amazon to ask this because its pointless having it with this because i cant use it.

dont get me wrong but what is this for ? Is it really worth ?

Echo Spot looks the best but US only at the moment.

I've got a few screwin ones but the adapters are £1.50 or so for two from Ikea - no major drama, though I agree it's a pain, it's because it's the European way.

TrackR. Mine's a Galaxy S7, but I'm pretty sure it's also available on the iPhone App Store.

Same here all my light fixings are bayonet, i think you can get an adapter but why cant they just give you the choice of a screw or bayonet bulb anyway?

any extra discount coded on the new echo? Looking to get the plus with the light but its a screw it which is no good to me

lol, unfortunately mine ask for specific songs as they do on youtube - where at least they know to say clean or radio version

Luckily my kids just ask for Capital radio, which is nice and tame. Though if they're home I'm listening to the same stuff every 15 minutes

mine is an ornament in living room - never used it as not happy loading all music onto Amazon: its all in Mega.co.nz and will happily stream to other devices - so why not echo....? not really impressed with these devices to be honest...

Will that be able to play the tracks you have loaded yourself to Play Music?

Any way to block explicit songs yet as kids keep asking for chart songs that they hear on the radio but album versions are played with full swearing :angry:

Yep agree but why don't Bose support Apple Music? They allegiance to anyone?

It's on the page! SHOW2PACK

Code please?

Daft question but I need to know (it may be answered already)

If I was to buy 3 of these echos, can I have them connected to my amazon account but they play separately on different rooms?

I bought 2 of the old ones, one for me and one for grandparents and tried using just my account and it would let me so I had to setup a new amazon account for them

Not sure I actually need one.

Waiting for the Google Home Mini which is rumored to be about £50. Announcement expected on the 4th of October.

Which skill rings your phone? (Which phone?)

Only against the multi-room audio bit, which makes sense to me - it can stream and sync if each unit is sourcing the music itself, but BT can be hit and miss and would be technically messy for one echo to send the music from its BT connection to the others and then attempt to introduce syncing delays.

By-the-by Echo Dot and Fire TV bundle - in the US they're offering a cracking deal at $80 for a new fire tv with the gen one echo, but can't find it over here :-(

For me, the primary use is to play music without having to get my phone out, so I can wake up on a morning, go downstairs and ask for a bit of 1D to liven up my day, without having to think about where my phone is or if I should really be faffing with my music when I'm running late.

The secondary use is the living room lamp, which is away from the door to upstairs, so I never have to walk (a whole 5 yards or so :astonished: ) over to it or manoeuvre around in the dark and kick over a glass of squash on the way - just 'Alexa, turn the lamp off' when I leave the room. Having a smart bulb is also handy for setting timers while you're on holiday.

Finally, there's the gimmicky stuff... Most of it I got over after the initial setup, but I tend to say good morning each day to get a fact of the day, and I've used it to make my phone ring when hidden somewhere on silent.

So yea, it's not life changing by any means, but simplifies/enhances a few elements of day-to-day life.

Well Sonos cost a packet so there's your answer

Hit and miss - depends on how good a customer you are. They refunded one of my two original echos. I like the look of the new ones, bit annoyed I haven't set up two dots sitting in the cupboard for the kids yet! With Zigbee included in the plus sounds like a viable alternative to all these separate hubs (e.g. Philips Hue). Looking forward to the calling... hopefully will also make it 'room aware' for automation (so I can say "switch on the lights" and a given device knows where it is in the house so doesn't ask me stupid questions!)

Well that's a bit unfair to the OP because:

A. Seems to offer BETTER functionality of the Gen 1 Echo at almost half the price.
B. There is a secondary offer of £25 off or £50 off...

come on guys :P

Plenty of information and reviews around. Try that thing, what's it called, oh yes Google.

It's a hubwoofer!

£100 off if you buy two echo shows too.

Add to basket..

Oooh, apparently compatible with my Logitech circles too.

Hopefully amazon will run the £1.00 amazon music for 4 months, I find this service to be excellent.

Also SONOS and Alexa integration should be announced on 04/10/17 along with the new Alexa built in Play One pocket-lint.com/new…tml.

So if you dont mind spending more £s but want excellent quality with option to Stereo pair maybe worth holding out till next Weds the 4th

I get that, at least you haven’t been running around bragging about what a great price you bought the echo for on Prime Day...

On the specs for the new one it says "Bluetooth not supported"
Not sure what that's about.

Nice one that makes me more interested in this, I cannot see the line out in any of the pictures or the description though....

Can anyone tell me what these actually do thats useful?

TIA

It does have BT but BT isn't supported for multiroom.

Love the design of this, just waiting to see reviews as to whether the audio quality/loudness surpasses the original

Because the competitors all have their own music subscriptions, notice how they all support Spotify?
But no Amazon don't allow Google or Apple, Apple don't allow Amazon or Google, and Google don't allow Apple or Amazon.
Sonos have no interest in the actual supplying of the music so can support whoever they want.

You can create a skill so you can say "Alexa search Google for A/B/C" but yeah no chance of Chromecast audio or Google Play Music link :disappointed:

These devices don't stream Apple Music, which is a show stopper for me, I think Sonos only ones that offer Apple Music services, anyone know why they have an exclusive deal? Assume it must be costing Sonos a packet!?

Reading the blurb on the Amazon site this one does NOT have Bluetooth!

Just ask for a song, artist or genre from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and more. With multi-room music, you can play music on Echo devices in different rooms, available for Amazon Music, TuneIn and Spotify (coming soon); Bluetooth not supported. Echo can also play audiobooks, radio stations, news briefings and more.

Oh, you’re right :disappointed: just checked, had a £25 promo on it. BUT STILL :grin:

Yep, Indeed they will. your amazon will get flag for high return and get ban across all Amazon countries not just UK. No point of creating a new account as they will close down that as well.

Anyone else having this problem?

Connectivity wise, this has a line out as well as Bluetooth. The first one didn't have either.

If only it natively supported Google searches and chromecast audio.....

So they've improved it AND knocked £60 off the price of the previous entry?

Aren't I glad I paid £150 for the 1st gen :angry:

So we now have Siri, Google Now, Cortana, and Alexa. What to go with as they don't interface with each other. It would be great if they did but I suspect copyright issues will prevent this. I use Google Now (phone & tablet) and Cortana (desktop & laptop). Microsoft have brought out a Cortana app for Android which I am trying out. Do I now buy into Amazon's Alexa for a home device, get a Google Home device, or see if Microsoft bring out something? It reminds me of the Videotape format war back in the late 1970' / 1980's which VHS won! I think I will just have to sit back and wait.

I have Google Home and Amazon Echo and I have to say Google home is a lot better. The assistance is more intelligent and it works really well with Smartthings.

I wish they would play well with smart locks...can't unlock locks due to security issues.

Am waiting on the new Google Home family.

Does the Echo plus mean you can basically plug and play?

Not a patch on the potential of the Google home.

Spot looks interesting. Doesn’t seem to be coming to the UK, tho?

So, send it back and reorder at the new lower price? I've threatened this in the past and they tentatively agree to credit the difference. I get it that prices change but there's nothing worse than paying top buck for something only to see the price fall a week or two later. They'll be well aware today of the sell price at launch and what they intend to sell at for Black Friday. That said, I'd be surprised if they drop the price on a singular unit, more likely to be multi buy saving/deals.

Have 2x echo dot.

Use them barely ever, the whole thing in my case turned out to be a complete fad that died a slow death.

Useless third party "cat meow" apps are plentiful, actual useful substance is thin on the ground.

Integration with Hive was also half cocked, couldn't independently control upstairs and downstairs thermostats, lights on/off worked but still found myself just using an app.

I’m guessing these are no good if you have apple products? :nerd:

So is this just the standard price?

Ah man I wish this had apple airplay built in too so I could use it for my music on the iPad.

Cheers for posting :smile: Can't see how to get the discount for 2 or 3 applied though....

If there’s not at least a tenner off these on Black Friday I’ll be amazed.

Just read that the calling and dropin features should be available soon, about time too.

Love the look of the Echo Spot.

For anyone worried about the price pre order vs Black Friday, I'd take the punt and if the price drops a few weeks later (which I doubt, on singular items, it's usually multi buys), surely Amazon would refund the difference if you ask nicely, no?

This doesn't seem any better than gen 1 the volume control is cheaper and sound is only as good?

echo plus has a subwoofer and hub

Same price as the old Echo that hot a heat of 1492 just a couple of weeks ago.

OOPS to the hotties there. People certainly love their Echos.

They've release a whole host of new bits and bobs, this has a bigger brother too, a clock alarm thing, new TV dongle etc.