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Amazon Echo Spot

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Re: Amazon Echo Spot

#51

Post by mustacheemperor »

_Adam wrote: post #36
mustacheemperor wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm an Alexa owner, and wish to god the two companies could get along at all. It feels like I'm punished regardless of the ecosystem I choose - if I use the Google Home, I miss out on the Alexa product line upgrades and there's no option comparable to the Dot for sprinkling around my home. On the other hand, on Alexa I can't say "play fleetwood mac in the living room" (via chromecast). That single feature is nearly e…

You can now, multi room audio sync was added recently. I have two Echo's and I can say "play classical music [everywhere|office|living room]"

I don't really care about multi-room audio, I want to be able to play music through my hi-fi system by requesting it verbally, which works with the Google Home and a Chromecast Audio. There is literally no stereo image in these assistant-speakers, I wouldn't really use one for more than casual music listening (which the alexa is fine for, except for the limited library).

Re: Amazon Echo Spot

#52

Post by jonknee »

rocktronica wrote: post #35
jonknee wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah yes, for all those times when you want to call up a YouTube video by voice and watch it on a 2.5" round screen.

Believe it or not, lots of folks use Youtube as a music player and just waste the video bandwidth

Amazon Prime comes with a music service...

Re: Amazon Echo Spot

#53

Post by SimbaOnSteroids »

colechristensen wrote: post #50
SimbaOnSteroids wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious suggestion, try putting on an accent.

This is not a bad suggestion. My usual route is to over-enunciate which is often effective when a conversational tone fails, but you were right, putting on the stupidest accent I could muster got me the result I wanted. I'm still not afraid of our robot overlords.

I for one welcome our robot overlords.

Please don't assimilate me.

Kidding aside I found Siri likes a southern draw, probably has something to do with elongation of the vowel sounds and enunciation. Basically pretend to be Forrest Gump and you're good to go.

Re: Amazon Echo Spot

#54

Post by cptskippy »

telcodud wrote: post #42
cptskippy wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Google Assistant is spotty at best. It does do some things Alexa can't do but the opposite is true as well. I can ask the Google Assistant to call anyone in my contacts and it happens, if I ask for a map to their house it fails horribly.

You can ask Alexa for a map to their house (as a follow up question after calling them)?

I apologize, my comment was very unclear. I wasn't implying that asking for directions was a follow up question for either Assistant. Or that Alexa could handle either of those commands. I was just providing an example of the Google Assistant's inconsistent behavior.

My statement was to establish context, stating that the Google Assistant has access to my Contacts because it can lookup a contact by name, pull the associated phone number, and execute a phone call. However, it cannot map directions to that Contact's address. I know it can Map directions because I use that heavily, it obviously can access contact information, and it can comprehend that a term is a contact name. So the pieces are all their, they just don't seem to fit together for whatever reason.

I'm going to guess that Alexa cannot map to someone's house either but I don't have an Echo Show so that's not something I can test. I also disabled the calling features because I have an objection to the way Amazon has implemented them.

If Amazon offered Alexa for your phone as a replacement for the Google Assistant, I might consider switching if it could handle Maps and Calls at least on par with the Google Assistant. And assuming it's calling functionality was the crap offered on the Echos. Timers and Reminders are about all I use the Google Assistant for beyond that and Alexa already handles those functions with ease.

Re: Amazon Echo Spot

#55

Post by cptskippy »

ceejayoz wrote: post #39
cptskippy wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it have a camera? I didn't see it mentioned in the specs or anything about video calling.

The description says: > Call anyone hands-free, or make video calls to family and friends with an Echo Spot, Echo Show, or the Alexa App. Instantly connect to other Echo devices around your home.

I see that now, I was on mobile and didn't expand the description. I went right for detailed specs which oddly lack any mention of the camera.

Re: Amazon Echo Spot

#56

Post by cptskippy »

mycall wrote: post #47
j79 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Technical Details ( https://www.amazon.com/Amazon-MW46WB-Introducing-Echo-Spot/d... ) indicates a "Front Facing Camera".

In a bedroom situation, physically disabling might be a good idea, unless your into those things.

I'm kind of disappointed that it has a camera because in the bedroom as an Alarm Clock replacement is the only place I really see such a tiny display as being of value. The camera is a detractor.

I understand that Amazon wants to push their calling features but they're really of zero interest to me. Video calling is always a disappointing experience regardless of who is implementing it. The voice calling that only calls other Echo devices or POTS using an unknown number is also of little interest.

Personally I send any calls from numbers I don't know to voicemail, and I know many people who do the same. I would much rather have Alexa recognize my voice and use my phone to initiate calls.

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