Alexa

[Starlight345]

My Ds would love one .

I am very confused by the whole thing.

Do I need a base unit downstairs and then one in his room .

Is the echo dot just a more modern version of the big tall one ?

Difference in generations .

Any help appreciated

No you don’t need a base unit. The echo or dot will work wherever you get WiFi. We’ve got three dots around the house, not had an echo but I think the speakers are better quality on the echo so if he wants to play music then the echo would probably be better, they’re of offer on Amazon at the moment.

tilly apart from music what else do you use them for? Whenever the ad comes on I think I want one, but I rarely listen to music n not sure what else I'd use for that my other devices don't do and it'd end up sat in the same drawer as the two kindles, ipad, games console and tablet we have!

£19.99 at Amazon and John Lewis for Black Friday

If he's playing music in his bedroom a Dot will be more than adequate for him.

Bonfire there's so much it does it's great. I use Tesco for my grocery shopping. If I think of something I need I just tell Alexa and it appears in my basket on the Tesco App.

I have the lights in my living room controlled by it & will have my Christmas Tree connected too.

You can get news, weather etc Set reminders all kinds of things.

I love mine - can you tell

Brilliant thank you all . Have pooped one in my shopping basket

The dot speaker is no where near as good for listening to music on as the echo - it's pretty quiet, a bit tinny and distorts at maximum. If it's mostly for music, I'd stretch and get the echo (although I haven't heard the new dot yet).

"Brilliant thank you all . Have pooped one in my shopping basket."

Oh dear, don't give him that one

He'll need an Amazon account to use to access one fyi.

Im puzzed by them.

Hiw do you get it to control your lights?

@Redglitter you must tell me how you connect it to Tesco! I use tesco but the only Alexa skills seem to be for ocado and Morrisons. As I don't shop there my favourites aren't stored so it just puts in something random or worse adds it to my amazon basket!

To connect to lights you need a smart bulb (which has I think Bluetooth in the bulb), a hub (which connects the bulbs to the wifi and Alexa) and an Alexa device (although the echo plus has a hub built in). You plug in, and set up the bulbs as you would pair a Bluetooth device. Name it via the app. Then you leave the switch always on and you just say "Alexa bedside light on/off/dimmer/brighter" or "Alexa change bedside light to warm white/cool white". I like this because when I'm snuggled down almost asleep, I don't have to shift position or stick an arm out in the cold outside the duvet!

Just something else to contribute to the slow decline of everyone’s brain power

@Starlight345 I also use it when we go away. Set my lights on a timer, and turn on radio4 at speaking volume so the cats don't get lonely.

I have Bluetooth earphones and I can walk in the door, take out my earphones and my music will transfer smoothly to the kitchen speaker.

Annoyingly, Alexa doesn't respond to only one voice or certain persons. So when your 5yo discovers We Will Rock You and wants to listen to it all the time, congratulations, you're a Queen fan too.

Bonfire we don’t listen to music on them, the sound is ok but we’ve got other music speakers which are far better.
They’re used for various things, set reminders, timers, adding items to my online shopping basket, turning lights on/off, switching music speakers on/off ask Alexa instead of looking it up on google, handy if you’re in the middle of something.
DoveWe’ve got Hive heating plus hive bulbs and plugs, you can ask Alexa to turn lights or plugs on or off.

I’ve just bought one for each of my kids from JL.

I’m hoping I can hide it their room, ‘drop in’ via Alexa and nag them to tidy/bring laundry/get to dinner without leaving my chair.

Well im with nigel on this one.

We have our dot plugged into our other (better) speakers so we can still listen to music through it, but get the good sound quality. We have table lamps plugged in via smart plugs so that we don't have to bother with special bulbs (not bothered about fancy coloured lighting etc).

Personally we've chosen not to drop in to kids bedrooms for privacy reasons - likewise we don't expect them to do the same to us!

Why would it cause a decline in brain power? Serious question.

I get freaked out by the fact they are constantly' listening', I get they are useful but can't get over that.

i 'm with Nigel too. There is a current really annoying advert on the radio where the kids want to stay up later so the woman asks Alexa to set a timer for an extra 5 minutes. I presume there isnt a watch of a clock in the house. then she puts the kids to bed, kisses them goodnight and says "alexa, turn off the kids bedroom lights" to cries of "oh, muuuuuum!" from the dcs. Why the FK doesn't she raise her hand and turn off the lights as she leaves the room? OK, I get its an ad, but it makes the point.
My friend has an Alexa and other than asking it to play music - which I can do on radio, tv, cd, spotify, ipod....I dont see that it does anything else useful. I am very wary of the breach of privacy with these things.

Someone will probably ask Alexa to come on her and flame me now

Dove each to their own, personally I love having a smart home

My DC have echo dots the speaker on it is adequate but isn't brilliant, it's fine for little DDs, they like playing radio & music on it. My DS uses it as verbal instructions to find & play music he wants rather than effort of searching in his mobile (😂) and he's routed it so it plays on his other good speaker via Echo dot. It's also fine for.kitchen.

All are connected to my Amazon account. Be careful as occasionally it adds items to my Amazon basket! DS (16) asked Alexa to do something on his phone Friday last week but instead it put a set of housephones (£45!) into my Amazon basket! Luckily I have pin to confirn Amazon order items so it just sat there! He didn't even say "Alexa buy me phones"!! 😂😂 We spotted it a day later ... Gnnn.

I like the dots as you can set up rules when to turn on etc and they have fancy things you can do , but really only my DC understand the fancy stuff. I gave up with my echo dot as i didn't like Alexa listening all the time... also as I talk in my sleep so I the dot could go wild at night trying to follow my random dreams!!

Oh DC say also if you get smart gadget adaption for certain lights or heating, you can use Alexa via dot or phone to operate those. He wants to drag me.into 21st century, but I resist.... . £20 is bargain for echo dot they're usually £40-50. I bought ours at £30 each on special for birthday gifts.

Of course! Each to their own. But where do you stop with sll these gadgets?

I also loathe that advert. Its ridiculous.

To control lighting, do you need a bulb and a smart plug?

But where do you stop with sll these gadgets?

Wherever you want to

I imagine people said similar about electricity 100 years ago. I clearly remember people really sneering at the idea of owning a mobile phone in the 90s. Now I can only think of 2 people without one.

Les you can use either a bulb or plug to use with lamps but not touch lamps. You need bulbs for wall or ceiling lights.