Amazon Echo Dot | GTAMotorcycle.com

Amazon Echo Dot

Wingboy

Wingboy

Well-known member
Moderator
Site Supporter
Just bought a pair of these to use in my home as an intercom.Setting them up was a nightmare (technology challenged i am) and i had to call Amazon online help to get it done.They work perfectly,but by default they are named "echo dot" and "2nd echo dot". It would be nice if they were "master bedroom" and "family room".Is it as simple as going into the settings on my phone and editing the name to change it? Or will that bring about a total restart and more frustrating grief? I really suck at this stuff! I don't want to get my wife upset when i lose it.
 
I have a bunch of echo’s in my house. You organize them by room. No need to name them individually. I say “Alexa Play the cranberries in the kitchen” and she does. I say “Alex play the cranberries everywhere” and plays on all my devices throughout the house. You can label the rooms how you want and that would equate naming the device individually. I have my bedroom, living room and kitchen.
 
We have 3 of them, and soon to be 4...as now that I'm spending a lot of time in the garage working on the bikes and puttering....I freakin miss not having one within earshot, so I'm looking for another used cheap one for out there. We have a very automated house and I use it for a lot of things from turning lights on/off, calendar reminders, timers, and even just listening to radio stations.

The paranoia about the security aspects is pretty overblown.
 
PrivatePilot said:
We have 3 of them, and soon to be 4...as now that I'm spending a lot of time in the garage working on the bikes and puttering....I freakin miss not having one within earshot, so I'm looking for another used cheap one for out there. We have a very automated house and I use it for a lot of things from turning lights on/off, calendar reminders, timers, and even just listening to radio stations.

The paranoia about the security aspects is pretty overblown.
Click to expand...
I have 2 of the echo plus combined for stereo sound with the echo sub, sounds fantastic. Have another echo and echo dot around the house plus smart switches and lamps. I am not worried about Alexa listening in, I live alone and rarely talk to myself,
 
I use mine almost exclusively as an egg timer. I got a free google home with my Spotify account but have yet to set it up. I’m not forking over a ton of cash for smart switches/lamps when I can just flip them with my finger. Wasn’t too impressed with the amazon sound quality, will see what the google version is like.
 
jc100 said:
I use mine almost exclusively as an egg timer. I got a free google home with my Spotify account but have yet to set it up. I’m not forking over a ton of cash for smart switches/lamps when I can just flip them with my finger. Wasn’t too impressed with the amazon sound quality, will see what the google version is like.
Click to expand...

Prices are definitely high at the moment for switches and bulbs. I did just switches and a couple of smart plugs. Sure you can just flip with your finger, the routines you can setup are pretty neat though. It is a luxury for sure. I like say "Alexa I'm Home" and having everything go on that I want on when I first get home. Same thing before bed, I say "Alexa goodnight" and everything shuts off.

I think that sound is pretty good coming out of the small speakers, even the new echo dot had a big improvement with the latest release. Still not as good as the Echo or Echo + but much improved.
 
'Alexa, shoot the intruder.'
 
jc100 said:
They are creepy. Continually listening and responding to conversations in our house. We’ve told Alexa to **** off many times but she hasn’t.
Click to expand...

I don't know why anyone would surrender their privacy to this degree. It's bad enough that we can't surf the web without our every move being tracked. Now we got these things spying on us, that are probably listening for keywords and triggers to know what to market to us, how often we have sex and the sounds we make doing so and who knows what in the future.

F-that. None of these 1984-esque Telescreens will make it into my house.
 
Next they sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
440px-Dr._Strangelove_-_Ripper_and_Mandrake.png
 
In another 15 or 20 years I'll be taking a big dirt nap and none of it will matter. If they want to know if i wore boxers or briefs. Go nuts. Lol
 
Blackfin said:
I don't know why anyone would surrender their privacy to this degree. It's bad enough that we can't surf the web without our every move being tracked. Now we got these things spying on us, that are probably listening for keywords and triggers to know what to market to us, how often we have sex and the sounds we make doing so and who knows what in the future.

F-that. None of these 1984-esque Telescreens will make it into my house.
Click to expand...

Unless you plan on avoiding computers with a microphone in them and any smart phone you really can't get away from always listening devices.

Some friends and I had talked a bit about Alexa listening and then finding ads that have never been searched for before. I thought I would give it a try being as I live alone there is nothing for it to listen to. So randomly over a few weeks I would just say something like "boy I need a new lacrosse stick" I would say random things about lacrosse equipment and my need for them. Now I have never played lacrosse or searched for anything lacrosse related. In that time I noticed no targeted ads while browsing or any ads on amazon itself which I use quite a bit. This may not be a great test but I thought it might be an easy one for any automated system listening to pick up and display content I might want to buy
 
Try saying blackbriar or treadstone. All the cool tactical guys will bust in on ya.
 
Wingboy said:
Try saying blackbriar or treadstone. All the cool tactical guys will bust in on ya.
Click to expand...
Will give that a go and let you know how it works. If you do not hear from me you can be sure they are listening and I am in either at the bottom of a river or in some super secret highly illegal yet government funded prison.
 
jc100 said:
They are creepy. Continually listening and responding to conversations in our house. We’ve told Alexa to **** off many times but she hasn’t.
Click to expand...
I was talking to someone and they said one of their friends was selling their cottage with a pond near huntsville for $800. The next day a facebook ad for the cottage popped up. I never actively searched for it, obviously the phone was listening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom