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THINGS TO TRY

"Alexa, who do you think will win Love Island?"
"Alexa, open Riddle of the Day."
"Alexa, what are the film times for Mission: Impossible 6?"
"Alexa, read Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone."
Enjoy a sample of the audiobook and learn how to listen to the full version from Audible.
"Alexa, does the Queen need a passport?"
"Alexa, set a reminder."
"Alexa, open Hotel Transylvania."
Let your children listen to stories and nursery rhymes from the characters of Hotel Transylvania 3. Alexa Kid Skills are disabled by default — you can activate them by going to "Settings" > "Kid Skills" in your Alexa App.
"Alexa, what are you thinking about?"
"Alexa, play the Songs of Summer playlist from Amazon Music."
"Alexa, connect to Bluetooth."
Pair your smartphone or tablet with your Echo device and stream popular audio services. Learn more
"Alexa, open Sleep and Relaxation Sounds."
"Alexa, what should I draw?"
"Alexa, tell me a waiter, waiter joke."
"Alexa, wake me up in the morning to Enya."
"Alexa, open Daily Affirmation."
"Alexa, dim the lights."
With compatible smart bulbs, you can ask Alexa to control both the colour and brightness of your lights.

MOST REQUESTED

Time: "Alexa, what day is it?"
Calculation: "Alexa, what’s zero divided by zero

MORE THINGS TO TRY
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• "Alexa, give me a famous first line."
• "Alexa, find my phone."
• "Alexa, what Hogwarts house do you belong to?"
• "Alexa, what's on my calendar tomorrow?"
Connect your calendar and ask Alexa to add new events or check your upcoming appointments. To get started, go to “Settingsâ€￾ > “Calendarâ€￾ in your Alexa App.
• "Alexa, play the Relaxing Acoustic Pop playlist from Amazon Music."
• "Alexa, open Yes Sire."
• "Alexa, I have a cunning plan."
• "Alexa, how do I set up calling and messaging?"
Call or message anyone who also has an Echo device or the Alexa App on supported smartphones – at no additional cost. Learn how to set up Alexa Calling and Messaging
• "Alexa, what's the tallest building in the UK?"
• "Alexa, tell me a wedding joke."
• "Alexa, help me sleep."
• "Alexa, is it sunny in Brighton?"
As you're getting ready for your day or planning ahead, Alexa can tell you the local, national and international weather forecast.
• "Alexa, give me a fun fact."
• "Alexa, what's the speed of light?"
• "Alexa, have you been to Yorkshire?"
• "Alexa, open BBC Good Food."

Since I bought my Echo, Amazon have been stalking me on the internet (as they do) saying why not buy this or that to go with it? Eventually I caved in and bought a smart plug for a bit over €10. The written instructions were as useless as usual, but very brief googling found the app (Smart Life: there are others, I think ) needed to connect it: first to my network and then to the Echo.

After that it was quick, and slick, and intuitive: I never thought I’d say that about any bit of consumer electronics, let alone something costing €10. So I thought I’d ride my luck and install a WiFi extender (costing about €11) that I hadn’t previously found the spine to grapple with. Just as quick and easy. What is the world coming to?

My only problem, after a bit of head-scratching, is that the smart plug seems essentially useless in my current set-up. Everything electrical is either hard-wired, or needs some sort of hands-on activity (the dishwasher, say) to do anything even when it’s alive at the wall, or is asleep by default and needs tickling with a remote control. I’ve got some table lamps which are still “oop Northâ€￾ but apart from that, what are they good for?

Any ideas? It seems a shame to find things that are so cheap, and superficially capable, and then use them as paperweights.

martyn94 wrote: Any ideas? It seems a shame to find things that are so cheap, and superficially capable, and then use them as paperweights.

I had the same thoughts Martin. I had thought of getting a Google Home, the Google version of Alexa, because there is more information available on how to make it interact with other devices such as RPi but then I couldn't think of anything I would want to control with it!

The most useful gadget I have is the Google Chromecast which enables me to use my mobile phone to control TVMucho, rather than the airmouse and Android box, which is much more fiddly.

Russell

martyn94 wrote: Any ideas? It seems a shame to find things that are so cheap, and superficially capable, and then use them as paperweights.

You could try plugging the Alexa into it, that way if you get annoyed with it you can tell it to turn itself off.

I have a number of remote controlled plugs bought for me as a present but most of the time they do nothing.

I think the more customary approach is to have a problem to solve, rather than buying one and then trying to think of things to do with it.

Well done Martyn.

Do the Ikea bulbs do anything other that turn on and off, e.g. do or change colour?

Do they respond at all to the switches at all? e.g. To turn on with a switch, turn it off first and then back on? Or are your switches now redundant?

It is always satisfying to solve a problem.

If anyone is interested, the Amazon echo plus that I mentioned the other day is now available in France, and in a newer model with slightly bigger speakers. Otherwise the selling proposition, as before, is that they can connect to, and let your echo devices control, “smartâ€￾ bulbs, sockets, locks etc.

As I’ve said before, I bought mine for specific reasons, to control lights, which they serve very well, but no doubt I will stumble over more ( “Alexa, what’s the time?â€￾ is certainly useful if you wake up in the pitch dark).

They have also juiced up the rest of the range in various ways. The basic echo is newly updated, and not changed, but you can now set them up as stereo pairs, and add a sub-woofer which looks hefty, and would be dirt cheap if it’s any good.

There are various introductory offers here

https://www.amazon.fr/Système-Stéréo ... words=Echo

and at surrounding pages.

I posted that particular link because it’s the one I’m tempted by. I can’t justify it, as a purchase, beyond being fed up with remote controls for my existing audio set-up (probably rather higher fi, but I don’t have golden ears). And also because it would get in the way less, and get less knocked over by the dogs.

If I do get it, all I would need is an echo dot for the downstairs lavvy.

Incidentally, does anyone have experience of the Amazon Fire stick for a TV? Because I can apparently get it for $39.99 as a Prime member (god help me).

Our son just gave us an Amazon Fire Stick for UK TV channels, to take over from our M8 box. So far we haven't managed to make the fire stick work for the TV channels, and when our son has time he's going to talk us through it on Skype (computer screen pointed at tv screen, and he tells us what to do next) He's very patient!!

martyn94 wrote:
Incidentally, does anyone have experience of the Amazon Fire stick for a TV? Because I can apparently get it for $39.99 as a Prime member (god help me).

I have a Fire TV which is pretty much the same thing as the stick but uses an ethernet cable rather than WiFi.

I use it to watch The Grand Tour, the occasional film on Amazon Prime Video and downloaded films via Plex.

It is a lot of fun, at least until the novelty wears off and you can link it to an Alexa so you can control it by voice without having to use the microphone in the remote control.

Amazon provides free storage for all your digital photos so you can easily get rid of unwanted visitors with a protracted slideshow.

I have an Amazon Prime account in the UK and in France so I am not sure which content, if any, is country specific.

The Fire TV runs an Amazon specific version of Android and can run Netflix, BBC iPlayer etc although for UK geo-restricted apps you will need a VPN.

It also has a very nice fireplace app to give comfort in the winter months.

The Fire TV runs an Amazon specific version of Android and can run Netflix, BBC iPlayer etc although for UK geo-restricted apps you will need a VPN.

Agree Allan I have been using PureVPN to access Uk Geo Restricted apps on Fire TV here in Germany.

Allan wrote: ↑Sun 23 Sep 2018 18:35 Well done Martyn.

Do the Ikea bulbs do anything other that turn on and off, e.g. do or change colour?

Do they respond at all to the switches at all? e.g. To turn on with a switch, turn it off first and then back on? Or are your switches now redundant?

It is always satisfying to solve a problem.

I never did respond to this before the forum went on holiday.

Your intuition was entirely right. If my IKEA bulbs are on at the switch on the wall, but switched off by my echo, I can make them light up again by switching them off at the wall (which of course makes no immediate difference) and then switching them immediately back on again, without invoking Alexa or having a live internet connection. I discovered that the hard way 10 days ago when the big storm fried my freebox.

It doesn’t, of course, work the other way about. If your wall switch is off, it’s off and the light is off, and your echo can’t over-ride it (or not without more kit, and wiring, and electrician’s bills). Though in due course there will no doubt be Alexa compatible wall-switches which you can just swap.

Amazon.fr already advertise a substantial number of Alexa compatible wall switches.
https://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... teur+Alexa

Thanks. I should have checked.

If I was rewiring the place from scratch, I’d have smart wall switches (almost) everywhere. As it is, it’s probably easier and cheaper for me to talk to Alexa at the level of the bulb, or in a few places through in-line switches down-circuit from the wall switches (they also come up on your Google search).

As it is, I have already bought a couple of the in-line switches, though I didn’t yet know what to do with them, mostly because I hadn’t realised that you can make them switch even when Alexa is dead (or at least in a coma). I should have guessed that you could do it, and how, but thanks again for reminding me.

All I have to do now is find where a few cables run in the ceiling void. Or probably get the electrician to do it (among a few other things): he might remember.

I still can’t help feeling that it’s a bit decadent to switch things on and off from my settee, or my bed, via Amazon’s server a few hundreds or thousands of kms away, rather than budging a metre or two to do it myself. But I’m getting used to it. And it is a bit green: I switch my bedroom lights off now when I might previously have left them on because my hands were full (“after all, they are only 7W each”).

Does anyone have any idea how to change the language on an Echo device?

I had to reconnect my echo when I got a new WiFi network, and it has taken the opportunity to switch to French. I wouldn’t mind much, except that I have other ones that speak English, and it will be a bit wearing to remember which ones do which. They seem to have “simplified” the menus on the Alexa app, so that I can now (after much groping around) change, eg, its preferences between Fahrenheit and Centigrade, or the 12/24 hour clock, but not the language.

Any help gratefully received. Googling has got me nowhere, since all advice was directed to the previous version of the Alexa app.

Please forget this: I hadn’t scrolled down far enough on the settings page to find the choice of language. But I do find the Alexa app a fairly extreme example of the sort of app where you basically just have to prod around until you find what you need, or not.

They currently have the second-generation Echo Dot (ie the one they superseded a couple of months ago) for €24.99. The latest ones may have slightly better sound, for €35 more, but not to a degree that I would bother about, given the use that I am going to make of it (or indeed them).

Apologies if this has already been addressed but my mother wants to buy me an Amazon echo for Christmas. She is in the UK and doesn't know whether to order from the UK or French site. Does it make a difference? I would want the device to speak English to me. Thanks for any info.

Sorry to bang on about this but I need an answer asap! Can I order an amazon echo from Amazon.fr and change the language to English?

The French site. You can select your language (and other things) in software. But you want one with a power supply that fits a French socket.

The product is international, if you download the English Alexa App then a french bought product works perfectly.

Martyn is correct that if you buy in France you get a French transformer/plug, add to that the price is lower in France and Amazon UK will not deliver to France then the decision is pretty obvious.

And some of the ones your mother might want to buy are currently half price, or were last time I looked. If your mother only buys you one, sneak behind her back and buy another two or three (or four). You will find uses for them. I still don’t have one in my downstairs lavatory, but mostly because the WiFi connection is a bit sketchy there.