+48V
hi-fi or die
Evo for Echo- an intelligent Battery Base for 2nd Generation Echo Dot.
This serves a grand niche need for 35 beans.
This serves a grand niche need for 35 beans.
Amazon Echo Dot
- Thread starter Gnesen
- Start date
There is a new Plex skill for those interested. It doesn't play directly on the Dot. It works more like the J River skill in the fact that it can control the server running elsewhere. The good part is you don't have to manually open ports on your router like you need to do with J River.
I have the Plex server running on my Nvidia Shield and in my limited testing it is pretty cool. If you tell it to launch Plex, it will ask you if you want to pick up on a movie you left off, if you want to play the newest movie in your collection, etc. I had it start Caddyshack and Alexa told me a golf joke while it loaded on the Shield.
I also tried playing music and I wasn't able to get it to start an album (probably wasn't saying the right thing), but it would shuffle an artist without a problem.
I am very impressed with the new feature. Plex says they are working on the ability to play right on the Echo, but this will at least give me a cool new feature to show off when we have friends over. I plan to test it a lot more when I have the house to myself or when I am in my home office over the weekend.
I have the Plex server running on my Nvidia Shield and in my limited testing it is pretty cool. If you tell it to launch Plex, it will ask you if you want to pick up on a movie you left off, if you want to play the newest movie in your collection, etc. I had it start Caddyshack and Alexa told me a golf joke while it loaded on the Shield.
I also tried playing music and I wasn't able to get it to start an album (probably wasn't saying the right thing), but it would shuffle an artist without a problem.
I am very impressed with the new feature. Plex says they are working on the ability to play right on the Echo, but this will at least give me a cool new feature to show off when we have friends over.
I plan to test it a lot more when I have the house to myself or when I am in my home office over the weekend.
+48V
hi-fi or die
and whomp , there it is....within the nutshell of it all.
by the time this shit becomes common place, us lonely nerds will well be onto something else. And that tickles me as much as it scares me.
+48V
hi-fi or die
You can now change the wake word to "Computer".
Yep. Tis is a great shits n' giggles geeky wake word. I gave it a test drive away from my choice of "echo".
It's cool, but I soon found that "computer" is even more ubiquitous than Alexa and/or Amazon. The deal breaker was when I was watching the MacBreak Weekly podcast. My Dot was flipping out. Eventually I had to go "red ring" button on her ass.
The upside funny was between 15+ wakes/replies of confusion babble, she started playing a Fleetwood Mac station on the kitchen rig. Deep cuts mind you. I paused the podcast and grooved out awhile.
....hello? dystopia?
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My gal was napping on the couch and with Alexa talking back (jokes, suggestions, etc.) while using the App, it was pretty disturbing. In reality, I doubt that I would start an album, tell it to stop, start an artist, pop up a movie, stop it, start another, etc.. Unfortunately, you have to test this stuff before bringing it to the public. I want to "wow" my guests, not make them pity me when it doesn't work.and whomp , there it is....within the nutshell of it all.
by the time this shit becomes common place, us lonely nerds will well be onto something else. And that tickles me as much as it scares me.
(As a side note, practice does not mean it will actually work when you want it to. It is like teaching a dog to sit and when you demonstrate it to a neighbor, all the dog wants to do is hump the neighbor's leg.)I am only nerdy with certain stuff. Usually, but not always, it has to have something to do with music/media. Like the VR stuff that is the current nerd thing is not my cup of tea. Maybe one day it will have some appeal, but nerds will be flying around in their self-driven hovercrafts by then.
That is exactly why I keep the wake word "Alexa". Amazon and Computer are common terms around my nerd hive.Yep. Tis is a great shits n' giggles geeky wake word. I gave it a test drive away from my choice of "echo".
It's cool, but I soon found that "computer" is even more ubiquitous than Alexa and/or Amazon. The deal breaker was when I was watching the MacBreak Weekly podcast. My Dot was flipping out. Eventually I had to go "red ring" button on her ass.
The upside funny was between 15+ wakes/replies of confusion babble, she started playing a Fleetwood Mac station on the kitchen rig. Deep cuts mind you. I paused the podcast and grooved out awhile.
....hello? dystopia?
Here is the link to Plex commands:
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/236324808
The part I found interesting is this:
Do you have multiple players? You can specify which player you want to use for playing back any kind of media by adding it to the end of your voice command. Here are some examples: Ask Plex to...
https://support.plex.tv/hc/en-us/articles/236324808
The part I found interesting is this:
Do you have multiple players? You can specify which player you want to use for playing back any kind of media by adding it to the end of your voice command. Here are some examples: Ask Plex to...
- Play Monsters Inc. on Roku
- Start The Little Mermaid on Family Room TV
- I want to hear music by Right Said Fred on Kitchen TV
- Put on the album Dookie on iPhone
chicks
Lunatic Member
Yeah, I've noticed that the little Google air freshener doesn't false trigger, 'cause nobody says "OK, Google" in everyday chit chat. It can also direct music or YooToob videos to any CC or CCA. I wish they'd come out with a Dot-like device, too, like a voice-enabled CCA without the need for the air freshener.
It will be interesting to see where Google goes from here. They can definitely put some pressure on Amazon.
For me, these things would be more useful if they could turn on the TV and receiver. If I am already sitting there with my remote in hand, which I used to start the Shield, I might as well click on Youtube/Plex and play what I want. As I mentioned, I have a remote that can turn everything on with Alexa, and I use it daily, but I don't need it for every command. It just seems like a lot of noise is created to do anything versus the quiet use of a remote. Plex takes that to another level with jokes.
I mentioned the Caddyshack joke, but I usually just pick whatever is on the screen to test updates (which Plex on the Shield has gotten a lot of great updates). Led Zeppelin is the first entry on the screen, so last night I told Alexa to play "Led Zeppelin" and she said something like "with such a large library, it is a shame to listen to the same stuff over and over, how bout "Atlantic Blues"? I don't know, it was kind of funny, but when I sit down to listen to Kind of Blue, I might not want a lecture on my listening habits.
I find a lot of the media stuff to be cool, but much of it isn't a lot more convenient than just picking up a remote. That being said, I am happy to have more fun stuff to play around with on my $50 device.
Just a side note, I messed around with it in my office over the weekend. I will get more use out it in there where I may have my hands typing away on the keyboard and is easier to tell Alexa/Plex to play something. I was able to get it to play by album, as well. Not sure why that did not work when I first tried it.
chicks
Lunatic Member
You can now change the wake word to "Computer".
Looks like they now have competition for "Hey Computer":
"As it turns out, there's a secret tie-in hidden in the iPhone, too. Whenever you say "Hey 'puter" (or "Hey Computer") to Siri, she responds to you as if you're LEGO Batman. "
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/02/14/siri-the-lego-batman-movie-promo/
There is a new iOS app called Reverb that will control Alexa via an app, similar to Lexi ( which I have discussed before). The upside here is that there is also Mac app and both of the apps are free. Lexi was not free when I bought it.
Edit: I installed it on my MacBook and launched it last night. It works great. I had Plex running on my Nvidia Shield and used the Reverb Mac app to tell it what music to play. It can even launch a movie if I want it to. I already have a Dot in my office, but I use my laptop on the couch most of the time, so this beats yelling to the Dot across the room. I also tried the iOS app and it works the same way.
Note: They say it can be used on Windows via a web browser and it is also on Android: https://reverb.ai/
Edit: I installed it on my MacBook and launched it last night. It works great. I had Plex running on my Nvidia Shield and used the Reverb Mac app to tell it what music to play. It can even launch a movie if I want it to. I already have a Dot in my office, but I use my laptop on the couch most of the time, so this beats yelling to the Dot across the room. I also tried the iOS app and it works the same way.
Note: They say it can be used on Windows via a web browser and it is also on Android: https://reverb.ai/
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This bit is dead nuts on target.
I get upset when they use my likeness online w/o my permission
I grabbed another Dot during the Prime blowout yesterday (my 3rd). I really didn't need another one, but this will replace the Airport Express I have in the bathroom. Since I don't care about sound quality or multiroom audio in that space, I am happy just to plug this into my Tivoli Pal (that I was also using with the APE) and having a little more voice control over connecting and disconnecting my iPhone and also the ability to listen to music/weather/news/etc when my iPhone is in another room is nice to have.
They had some great deals on the original Echo, but I like the Bluetooth abilities and the flexibility of plugging it into a separate system which gives me more flexibility in the long run.
Anyone buy an Echo Show yet? I am not interested in buying one, but I would love to hear some impressions if anyone did get one.
They had some great deals on the original Echo, but I like the Bluetooth abilities and the flexibility of plugging it into a separate system which gives me more flexibility in the long run.
Anyone buy an Echo Show yet? I am not interested in buying one, but I would love to hear some impressions if anyone did get one.
