I’ve got an Amazon Echo sitting in its box unused. Of course, I could open it up and find out how it works but it’ll make it harder to sell on.

So before I crack it open, I have a couple of questions:

Will it tell me what song is playing? I’ll be using Amazon Prime music and various radio stations (6 music for me, radio 2 for the wife). If I hear a song I like (E.g. on the radio), how do I know what it is?

Even better – is there some way to save a song to my playlist?

Can I link two phones / two instances of the iPhone app? E.g. both my wife and I can control it equally?

Are there any amazing features that will win my wife over? She likes the idea of listening to music from loads of sources, but feels self-conscious talking to a machine and would prefer physical buttons / a screen.

Yes it can tell you what is playing on Prime or possibly other streaming services. Not on radio though. Don’t think you can add to playlists on the fly. You can tell it you like a song though and your preferences will be reflected in the auto generated stations.

You can control it from multiple phones yes. And the web.

Amazing features? Not sure, check out the list of skills on Amazon’s website. We just use it to play music.

SOmebody should (or possibly “has”) find a way of getting it to run one of the music recognition apps

talking to it is a bit weird, I’ll admit

Did you buy from Amazon?

If so open it up and have a play. If you don’t like it just send it back. They’ll be fine with it.

I bought an Echo Dot on ‘Prime Day’. Really good. Though the BBC Radio playback via TuneIn can be choppy on occasion. Unsure why, as other internet services like music streaming are AOK.

Haven’t used it to set up playlists – I just ask it to either play a radio station or play music by… .

You can set it up to work with several phones. And you can set it up so that the Amazon ordering and stuff can be done by several app users.

Oh, and what @Jamie said – Amazon still seem very good with distance sold goods.

I bought one a couple of months ago and my wife rolled her eyes at another gadget, but now chats away quite happily to it asking for 80’s radio, Bob Marley, rock ballads etc whenever the setting it is on annoys her.

The only issue is if I am in a different room I am not sure if she is talking to it or I need to answer

WE were bought one as a present. Whilst that’s very nice, it’s jeffing useless with all my Apple kit and my Apple Music subscription. It’s basically reduced to a radio and timer in the kitchen. It’s also sonically shite. When the Apple version comes out I might swap it for one of those, but my B&W A5 absolutely wipes the floor with it for music, and that can be controlled form any of my Apple devices.

but my B&W A5 absolutely wipes the floor with it for music

I’d hope so too for £400 vs a £50 toy…

Can a Dot stream local radio stations with online/browser streams?

I’d hope so too for £400 vs a £50 toy…

They’re about £150 aren’t they? Ours is the big one.
A5 was under £300 at the time.
Fair point though, just don’t expect more than background music from Alexa

The local stream needs to be one which an Amazon Alexa skill can access. Some tunein (the default I believe) or some other skill like https://www.amazon.co.uk/UK-Radioplayer-Ltd/dp/B01M13BOP1

I have a Dot and mainly use it linked to a Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom for morning radio (as above it defaults to Tune-in so if the station is on there you should be fine).

Most of the rest of it’s use is setting timers (either for food or just a general reminder), occasional calendar entries to. Checking the weather via it saves me a few seconds over the iPad I guess. Checking traffic it seems pretty limited for (I think only checks between preset home and work addresses by default but not played around much with that as I prefer to look at traffic on Google maps anyway).

I’m planning to get some Hue lights at some point as I think that could be fairly useful but much beyond that and I’m straying into “because it can rather than because it’s actually useful” territory (although once I replace my boiler I’ll use it for Hive stuff as well).

I don’t think there’s a killer app for it but I don’t regret buying my Dot

I use it for lights, timer, radio

its a nice to have around rather than essential so far

They’re quite cool…

I control a few lights and a fan around the house via Kasa plugs (TP link_ – will use a group to control the Xmas lights inside and out at, well, xmas.

I’m guilty of walking into the bathroom adn ALMOST asking Alexa to turn teh bathroom light on. It’s just a normal light…!

We also control the heating, and can check temperatures of the thermostat too. A bit of a gimmick, but verbally whacking the heating up whilst staying under the covers IS cool.

Ours (we’ve 3 echos adn 2 echo dot) are linked to spotify – i think it’s brill – in the lounge I’vethe Dot linked to Q acoustic BT3 speakrs and they sound fab.
In the bedrooms adn kitchen we’ve Echos – they sound great – I like the unidirectinal sound it produces as it’s a room I walk around, as opposed to sitting in the perfect sound stage in the lounge.
I agree it’s not amazing sound -however, I subscribe to teh ethos of ‘good enough’ in life at times!!

I think they are cool..

DrP

It’s also sonically shite… B&W A5 absolutely wipes the floor with it for music

Have you tried connecting them?

We have a Dot (the little one) and put the sound out through a vintage radio. Sounds okay to my non-audiophile ears.

Whilst that’s very nice, it’s jeffing useless with all my Apple kit and my Apple Music subscription

You can connect it to a bluetooth device (e.g. mac, spare ipad) as a speaker.

It’s convoluted, but can be made to work.

it’s jeffing useless with all my Apple kit and my Apple Music subscription

Apple Homepod thing is out in December IIRC….

We use ours all the time and the kids love it. They need to work out a better way to access info in skills as you need to remember how to turn the skills on. I think they need to incorporate some skills into her knowledge base. Very handy for multiple timers when cooking. It’s all basic stuff but works together really well

They need to work out a better way to access info in skills as you need to remember how to turn the skills on.

This – the natural language skills will come in time I think.

e.g. the Harmony skill is crap. But pairing the Harmony Hub with Yonomi is pretty good (“Alexa, turn on the TV” instead of “Alexa, tell Harmony to start Watch TV”).

Might be an issue with competing services – e.g. you might only be able to activate one skill for bus times if you want natural language.

At the moment I have to say “Alexa, ask London Bus North” to get buses from our local stop. Would be easier to say “Alexa, next bus to Richmond”.