Tag: alexa

An Australian Amazon Echo Review – Part Two

Performance of the Australian Amazon Echo

Be sure that you have read Part 1 of this Review before you take on this section

The Amazon Australian Echo (2nd Generation) is a wind to set up yet you need to make use of the Amazon Alexa app on your phone to obtain it started.  It spells out ways to obtain the Echo on to your network as well as takes simply a number of mins to work through.

Go to Setups and Set up a New Gadget then just select the best Echo for instalment (they are smoothly shown as icons) as well as follow the configuration instructions.

Australian Amazon Echo The actual learning curve of an Amazon Australian Echo is in other places: understanding exactly what to ask Alexa, what works as well as exactly what does not, then diving right into Echo Skills to include abilities.

These are a little like applications for your smart speaker, as well as there are currently over 30,000 of them.

Take a look at TechRadar’s handy finest Alexa Skills guide for much more, however Amazon consists of a little brochure with some starter suggestions. These are pretty easy but efficient.

You can ask Alexa just what the time is, exactly what the weather condition resembles (you will certainly need to input where you actually live for this), for a flash news bulletin, ask it a joke, to establish a timer … there’s a whole host of things you can do without setting up a Skill.

Can the Amazon Australian Echo Sing in aussie slang

However to really make your Echo sing (and also it does sing, simply ask it) you will want to study the Abilities as well as change the Echo to work for you.  Once again this is a straightforward procedure (go to the All Abilities part of the application) but it’s a high quality minefield.

There are thousands available however only a small portion of these are actually worth bothering with depending upon exactly what other ‘wise’ points you have around your house.

In our examinations, we linked the Echo as much as the following Abilities: Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn Hive thermostat (and also wise lights), a Sonos system, our Just Eat account and also Google Calendar.

Overall the “Amazon Australian Echo” handled to function well, although it did sometimes journey itself up and get perplexed. lets continue with the Australian Amazon Echo

You need to do this if you have 2 or even more songs accounts connected to it also, but that makes good sense. In the application you could pick, claim, Amazon Music as your primary music solution to avoid having to repeat commands over and over.

Other teething issues consist of some material being used on another Echo gadget not in the same area as us when we desired it to be played on the brand-new Amazon Echo.

We experimented with Alexa reading out loud among our Kindle books and also its voice sounded far-off– it took us a few secs to realise that it was  being read in the upstairs room, where our 1st-gen Echo stays.

However these are only periodic glitches with exactly what is a straightforward as well as smooth service. Echo and Alexa have made managing your residence clever a lot simpler and also these tools have to be praised for that.

Australian Amazon Echo

Sound quality on the Amazon Echo (Second generation) is crisp. Whenever Alexa speaks she’s clear, as well as the Echo’s seven-mic selection suggests it always gets back to you when you contact her.

To evaluate out just what music is like with it,  we picked a mixture of tracks. and they proved to be equally as good as the original

That claimed, if you desire a sound volume and spread upgrade then it’s ideal to consider the Amazon Echo Plus. The brand-new Amazon Echo is more than passable with its single 2.6-inch woofer and solitary 0.6-inch. Do not be afraid to connect several echo devices together to fill the home or one or two of the simple bluetooth speakers.

The inclusion of Dolby handling does offer a more extensive volume but it had not been as warm as we would certainly have so just  Crank it up

Comparing it to the initial Amazon Echo as well it is the brand-new design that quickly contends, with it’s superb thinking about the drastically lower price factor.

This is exactly how we got on when we utilized the Echo’s more costs cousin, the Echo Plus, for a week.

Although not specific to this design of Amazon Echo, Alexa has provided some considerable upgrades in recent times with some wonderful brand-new functions.

The capability to take telephone calls via the Echo is a wonderful enhancement, as is the Drop In function– essentially an intercom for your residence in between Echo devices. This has reduced the ‘shouting upstairs that dinner is ready’ hubbub no end in our home.

The Regimens attribute rates, also. This bunches a variety of clever things together that could occur with one command. You can currently activate lights and also obtain an early morning rundown simply by saying, “Alexa, begin my day”.

It’s a fun feature as well as one that will certainly grow and also grow when a lot more Skills are included. Like other aspects of Alexa, it’s a work-in-progress.

Australian Amazon Echo

Australian Amazon Echo

The collection of smart home devices has additionally been boosted, makings it a whole lot easier to manage several tools (from several manufacturers) with just one command.

Again, if you want to develop your smart house after that you may intend to choose the Amazon Echo Plus, which provides even more simplified smart gadget exploration as well as basically does away with several through a clever tool center, thanks to its ZigBee assimilation.(Plugs and Lights)

There are some even more amazing upgrades that have just been presented– in addition to some that are on the means quickly.

The newest is that Alexa has actually obtained a brand-new feature called Can Fulfill Intent Request, which will certainly let the designers of Skills inform Amazon the kind of concerns their tool could answer.

Just what this suggests is that if a user makes an obscure demand, the new function will check every one of the Skills in its database to discover the one most likely to respond appropriately.

So there disappears confusion if you neglect the triggers to specific

The Amazon group is likewise working with a better way to help Alexa extra normally recognize conversations. The concept is that you will not have to continuously say Alexa’s name to get her focus during a conversation– Alexa will certainly simply maintain listening and also reacting until you’re completed asking inquiries.

Alexa Brain’s head, Ruhi Sarikaya, states these enhancements will roll out to US, UK and Germany initially, however refrained to give an exact date regarding when we might anticipate the upgrade to strike.

Final verdict on the Australian Amazon Echo

The current Amazon Echo (Second generation) clever audio speaker is a revitalizing upgrade to the Amazon array. Its price is reduced, the design a lot more enticing and Alexa improves with each passing month.

Because a number of these modifications typically aren’t especially significant, the arrival of the most up to date Amazon Echo really did not have the heft or ‘wow’ element of the original Echo.

It’s likewise clear that Amazon is up against difficult competitors with the Google Home, Apple HomePod as well as the Sonos One thanks to its remarkable audio quality.

It is still too early to tell if one of these systems will certainly come to dominate wise home control. Nonetheless, all records suggest Amazon Echo tools outsell those of the Google Residence array and Apple HomePod.

Australian Amazon Echo

As well as if you don’t love the concept of wise home technology, you could still utilize the Echo as a pure Bluetooth music speaker.

The Amazon Echo we checked came in the shade Charcoal Fabric, but there are a number of various other colors to select from. Amazon has actually stretched past black and white with its shade palette, as well as the product it is utilizing to cover the Echo’s vital organs.

Audio high quality on the Amazon Echo (2nd generation) is crisp. That claimed, if you want an audio upgrade after that it’s finest to look at the Amazon Echo Plus. The new Amazon Echo is more than passable with its single 2.6-inch woofer and solitary 0.6-inch

Protecting the Elderly – Part one – Building a Smart Home

Protecting the Elderly – Part one – Building a Smart Home

Firstly let me make three comments:

  1. We live in strange times and not all of us are safe even in our own homes, as has been seen and talked about on TV , Radio and through the internet in recent times , and this goes for every city in Australia
  2. Our Kids and family are often living in suburbs away from ours and even in cities away from us. So we tend to rely on other elderly friends in our area.
  3. Not all of us are blessed with good health and as we get older in some cases it gets worse or we find it harder to get things done.

The Result :

Too often we feel vulnerable, even if we are not and we feel that we need to get a better and safer way of doing things. Enter the need for building a Smart Home for the Elderly

What do we need to build a Smart Home

  • We need to be able to contact emergency services in the event of a problem
  • We need to be able to contact our kids, friends family for Assistance
  • We need to be able to enter or home safely – with lights on (but not all day)
  • We need to feel safe and secure at all times
  • We need to be able to work it without too much hassle and trouble
  • We need to understand that it is not expensive and that we can control a Smart Home without too much hassle

How do we Achieve All of This

SCENARIO ONE

An elderly Lady or Man living alone slipped over in the bathroom and fell sustaining an injured hip and found that he or she could not get up – her bathroom was connected to the bedroom and she was all alone in the home.

SCENARIO TWO

An Elderly Man suffered chest pains at home and was unable to get out of the chair he was sitting in to get to the phone to call for assistance

What is the Answer? And What do we Need to resolve these three situations

SCENARIO THREE

An Elderly couple were coming home from being out for the day – as they approached the home it was in darkness.

What are the Answers ?And What do we Need to resolve these three situations.
  1. We need access to the lowest cost internet we can get, even although most most homes have access today too either a wireless internet system or a cable internet system or even a portable hand held systems at often less than $25 to $30 per month often with phone line thrown into the mix.
  2. A family member to connect your smart device for you if you do not understand the systems or do it yourself.

What is Amazon Echo – Current Cost $79.00 

building a smart home

I am sure that they make these appear complex to scare us – all they are is a device that is run by software that gives the device a voice called “Alexa” that reacts to your voice ( or your partners or both) that once programmed understand your voice commands or your questions and acts upon them.

There are 4 such devices (of varying cost) We need the simplest to start with (and we may leave it at that ) and that would be the Echo Dot (more info here}

We connect the internet – then we connect the Echo Dot device – The Echo dot device finds the internet source and then we teach it to listen to our voice – DONE ( or we get one of the kids to connect it and then we teach it our voice.- Done)

Note: We have two devices one on the ground floor and one upstairs –

Once activated the Echo device can be programmed with all the required phone numbers – family, friends, emergency services, Doctors Surgery Number – etc!

So Now Lets Re-Visit SCENARIO ONE– and look at building a smart home

The injured party simply asks or commands “Alexa” – (The name given to the device communicator) to call the ambulance , Doctor, Family member – or all of them one at a time. The device will do that for you and tell you when it is done – you are now on a hands free communication with who ever you called and you can from anywhere in your home (within voice range) state your situation or call one of the family, friends and ask them to get it done for you.

Lets Visit SCENARIO TWO –

Once again the answer is we make a voice command , the echo device ensures that “Alexa” connects you to the emergency service – Done

Some may say its hard to make a command when you have chest pains – having been in that situation its not quite true , you do have the facility to speak and the requirement is simple – Alexa call ambulance service !

It is easier than that if you have a family member who is also on Echo and you initiate a call to them, and they call the emergency services for you. That way they are aware that something has happened and you need their assistance – even of they are in another state , city or town they can still be contacted. Its a damn site easier than trying to make phone calls or having to carry your phone into the bathroom etc.

Lets bring this all back into perspective.

Understanding what do we need to visit Scenario Three – There are Two options

Option One:

We can do this with an Echo Dot Device – and the small phone app (free the Alexa App) that it requires to connect you to the echo device from anywhere – yes anywhere !! – Using the Internet we can through the app, tell ”Alexa” to switch on the lights at home. From anywhere at anytime.

Option two:

building a smart home

We can also do this with a very simply power point – yes all we need is the  TP-Link Smart Plug, ($39.00)

We download the KASA app for our phone (any phone) and we connect it via the internet to the Smart Plug

We will have attached or plugged in the lamps or lights that we want switched on to the TP-Link Smart Plug

Hint: We attached the smart plug to a power board  – we turn the power board off using the App on my phone, when we reconnect the app , it switches on the Lamp and the TV and that gives us enough light to see our way into the house and noise .

Note again that this can be done at any time form anywhere for a total costs of $39.00 – Run the Echo and have all of the added safety values for $79.00 (plus internet)

Before we finish I am elderly as is my wife – and I am an internet marketer with Amazon so if you buy a product from me because of this article I will be supplementing my pension and I Thank You in advance