Another gadget- but this one is really clever!

Merve replied on 06/08/2017 13:26

Posted on 06/08/2017 13:26

To prove to my detractors that I can talk about more than Safefill and Solar panels!! Now, I'm not sure whether to put this in this section as it may not save you money but it uses so little electricity and also enables you to access more than 40,000,000 tracks of music so no more taking CDs on holiday, fumbling around with the radio in the car etc- now, the world of popular music is at my finger tips- or rather my voice. I took it to the caravan this morning while I did a few jobs and played what I wanted and the amps never moved!

Having discovered it almost by accident while surfing the Amazon website, and learning about it on YouTube, I decided to buy one and to say I'm impressed with the technology would be an understatement. I am of course talking about the Echo Dot by Amazon.

No doubt some of you have heard of it and some of you will own one so this is not directed at you but for those who have heard of it but don't know what it does or those who have never heard of it, - listen up.

Firstly, and most importantly, to use echo dot you need data on your phone or on a mobile myfi device. I don't have much data per month on my phone so at the moment, my preferred method is to take my EE myfi unit which does the job nicely. Echo dot basically is a voice activated device which, set up correctly will serve your every desire......, well, not every one but will certainly make life easier. Having got your echo dot to recognise and lock on to a wifi source the fun starts. Firstly, there are, if you sign up to Amazon Music,(£3.99 a month) 40 million tracks to go at. It will tell you the news, give you reminders in human voice, and so many other things through the app that you load on to your phone. On long journeys I only have to say "Alexa, read 'The Green Mile' " and off she will go reading an audible book(as long as it's in your library). She will remember where she got to last time as well!  "Alexa, what's the weather like in London?"  "Alexa, what's the time" etc etc and just for example. All done via BT to the car speakers. Get bored with that and it's "Alexa, play tracks from Celina Dion" and like magic it's playing. Alexa, as you may have guessed is the wake up word for it- I nearly said "her" then. You can ask it to tell you a joke even and so many other things I won't cover - you'll have to discover it for yourselves . Although to me, it's invaluable in the car, in the caravan it's just as good. You can get it to pair with Bluetooth Speakers just by asking it to do so- what a bit of kit! Again, it's all about making life more pleasant and using milliamperes to do it. Hope I haven't upset anyone - I probably have😂😂😂

Merve replied on 11/08/2017 08:52

Posted on 08/08/2017 08:14 by

Where did the wireless go? 

Posted on 11/08/2017 08:52

Well this is 'wireless' easy. It's the saving on the batteries that I was keen on. Radios in vans I understand use a fair bit where this uses literally milliamps. But it's not just a music player, it's far more than that. The Alexa app will show you just how wide ranging it is from tide times to jokes, from distances to calculator. Loads of stuff. 

MichaelT replied on 11/08/2017 11:02

Posted on 11/08/2017 11:02

No doubt paid for by all the money saved on your non EHU lifestylewink

Just had a look at one, not sure if its for me but it did also offer me the option of buying a remote control, I thought the idea was to talk to it....

Brian1 replied on 11/08/2017 11:30

Posted on 11/08/2017 11:30

There are various music etc streaming services available.  I use Spotify.

The drawback however is that they all need a reasonably fast internet or 4G connection.  On a caravan site, using the site wifi for this purpose might be considered bad ettiquette and many sites don't have 4G ...

Pippah45 replied on 11/08/2017 14:57

Posted on 11/08/2017 14:57

How on earth do you find the track you want in the middle of 40000, no there were more Zeros than that !?

Rocky 2 buckets replied on 11/08/2017 17:17

Posted on 11/08/2017 15:06 by Goldie146

We use alternative technology - music loaded onto an Ipad and a Bluetooth speaker.

Posted on 11/08/2017 17:17

+1smile

SteveL replied on 11/08/2017 18:29

Posted on 11/08/2017 15:06 by Goldie146

We use alternative technology - music loaded onto an Ipad and a Bluetooth speaker.

Posted on 11/08/2017 18:29

If there is a 3/4G signal you can also use it to stream the 'Wireless' through an app. Classics FM in our case. It does not use much data unlike video. The small Bluetooth Bose speaker we have gives amazing reproduction for its size.

Merve replied on 11/08/2017 18:50

Posted on 11/08/2017 14:57 by Pippah45

How on earth do you find the track you want in the middle of 40000, no there were more Zeros than that !?

Posted on 11/08/2017 18:50

You just ask for it- "Alexa, play in the mood by Glen miller" and it plays it! 

Merve replied on 11/08/2017 18:54

Posted on 11/08/2017 18:29 by SteveL

If there is a 3/4G signal you can also use it to stream the 'Wireless' through an app. Classics FM in our case. It does not use much data unlike video. The small Bluetooth Bose speaker we have gives amazing reproduction for its size.

Posted on 11/08/2017 18:54

That's one of the advantages with it. It uses little data and very little battery. - perfect for my style of caravanning. I would like to upgrade my bluetooth speaker and Bose is a good make. 

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