Amazon Alexa and Echo FAQ

degsie

clintondaly wrote: »

Hi

Stumbled across this earlier(no affiliation) ,general FAQ's applicable to Ireland can be taken in conjunction with post #1 by "bk"

https://smarthomeguide.ie/2017/01/14/the-complete-guide-to-using-amazon-echo-in-ireland/

Seems to be other similar topics covered too

Might be handy for some

Great idea except Amazon shut down a similar UK site. Wait and see....

DieselPowered

Mariomaker wrote: »

Is there a fix for Newstalk yet. When requesting Alexa to play Newstalk I say "Alexa play Newstalk FM" but it bring me to a station called the Young Turks in the USA. Anyone have an idea how to resolve?

One other way to get Newstalk Radio to work on TuneIn as follows:

Login to your Alexa account
http://alexa.amazon.co.uk

- Select Music & Books
- Select Tunein
- Select Local Radio
Seach bar at the top
- Search for "Newtalk"
- Select "Newstalk"




- Select "Now Playing" on the left side main menu
(Newstalk should be playing as default)

- Click on "Newstalk" icon over on right hand side
- Select "Favorite Station"



This should help Alexa to remember the station

garbeth

Or say Alexa Play 107.6

Bluefoam

Last night my HTC Boost app told me that I haven't opened the Alexa app in over a month and suggested that I delete it...

I can remember using Alexa exactly twice recently, once to show some guests how it works, and the other time was when I came home from work, there was music blaring and crackling. I was wondering if my neighbors had inadvertently connected to my speakers via Bluetooth... I spent ages trying to disconnect the speaker in question, until I discovered that it was Alexa... Don't know how she picked up the command, but very very annoying.

So now Alexa has proven her usefulness to me is equalled by her disruptiveness....

mossie

Mariomaker wrote: »

Is there a fix for Newstalk yet. When requesting Alexa to play Newstalk I say "Alexa play Newstalk FM" but it bring me to a station called the Young Turks in the USA. Anyone have an idea how to resolve?

I have exactly the same problem.

mrcheez

What happens when you say "...play Newstalk FM on TuneIn"?

Zulu

Alexa, tunein NewsTalk FM works for me 40% of the time.
The other 60% I've kids shouting, screaming, tearing around the place, choosing that exact time to shout "lexa tell me joke".

So in other words it works fine for me all things considered.

mossie

mrcheez wrote: »

What happens when you say "...play Newstalk FM on TuneIn"?

It plays a station called FM Newstalk 97.1, not the Irish one. Saying play 107.6 plays a station called The Breeze in Basingstoke, England, saying Newstalk plays Young Turks. Adding Newstalk to favourites makes no difference.

Zulu

I used to have the youngturks issues when I said "NewsTalk" as opposed to "NewsTalk FM".
Are you set to amazon.com or amazon.co.uk?

degsie

"Alexa, play Newstalk FM Ireland on TuneIn", usually results in a confirmation question but works for me.

mossie

degsie wrote: »

"Alexa, play Newstalk FM Ireland on TuneIn", usually results in a confirmation question but works for me.

This works, thanks.

podge3

I just have to say "Alexa, play Newstalk FM".

Works 100% off the time.

mrcheez

mossie wrote: »

It plays a station called FM Newstalk 97.1, not the Irish one. Saying play 107.6 plays a station called The Breeze in Basingstoke, England, saying Newstalk plays Young Turks. Adding Newstalk to favourites makes no difference.

Is the Echo set to a location in Ireland?

Perhaps try setting the location to "5 O'Connell Street Lower, Dublin, IE"

That's what I have mine set to.

givecredit

mrcheez wrote: »

Is the Echo set to a location in Ireland?

Perhaps try setting the location to "5 O'Connell Street Lower, Dublin, IE"

That's what I have mine set to.

Yes, Setting location to Dublin makes big improvements. Echo works a lot better since end of last year.

For Radio Just say " Alexa, play newstalk" Alexa play 2fm, alexa play 98fm, All play 100% of times. I've tried a good range of stations. I radio i cannot play, Alexa suggests an alternative and plays it.
If you say Alexa play radio 1, it plays BBC radio1, Play RTE radio 1, plays rte1

"Alexa whats the weather" gives Dublin weather. I live in Galway. " Alexa whats the weather in Galway" gives me galway weather.

tipperaryboy

I have some of the IFTT applets connected 'Keep a google spreadsheet of songs you listen to on alexa' . Have looked around can't find where the content is stored? Triple checked my google documents nothing there and no further info on IFTT and no reply to email.

Can't figure it out

Krusty_Clown

tipperaryboy wrote: »

I have some of the IFTT applets connected 'Keep a google spreadsheet of songs you listen to on alexa' . Have looked around can't find where the content is stored? Triple checked my google documents nothing there and no further info on IFTT and no reply to email.

Can't figure it out

Did you approve permissions for IFTT to access Google sheets?

It works fine for me for updating shopping lists and tracking my working hours on Google Sheets.

mossie

tipperaryboy wrote: »

I have some of the IFTT applets connected 'Keep a google spreadsheet of songs you listen to on alexa' . Have looked around can't find where the content is stored? Triple checked my google documents nothing there and no further info on IFTT and no reply to email.

Can't figure it out

I have this set up too but the applet shows never run.

Papav3r

Anyone ever have issues finding skills?

I can't seem to find the justeat or guardian skills on the app or the website?

Am I missing something?

clintondaly

Papav3r wrote: »

Anyone ever have issues finding skills?

I can't seem to find the justeat or guardian skills on the app or the website?

Am I missing something?

You logged into .com rather than .uk ?

Papav3r

clintondaly wrote: »

You logged into .com rather than .uk ?

Yeah, my digital content was set to US.

Swapped it over and getting the skills I was after.

Cheers

ctlsleh

Still having trouble with news talk........(registered in co.uk and ireland is location......Tried Newtalk, news talk FM, news talk 106.......have to select it from the app.....have searched the thread

garbeth

Try 107.6 works for me every time. If it doesn't cycle through all options from 106.0 to 106.9 if none of them work try 107.0 to 107.9 or 108.0 to 108.9.

One should work

frash

Anyone's RTE Flash Briefing not updating?

Mine's been saying the same news for a couple of days now.

degsie

ctlsleh wrote: »

Still having trouble with news talk........(registered in co.uk and ireland is location......Tried Newtalk, news talk FM, news talk 106.......have to select it from the app.....have searched the thread

"Alexa, play NewsTalk FM Ireland from TuneIn"

you are welcome

johnwoods

Hey folks,
I picked up a Dot in London the other day, working well so far.
( I lived in the UK for a few years so I had a UK amazon account with UK debit card setup)


Although this FAQ states that it will not support local weather in Dublin I actually managed to change my location from my old London address to my Dublin address.

When I ask Alexa for the weather she gives me weather for Dublin (without me having to specify Dublin).
Additionally when I ask Alexa to play music, she plays on Spotify by default (again I changed the default music player to spotify).

A couple of questions I was hoping you could help with:
1) The flash briefing weather doesn't work, it goes to give a forecast and then just says 'not available', even though asking for weather straight up just works. - Tried a restart and enabling and disabling the skill in flash briefing. Any other ideas? Anyone here got the weather working in flash briefing?

2) I'm surprised RTE have a skill, works well, shocked to see them be ahead of things for once, why would they support a device thats not even available in the country officially?

3) I can only seem to add a handful (approx 20) flash briefing skills, am I looking in the wrong place, or is there only a few of these?

I was thinking of writing my own skill to track dublin bus (Alexa ask Dublin bus when the next 130 is etc), also to track some cryptocurrency prices.

Anyway there doesnt seem to be any real limit to using Alexa in Ireland once you set your address properly. Any other limitations you guys are seeing these days?

degsie

johnwoods wrote: »

I was thinking of writing my own skill to track dublin bus (Alexa ask Dublin bus when the next 130 is etc)

4NextBus skill already does this

johnwoods

degsie wrote: »

4NextBus skill already does this

Yeah it's good.

I also noticed that asking Alexa "what's up" causes her to give me the time and then go to say "here's what's happening" then she just stops.

Any idea?

degsie

johnwoods wrote: »

Yeah it's good.

I also noticed that asking Alexa "what's up" causes her to give me the time and then go to say "here's what's happening" then she just stops.

Any idea?

Maybe she's just shy

clintondaly

Echo can now be paired by bluetooth with another speaker,wasn't possible previously

I have not tried it yet

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/amazon-echo-pair-with-a-bluetooth-speaker/?ftag=CAD-04-10aaf6e&bhid=

degsie

johnwoods wrote: »

I also noticed that asking Alexa "what's up" causes her to give me the time and then go to say "here's what's happening" then she just stops.

I noticed this happens on the Echo but not the Echo dot.