Be Excellent To Each Other

Mine does my cooking alarms, tells me the weather when I get up, and turns my lights on and off.

It seems to be getting a bit mutton as time goes on though...

We have a couple of these from both Amazon and Google, and both types activate now and then when I fart or burp. I'm not sure whether to be amused or disturbed. Maybe I just have really articulate burps and farts?

“Not a girl”

Mr C: Uuuuuuuuurp

Alexa: You pig.

Google Home: What she said.

That exact combination hasn't happened yet, but you do get the two devices talking to each other. Still doesn't explain why a burp can sound even close to "OK Google"

I have a ring doorbell and an echo show. When the doorbell rings the Show announces it, but doesn’t display the feed unless you ask Alexa to show it.

I’ve since bought a new TV that also has Alexa built in, so I’ve now set a routine so that when the doorbell rings, if the TV is on, Alexa on the TV says “Alexa, Show the front door” which then opens the feed on the Show.

I am overly proud of this achievement.

The discovery that Alexa can run a game of musical statues is a just brilliant. On a par with eradicating smallpox.

I got some smart plugs. For bedroom lamps.

If In the room you just have to say turn on lamps. If In another room. You have to use the room monicker.

Can even turn them off and on at mrs kovs house.

I am amazed

Which did you get? That sounds simple enough for my family to handle.

I'm not sure how Kov thought they were going to work

You have to give them instructions out loud in binary

I was not sure.

The voice recognition works well too. I am easily impressed.

Some smart link ones from amazon.

Cheers!

Nest Mini is down to £29 for Black Friday. I've got one to upgrade the Home Mini in the kitchen as that's where we play all our music and the new one is supposed to have better sound. The old one can go near the TV.

We did similar with the Alexa, with a deal a week or two ago where you could get an Alexa and four Tile things for £60 because I keep on losing my jets and wallet. Now I can ask Alexa to find my keys, phone, wallet, headphones and glasses.

Best one is keys when I have to leave the house for the nursery. Reminds me of a little keyring my grandad used to have where you could whistle and it would whistle back.

So, I worked out how to link new Alexa to the old one now in the kitchen and the other one in ten bedroom and play music through them all simultaneously, so when I’m moving around the house doing things I can hear it everywhere. It’s aces.

Got the Google nest hub after various recommendations on here and it is very nice.

Set up with Google photos in minutes and I think the recipe functionality will be v handy.

Have added my Sonos speakers and Spotify account which works fine via voice command. However, how do I tell my nest hub to play radio eg BBC 6music through my Sonos? Is it possible?

Possibly worth mentioning that anyone with Play Music or YouTube Premium sub can get a Nest Mini for free on the Play Store (or could just before Christmas anyway). Not just that but anyone on their family plan can also get one. My mate generously added me to her plan a while back and pinged me to let me know about the deal; all five of us ended getting a Nest Mini on her sub which was nice.

The current Mrs Bamba is a bit of a tinfoil hatter but even she enjoys just shouting at the thing to get the radio playing in the morning. That's literally the only use case I have for it apparently; but as my bedroom DAB radio packed in very recently it's a useful replacement. Not least because I can now listen to some purely internet stations (e.g. Kerrang radio) instead of being restricted to DAB/FM stuff.

Ignore this question, got it working. Turns out i needed to say bbc radio 6 music rather than 6 music.

Just saying "OK Google, Play Radio 6" worked for me if that helps.

Alexa often reminds me of the frustrations playing a text adventure where you know what you want but can't quite formulate the acceptable sequence of words.

For me it starts playing a 6music play list from Spotify. Still, all working now.

And its only shown one entirely inappropriate picture to the children so far (parents pin-eyed
battered with fags in hand on night out.)

I fired up the Echo Dot last night, for the first time in about two years.

Actually, I tried to get it going on Sunday night but couldn't get it to connect to the router and gave up after several failed attempts.

Anyroadup, it gave in last night and connected, but I still found myself wondering what to do with it. We don't have any smart devices in the house that I could connect to, and all the Ask Alexa suggestions I get by email don't really interest me, so it's still just a novelty toy to me.

I could try insulting it to see if I get an interesting response.

Hands-free kitchen timer.

Could be. The only thing I need to time is my weekly pizza, and I've been using my phone for that.

Ack, the recipe functionality on the nest hub is less useful than I thought.

At present am struggling to import my own recipes, am at the mercy of whatever the Google assistant comes up with based on a voice search.

Some forums suggested one could link with rezpethos, a recipe organising app, via recipe chef, but having added a recipe there and given the command "talk to recipe chef", my hub tells me recipe chef is no longer supported.

Anyone had better luck getting their own recipes into their Nest Hub?

I've found a use for mine now. I can ask it what time it is when I wake in the small hours and can't see the time on my watch unless I have the light and my bins on.

I haven't physically pressed a light switch in months.

Other things to do with Google Home say “boom, boom, boom”

So , I assume you're either living in the dark or paying huge electricity bills.

Does it play a Vengaboys medley?

Obviously not, as that would be "boom boom boom boom".

It plays the sound of an exploding Basil Brush?

Unfortunately saying “boom boom” doesn’t elicit a nutriboom reply.

I feed my god complex by speaking into the aether and light appears.

2 more Nest Minis on the way for free. If you're a youtube premium or play music subscriber, check your email!

Or, click this link to see if you're eligible https://home.google.com/promotions?utm_ ... rm=support

I say, 'OK Google, good morning' every morning whilst I'm getting ready and it tells me what the weather is like and will be like for the day, how long my commute will take (always the same), and then gives me a nice customised digest of the news.

Wow, they really want these things in your home.

By the way, this recipe chef functionality has started working now. It's pretty sweet.

Obviously. They're useless if no-one uses them.

Wow, that’s something I hadn’t considered. Thank you for this insight

Well, you were stating the obvious. I thought it was a game.

I was perhaps implying there were insidious reasons for them wanting to use them as loss leaders, rather than stating the obvious. Thanks for playing though!

Of course there's insidious reasons, did anyone think anything even remotely other than that?

Any time, bro!

Giphy "hi 5":
https://media2.giphy.com/media/Q5XanrO9w8o12znxRO/giphy-loop.mp4