No comments about two balls and a dot? Just me? @therealjrn?
I need to wash my mind out with soap.
Let me know if that mind soap thing works. I need it, too.
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You people! Iām not sure what 2 balls and a dot equals out to, but it seems incomplete.
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Maybe a sound bar?
Got a mushroom or pickle to complete the picture?
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I had a similar problem over the weekend. Amazon CS told me the device was reported as LOST. The tech implemented some sort of change that required us leaving the device on and then trying again after ten minutes but I havenāt had a chance to try again yet. Iāll try again when I get home. Iāll let you know if i have any luck.
The dot ā¦ unless you have attached speakers, is not anything to speak of.
The balls have decent enough sound quality, ā¦ actually kind of really good for what they do. IMO surprisingly well. The Show does have some good sound quality, too, but there are very few things Iāve found the show good for with regard to the reason it has a screen. I thought it would be good for recipes, but it wants to go to sleep and then I canāt find the recipe again. I thought it would be good for lists, but not too good there. Maybe Youtube? It would be good if it had a native app, but as it is, itās a bit flaky through the built-in browser. It works, but feels like the kludge it is.
As an alarm clock, it works fairly decently, especially if the display brightening is useful, but this flows back to potentially being too bright at night or too dim in the morning. The camera part detects light (as far as I can tell) and putting it in privacy mode (hide the camera) doesnāt help the Show see light changes. (I could be wrong, but this is my unscientific opinion based upon anecdotal evidence).
The show is somewhat good for karaoke because the lyrics (at least for Amazon Music) do show on the screen.
At this current price, though, itās probably good enough to replace oneās basic alarm clock, but itās still too big to be worth travelling with, and maybe too small to make a lot of use of the screen. Interestingly, If I were traveling in an RV, this or the 8 might be on my list just to have some infotainment bigger than my cellphone.
I really wanted to like this more. I supposed as a face to face chat with someone itās good for that. Otherwise, for what I get out of it, the ball-with-clock is my preferred Echo device so far, based upon footprint and functionality. Others may have better/different luck than I have had with the Show, but there is limited value add for the Show versus the dot/ball with clock versus oneās cell phone.
This is my own personal opinion, and others will have theirs, but the summary for me is everything I can see the Show doing, I have some other device I already have doing better.
Have you tried Night mode? This uses a black background with red numbers for me. Much better.
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Swipe down the screen and select Settings
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Go Home and Clock
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Select Night mode and from the slider, you can enable the night mode.
Handy in the kitchen to display recipes, add to shopping list, set cooking timer, listen to music, podcasts or news while you are cooking or cleaning.
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@crythias - have you paired it with your phone and taught it āskills?ā It is quirky in that many of the controls have to be implemented via the Alexa app on a cellphone. Downloadable via the Google Play store.
I have more descriptions of this in the echo show 10 thread which you may find of possible interest. Hope that helps you get more out of the device. I agree it is less than I had hoped but it has utility for those seeking specific functions such as daily newscasts, hands-free calling, checking video camera feeds. You can save items for later viewing but they donāt make it easy.
It does not support apps from even Amazonās app store ( not even side-loaded ) which I found to be almost an inconceivable weakness in its design. But the design engineers were determined to make the echo shows voice command hubs for home automation. They did not design it as a tablet alternative.
Yes, Iām permanently on night mode. But that only slightly changes the issues to not have ads. The screen is still too small for what Iād want a screen for, night mode doesnāt change the issue with the camera detecting the brightness (if itās the brightness detector) and thus night mode might be too bright (manual adjust is possible, but still, why should I need to?) or when dimmed, too dim for the morning (manually adjust is possible, but still, why should I need to?).
Also ā¦ black background is still ālitā unfortunately.
And ā¦ weirdly, Alexa doesnāt know how to dim/brighten the screen if you ask.
You might want the ones with the large screen then. I just have mine on the dresser beside my bed so I can see it just fine. Donāt use it for much else but a clock and alarm.
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Thatās basically my summary above, too. Itās a big, bright alarm clock that self-sets time, currently at a decent enough price if one were to purchase a reasonably featured āradioā alarm clock.
Yes, itās part of my ahem āechoā system. I understand the skills, but very few of what I really want to do do I need a screen for, especially/even home automation. Now, to be fair, if/when I have multiple cams posted around, I do not disagree that the display can be useful for that. As another point to that, though, I can ask my TV to show me the same things, and Iām nearly always at the TV. Yeah, I get it, the screen is available when the TV is not, but so is my cellphone, laptop, my tablet ā¦ and they, too, are always around me. And with regard to home automation, thatās what I have routines and voice for.
Iāll check out the Echo show 10 thread eventually. Thank you for pointing me in that direction.
My boyfriendās mom uses her Alexa speaker often. To ask the weather or other random things mostly as sheās 96yrs young. If i bought her one of these to video chat with us do we also need one ourselves or can she tell it to video chat and have it video call our Android phones and tablets?
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I think you can download Alexa onto your Android Tablets and chat that way. If I knew the limitations that I do now, I would just spend it on a used Fire tablet with alexa for similar functionality AND portability. It is good though if you want it to be semi permanently in a spot in e.g., the Kitchen. It is very much not compatible with Amazonās android app store (not at all compatible with Googleās Playstore and cannot be side loaded). It is not a flavor of Android OS. Rather a voice interface for Alexa āskills.ā For your BFās mom who is older, I recommend the 10" Echo Show Gen 2 model also available here. Has better sound and easier to see bigger screen display. I reviewed itās non-intuitive set up and function in a different thread. Requires a cellphone to āteachā it skills. Not hard once you know that essential aspect.
Caution: The used items here on Woot came with almost no set up directions. You would need to let any such item do a OS update and it is 10 times slower in doing it than a recent phone. Interrupt it in error and you probably do not brick it, but it will be missing functions - I had to cycle through 2 times to get it to update correctly and wait minutes between steps because it did not show it was completed in between steps.
Hope this helps.
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It helps so very much. Sadly she passed away this past week. Iām truly heartbroken. She was almost 97 years old though and lived a happy life so that puts me at ease a bit.
Setting up one of these devices for my mom though so the info is still helpful.
Condolences. Glad you love and cared for both so much. They want to be able to speak to you.
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Sorry for your loss.
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