Unpacking the Amazon Echo in Australia

So I was lucky enough to receive an Amazon Echo from Santa Claus this Christmas. He must have read that letter I wrote. And, of course, I have been very good all year.

Alright, in all seriousness, I had been wary of putting the Amazon Echo at the top of my Christmas wish list. I wasn't sure whether it would A) be really that good and B) work well outside of the US.

But now that I have been using it for a few days - and I do want to emphasise the word "use" here, rather than simply "play" - I'm so glad that I did. It is awesome! In a nutshell, it is really that good and it works very well here in Australia.

In fact, it is so good that not only does my wife use it, but when my mother comes over, she uses it. And she's not exactly tech-savvy. Quite the opposite actually. Apart from time, alarm and weather - everything works perfectly here in Australia. I was worried that time, alarm and weather would mean about 30% of its functionality was useless outside the US. The fact is that time, alarm and weather probably make up about 0.1% of what this thing can do.

As with most products from Amazon, the packaging is nice - protects the product well yet is very easy to open. And, like the LIFX Color 1000 Wi-Fi LED Smart Light Bulb, setup seemed amazingly simple:

1. Plug in
2. Download app and run setup

And somewhat unlike my experience with the LIFX light bulb, the actual setup was in fact amazingly simple. Around three minutes and I was done. Now all I had to do was learn about all of the things this little device could do. The questions and commands noted on the outside packaging were just the tip of the iceberg.

When the Echo is not "awake", it has no lights illuminated.

And when the Echo is "awake" and listening for a question or command, it lights up blue.

Using it is really that simple. Say the wake word, "Alexa", and ask a question or say a command. That's it. Its simplicity is ingenious. In my experience, 95% of the time it works a treat. I was genuinely surprised at A) how well it can interpret nuances in the English language and B) how well it can hear across a room, even if people are talking, music is playing or the TV is on.

By far the most use we have had from the Amazon Echo is playing music. Christmas music to be precise. Kids Christmas music to be even more precise. Given it is Christmas and given we do have kids, I have to say that it did make Christmas that little bit more festive and fun. Keep in mind, you do have to have an Amazon Prime membership for it to play music from Amazon's library (which in my experience has music from a lot of artists, but not as much as Spotify). You can also easily connect it to free options, such as Pandora or TuneIn - which I did. Again, very easy to do and very cool.

On a side note, and it is a side note as I'm not that savvy when it comes to music or sound or acoustics, the speakers on the Amazon Echo are very good. For me, the sound is comparable in quality to devices of similar cost and at full volume, I was surprised at the quality and clarity for such a small device. Browsing around the JB Hi-Fi website, you can find wireless / Bluetooth speakers ranging from $75 to $500+, but they will only produce sound. They don't answer questions nor take commands. Boring! ...Oh, my cost for the Amazon Echo was $225 AUD ($159 USD) minus postage (ummm, I know this because Santa, for some strange reason, left the receipt).

We have also used the Amazon Echo to:

• Add items to our Shopping list
• Add items to our To Do list
• Convert units of measurement (very handy for when you are cooking and have your hands dirty or full!)
• Set timers for various tasks (for boring stuff like reminding us to hang up the washing when the washing machine cycle ends)
• Ask for the time in overseas locations (given it's Christmas and we have family overseas to call, this was very handy)
• Seek answers to random questions during family discussions - yes, I was right that a tomato is actually a fruit even though it is mainly treated as a vegetable (gosh I hope that is right, otherwise the Echo is lying to me!)
• Get traffic updates for my commute to work (yes, it's only four days after Christmas and I am back at work)
• Tell us jokes (not as humorous as watching a sitcom, but fun nonetheless)

So technically, all this good stuff I'm talking about here is actually made possible by Alexa. Alexa is Amazon's cloud service that powers the Amazon Echo. Amazon Echo is just the hardware device. Alexa is what actually interprets and responds to questions and commands. Alexa is also available on Amazon Fire TV units (currently only the second generation ones), though I gather the experience is less automatic as you need to push a button to interact, whereas the Amazon Echo is always listening (cue X Files music).

The good thing about this is that because the Amazon Echo uses Alexa, it is always learning. Apparently it learns your voice and adapts, so that must be good, but the services and functionality available will continue to expand. And this is definitely something I have already noticed, as on Boxing Day Amazon announced some additions, such as The Beatles being available on Amazon Prime, horoscope predictions and "The Bartender", where you can ask for the ingredients, amounts, and instructions for mixing cocktails.

So on the whole, there is nothing else that I have seen that compares to the Amazon Echo. And the service that powers it - Alexa - simply works and is superior to its competitors. I have used Google Now, Microsoft Cortana and Apple Siri. None compare. Besides, none have a device similar to the Amazon Echo so in my mind it's a moot point.

I feel I have yet to truly experience the power of the Amazon Echo and Alexa. It has IFTTT connectivity and I get all excited like a kid in a candy store thinking about all the possibilities!

If you are in Australia (or anywhere outside of the US for that matter) and are debating whether to get the Amazon Echo or not, stop debating. Get it!

If you are considering getting a wireless / Bluetooth speaker, stop! Get the Amazon Echo. You'll have your cake and can eat it too!

Netflix and LIFX

This is my Netflix LIFX red. Perfect for Narcos.  :)

My first dabble with the Internet of Things (IoT) - the LIFX Color 1000 Wi-Fi LED Smart Light Bulb

Ok, this is it. I have been getting excited about the Internet of Things (IoT) and home automation for a while now, but this is my first real foray into this brave new connected world.

My package finally arrived after an Australia Post delay due to a derailed train. LIFX really packaged this bulb nicely, and understandably so, given the expected fragile nature of light bulbs. So first impressions of LIFX - thumbs up.

Once the sturdy external packaging was tossed away, here's what the LIFX Color 1000 Wi-Fi LED Smart Light Bulb looks like:

I was well behaved and read the instructions first. And was very happy when, essentially, the installation steps were:

1. Attach
2. Power on
3. Pair with Android / iOS app

Easy enough, I thought.

Step 1, no dramas. This is what you do with any light bulb you replace. Take the old one out, put the new one in. One thing that was noticeable in doing this was that the LIFX Color 1000 is heavy when compared to a standard bulb. This didn't matter at all for my lamp, but just something you notice.

Step 2, even easier. Flick a switch and you have light. And a very bright one at that. I'm not sure what the out-of-the-box dim and color settings were for the LIFX, but either way, it was much brighter than my old light bulb and at 75 watt equivalent / 1,055 lumens - this is more than enough for my purposes (floor lamp in our living area).

Now, before moving on, you could simply stop after step 2 and you have a perfectly fine, low energy light bulb. But that would just be silly wouldn't it. At $60 USD, it's not exactly your cheapest and with Wi-Fi connectivity and so many colours to play with... well, step 3 is where it gets fun!

Step 3, though, is where I got a bit stuck. I have a Google Nexus 5 mobile phone, so am using the Android LIFX app. Thankfully, I was stuck on this step for only 15 minutes and I think it was user error more than anything else. I will provide the details, though, in case other Android users come up against this issue.

When initially adding a bulb to your account / app, you need to connect to it directly via Wi-Fi. It is at this point where I got an "Oops, that didn't work" error stating, "Let's try that again. If this keeps happening, try switching your light off and then on and waiting a minute before continuing."

I did what it said, though had no luck again. At this point I took many different actions - restarting my phone, restarting my modem / Wi-Fi network, resetting the LIFX light bulb (you can do this by turning it on and off at one second intervals, five times)... all to no avail. I also jumped on the LIFX support / help centre website pages and read through some articles, but alas, none helped my cause.

After about 15 minutes, it struck me that maybe I should actually pay attention to a message that I had been consistently getting every time I tried to finalise step 3 - an Android system message stating that the Wi-Fi connection (to the LIFX light bulb) had no internet access and to touch for options. When I did, I was able to select the option of keeping the connection and, like a Festivus miracle, I had success. The final actions to step 3 were to simply configure the LIFX light bulb with my home Wi-Fi network name and password. Once done, setup was complete.

So to sum up, those 3 steps should take no more than five minutes. But you don't truly have the feeling of success unless you have climbed over a little hurdle. Well, that's what I tell myself anyway.

With full control of the LIFX Color 1000, you can select the lighting conditions to suit your mood - from warm and cool whites, to hot pinks and mellow blues. Add to that the ability to dim and you have one fully customisable light bulb. Pure magic.

The app even comes with preset themes and effects. My daughter was particularly fond of the Halloween colour - a bright orange that she declared as, "oooh, scary."

Here's a look at the functionality of the app:

And here's what the light effects actually look like from our floor lamp:

I have also connected this LIFX light bulb to my wife's Amazon Fire phone, which also runs Android, and it works a treat too. So yes, you can connect bulbs and control them from multiple devices.

Playing around with the colours is cool, but what I really want to start exploring is home automation. Given I've had this thing for only half a day, I am yet to get that far, but stay tuned as I do plan on testing it out more. Automatically turning on at night, IFTTT connectivity, flashing on certain predetermined events... oooh, the possibilities!

Finally, on the topic of availability here in Australia, I was initially looking at Philips Hue lighting given they seemed to be the most popular. However, they were only available with an Edison Screw connection so they were no good for my house. I'm not sure on typical connection types, but around our house they seem to be mostly Bayonet Cap. Perhaps in the USA the Edison Screw is standard. It wasn't until I noticed the LIFX brand in a local Harvey Norman store - and, critically, they were available in both connection types. I nearly made an impulse buy, but was happy I didn't as after browsing around on the LIFX website, it became clear that Harvey Norman only stocked the original bulbs and I wanted to make sure I had the latest model. So my purchase was made directly from LIFX.