Amazon Echo or Dot - useful? (moving, travel, opinion, senior)

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Rose T

You need internet to download the Alexa app. From that you can set up other apps like I Heart Radio, Pandora, Amazon Prime. From those you can stream music. You can also get news flash updates from NPR, CNN and others. You can use it as a timer, play music or thunderstorms, rain, crickets etc. at bedtime, on a timer. This scratches the surface.,,...

So it can not get local radio stations, only online radio. Thank you.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

It connects over your WiFi Network, and however you have it connected to the internet.

It can play music and can play radio stations that are connected via tunein or iHeartRadio networks.

It can also play music from your personal (Uploaded 250 songs) library, and if you have AmazonPrime can play thousands of songs in lots of genres.

So your modem router handles the connection.

It likely would work better to download songs into a 'library' instead of streaming them to avoid buffering. Like we have to do with movies.

[TheEmissary]

Originally Posted by Submariner

So it can not get local radio stations, only online radio. Thank you.

Submariner - It can get your local radio station, if that station streams over the internet! I tell it "Alexa, play WFAE", and it starts playing the Charlotte NPR station. Usually, the streamed version is a couple of seconds behind the actual broadcast played by my receiver's FM tuner. Other than that, it's all good! When I get a little homesick for the old New York stations, I can call them up as well!

If you want to save some money, just buy the Amazon Dot and a cheap bluetooth speaker. The Dot itself has a small speaker built-in and is basically the "brains section" of the Echo. You can also hook the Dot up to any device with an AUX input (old boombox) that uses the small headphone jack-style input. I hooked up a Dot to my bedroom receiver with a stereo phone jack on one end and RCA composite red and white connectors on the other end and that setup works like a charm as well!

[froglipz]

Originally Posted by Submariner

So it can not get local radio stations, only online radio. Thank you.

It CAN get local stations through I Heart Radio. I Heart Radio carries many local stations.

[Submariner]

I have been trying to get a few of our local radio stations to live-stream. So far they do not see any purpose in doing so.

[flyonpa]

Originally Posted by Submariner

So your modem router handles the connection.

It likely would work better to download songs into a 'library' instead of streaming them to avoid buffering. Like we have to do with movies.

Your Music Library is stored up in the Amazon Cloud Server, But music uses much smaller bandwidth then a movie would.

Listen to Top Radio Stations in Portland, ME, Free | iHeartRadio

(you can change the drop down and check other cities)

Local Radio - TuneIn Radio

[froglipz]

Originally Posted by Submariner

So your modem router handles the connection.

It likely would work better to download songs into a 'library' instead of streaming them to avoid buffering. Like we have to do with movies.

NEVER had any streaming buffering.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by flyonpa

Your Music Library is stored up in the Amazon Cloud Server, But music uses much smaller bandwidth then a movie would.

Ouch. So you first need internet access to even be able to access your music library.

... url=http://www.iheart.com/live/country/US/city/portland-me-454/]Listen to Top Radio Stations in Portland, ME, Free | iHeartRadio[/url]

I do live in the Southern half of Maine, however there are no Portland stations accessible here [except via internet].

PBN is online and a couple Christian stations.

I have contacted WVOM 101.3 / 103.9 / 1450 for years 103.9 WVOM The Voice Of Maine - Homepage - WVOM trying to get them to do live streaming.

[flyonpa]

Echo/Dot is expecting to be connected to the internet 24x7 to work.

Everything it does is "Online" off the Amazon servers.

It might lose its internet connection to your WiFi at times, (A red ring shows up on the top of it, when it can not connect to the internet and/or Amazon servers.)


Techie stuff:

If you have not used it in (?1 hr? ?1 day?) your routers will release the IP address your router has assigned to that device, But after a few seconds the router will assign a new IP address, (Most router give a 24hour Lease on a IP address to a device, some do 1 hour leases), so if its been inactive the "wakeup" can take a few more seconds as the stuff behind the device all reconnects.

[karlsch]

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