Google home vs Amazon Echo

ToxicBunny said:
Fair enough...

And honest opinion from me (even though I've chosen the Google ecosystem myself), it seems the Amazon one best suits your use case and requirements.
Click to expand...

Final question on both. Just buying US - > SA Plug adapter should be fine? No problems with voltage etc?
 
Chris_SA said:
Final question on both. Just buying US - > SA Plug adapter should be fine? No problems with voltage etc?
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xrapidx said:
Crap - didnt think of that - they're 110v aren't they?
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They're all good...

I run my Chromecast on an US - SA adapter plug atm...

All of them are dual voltage because not ALL of the US is still backwards with 110v these days.
 
I guess a major factor between these two , if anyone is following the news , is ultimately which products do you actually use on these devices . Amazon and Google are currently in a nasty feud and blocking each other. Latest is Jan 2018, google is going to pull the plug on a ton of things on various Amazon devices. I'd say if you remotely want youtube on your device (even for just listening music) , better not go with the Amazon device...

So far Google can block alot of services/apps , Amazon can only block products on their store....

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-amazon-devices-escalating-spat-idUSKBN1DZ37O
In a statement, Google said, ”Amazon doesn’t carry Google products like Chromecast and Google Home, doesn’t make (its) Prime Video available for Google Cast users, and last month stopped selling some of (our sister company) Nest’s latest products.

“Given this lack of reciprocity, we are no longer supporting YouTube on Echo Show and Fire TV,” Google said. “We hope we can reach an agreement to resolve these issues soon.”
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So yea, that might just be the beginning...
 
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I have a few echo dots and fire TV which have integrated with my Sonos system (lots of work still needs to be done here - it is an exercise in frustration at the moment for me). In addition , I have a whole bunch of Hue lights and some sonoff stuff . Integration is easy. I had to rename my Sonos speakers but we have a working solution.

Getting Alexa app on phone was the most difficult part if your play account or appstore account is south african based. Was a nightmare to get. Thankfully, you can sideload the Alexa app on android by get the app via apkpure.

Alexa is defaulted in my case to UK so asking what's the weather like tells me my random london UK address. Can't set location to SA .

I also have Amazon music and Deezer. Amazon music seems to work here so may cancel Deezer going forwards. Stations on Amazon music are brilliant. Now they can play on my Sonos speakers (have 8 of them!!) or the dots too.

Firetv is also cool. Fact that I can set VPN directly on them means I will ditch appleTV soon which is a nightmare to get content from other regions. Prime Video is also cool on firetv . Using alexa on this means I can also control everything in house.

Have to say the dots are super sensitive - I think I can get away with 1 for the whole house if I put it in a central location. Sonos handles my music normally.


Asking alexa questions or getting her to do stuff is painful sometimes. You have to be very precise. Case in example, a new skill she has since last week is , 'tell me a pun'. But when there were a few of us together , I said 'tell us a pun' and it says it doesn't know how. Google home apparently is way ahead in natural language QA. I really do hope Amazon catches up here.
 
InternetLuddite said:
I have a few echo dots and fire TV which have integrated with my Sonos system (lots of work still needs to be done here - it is an exercise in frustration at the moment for me). In addition , I have a whole bunch of Hue lights and some sonoff stuff . Integration is easy. I had to rename my Sonos speakers but we have a working solution.

Getting Alexa app on phone was the most difficult part if your play account or appstore account is south african based. Was a nightmare to get. Thankfully, you can sideload the Alexa app on android by get the app via apkpure.

Alexa is defaulted in my case to UK so asking what's the weather like tells me my random london UK address. Can't set location to SA .

I also have Amazon music and Deezer. Amazon music seems to work here so may cancel Deezer going forwards. Stations on Amazon music are brilliant. Now they can play on my Sonos speakers (have 8 of them!!) or the dots too.

Firetv is also cool. Fact that I can set VPN directly on them means I will ditch appleTV soon which is a nightmare to get content from other regions. Prime Video is also cool on firetv . Using alexa on this means I can also control everything in house.

Have to say the dots are super sensitive - I think I can get away with 1 for the whole house if I put it in a central location. Sonos handles my music normally.


Asking alexa questions or getting her to do stuff is painful sometimes. You have to be very precise. Case in example, a new skill she has since last week is , 'tell me a pun'. But when there were a few of us together , I said 'tell us a pun' and it says it doesn't know how. Google home apparently is way ahead in natural language QA. I really do hope Amazon catches up here.
Click to expand...
I am also waiting for my Sonos one (with built in Alexa) to arrive. Since the Sonos one will also support Google home early next year, I will be giving that a go to test out Google home.
 
There are hundreds of them but they do not show up on my google home app.
 
InternetLuddite said:
I have a few echo dots and fire TV which have integrated with my Sonos system (lots of work still needs to be done here - it is an exercise in frustration at the moment for me). In addition , I have a whole bunch of Hue lights and some sonoff stuff . Integration is easy. I had to rename my Sonos speakers but we have a working solution.

Getting Alexa app on phone was the most difficult part if your play account or appstore account is south african based. Was a nightmare to get. Thankfully, you can sideload the Alexa app on android by get the app via apkpure.

Alexa is defaulted in my case to UK so asking what's the weather like tells me my random london UK address. Can't set location to SA .

I also have Amazon music and Deezer. Amazon music seems to work here so may cancel Deezer going forwards. Stations on Amazon music are brilliant. Now they can play on my Sonos speakers (have 8 of them!!) or the dots too.

Firetv is also cool. Fact that I can set VPN directly on them means I will ditch appleTV soon which is a nightmare to get content from other regions. Prime Video is also cool on firetv . Using alexa on this means I can also control everything in house.

Have to say the dots are super sensitive - I think I can get away with 1 for the whole house if I put it in a central location. Sonos handles my music normally.


Asking alexa questions or getting her to do stuff is painful sometimes. You have to be very precise. Case in example, a new skill she has since last week is , 'tell me a pun'. But when there were a few of us together , I said 'tell us a pun' and it says it doesn't know how. Google home apparently is way ahead in natural language QA. I really do hope Amazon catches up here.
Click to expand...

I just quickly logged into my us iTunes account and downloaded alexa app. I had no problem setting Africa, Johannesburg as location for time.

d6ee7b7cc1d269c5c0efa88782f09950.jpg
 
Chris_SA said:
I just quickly logged into my us iTunes account and downloaded alexa app. I had no problem setting Africa, Johannesburg as location for time.

d6ee7b7cc1d269c5c0efa88782f09950.jpg
Click to expand...
Yeah. I am talking about location. You cant say, what's the weather or stuff like that, only UK addresses (in my case accepted)
 
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