Amazon Prime Sale

[blacklion1725]

Amazon Prime sale has started – and for no apparent reason I’ve just bought the (full size) Echo for £79.99 – I think the cheapest it has been by a long chalk.

If you have prime worth keeping your eyes peeled today and tomorrow – if you’ve never had it you can probably get a free trial

BTW the Echo Dot is £34.99 – decent saving too (vs £49.99)

“Alexa – stop me buying stuff I don’t need off Amazon”

 

….Oh and Fire TV stick (Alexa 2nd Gen) £29.99

[Ed P]

Ars has a list of the top deals they have noticed.

[The Duke]

Whilyfox has some good discounts, as does  Sennheiser. Seen a pair for £80 down from £200. Even at £200 it’s a better buy than a beats.

Ive not really looked, on Amazon over the last tow days, as I can’t be trusted, and can’t really afford to be tempted atm. Bit form the news clippets that I’ve seen it looks far better than last year. But that isn’t hard.

[Jason]

I’ve spent about £1200 on there so far…

[blacklion1725]

I’m not that bad Jason, but its so tempting I may get there yet.

I am desperately trying to not buy the Huawei smart watch 2 (£209 today). Have gone foe Echo (the bigger one) and a Fire TV stick for 2nd telly.

Don’t know whether to be happy or not – the TP-Link smart plugs were £16 – have 2 (all I need for now) that were north of £30.

I wonder if this is ahead of a permanent price drop on their own items (e.g. Echo and Fire stick) – the discount (on the Echo) is huge. I may well end up selling the Echo but interested to have a play….I really, really don’t need it but couldn’t help myself.

[Jason]

I suspect there’s a new model about to be launched.

All my stuff will be on sale on eBay as soon as the sale finishes. The Xbox One S and PS4 Slim bundles were astoundingly cheap. No trace of them on the site now, so I must have been lucky.

[blacklion1725]

That makes sense – I have had a bit of luck reselling on ebay in the past  (e.g. breaking up and selling bundles of power tools) but I know you do it as a business.

If the speaker on the Echo is decent I my well keep it, if not and I have a play then get my money back I’ll be happy. The fire stick is a keeper.

Staggers me what people will pay on ebay – especially for Amazon products where in stock (at Amazon) products like Echo, Fire sell for more than RRP. …..good news for sellers though.

[The Duke]

We have the echo puck (for lack of a better term) in the lounge. My eldest lad bought it, they had it in their room for a while, then got fed up with it, so it ended up in the lounge.

The wife loved it, which I found strange as she isn’t techy, but soon got over it. She unplugged it as the tv kept activating it.

I sort of like them, I use the Google home quite a bit, and the echo could do the same things I use home for. I am impressed (and scared)  with how good the mic is on it. Thr puck lives quite a way from the tv. It’s voice recognition is good, but not quite as good as Google home.

I like the idea of having a few of these (either echo or home) dotted around the place, and can see them being very useful IF you can find a need for them. For the people that don’t have a need, they will just see it as a fun gimmick then it will gather dust.

My 9yo loves it, it can understand her 10x (or more) better than Google or Siri, so I think it’s natural regonition engine may be better, than the Compition, and Google is only better for me, ad I’ve learnt how it likes to be spoken to.

I have a number of smart plugs and bulbs I use home for. I can see these type of things being good paired with smart plugs for pensioners, even though they would never want one. But every old person I know, seems to want to turn every plug off before bed. Bit most old folk struggle to get behind tvs etc so a smart plug would be the answer.

Though you can get simple remote smart (dumb) plugs with a simple remote. That could do what I said much cheaper. I can see them becoming more useful the more “smart” a house gets.

Though now, if you want to do anything more than ask them questions, you need to be a bit geeky leaning, as you have to mess with recipes etc to get things talking to each other. Most folk wouldn’t know where to start. And even when they do work, time to time they loose each other, and resets etc are needed. The average Joe, just wouldn’t put up with that. Only early adopters.

[JayCeeDee]

It wouldn’t do for our house – the wife would call out ( shout ) “Have you seen my glasses, darling?”  Cue the electronic snarky voiced reply – “Have you looked on top of your head yet??!!” and things would start bouncing off the wall – the puck for saying it closely followed by me for laughing at it!!

[Richard]

Steve, I am minded to agree with you. At the moment the devices are not even general purpose items, they are principally intended to support the supplier’s commercial activities. Some mild reprogramming to lessen that aspect while improving the suitability  for key vertical markets would be relatively straight forward. Items for use in e.g. old people’s support facilities have been available in some markets for years – the Japanese had them back in the late 1970s early 1980’s. (I know because my lot bought some kit for a developing aluminium smelter with the kit’s write up confirming it was specially suited to geriatric homes and specialist hospitals! We spent a while adapting it to its new role.)

Sadly some of the support and special interests groups in the UK have a poor record of specially tailored items ‘only’ cost 25% to 100% more than the free market equivalents. They should be pushing the likes of Amazon, Google, etc. to develop support modules for their group’s special needs in vertical market segments, perhaps down playing the usual applications to simplify their use. Items could then be tailored and pre-packaged for the target market segments. The elderly, partially sighted and other disabled could find a suitable assistant a god sent aid to normal living

However, I strongly agree that if there is no clear use or benefit then they will simply be an expensive and not very good dust magnets or not be purchased in the first place. Perhaps for this reason I found the Amazon sale disappointing with nothing that attracted any interest from me – and I spent time trawling through the listings. However, I am aware that many fell into the target demographic and found many items to buy or at least desire, for them it was successful.

[The Duke]

I successfully bought nothing. Didn’t even launch the app yesterday. I’d of defo grabbed a couple of the smart plugs if I’d if seen then. As you can never have to many. I have issues lol.

[blacklion1725]

The big Echo is quite nice – happy to pay £80 for it – don’t think I’d pay £150. As is often the case some functionality is crippled in the UK that is available in the USA (particularly voice calling and messaging). No idea why. The speaker itself is very decent – be even better with a “line in”, “line out” and a battery pack option but am pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it all was.

Duke BTW don’t know if you tried your puck/dot with the TP-Link smart switches but it works fine e.g. “turn on front room lamp”.  Still feels embarrassing saying it mind.

I think if we got the echo-echo voice calling app over here (you can frig it but need all your contacts to frig it too so not practical) it would make it a lot more appealing to me.

Saying that, it is still likely to be a keeper in my kitchen.

[The Duke]

I had no doubt it would work, I just set it up on the Home first.

Regarding it sounding silly, I’d really does when I get you try to explain to a non enthusiast  why it good. They look at you like your a bit mad.

It’s one of them, you either get it or think it’s pointless. Though automation isn’t going anywhere, so all will eventually come round.

I can remember when many here (mm) couldn’t see smart phones catching on. I recon my android software thread was probably the second largest thread behind the P4 one in the end.

[blacklion1725]

I get it and I think its pointless! But can’t help myself sometimes…..will probably get bored of it quick enough and move it on but for now it is amusing me 🙂

Going back to smartphones, I jumped on board when the Orange San Francisco came out…and only “got it” when my 2 lads showed me what was possible (in the GiffGaff unlimited everything days).  Difficult to imagine not having one now, the S5 though is going to break my heart when it packs in as it is the perfect phone for me.

Maybe one of these Echo type devices will get me hooked, more likely to be Google Home, but for now it (Echo) is enjoyable enough……sort of in the smart watch category now, I know I don’t want it but still want it….

[Bob Williams]

No. 2 gson bought me the Echo Dot, I haven’t even plugged it in to try it, can’t see a use for it. That was in March, he seems to have forgotten it. I hope…

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

I can see Alexa being connected to IoT equipment being very useful to the infirm but it would need a lot of money and setting up to be useful.

My eldest is a hardware geek and has spent quite a lot of time and cash in setting up his house so he can just yell at things. Has it been worth the money -no,, as 90% of the time he will do it the old fashioned way. has it been a useful learning curve? I really do not know, the jury is still out.

[Marc Berry]

hi all

i spent about £700 in all.

LG 4k hdr tv for the bedroom, 43 inch so bit big but reduced to £379.

Kenwood mixer rrp £400 odd, usual amazon price over £180, reduced to £118

Harmony elite well over £200 usually, reduced to £113 i think

and a few bits. i also think i have a problem

[Jason]

If you listen to a lot of radio and music (especially if you have a virtually unlimited free credit balance for digital downloads!), the Echo/Echo Dot is worth every penny. In that guide, it’s far from a gimmick. Even my mom has one in her bedroom — plays her classical albums and Classic FM almost every day. She’s never quite got the hang of a modern radio or a CD player, but the Echo she can work without trouble.

[Spedley]

I spent £89 on a GTX1050 OC.  Not a prime member (quite the opposite) but popped in for a look and the 1050 was something I’ve been keeping an eye open for at the right price.

(EDIT: glad to see it has gone back up to £106.80 still cheapest around https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MDOS4U2 )

i7 4790s / 8GB / 480GB SSD / GTX 980 / 34" UltraWide : i3 4170 / 8GB / 480GB SSD / GTX 770 / 24" Samsung : i3 4130 / 8GB / 500GB Spinner / GTX 1050 / 23" Acer : Q9550 / 8GB / 1TB Spinner / GTX 580 / 22" Acer : i7 720QM / 8GB / 1TB+2TB+500GB Spinners (server) : i5 4570 / 8GB / 60GB SSD / 1TB / GeForce 210 / 22" Dell It's getting warm in here!

[Drezha]

Not quite the same as the Prime Day deal, but Maplin have the TP-LINK plugs on offer at the minute.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[Author]

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