Amazon Echo Club

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by shalym

Could you add the ability to set multiple reminders to the wishlist, please?

Shari

Sure - let me know if this is what you meant:

• multiple voice reminders -- ie: PTA meeting at 7pm - take 8pm meds

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I added a wishlist to the OP for features you'd like to see added to the Echo.

For me, I'd like to see Audible and OverDrive integration, plus the ability to add additional apps.

I'd like to be able to have it play iTunes music, but I know that isn't going to happen. The vast majority of my digital music has been purchased from iTunes. Let's hear it for DRM: Hip! Hip! Hooray!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I'd like to be able to have it play iTunes music, but I know that isn't going to happen. The vast majority of my digital music has been purchased from iTunes. Let's hear it for DRM: Hip! Hip! Hooray!

How about Strip! Strip! Away!

[shalym]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sure - let me know if this is what you meant:

• multiple voice reminders -- ie: PTA meeting at 7pm - take 8pm meds

Yes, thank you.

Shari

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by issybird

So how come someone who's owned every Kindle ever plus the phone (before it was fire-saled, too) didn't get asked sooner? Clearly Amazon doesn't value your custom sufficiently!

I WAS quite miffed myself considering the slice of my take home pay that fuels Amazon's profits!

[Maybe it was because I bought the phone at full price! ]

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

How about Strip! Strip! Away!

Then how do I import the music into Amazon for playing on my Echo when it comes? :cornstarch:

Can you tell I'm using Swype with Tapatalk on my phone? ":cornstarch:" was meant to be ":chinscratch:" ( ). I won't even mention what Swype kept trying to change "Tapatalk" into.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Then how do I import the music into Amazon for playing on my Echo when it comes? :cornstarch:

Import them to Amazon Music:

You can import up to 250,000 songs for playback in Amazon Music for $24.99/year or up to 250 imported songs for free. Music you purchased from Amazon and Prime Music added to your library do not count against these limits.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

How about Strip! Strip! Away!

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Import them to Amazon Music:

I was surprised to see Amazon would search my iTunes library and match any songs with their own, but I'm on board now with the $24+ annual fee thing. So far I've imported most of the artists whose name begins with "A". The only exceptions are the few I didn't want to hear in rotation and three I couldn't convert because the files were protected against user ownership of purchases they made with their own hard-earned money (I've never tried stripping DRM from audio files). I'm not importing audiobooks, podcasts, college lectures, or other spoken language audio.

[DreamWriter]

An addition for the Echo wish list:

The ability to turn off the "cards" feature and/or delete them more efficiently in the Echo app.

Most of the time, I find them to be of little value, and having to expand each card in order to delete it is tedious! Put a delete button in the upper-right corner of the card instead. Anyone else share this pet peeve, or am I the only one?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

I was surprised to see Amazon would search my iTunes library and match any songs with their own, but I'm on board now with the $24+ annual fee thing. So far I've imported most of the artists whose name begins with "A". The only exceptions are the few I didn't want to hear in rotation and three I couldn't convert because the files were protected against user ownership of purchases they made with their own hard-earned money (I've never tried stripping DRM from audio files). I'm not importing audiobooks, podcasts, college lectures, or other spoken language audio.

So you went the paid route. Sounds like you have a lot to convert. I'm using the free version for my very favorite albums. For anything else, I'm happy with streaming/FM radio and Prime Music.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

An addition for the Echo wish list:

The ability to turn off the "cards" feature and/or delete them more efficiently in the Echo app.

Most of the time, I find them to be of little value, and having to expand each card in order to delete it is tedious! Put a delete button in the upper-right corner of the card instead. Anyone else share this pet peeve, or am I the only one?

Will add to OP. You know, I just ignore the cards. They don't bother me. I generally stay in the "browse" screens so I change stations quicker.

[tubemonkey]

The Echo is a great FM radio. From inside the app, I tap TuneIn --> Local Radio. Then I leave it on this screen so I can change stations at will. I find this to be much quicker than voice commands.

If I'm at my computer, I use the Echo app in a separate tab. It's easier than using a mobile device.

[tubemonkey]

I'd like to see Amazon expand the iHeart and TuneIn apps to their full Android versions. For example, TuneIn is missing favorites and that makes changing stations more difficult.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

...Sounds like you have a lot to convert....

I have over 3,000 items in iTunes, but only about 2,000 of them are music. The other items are stuff from iTunesU, The Learning Company, podcasts, old radio shows, audiobooks, and etc. I'm only importing the music, and even some of that is going to be left behind. Quite frankly, there are some songs that I have no recollection of buying and when I hear them, I wonder what I was thinking. Well, many of those in question were iTunes freebies. I don't even know if they're still doing that or not, but it's a wonderful way to build a large and really crappy music library really quickly.

[DreamWriter]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I'd like to see Amazon expand the iHeart and TuneIn apps to their full Android versions. For example, TuneIn is missing favorites and that makes changing stations more difficult.

This is your lucky day, tubemonkey. I learned how to mark TuneIn and iHeart Favorites within the Echo app just a few days ago. Following are the instructions for TuneIn. I haven't tried it for iHeart, but I've read that the process is the same.

• Select TuneIn from the left sidebar menu within the app.
• Search for the desired station and select it.
• Tap on the TuneIn or Station icon on the "play bar" at the bottom of the screen, located below the list of search results. The station play bar will then fill the right side of the app.
• In the upper right, you'll see "Queue" and "History" with the name of the current song below.
• Just to the right of the song that's playing will be a tiny, gray down-arrow. It may be very difficult to see, especially on smaller tablets/phones. Tap on the arrow.
• "Favorite Station" will appear in gray. Tap on that. It should turn red, which means the station's been added to Favorites.

To access your favorites, go the left sidebar menu and tap on TuneIn. Scroll the right side of the app where it says Browse, Local radio, Trending, etc., until you see the bottom of the list. The station you added will be shown under Favorites there.

There are several known bugs that I hope Amazon will address in future Echo app updates:

1. At present, you cannot delete stations you've added to Favorites.
2. If you try to set several favorites in a row, at some point when you tap on the barely visible down-arrow, "Favorite Station" will already be red, preventing the addition to Favorites. If this happens, exit the app completely and then reopen it. You should be able to add the station then.