@tslagle13 … You got that right. SONOS has that problem and that is keeping me from getting one. I think my New Year wish is Echo! Will worry about the API later.
@smart Love my Sonos. Just got my second Sonos 1 for my bday on Monday. Would have more if I had more $
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I like my Sonos, but really only bought it to work with Smart Things; specifically, the alarm and open/close door announcement integration’s. I already have a nice home theater system and computer speaker system in the same room, both of which sound better; however, I liked the idea of having something separate that I could have play in the background when I am gaming or if the lady is watching a show I’m not a fan of. Sonos would be almost perfect if it had bluetooth functionality and I could push whatever service I want to it. If this Amazon echo had an open API and would integrate with smart things, I would replace it in a heartbeat.
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You can voice command with Ubi right now.
Same here… Have decent home theater set up for the TV, music etc.in the family room. In addition I have the Bose SoundTrack 10 with Bluetooth for streaming music which keeps losing connectivity for me if I move my iPhone/iPad couple of feet’s away.
Needed something to work with ST for the alarms, notifications etc. Long story short… I have no music device in my three bedrooms… The Sonos 1’s can move to those bedrooms in the worst case. See a perfect solution… 
I think this is a great idea. I’m actually surprised Apple didn’t come up with something like this long before Amazon. If they priced it low like Amazon and treated it like Apple TV (hobby), the would have sold a ton.
Yeah, unfortunately ATV increasingly looks like a loser, given that a new version has been pushed back for the last two years. Meanwhile competition is on the roll - FireTV, CrCast and now Nexus Player. I understand that ATV is not a money maker for Apple, but they’re going to lose market share big time.
If Amazon is smart, they should realize how much potential an “always on” device with voice interface like Echo has in terms of home automation and control. It already has WiFi and Bluetooth. Just stick another radio in it (Z-Wave and Zigbee) and a couple of sensors and there you have it - your ultimate home automation controller.
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[quote=“geko, post:28, topic:6642”]
Yeah, unfortunately ATV increasingly looks like a loser, given that a new version has been pushed back for the last two years. Meanwhile competition is on the roll - FireTV, CrCast and now [Nexus Player][1]. I understand that ATV is not a money maker for Apple, but they’re going to lose market share big time.[/quote]
Yeah. If the next revision doesn’t show up in spring and doesn’t have some serious homekit/Siri integration, I’m going to stop holding my breath. These last few brain cells are valuable, you know.
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Cool need to check that out!
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Looks pretty cool… I’ve been loving my Ubi, but it definitely feels like Ubi isn’t still “beta.”
Something like this backed by Amazon has the power to be everything Ubi is supposed to be and more.
However… one major benefit is Ubi’s strong integration with ST. Ubi being able to directly control ST devices and be aware of state changes in devices it really nice. Not that it would be impossible to do these things without direct access… but it’d be harder if I had to be sending HTTP calls back and forth all the time.
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Looks pretty cool. Was thinking about getting a Sonos for the bedroom but at this price point (assuming I am invited) would be a great compromise.
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So can anyone confirm if Echo does have published APIs? Did Amazon leverage Nuance for the backend voice technology? If so, maybe their APIs would be useable??
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Amazon Echo (if the demo video is realistic) looks like a very polished version of The Ubi, certainly with a better speaker.
The most compelling feature is the price point ($99 for Prime Members…): But this is obviously a loss leader.
Amazon Echo is another trojan horse into your home and shopping habits. Perhaps the level of privacy intrusion is reasonable.
My fear is that they won’t allow any hacking and minimal third-party product integration, since can seriusly these impact the trojan horse model unless they are extensively thought out. Can Amazon be that agile.
[quote=“tgauchat, post:35, topic:6642, full:true”]
Amazon Echo (if the demo video is realistic) looks like a very polished version of The Ubi, certainly with a better speaker.[/quote]
That’s my feeling as well. Though for me, speaker it irrelevant… it does also appear to have better microphones. Right now Ubi is kinda hit and miss if you’re in the room but not <5 feet facing the device.
If you’re out of the room, then there is virtual zero shot at being heard.
The big advantage that Ubi has (besides already being in my house) is that it has direct tie-in into SmartThings. It can directly react to events in the ST world.
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At the $99/$199 price point, Amazon Echo’s “decent” quality speakers are a free bonus with very little drawback except perhaps double the size factor of The Ubi ($299).
Ubi’s SmartThings integration is not comprehensive at the moment and has some utility snags. It isn’t possible to use regular expression parsing to set the mode of a switch to “on” or “off” (dim, brighten) based on a multi-purpose trigger phrase (similar to “Bedroom light ${1}”); whereas that type of trigger syntax CAN be translated into parameterized REST-API calls over http.
The complexity of SmartThing’s “native” API is an interesting issue, as this will affect the complexity of all “inbound” third-party device integrations. It is conceivable that SmartThings could provide an abstraction/translation layer with modules for popular inbound devices that don’t offer their own tight integration. There are limits to what can be accomplished, of course, but this could provide a spectrum of solutions; a spectrum of integration depth.
Of course, if Amazon Echo doesn’t allow any customized external API calls (and it’s own exposed API for inbound calls), then this gives The Ubi a huge advantage for hackers and customers (via integrators).
Needs an API to open it up to developers to do things with other devices and systems. Without this it is a closed system.
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It could probably work for home automation if it gets an IFTTT channel.
I’m thinking drinking games will be changed forever if played with the amazon echo. Watched a cool video and read a good review of the echo at www.amazonechoreview.org
Crossing my fingers on that invite