Amazon Echo Dot Wifi Setup Problems

So I thought I'd document the problem I had setting up my new Amazon Echo Dot [July 2017].

On the face of it, the process looked pretty easy. I downloaded the Android app and followed the instructions.

Pressed the button on the Dot and got the orange glow. Then I connected to it from my phone over WiFi - the Echo reported I was connected - happy days - or so I thought. Next, I selected my router WiFi from the list, entered the password and then.... nada, nothing, didly squat. Just three dots moving on my phones screen before eventually timing out and the Echo changing to a nice shade of purple.

So I turned it all off and tried again, too the same result. Failure. Boo.

So then I thought I'd give setup a go via the web app on my Laptop, going to http://alexa.amazon.co.uk and followed a very similar process to that of the phone app.

I put the Echo Dot into setup mode with its orange glow. Connected to it via WiFi on my laptop - she told me I was connected and the web app moved to the next page automatically - so it must know something, right? So then I selected my router WiFi from the scanned list and typed in the password before clicking onwards. Again, a similar result to that of the phone app. Lots of waiting before timing out with the web app showing me, "Computer say no" and the Echo turning purple with her embarrassment.

I repeated the above a couple more times with no joy as frustration started to creep in... grrrrrhhhhh.

So I turned to the internet for some help but didn't really get anything specific that related to my problem. It was just as I was going to throw a tantrum that I read of someone saying that they had problems and it turned out they had their Echo TOO CLOSE to their router. Moving it away a few feet solved things for them and they were able to get set up.

Now I didn't have that problem as my Echo was a few metres away from the router but what it turns out I did have was my Echo Dot too close to my laptop and phone - all sat within a foot of each other. So in a last ditch bid to get my Echo setup I moved my phone to the next room and moved a few feet away with my laptop.

Turns out that did the trick. I went through the process again from the web app - which at first failed again so I repeated but selected to forget the failed learnt WiFi settings, re-typing the password and this time, BAM! The process bar moved across the screen smoothly, stopped for about 30s before completing and the Echo happily reporting that it had successfully completed the setup before a brief flash of blue and then the lights went out - which is totally normal when it's happy but not doing anything.

"Alexa, what's the time?" - "It's three twenty two" - RESULT! (Finally). I'm now the happy owner of a setup complete, connected Amazon Echo Dot.

In summary.

If you are having problems getting through the setup of your Echo Dot and can't get it connected/registered on your WiFi network then make sure it isn't placed too close to any other WiFi enabled equipment and, if in doubt, turn off any WiFi devices you don't need. Obviously you'll need at least one of a laptop or phone to run the setup but turn off everything else and make sure the Echo Dot is a few feet from the router and your laptop/phone.

I should say that once everything was setup I didn't have a problem with my laptop or phone being next to the Echo Dot. It worked flawlessly. So it only seemed to confuse the process during setup.

Well there you go, that's my lot with regard to setting up the Amazon Echo Dot....

Looks Like Google Drive Is A Bit Shit After All...

Thank goodness for Evernote. It can cope with a dozen pages where Google Drive nee Docs can't cut the mustard.

I was busy collating some info from website for reference. A page from here. A page from there and wham, 'trying to contact google.com'. Oh no, I thought, my internet's gone down. Not so. Learning from experience I quickly selected all and copied to the clip board. A re-fresh of Drive and I re-loaded the now empty document. No problem. Paste. 'Trying....' - yeah not very hard by the looks of it. Anyway, I tried two more times but Google Drive nee Docs was not having any of it. Cue Evernote to step up to the plate and it handled the paste without hesitation. OK, I lost a bit of formatting but at least it has the balls for it.

I often rave about Google but not being able to handle a not too large file is bad, really bad. I've only ever used it for two or three page documents. It should be able to handle a bit of cut and paste without issue but it can't. There's no way it can take on Microsoft as it is - and I thought it could, I really did. Most annoying as I've moved quite a lot of my stuff across but I can't face using one service for everything bar a few bits it can't cope with. That's shit. I want one service to rule them all. Google Drive - Epic Fail. Bless Evernote and all who sail in her...

Fair Play To TalkTalk

After having whinged about TalkTalk's poor contention ratios and low bandwidth at peak time things have improved remarkably. Well done to them. They monitored my tweet and shortly after my peak time bandwidth improved massively. It's now close to off peak rates. Have to say it was unexpected but very welcome. Streaming movies are back on the menu. Thumbs up to TalkTalk. Credit where credits due.

Do You Really Want TalkTalk?

Well, do you punk? If you don't mind low bandwidth at peak times - and yes, I do mean low - then you best avoid. Me, I'd like decent bandwidth but I can live without peak time streaming of movies. Okay, sometimes I'd like to fire up a streamed movie but alas, with TalkTalk, that can't happen unless I want to wait till midnight...

If you can live with the low bandwidth then you'll be alright. It is, after all, cheap and cheerful - without much of the cheer. For basic internet it's fine. My connection is up most of the time. Ultimately, it all comes down to whether you want a consistent, high bandwidth or you can live with the ups and downs of peak time lows. For the number of times I feel like streaming a movie, I'll just do without a fast, reliable link to the net and stick to saving a few quid with CheapCheap - oops, I mean, TalkTalk. Hopefully in the future there will come a time when such slow broadband is a thing of the past and we can all be connected to the superhighway...

Beginning To Lose Faith In Google

It's now been 6 months+ since Google launched their 'plus' social thang and there's still no way to post to it from other services, aka API write access. With twitter and facebook there are hundreds of tools that can cross post automatically. To. From. Any which way you want. But, oh no, not Google. Either write direct to your plus stream or don't post at all.

Now don't get me wrong I really like the look of Google plus but the fact I can use any number of tools - currently using dlvr.it - to post my Blogger posts to Twitter and Facebook automatically. Nothing required. Post to Blogger. Wham, there they are on T & F. To get them onto Google requires extra steps. At the moment I am making the effort to get those posts across to G+ but since the 'Blogger Share' route doesn't work on all my devices I'm getting seriously bored of having to go the extra mile just for G+. After all, most of my social interactions are on Facebook anyway, so what's the point? I'd like G+ to survive but until they realise they are only a legend in their own minds and not ours I think G+ is destined to go the way of Wave and many of there other experiments. They're aren't god of the internet and they need to realise that...

Am I The Only One Who Ignores Online Ads?

It's more than that with me. I don't really ignore them, I don't really even see them. So Facebook is worth 100 billion for the Ads? Is it? There must be some really gullible souls out there. I don't think I've ever had the urge to buy from a Facebook advert, or a google one for that matter. TV is a much stronger medium for sucking me in - and even then it's generally things within a programme rather than the ads themselves. I predict that if anyone stumps up 100 billion for FB they will lose money. I pity them, for they are stupid.

Google+ API?

I like Google+, I really do but it really pisses me off that I can't post to it from one of the combined services. If it releases the ability to post to it from other services it could gain traction but for me it's a pain in the ass to common post to twitter + facebook and then make a special effort to post to google+. What that means in real life is that all my posts go to twitter and facebook while those I can be arsed to re-post go to Google+. I hope google+ catches on but if they can't be arsed to release an API for third party posts then I hope it doesn't. Come on google, you aren't facebook and without a proper API that's just where you'll stay. You need to be less cocky...

What Is The Point Of The Kindle Fire?

What exactly is the Kindle Fire for? It seems to be a low spec Android Tablet. Cheap, yes, but low spec. Why not just get a proper Android tablet and run the Kindle App? I just don't get it. It's not a full on tablet. Nor is it an e-book reader - with a battery life of eight hours I can't call it an e-book. What good is that? If you go into the wilds on holiday, you can only read for eight hours before you're back to buying paper books. Not good. Not good at all.

Now the idea of an e-book, that pretty much acts like a book, doesn't do anything fancy but has a battery life of a month? Now there's an idea...

Me, I'll be keeping my Asus Transformer with the Kindle App. Mind you, having slagged off the Fire, I am actually quite interested in getting myself a kindle e-book reader - and by that I mean their e-book reader not the 'it's not an e-book reader nor is it an Android tablet' Fire.

Google Plus? Is It Ready For Prime Time?

Don't get me wrong I think Google Plus is a brilliant concept. 'Circles', the very core of the concept, is an excellent idea. I like the way you can target photos and 'tweets' to certain 'circles'. The associated Android app is cool too. Photos instantly uploadable - if you choose. No hassle, they just appear in your 'plus' ready to be shared to your circles. I like the 'clean-ness'. No fuss. No clutter. Just easy to access, easy to share, social interactions.

I can't see my folks ever getting on Facebook and to be honest, I'm not sure I'd want them there. Some of the stuff I post is.... only postable beyond the watershed. Now, I know there are ways - at least I think there are -  of limiting the publishing of stuff to certain groups of friends and family but - and this is quite a big butt (which I do indeed like, and I cannot lie), coming from someone who is decidedly on the geeky side of life -  I'm not really sure how and as it's not straightforward and in your face, I can't be arsed to find out how. So I avoid friend requests from the inner sanctum of family as I don't think they can't take what I post. Only the cool members of the family are allowed in.

Google Plus and its circles is, on the other hand, simple and I could see my family coping with it. Sharing photos of special occasions. Arranging get togethers. I can see that working and the ability to simply post certain things to certain circles is fantastic. I hope it works, I really do, but do I think it will? Sadly, no - but I really really do hope I'm wrong. What it needs. What it really really needs is API access. The ability for developers to hook into allowing posts from there software is absolutely crucial. I want to post once - write many. When I post, I want it to disperse to all my social streams in one shot. At the moment I have to make a special effort to post to Google Plus by itself, having already posted (possibly) to Twitter and Facebook. That inevitably means not all my posts go to Google because, well, I can't be arsed - which is a shame for Google. I want this thing to work, so come on the big G. Pull your finger out...

New Blogger?

Well it looks like Blogger Dashboard has gone and got itself a Plus style update - didn't see that coming. Looks tidy. I've always felt the Blogger dashboard looked like a bolt on to the rest. Now it has some of the panache of the Plus and the rest of the updated interfaces. Not sure it's completely on the button but certainly headed towards the unified look and feel of the 'new' Google. So far so good and I like it...

Plus Or Minus

The news has been awash - or should that be aBuzz - with Google Plus, the new social ecosystem from Google and I'm looking forward to seeing how it hooks in with all the other Google services. I do have one fear that all my eggs are finding there way into one super large basket. It's not a big concern but it does need consideration.

I like the idea of a simplified interface verses the bloat of Facebook. The recent updates that Big G has been effecting across it's services look clean, uncluttered and uniform. Google Plus promises that same uncluttered look. Facebook, on the other hand, has too much bloatware going on. What is it with all the 'apps' ? Is it me or is all theat bloat just total crud? I want to use my social network to connect to friends, chat, message, post up the odd photo from an event and arrange the odd night out. End of. To that effect the Google experiment, from what I've manage to glimpse - and admittedly, that ain't much - ticks the boxes.

The big problem as I see it is, can we all really tempt our friends, our networks of interlinked social streams off Facebook into Google+ quickly enough? To be effective you need to be able to interact with your social groups in a single interaction. It's no good having to post once to Google+ and then again to Facebook. That just won't work. I'm sure someone will come up with some way to link the networks but I'm doubting it'll be easy.

Having said all that, if Facebook simplified their offering, stripped out the chaff and left the wheat there'd be no market for Google to try and break into. As it is, there is and I for one hope it works. The main question - will enough of us move across quickly enough to make the whole thing work? - once plus comes out of beta, of course, for those of us still waiting for an invite...

I Love My Transformer

Quite simply, after spending a few more days with the ASUS Transformer, I'm loving it. The keyboard is the key. I can go off piste with the pad but to be able to dock it and type at near full speed is glorious. Total tops.

Couldn't Hold Off Honeycomb Any Longer

For the most part I've been happy with my Archos 101. I knew it was never going to be the ultimate tablet - you don't expect that for the price I paid - and after the initial couple of firmware upgrades the responsiveness and usability of the device was sufficient for simple browsing from the sofa. There were always a few instances, when I wanted something done where I knew the Archos just wouldn't cut it and I'd fire up the netbook to get the job done. Primarily this related to areas involving typing - or rather the requirements for lots of it. The other area where I found myself reaching for the netbook was major browsing sessions. Sometimes when I needed to fire up lots of pages and multiple searches I just found it plain quicker - and therefore easier - to get the job done on the netbook. Now I like my gadgets but I just didn't feel I could justify an upgrade to one of the new bread of Honeycomb tablets. I didn't feel they offered enough advances over what I could do with my current Archos to warrant spending so much. Then one day all that changed. The Transformer had caught my eye and I couldn't resist its charm...

Now this isn't going to be a big review. Barely a review at all really. More a statement that the usability of the ASUS Transformer - packaged with the keyboard dock - is a logarithmical improvement over my 101. For the last two days I've not needed to reach for the netbook. Ive not even been close to needing to. The usability in its pure tablet form is great. I don't think Honeycomb has huge changes as compared to Froyo but the sum of all the little things add to give a massive improvement in usability - and it all works silky smooth. Yes, there's the odd force close and there aren't a huge number of Honeycombed apps just yet but that will no doubt improve rapidly. Video performance is cracking - and I'm not comparing this to other Honeycomb tabs just my old 101. Just to say Youtube stuff plays jerk free.

Then, of course, we come to the keyboard dock and this is where things step up a notch. Attaching the tablet into the dock is painless and then cue netbook style typing. It's not a full size keyboard but you can get a decent enough type rate going. Once docked, the browsing experience is truly laptop like and there in lies the reason why I've not needed to reach for the netbook. A word on the stock browser, it's good. The ASUS mod to allow setting the user string thing to 'Desktop' without requiring the about:debug effort is a real boon. I almost can't tell the difference between browsing on the Transformer and using Chrome Browser on my netbook. (Although to be fair I have installed Dolphin HD for the tabbed interface - my mistake, the stock browser does indeed have tabbed browsing - but not when you turn on the 'quick control' options from the labs menu - but I still somehow prefer Dolphin).

All in all I give it 10 out of 10 and flushes away all my guilt from spending the money when I already had a Android tablet. The Transformer is light years ahead of the Froyo experience. It'll get an 11 once there are a few more Honeycomb purposed apps out there in the market...

Still A Long Waze To Go

I decided to give the Android navigation app, Waze, another go. I came away sadly disappointed. It has improved little - at least here in the UK. The map, which is pretty much key to the product, is massively lacking. Yes, I can see improvement in the large urban areas and yes, it does now manage to route me close to point to point, however, due to the poor map, unconnected roads still lead to '10 mile trips' to drive half a mile down the road. That means you just can't use it for navigation and thus the main feature of the product is a big fat fail.

It is a such a shame the developer didn't use OpenStreetMaps. So blinkered on getting their own map. At the rate it's going they will never have a sufficiently complete map of the UK for it to work. It's classic chicken and egg. You need users to build the map but if the navigation doesn't work people will just use Google Navigator instead, and the map won't improve. It's been over a year since I last tried Waze and it hasn't really got any more usable.

It really is a crying shame. The concept and way traffic data is crowd source is genius. Real time traffic is just what you need to optimise the commute. Sadly it just doesn't cut it as a navigation solution. If only they'd used OpenStreetMap.

Uninstalled....

Looks Like Ordnance Survey Is On The Microsoft Payroll

It's a shame government bodies opt for the dark side and join the Galactic Empire. Just once I wish they would join the Rebel Alliance. Alas Ordnance Survey have sided with the Sith as their new - and initially very exciting looking - Getamap online service relies on the niche MS Silverlight plugin. A low cost subscription based service that allows you plan routes and print them, including itinerary etc.

What's wrong with open web standards. Hello, HTML5? Have you not heard about it? Silverlight is so last decade. I guess the men at the top are on a finders fee direct from King Bill - nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more. Why else would you close down your product and exclude non-microsoft operating systems....

Sadly, another opportunity missed, and I find it a crying shame. For a few moments I was really excited, it looked a great tool - they even had the cheek to send me an email telling me all about it. As an Ubuntu user I'm basically f*&ked. The token gesture of Moonlight won't cut it.

So it looks like a rename might be in order - 'GetAMap But Only If You're A Microsoft User, The Rest Of You Are Screwed' - guess that's not quite so catchy.

On the brightside I suppose I'll be saving myself the £30 subscription fee - so it's not all bad...

Joli OS

Haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd give a brief review of my experience with Joli OS. And before we begin, the one thing I don't really like is the new name but I'll let that slide.

Joli OS's new Google Docs connection in the File Browser is quite simply brilliant. OK, so it doesn't provide anything that viewing Google Docs in the browser doesn't but the interface is great. The unified way you access cloud storage in the form of Dropbox and now Google Docs really refines Joli OS into what I consider is the best Cloud OS of them all. The ability to run native apps if required together with a simple install, single login and bam, there it is, all your apps synchronised, access to cloud storage and all with no configuration required. One account. One cloud OS to rule them all. And since the last update to version 1.2 even the access through the browser (and I can only speak for Chrome) is seamless.

Prior to finding Joli OS 1.2 I used to go through a bit of a long winded process to configure DropBox using a series of soft-links to my SD card on my netbook just in case I needed a re-install the operating system, which has been known once or twice. Now I don't need to bother. I don't download and sync to my disk at all since it's been integrated into the Joli OS file browser. It works great. And now with Google Docs added to the mix the process of access to files and docs is becoming evermore seamless.

When I need to setup a new machine - or reconfigure/install my current one - I just install Joli OS. Login and bam, there it is. All my links are just there. Google Docs, DropBox... ready to type and go. Simples.

Can't wait for the next step - drag and drop between DropBox and Google Docs. Joli OS will be awesome when that happens. As it is I find it pretty bloody good. I reckon they should rename it JoliGOOD.

Joli-well Failed

I've been really pleased how responsive Jolicloud has been on my Acer AspireOne but the last month has been FAIL. I upgraded to version 1.1 without issue but a month or so ago I released I'd had no updates. Normally ever week or so there would be the odd small update but for over a month, nothing, nada, zip.

So I decided to click the 'update' button manually and there in lines the problem - or part of it. None of the top bar icons did anything except pop up the 'Waiting for my.jolicloud.com' message in the bottom left corner and then nothing would work. Doing a refresh - pressing F5 - would get me the apps back operational but each time I clicked on any of the top icons - including the 'shutdown' icon - up would come the 'waiting...' where up on the only option to recover would be an F5 refresh.

The browsing works OK and the speed is probably as good as it ever was but it is annoying that I can't keep the thing up to date. I'm sure there have been updates. Using apt-get shows no updates either. Can't believe there's been no updates. So in an attempt to cure I am re-installing. Fingers crossed...

Android Tablet Pricing - Are They Mental?

Blimey, I've just seen some early rss, blog and news feeds suggesting the prices for some upcoming Android Tablets from the likes of HTC and Motorola. Are they stark raving mad? Who the balls will pay 600 notes for an Android Tablet? Oh my god, a tablet is meant to be an easy to use device you use to read the news, read a book, go on your social networks... It won't replace a laptop or desktop, become your main machine. Unbelievable. Think what 600 notes get you as a laptop? They need to be low(ish) cost. A quick bit of browsing, news and move one. With six hundred notes you'd be mad not to get an iPad and go out partying with the change. I can't believe the big boys are so stupid.

And HTC, what is with 2.4? Why not wait a month and give it Honeycombe? Mental, truly mental. And don't get me started on HP and Web OS - what the hell is the point of that? FAIL...

Froyo'd Up

Well my 101 is upgraded to Froyo and I've re-installed Gapps4archos2 to get the market and installed Flash. Have to admit she's not running as smooth as I hoped. That is until I installed z4root and SetCPU. It's a bit of a pain to have to run each reboot but the performance improvement is well worth it. Flash is actually smooth! YouTube plays without jerkiness. All I have to say is - Why the hell do I have to run a frig to get this thing to run full speed, ie 1Ghz? The specs don't mention 800Mhz? Archos you should fix this. YOU CLAIM 1GHZ SO BLOODY WELL GIVE US 1GHZ STANDARD, NO FRIG REQUIRED.

Archos 101 The Story So Far

Well I've owned the Archos for less than a week but so far things are looking promising. Initially I had a fairly major issue with the screen - no, not the viewing angle, which, as has been highlighted by many, is poor but I only look at it straight on so it's not a problem to me. No, the problem I had was with the actual touch recognition. It didn't seem to register touch properly. I couldn't drag icons around the entire home screen. Some parts of the screen just didn't seem to allow dragging and parts of the virtual keypad where unresponsive. Happily there was a simple cure. I just ran the calibration commands from the 'repair & formatting' settings page. After that it's been well behaved. It's nice and responsive and all my presses register at the right points.

Probably the biggest disappointment is the low RAM. I couldn't find any detail before purchase as to how much it had and now I own one I can report it ain't a lot. My Desire on bootup has 240Mb free. The Archos, with even fewer startup programs, has just over 100Mb. That said, it doesn't seem to be causing me too much problem. The apps seem to run smoothly. Browsing is responsive - I use Xscope 1.5. The lack of flash is annoying but hopefully, as stated in a previous post, that'll be resolved in a week or two and for now I can just about cope.

The first thing I installed was GApps4Archos to get the real deal market. No problems encountered, GMail etc are installed and running happily.

The second problem I have encountered is WiFi sleeping on screen blank. This is a tad annoying and there doesn't seem to be the sleep policy from the WiFi Advanced options settings page. I've tried a couple of the market apps to try and keep it active to no avail. Again, I'm hoping the Froyo upgrade will resolve this one too. Fingers crossed.

Those issues aside, in use, the 101 is working well. I'm still working my way through the market to find the best apps for the things I want to use it for - namely; browsing, facebook, twitter, rss, newspapers and the odd blog post - the large keyboard is surprisingly accurate to use and I can actually get a reasonable typing speed going.

All in all I'm pleased with the purchase. I'm not going to claim it's as finished as the iPad and the wide screen aspect ratio, in my opinion, is not the ideal format for this type of device but it works surprisingly well in both portrait and landscape. I really thought that portrait would be too narrow for book reading and rss but it's actually fine and as yet I haven't come across any issues that I can put down to the larger size screen. For me the much cheaper price and the promise of Flash outweigh the polish of the iPad.

As to the battery life, I've been giving it a hammering today and used 35% in six hours fairly continuous use and I don't think that's bad at all. At the moment I give it the Mad Tech Report thumbs up. Mind you, if Froyo isn't just around the corner that's going to change...