Tag: amazon

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No more WeMo, this time I mean no

light bulb on a wet surface

I have finally unplugged my WeMo devices and bulbs.

I wrote about some WeMo devices I have at my home. Since I moved house last November, I have been using some WeMo devices from Belkin that I have had for a while, but hadn’t used for a fair few years in my last place. These were smart plugs and smart bulbs. I wrote that Belkin are going to stop supporting WeMo devices from January 2026. So, in the longer term I will need to either remove them or replace them.

I did remove them when I had problems with the app, but then they had a reprieve when the app started working again.

I had trialled an Amazon Smart Plug which had been on a special offer. I kept a note on prices using the Keepa extension, and when the plug (and the smart bulbs) recently dropped in price, I made a purchase.

Amazon Smart Plug

The bulbs were easy to install, after installing the first one, the second one almost installed itself.

The only downside. One of the nice functions of the WeMo devices was the “away from home” functionality, which meant that if I was away the lights would go on and off at random times. I have since discovered that the “away mode” for Amazon devices is only available in the US. What’s that about then?

Anyhow, the new Amazon devices seem to be working, and are much more reliable than the WeMo devices.

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Amazon Smart Plug

Amazon Smart Plug

After writing about the end of my WeMo devices I did think about if I should get some alternatives. I guess Amazon were listening as when I visited their website, they had one of their Amazon Basics Single Outlet Indoor Wi-Fi Smart Plugs on a special offer for £1.99, which was good value compared to the retail value of £9.99. So I got it, to try it out.

It was relatively easy to setup, though you have to remember this is Amazon Basics plug and not an Amazon plug when scanning the setup QR code.

Then it’s just a matter of using the Alexa app to configure the device. I used my new plug with a standing lamp and it worked fine. Of course linked to Alexa meant that I could now use voice commands to control the lamp.

The only thing I now need to sort out, is some kind of automated routine, for when I am away.

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Amazon Fresh to close

Read this article on BBC News: First Amazon Fresh till-less grocery store in UK closes.

Amazon’s first till-less store in the UK, which opened in west London just over two years ago, has been closed. The Amazon Fresh shop opened in Ealing Broadway in March 2021 and was the online giant’s first “just walk out” grocery store outside of the US. It permanently shut on Sunday along with two other Amazon Fresh stores, in Wandsworth and East Sheen.

I used it once, wasn’t that impressed. From a technological perspective, yes it was very clever and worked a treat. The system did exactly what is said it would do.

The main reasons I wasn’t impressed was that, partly I felt I couldn’t pick anything up to check labels, just in case the system didn’t “work”. The main reason was the variety and choice on offer. They did have a good range of stuff, but it wasn’t really stuff that I wanted to buy.

The whole shop has now been boarded up.

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Unable to Upload, resolved!

screengrab of Photos

After syncing my Photos library to iCloud Photos I was left with 86 photographs which Photos was unable to upload.

It wasn’t initially clear why they were unable to be uploaded.

The solution I found on the web was to export the original files and then delete them from Photos and then import them into Photos.

When I tried that I got a 47,001 unknown error, which wasn’t really very helpful.

However after doing some more searching, the issue appeared to be that the original files were missing from the library and all that remained was the low resolution thumbnail.

As I had already made a back up of my photographs to Amazon Photos, I was able to find the originals on that service, download them, import them to Photos and then upload to iCloud Photos.

All fine now.

Makes you realise the importance of having your photographs in more than one place.

I have a minimum of two backups, one on an external drive and one in the cloud. 

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I’m sorry I can’t play that music….

I have been messing about with a few voice assistant hub including the Amazon Echo.

One feature of these devices is the ability to ask them to play music, either an individual track, an album, an artist, a playlist or even just a genre or decade.

If I ask Alexa to play a particular song, she delves not just into my personal music collection on the Amazon Music app but also what is available through my Prime subscription. If the song isn’t available I could either subscribe to Amazon Music streaming service, or purchase the song. The Alexa ecosystem is built around my Amazon account and the services available to me as a Prime subscriber.

What Alexa doesn’t know that I have quite a large music collection on iTunes. She can’t see it, access it or play it.

With Google Home I have connected a free Spotify account to it. This is one of the key features of these devices that you can connect services you already subscribe to, so you can control them via voice. Of course the reason I have a free Spotify account is that Google Home would much prefer I was connected to Google Music, and it certainly won’t let me connect to either my home iTunes library (where virtually all my music is) nor to Amazon Music. So when I ask Google Home to play a particular music track, she gets annoyed and says that she can’t as that is only available on Spotify Premium. Now Amazon Echo can play from Spotify, so some overlap there.

This is one of the challenges of these devices that they are quite reliant on subscriptions to other services. Apple’s HomePod only really works if you have an Apple Music subscription. You can stream Spotify to the Homepod using AirPlay, but you couldn’t use voice control to say “Hey Siri, play my favourite Spotify playlist”. That wouldn’t work.

So at the moment my main focus is on the Amazon Echo and linking it into Amazon Music through my Prime subscription.

I like the concept of voice control and for many features these devices work well, but they do tie you into their ecosystems.

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An Open Letter

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes [Blu-ray + UV Copy]

Dear 20th Century Fox, Amazon and LG

I am writing an open letter to all three companies as I have no real idea who is responsible or who is to blame and I am unsure of how this can be resolved.

For Christmas I received The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes on Blu-Ray, this had been purchased from Amazon.

I unwrapped the Blu-Ray and put it into my LG BD360-P Blu-Ray player. However it did not play, I got an error message saying “Check Disk”. I did check the disk, and there did not appear to be a physical issue with the disk.

I checked the firmware on my LG Blu-Ray player and it was up to date. I also turned everything off and back on. Still no joy, I was still getting the “Check Disk” error.

I did a Google search and it was apparent that I wasn’t alone, other people were having the same issue with the same Blu-Ray disk and the same LG Blu-Ray player. According the online information the problem is with the encryption used by 20th Century Fox on The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Blu-Ray disk, this means that my Blu-Ray player can’t read the disk.

As a result I am now unsure and confused about what I can do as a consumer.

As far as Amazon are concerned there is no fault with the disk and probably wouldn’t accept a return this long after purchase and the wrapping has been removed.

20th Century Fox won’t replace the disk with one that works, as far as they concerned the disk isn’t faulty and they would only replace it with the same disk with the same encryption issues. They will probably blame the Blu-Ray player manufacturer.

As for LG, they are no longer updating the firmware for what is now quite an old Blu-Ray player and would probably point me back to the company that released the disk.

So the end result is I have no idea where to go and I have a Blu-Ray of a film I am unable to watch.

Kind Regards

James Clay

So do you have any idea? Maybe I should have bought it on iTunes.

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Kindle Fire for just £99

Though to be honest I have no idea what Black Friday is all about, Amazon have a great deal today on the Kindle Fire.

Kindle Fire for just £99

This 8GB tablet with a 7’ colour screen is just £99. If you don’t have a tablet and are interested in having a device to read books, surf the web, do e-mail and watch video then this device is a bit of a no brainer!

I do have the Google Nexus Seven which in many ways is a much better tablet, but it is nearly twice the price at £159. If I didn’t have that and wanted a 7” tablet then I would be getting the Kindle Fire.

Find out more on Amazon.

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Amazon Basics Black Stylus

Amazon Basics Black Stylus

I’ve wanted to get a stylus for my iPad for a while now, but never really got round to buying one. I was recently buying some consumables for my printer at Amazon so doing a quick search, found this Amazon Basics Black Stylus for just £7.49 and thought, hmmm, okay, let’s add that to the basket.

I was really pleased with it and it works really well. It’s great for doing brushwork on an application like Brushes and also allows you to interact with the screen as though you were using your finger. Obviously if you rely and use multi-touch gestures then you’re not going to be able to do those with this.

One advantage of using a stylus is from an accessibility perspective, I can see this making it much easier for visually impaired people to use VoiceOver for example.

It also works really well if you have really dry hands or eczema. The capacitive screens you find on the iPad (or the Nexus 7) often don’t work well. The stylus helps with that problem.

Personally I think it might be really useful when it’s cold and I am wearing gloves! Should also work with the iPhone too.

Get the Amazon Basics Black Stylus at Amazon.

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Buffalo Nfiniti Wireless-N Dual Band Ethernet Converter, Done!

Well that was simple.

I ordered the Buffalo Nfiniti Wireless-N Dual Band Ethernet Converter from Amazon on the 1st January. I used the Super Saver Delivery option, I was in no hurry and why pay extra for postage (especially over New Year). Really surprised to see the parcel arrive this morning! Excellent service Amazon, well impressed.

It’s smaller than the picture makes it look.

Very easy to configure, I plugged it into the power then plugged the supplied ethernet cable into my iMac, reconfigured the ethernet settings in System Preferences, turned off the Airport on the iMac. Then went to a browser, typed in the 1.1.1.1 address, entered the username and password. Added my Airport network details. Very pleased to see that my 802.11n 5GHz network was recognised, remembered to use WPA2-AES (as that is what the Airport Extreme uses). Click configure,update. Job done!

The reason the Buffalo device appeals, is that it comes with four ethernet ports, which means I can connect four devices to the network.

Now to test it out under the TV!