B&H Photo Video is currently having a $50 instant off on Amazon Echo, making it USD $129.99 + $28.60 postage to Australia = USD $158.59 delivered, or approximately AUD $208. That's cheaper than Amazon itself.
For more information & discussions see previous deal and Whirlpool thread.
You're not able to officially use the Echo outside the US, but there are ways around it. This guide helped me setup my Echo a few weeks back.
I just use postcode 96910 which is Guam and the same timezone as our East coast.
Yep, keeping an eye on the Whirlpool forum as it has been noted that Amazon have changed something which "may" brick the echo if you try to change the location to an Australian one. Mine arrived today from a Prime Day deal (came to about this amount with freight forwarding). You don't really need to change the address though for most uses, I am on the east coast and have changed to zip code to Guam for accurate time, I ask it for the weather by location ie. What's the weather in Melbourne, Australia. Everything else works great.
For those who pulled the trigger on this, it appears the issues reported on Whirlpool were user error. For my two cents I would use the older method of changing settings, outlined in the above whirlpool links, the 'Request maker' one. It's much easier. And it works.
I have mine set to home address which works for time and traffic but not for weather. I have to give city name as had to register to US zip code for weather. Works great to control Wemo lights around the house via IFTTT and is great for asking random questions.
does she ruin a game of trival pursuit?
Especially if you are playing with somebody named Alexa
Thanks. Ordered one. I wonder how long it takes for delivery to melbourne. It says 10-15 days but i wonder what's a realistic estimate?
does it matter?
Their estimate was spot on for me. Arrived crazy quickly. Very impressed.
Yes.
I bought mine of ebay.com about 12 months ago and absolutely love it…!!!
Set up a free Amazon Music account and you can upload 250 songs in the library for free, then just say "Alexa, play"… Also works great with TuneIn Radio and Pandora and such.
So does the voice processing happening on 'the cloud' or locally on the device?
It's all in the Cloud. Everything you say goes there. :)
And it's backed up by quite powerful Cloud. ;)
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/05/the-fbi-can-neither-confir…
i don't see any $50 off at checkout. is the promo over?
Yes, unfortunately.
Anyone received their Echo? I'm still waiting.
Maybe check the Whirlpool forums first it seems there's some issues using it outside the US?