For spotify I just put a US address as billing address and it works. Cant get spark to pay for it tho :(

There was a way to get any timezone on it by using chrome and a request editor plugin, and editing the request to have NZ as the timezone when setting it up on the web. Did that and it worked fine for mine.

I just googled for using an echo outside the US and it was someones blog post. I think its also been mentioned in this thread here.

richms:

 

I just googled for using an echo outside the US and it was someones blog post. I think its also been mentioned in this thread here.

 

You set it to American Samoa timezone/zip code... mine is (US) zip 96799

Thanks rich.ms, just googled and got it working by changing timezone to Pacific/Auckland

Instructions here, works a treat!

http://www.echotalk.org/index.php?topic=228.0

Got my Echo today - wow - this thing is pretty awesome. The voice recognition is very impressive, and the sound from its speakers is definitely a lot better than expected. 

I was able to set the timezone using the instructions here (http://www.echotalk.org/index.php?topic=228.0). Seems to be working well for time, but not able to update my address and therefore get localised weather. Also, after upgrading the firmware my Spotify premium account is working seamlessly without any need to change billing address etc. 

Really cool bit of kit. The wife thinks it is fantastic as well - she has been happily adding things to the shopping list all arvo.

What skills are others using? I am about to start integrating with openHAB which should really open up a world of possibilities!

Spotify doesnt work properly for me, things I try to play will just skip thru the list quickly. Can see it on the desktop spotify or the mobile just going thru the playlist quickly.

What version is your Echo? Out of the box mine didnt work very well with Spotify but after upgrading it has been working sweet. To upgrade mute your microphone and leave it for an hour or so.

chimera: Yeah I forgot to mention the Spotify stuff works even though the Amazon Echo app mentions limited support, just gotta ask Alexa "play xyz on Spotify". One thing that is annoying is trying to ask her to play certain NZ radio stations on tunein - I would have thought adding the stations to your favourites in the app would make those stations take precedence over any other station, I usually end up with some random American radio station!

I have the Amazon HA bridge (hue emulation) installed and running on OpenHAB, and got an Arduino with relay running and implemented in OpenHAB so can control the garage door so asking "Alexa, open the garage door" works a treat but I'm tempted to add another word (passcode as such) to the end as it's fairly easy to break into my house now coz I just yell at Alexa through the front window and can get into the house thru the garage door lol! You can just ask Alexa to "search for devices" and she will pickup any wifi automation devices you have setup like for example some wemo light switches I've got running (they work direct and are irrelevant of openhab though)

You can ask for weather by stating the full address, like what's the weather like in Auckland New Zealand but it's a pain in the arse so looking at adding the following skill after Easter break and get it working so I can "ask openhab what the weather is like" so hoping that will become a workaround.

https://community.openhab.org/t/amazon-echo-skill-for-openhab-available/8113

Also have harmony hub going so can do "Alexa, trigger watch tv", again a pain having to "ask, tell, trigger" rather than using natural utterances like "Alexa, turn on the TV" but I'm sure with time it will get better.

You can get the "fart skill" installed, and ask Alexa for a fart :-) also "Alexa, who's ya daddy" was quite amusing response thought she wouldn't understand the question but it seems she does lol

Yep I am thinking about customising my own Skill (based on one of the existing ones for openHAB) so I can build it suit my needs.

SumnerBoy:

 

What version is your Echo? Out of the box mine didnt work very well with Spotify but after upgrading it has been working sweet. To upgrade mute your microphone and leave it for an hour or so.

 

3077 which it shows as latest on here https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201602210

Yep - that is what mine upgraded to. Spotify has been working fine AFAICT.