How to buy an Amazon Echo overseas

Det første du trenger er en Amerikansk adresse. Amazon Echo selges også i UK, men det er lettere å få en videresendingsadresse i USA. Utfordringer her er at Amazon ikke sender Echo internasjonalt, kun i de landene hvor de har lansert den. Alternativt kan du fly over og kjøpe selv, eller få en kompis til å ta med tilbake selvfølgelig, men det enkleste er nok allikavel å bare bestille en selv slik jeg har beskrevet her.

Videresender

I Norge er det 2 aktører som tilbyr videresendingsadresse, nemlig VirtualSpend og JetCarrier. Hvis du ikke har noen planer om å kjøpe flere ting fra USA, velg VirtualSpend. Hvis du tror du vil handle mere, ta JetCarrier og bli også Amazon Prime medlem.

Bestilling

Når du da handler på Amazon, så kan du betale med ditt Norske kredittkort, men du må bruke din nye US adresse som leveringsadresse på Amazon. Med Prime betaler du heller ikke ekstra for frakten til JetCarrier. Frakten for Jetcarrier vil være ca 279kr, og mva rett under 500kr litt avhengig om du får en på tilbud eller til fullpris.

Venting

Deretter er det bare å vente, til den kommer i posten! Den kommer med en US plug strømadapater, men som støtter 220v, så husk å ha en reiseomformer klar så du kommer igang!

Hva du må ha i handlekurven

Jeg anbefaler den sorte Echo. Dot krever en ekstern høytaler for tilbakemelding, så den er ikke like fleksibel. Har du barn så ta med fjernkontrollen også, da det gjør det lettere for de å bruke den.


There is always someone listening…

What does it mean to always have someone listening? During WW2 the saying was “Loose lips sink ships“, should we now say “Your lips sell out”. Can we trust that these always on devices are not used against us, but only for us? The convenience is great, and the trust we give the companies extensive. In the ongoing trial against James Bates, at least some safeguards are revealed.

The other thing we don’t know is if the information will be of any use. Alexa records and simultaneously dumps constantly, and only stores information for a quarter of a second before it hears the word “Alexa” (or whatever you’ve chosen as your wake-word).

However, there is always the unknown factor you cant foresee or control with technology:

I dont know if we are trading down, but for now Im willing to try, but with purchasing turned of.

XKCD Confirm purchase

How to watch Amazon Fire TV outside of the USA

One word that matters in this discussion, is Geo Blocking. You will find that included perks of Amazon Prime are not available to you outside of the US geography, so you have you use a little bit of ingenuity to circumvent this. So, to work around the geoblock of Amazon TV, I recommend Unlocator.com

Sign up for a free trial after you receive your FireTV, through the above link, and enjoy!

You can do this both simply, and a tad more advanced. If you only have the 1 FireTV, use the simple method with just unlocator. If you have also Chromecast and AppleTV, you should use the more advanced version with a dedicated router.

D-LINK DCS-935LH IFTTT camera review

DCS935LH

So, I bought myself a D-LINK DCS-935LH IFTTT enabled camera for 999kr NOK from Kjell & Company. I picked this one as it was the most affordable IFTTT compatible WiFi camera that had motion detection and night vision.

The camera does exactly what it said it would. It has motion detection, it sends alerts whenever anything happens, it works well in the dark and it stores all the data on the SD card.

However, what I had not considered in detail, was the IFTTT integration. I had expected it to be on par with others, but for my usecase, it is not. And that is its downfall.

I wanted to use the camera to be able to keep track of which kid came home when I wasn’t home. So I had expected that I would be able to use IFTTT to turn the camera of when I was home. The iOS app has a privacy feature, the Android does not, and neither does the IFTTT skill. So whats happening is that I get spammed whenever anyone is in the hallway, regardless of if me or my wife are home.

Based on this, my recommendation is DO NOT BUY. I have since seen that most other IFTTT cameras has geo enabled IFTTT skills to control privacy. It does also have some network constraints I had trouble figuring out, as it requires both the phone with app, and the camera to be on the same Wifi in order to configure the camera. My Get box has some OOTB LAN limitation, that the camera didnt tolerate. Had to setup on a sub-Wifi in order to get the camera working.

If you want a constant stream of whats happening though, this is the camera for you.

Here are some picture samples, both day and night. The camera seems to be constantly recording, as it also stores the 5 seconds prior to the motion occurring. Each clip is 30 seconds when there is motion. If the motion is continuous, it will make several clips and notifications. I have not found a setting for controlling this.