The Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker that you control with your voice to ask for what you want. It connects with the Alexa Voice Service to give info on local businesses, read the news and audio books, reports traffic and weather, answers questions and provides sports schedules and scores. Echo plays music from TuneIn, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, Pandora, and Spotify instantly. It is Bluetooth enabled so you can play music from our phone or tablet. Echo can recognize your voice across the room, even if playing music. It has an immersive 360º omnidirectional audio fills the entire room through its seven microphones that use beam -forming technology and improved noise cancelling.
When you want to use Echo, just say ‘Alexa’ which is the wake word, and it responds immediately by lighting up and streaming audio to the cloud. You can use different wake words such as “Echo” or ‘Amazon” if you have more than one Echo Dot. Alexa is built in the cloud so it will always be smarter and it will adapt more to your speech patterns, personal references, and vocabulary the more you use it. Updates are automatic because it is always connected and currently it has added over 1,000 features and skills.
The skills in Echo enable you to be more capable of doing things such as opening garage with Garageio, order pizza from Domino or even request a ride from Uber and much more. It controls lights, switches and thermostats which are compatible with WeMo, Samsung Smart things, Nest, Wink, Nest, Philip Hue and smart home devices. This will enable you to turn on the fan, switch on the lamp before getting out of bed or even dim the lights if you want to watch a movie without lifting a finger. All the time, new skills are being added.
If you have iOS, Fire OS, and desktop browsers download the free Alexa App to set up and manage your Echo efficiently. You use the Alexa App to connect services that you use, such as Google calendar, be able to see what books are available on Kindle, view shopping and to–do list while on the go and much more. You get to discover and enable third-party skills when using Alexa App.
Amazon Echo weighs about 37.5 oz. (1064 grams). It comes ready for Wi-Fi connection which is faster streaming than the standard Wi-Fi. However, it doesn’t support ad-hoc Wi-Fi networks. It has an Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) Bluetooth connectivity to enable audio streaming from your mobile device to Amazon Echo. In the package box, you get the Amazon Echo, its power cable. Adapter and a quick start guide. It has a 1-year limited warranty and service, but it could be extended for 2 or 3-years to U.S customers which are sold separately. Currently it is selling for $119.99 and has free shipping.
