Amazon Echo Alexa Review: A Must-Have Voice-Activated Personal Assistant Speaker

Enter the digital technology where almost every technology, conceived in the minds of the inventors and innovators alike, can be smart. From smart watch to smart home, and smart speaker to smart lock.

This post talks about a smart personal assistant speaker, Alexa in Amazon Echo.

What are the things Alexa can do?

Almost everything you can think of…

  • Answer your questions.
  • Read audiobooks and news.
  • Report weather and traffic.
  • Give info on local businesses.
  • Set timers and alarms.
  • Create shopping lists.
  • Ask Uber for a car to pick you up.
  • Provide sports scores and schedules.
  • Play music from Amazon Prime Music, Spotify, Pandora, and more by request.
  • Shop for you in Amazon store.
  • Fill the room with immersive, 360-degree omni-directional audio.
  • Ask for some definitions in the dictionary.

…and many more

What are some of the voice commands?

  • Alexa, what’s on my calendar today?
  • Alexa, play Cold Play in Spotify.
  • Alexa, set a timer for 20 minutes.
  • Alexa, shuffle my favorite Playlists.
  • Alexa, turn it up.
  • Alexa, ask HuffPost for headlines.
  • Alexa, turn on the lights.
  • Alexa, dim my bedroom lights.
  • Alexa, turn off the tv.
  • Or, Alexa, find me an Italian restaurant 

And there are a lot more.

Quietly, Amazon Echo has learned new skills and a lot of new voice commands are added. There are now nearly 1000 new commands of Amazon Echo, which makes it more amazing. It is even more fun if you ask silly questions from Alexa, which she sometimes responds with stupid answers, but Echo’s engineers are continually preparing for some new answers to add to Alexa.

Still, new features are continually coming. There are now a huge library of add-on features for Amazon Echo, and it is by integrating it to IFTT (If This, Then That) app.

Through IFTT, the favorite of most geeks, you can link together all your modern gadgets and devices – home automation, web services, your phone and its apps – by choosing and sharing recipes in IFTT app itself. There are 750 recipes created so far, and what’s more… it can control your Echo too by triggering an IFTT recipe.

To get the best out of your Amazon Echo, you  may purchase the 2017 user guide and manual here.

Some of the smart home devices supported by Amazon Echo are:

…an it’s growing.

And if you need help everything about Echo– such as from setting it up, to placing orders in Amazon, to streaming music, read here.

Echo (2nd generation)

Check Price on Amazon

See here the new Echo version – Echo Plus Bundle with Philips Hue Bulb

And you may read about Amazon Tap and Echo Dot in my other post.

How does Alexa work?

Amazon Echo is a voice-activated, internet connected wireless speaker that connects to Alexa, the cloud-based voice service to provide all the information you need. All you have to do is ask. There are only two wake words you can use – Alexa and Amazon. Most prefer Alexa, which is more convenient to say.

When you start to call “Alexa,” the light ring at the top rim begins to light up, meaning she hears you, and then streams audio to the cloud, tapping Alexa Voice Service to recognize and respond to your command.

Even when you’re across the room and while the music is playing, because it has an array of 7 microphones tucked under the light ring, it can hear you from any direction.

Due to its advanced audio design, the sound is immersive, a 360-degree sound projection, which is somewhat like you’re in a sweet spot.

What else do you need to know about Alexa-enabled Amazon Echo? Read the FAQs here.

How the Amazon Echo started

Echo is the concept of and developed by the Amazon inside Lab 126 offices in Silicon Valley and Cambridge, Mass. It took the Amazon at least four years to develop this device, which was codenamed “Doopler.”

By June 23, 2015, it was released to the market. Firstly, its availability is limited only to Amazon Prime members and by invitation, priced at $99 – such a luck to the users who bought at this price. Today, it is $179.99.

As with any other products which are newly-launched, the skills of Amazon Echo were limited.. No worries for the very early consumers because Echo is continuously adding its capabilities via updates .

Amazon Echo should be plugged in most of the time for the automatic updates to work and for better user experience anytime you need it. You will then be notified through email of the successful updates.

Specs

  • Audio- woofer, 2.5 inches; tweeter, 2.0 inches
  • Wi-Fi Connectivity- dual band & dual antenna Wi-Fi for faster streaming and fewer dropped connections than standard Wi-Fi. But Echo does not support peer-to-peer Wi-Fi networks
  • Bluetooth Connectivity- Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) support for audio streaming from your mobile device to Amazon Echo and Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP) for voice control of connected mobile devices. Hands-free voice control is not supported for Mac OS X devices.
  • System Requirements- It connects readily and easily to your home Wi-Fi. The Alexa App is compatible with Fire OS, Android, and iOS devices and also accessible via your web browser.

Final Thoughts

Amazon Echo is indispensable for the following reasons:

  • First and foremost for elderly people and with disabilities – They will just ask Alexa to turn off/on the lights and switches for them, or any other smart home automation devices they have. Or, Alexa will remind them of their medication time. This is very helpful for them, especially if they are left alone in the house and nobody around could do the important things for them for the time being.
  • For those who are busy with their hands full, for example in the kitchen, they can just ask Alexa “What ingredients am I missing, what’s the recipe of…” Or, for example you are lacking some items that you might be using for the moment, you can just tell Alexa,“Include lettuce and noodles in my grocery list,” for instance.
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