review: amazon echo plus and dot
How do you feel about expanding your family and having a robot assistant join in, he listens intently in the corner and only talks when he talks to him, echo Plus is like this when asked.
Smart speakers are now popular, with Amazon\'s Echo series, Google\'s Home, Microsoft\'s Invoke, and Apple\'s HomePod competing for attention in an increasingly crowded market.
But Amazon took the lead in the rest of the world, launching voice-controlled Echo devices three years ago.
Initially, it was only available and localized in specific markets that did not include Ireland.
However, Amazon announced a few weeks agoexpanded)
Range is finally available here, and it has partnered with Irish organizations to make Echo more useful in an Irish environment.
I \'ve been trying Echo Plus and echo points in my own home since then to see how useful and scary they really are.
First of all, they look like the Echo Plus is black (or silver)
Cylindrical objects about 24 cm high and 8 cm wide with a grill on the front covering speakers, power and mute buttons with a volume ring on the top and some LED lighting on the edge.
The size of the Echo Point is much smaller, but based on the same idea, there are buttons at the top, smaller integrated speakers, etc.
The Echo device is powered by Amazon\'s smart voice
Control virtual assistant, report.
Setting them up is very simple-you download the Alexa app to your PC, phone or tablet and log in with your Amazon account (
Or set one if you don\'t).
Then you plug in the Echo, turn it on, wait for Alexa to meet you and follow the instructions to connect it to the Wifi.
Once it\'s done, the device can run and ready for customization.
You use wake-up words whenever you want to give instructions to it.
This is \"Alexa\" by default, but you can change it-although you quickly find that a word that is rarely used is the best option.
Using wake-up words will wake Echo Plus up and listen to the next instructions or questions.
So what can it do, a lot, but only within the defined parameters.
The first and most obvious thing you want a smart speaker to do is play music.
Once you subscribe, Echo Plus will play music from Amazon Music or Spotify.
Want a specific track, artist, genre or any other specific request, ask and Alexa will call and play it for you. Her (
Alexa has a female voice by default)
Pick up the thanks you said \"far-
Even in the case of distance and background noise, the field speech recognition \"technology is the same.
The sound quality is not bad at all.
If you want to further improve sound quality, Echo Plus will also integrate with Sonos speakers via Wifi or connect to other external speakers via Bluetooth or audio output cable.
You can also group specific devices together to play the same music in multiple rooms.
Echo Plus can also use Audible and Kindle if you like to listen to audiobooks, which is very convenient.
Alexa can also make a list of everything you really like, from shopping to housework.
You can also have her set reminders, timers, and alerts-handy when your hands are dirty while cooking, or don\'t need to forget to pick up a kid from football training.
Once you \'ve got the hang of it, you may want to start adding skills.
Skills is an app version designed by Amazon for Alexa-third parties, with additional feature layers for Echo devices.
For example, there is an rte News skill that will give you an update on the latest headlines if you ask.
If you want to know the weather forecast for the day, there is also a rt é weather for Met Éireann skill.
You can listen to a range of Irish radio stations including rte through Irish radio player skills.
Or explore flight time, price and accommodation on Ryanair skills.
You can even get the latest rugby news from Irish rugby technology.
You got the picture.
There aren\'t so many skills dedicated to Irish themes yet, but there are thousands of skills to download and install.
The range ranges from sports to business and finance, from recipes to shopping and games to education.
Alexa especially likes telling stories and telling jokes if you have children.
You can also integrate your calendar into it so Alexa can tell you what will happen tomorrow. A so-
It\'s also possible to set up what\'s called \"Flash Briefing\"-quick updates are important to you, usually about news, sports, weather, transportation, etc.
Another big selling point of Echo Plus is that it has a smart home controller hub built into it.
It supports hundreds of smart home devices and ecosystems that can be controlled by Echo Plus.
I have a lot of Hive devices as well as Philips Hue smart bulbs for example.
I was able to integrate all of this into the Echo Plus so that now I can tell Alexa to turn on specific lights at will.
The process went really well, even though I found the Hue bulb a bit grumpy and disconnected randomly, which was a bit annoying.
Smart home devices can also be grouped.
For example, you can put all the lights in the living room together and tell Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room, hey, presto.
It\'s easy to see the next day, there will be a series of such equipment around our house that we use to control all of our home functions, such as locking the door, turning the lights off, starting the washing machine, starting the alarm, etc.
You can also use the Echo device to call other users of the device, or use the insert feature to call your own Echo from your phone.
However, the biggest concern for many people is that one thing sitting in the corner listening to every word of them and then sending that data to other places, others may tap or hack into the data.
The official route for Amazon, however, is that it uses
The device keyword detects to detect wake-up words before streaming the audio into the cloud, including the one second before the wake-up words.
You can see what it records by reviewing your history on the app, and if you want to speak without Alexa listening, you can mute the echo microphone.
In short, Echo Plus and Dot are smart things that are sometimes very useful for the home environment.
But they are not smart.
Lost out of the scope of Alexa\'s vocabulary, or asking her the remaining questions in some areas, AI becomes really stupid.
But when it comes to basic knowledge such as streaming music, broadcasting, providing news and weather updates, and using the skills you are personally interested in and using, then it becomes your own.
If you want to explore smart home technology for voice control, then this is a great way to get started.
Each competitor will have advantages and disadvantages over the other.
Apple\'s HomePod is known to have a good sound, but the price is much higher.
Google Home may be smarter because it\'s based on a more mature repository, but it doesn\'t look good.
However, many of them come down to costs. The price of Echo Plus is 170 euros, the price of Echo Dot is 60 euros, and Amazon\'s price competition is fierce.
Still, the technology in this area will only improve over time, so you may decide that it is best to wait until the day when \"Alexa, make dinner\" is closer to reality.
Smart speakers are now popular, with Amazon\'s Echo series, Google\'s Home, Microsoft\'s Invoke, and Apple\'s HomePod competing for attention in an increasingly crowded market.
But Amazon took the lead in the rest of the world, launching voice-controlled Echo devices three years ago.
Initially, it was only available and localized in specific markets that did not include Ireland.
However, Amazon announced a few weeks agoexpanded)
Range is finally available here, and it has partnered with Irish organizations to make Echo more useful in an Irish environment.
I \'ve been trying Echo Plus and echo points in my own home since then to see how useful and scary they really are.
First of all, they look like the Echo Plus is black (or silver)
Cylindrical objects about 24 cm high and 8 cm wide with a grill on the front covering speakers, power and mute buttons with a volume ring on the top and some LED lighting on the edge.
The size of the Echo Point is much smaller, but based on the same idea, there are buttons at the top, smaller integrated speakers, etc.
The Echo device is powered by Amazon\'s smart voice
Control virtual assistant, report.
Setting them up is very simple-you download the Alexa app to your PC, phone or tablet and log in with your Amazon account (
Or set one if you don\'t).
Then you plug in the Echo, turn it on, wait for Alexa to meet you and follow the instructions to connect it to the Wifi.
Once it\'s done, the device can run and ready for customization.
You use wake-up words whenever you want to give instructions to it.
This is \"Alexa\" by default, but you can change it-although you quickly find that a word that is rarely used is the best option.
Using wake-up words will wake Echo Plus up and listen to the next instructions or questions.
So what can it do, a lot, but only within the defined parameters.
The first and most obvious thing you want a smart speaker to do is play music.
Once you subscribe, Echo Plus will play music from Amazon Music or Spotify.
Want a specific track, artist, genre or any other specific request, ask and Alexa will call and play it for you. Her (
Alexa has a female voice by default)
Pick up the thanks you said \"far-
Even in the case of distance and background noise, the field speech recognition \"technology is the same.
The sound quality is not bad at all.
If you want to further improve sound quality, Echo Plus will also integrate with Sonos speakers via Wifi or connect to other external speakers via Bluetooth or audio output cable.
You can also group specific devices together to play the same music in multiple rooms.
Echo Plus can also use Audible and Kindle if you like to listen to audiobooks, which is very convenient.
Alexa can also make a list of everything you really like, from shopping to housework.
You can also have her set reminders, timers, and alerts-handy when your hands are dirty while cooking, or don\'t need to forget to pick up a kid from football training.
Once you \'ve got the hang of it, you may want to start adding skills.
Skills is an app version designed by Amazon for Alexa-third parties, with additional feature layers for Echo devices.
For example, there is an rte News skill that will give you an update on the latest headlines if you ask.
If you want to know the weather forecast for the day, there is also a rt é weather for Met Éireann skill.
You can listen to a range of Irish radio stations including rte through Irish radio player skills.
Or explore flight time, price and accommodation on Ryanair skills.
You can even get the latest rugby news from Irish rugby technology.
You got the picture.
There aren\'t so many skills dedicated to Irish themes yet, but there are thousands of skills to download and install.
The range ranges from sports to business and finance, from recipes to shopping and games to education.
Alexa especially likes telling stories and telling jokes if you have children.
You can also integrate your calendar into it so Alexa can tell you what will happen tomorrow. A so-
It\'s also possible to set up what\'s called \"Flash Briefing\"-quick updates are important to you, usually about news, sports, weather, transportation, etc.
Another big selling point of Echo Plus is that it has a smart home controller hub built into it.
It supports hundreds of smart home devices and ecosystems that can be controlled by Echo Plus.
I have a lot of Hive devices as well as Philips Hue smart bulbs for example.
I was able to integrate all of this into the Echo Plus so that now I can tell Alexa to turn on specific lights at will.
The process went really well, even though I found the Hue bulb a bit grumpy and disconnected randomly, which was a bit annoying.
Smart home devices can also be grouped.
For example, you can put all the lights in the living room together and tell Alexa to turn on the lights in the living room, hey, presto.
It\'s easy to see the next day, there will be a series of such equipment around our house that we use to control all of our home functions, such as locking the door, turning the lights off, starting the washing machine, starting the alarm, etc.
You can also use the Echo device to call other users of the device, or use the insert feature to call your own Echo from your phone.
However, the biggest concern for many people is that one thing sitting in the corner listening to every word of them and then sending that data to other places, others may tap or hack into the data.
The official route for Amazon, however, is that it uses
The device keyword detects to detect wake-up words before streaming the audio into the cloud, including the one second before the wake-up words.
You can see what it records by reviewing your history on the app, and if you want to speak without Alexa listening, you can mute the echo microphone.
In short, Echo Plus and Dot are smart things that are sometimes very useful for the home environment.
But they are not smart.
Lost out of the scope of Alexa\'s vocabulary, or asking her the remaining questions in some areas, AI becomes really stupid.
But when it comes to basic knowledge such as streaming music, broadcasting, providing news and weather updates, and using the skills you are personally interested in and using, then it becomes your own.
If you want to explore smart home technology for voice control, then this is a great way to get started.
Each competitor will have advantages and disadvantages over the other.
Apple\'s HomePod is known to have a good sound, but the price is much higher.
Google Home may be smarter because it\'s based on a more mature repository, but it doesn\'t look good.
However, many of them come down to costs. The price of Echo Plus is 170 euros, the price of Echo Dot is 60 euros, and Amazon\'s price competition is fierce.
Still, the technology in this area will only improve over time, so you may decide that it is best to wait until the day when \"Alexa, make dinner\" is closer to reality.
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