Review & Giveaway: All-New Amazon Echo
Starting on Oct. 31, a new generation of Amazon Echo will be released! Amazon Echo connects to Alexa (a cloud-based voice service) to play music, make calls, set alarms and timers. You can ask it questions, check your calendar, weather, traffic and sports scores. Manage lists and control compatible smart home devices.
Just ask for a song, artist or genre from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and more. With multi-room music, you can play music on Echo devices in different rooms. Echo can also play audiobooks, radio stations and news briefings.
You can call or message anyone who also has an Echo device or the Alexa App. Also, quickly connect to other Echo devices in your home using just your voice. In addition, there are powerful speakers with Dolby processing that fill the room with immersive, 360° omnidirectional audio, and deliver crisp vocals and dynamic bass response.
With seven microphones, beam-forming technology and noise cancellation, Echo hears you from any direction-even while music is playing. Just ask Alexa to control your compatible smart lights, switches, thermostats and more. Alexa is always getting smarter and adding new features and skills. You can even ask Alexa to request an Uber, order a pizza, get train times, and more!
The 2nd generation Amazon Echo has a 2.5” downward-firing woofer and 0.6” tweeter powered by Dolby, delivering crisp vocals and dynamic bass throughout the room. With Amazon Music, you can search by lyrics, time period or let Alexa pick the music for you. You can also listen to audiobooks from Audible, podcasts, radio stations and news briefings.
In addition, you can even tell Alexa to play across your Echo devices. Tell Alexa to play jazz in the kitchen, top pop in the living room, or play the same song downstairs. You’ll never get tired of using Amazon Echo to switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn up the thermostat whilst reading or dim the lights to watch a movie—all without lifting a finger.
Especially relevant, Echo works with lights, locks, switches, thermostats and more from Philips Hue, WeMo, TP-Link, Hive, Nest, Samsung SmartThings, Netatmo, Tado° and more. So, if you’ve ever wanted a smart home. It’s never been easier. With Amazon Echo, you can easily talk hands-free to anyone who has a supported Echo device or the Alexa App. Additionally, you can send messages via voice or text to anyone with an Echo device or the Alexa App.
With the Drop In feature enabled for room-to-room calling, you can quickly connect with Echo devices in your home. Let your household know when dinner is ready, ask someone for help with a chore or remind the kids to go to sleep—without having to raise your voice.
Furthermore, neatly tucked beneath the light ring is an array of seven microphones that use beam-forming technology and enhanced noise cancellation. The 2nd-generation Amazon Echo has improved wake-word performance to hear you ask a question from any direction—even in noisy environments or while playing music at loud volumes. When you want to use Echo, simply say the wake word, “Alexa”, and Echo lights up and connects to the cloud, where the Alexa Voice Service recognises and responds to your request.
Consequently, Amazon Echo has thousands of skills and counting. Skills add even more capabilities such as ordering a pizza from Domino’s, requesting a ride from Uber, tracking your fitness with Fitbit and getting recipe suggestions from Recipedia. To enable new skills, it’s easy, just ask Alexa. New skills are being added all the time. Alexa updates through the cloud automatically and is continually learning, adding new functionality and skills. The more you use Echo, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary and personal preferences.
We have a Charcoal Fabric All-New Amazon Echo to giveaway to one of our lucky readers! Just enter via the Rafflecopter form below. Good luck!
