Echo Spot Review

Echo Spot Review – where do we start

It is a Alexa enabled Speaker with Screen

Echo Spot is designed to fit anywhere in your home. It uses 2nd generation far-field voice recognition to watch video flash briefings, see music lyrics, weather .. Read on to learn more about the Amazon Echo Spot Review

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Echo Spot Reviews

Anyone acquainted with the Echo range of devices will recognize just what they are: volume up, down and mute for the mic – this will likewise disable the video camera. There are likewise four tiny pin-prick openings. These home the four-array mics that listen out for the wake word and also for you barking commands at Alexa.

Size-wise, it’s the equivalent of a mango. Mangos aren’t one of the most clinical means to gauge things, sure, however a minimum of it provides you an indication that it’s a quite portable gadget with a rounded back and screen that’s angled up, makings it very easy to view.

On the back you have Amazon branding, a slot for power as well as a 3.5 mm jack.

On the top of the display there is space for a cam as well as on the top of the device in its entirety there are three buttons, which all rest flush against the surface area for an actually structured look.

Although when it involves attributes and also efficiency it might be way even more than a wise alarm system clock, that’s exactly just what the Spot appears like. This indicates that for many individuals that may become its default use, however in truth it’s means a lot more versatile compared to that.

Arrangement resembles other Echo devices, as has been seen in previous Echo Spot Review except for this you could key in your Wi-Fi details right on the screen, as opposed to undergoing the Alexa app.

Remarkably, it ends up that the most effective method to do a desk-based video tool is to give up the TV-lite appearance and simply go with something that’s small and also looks great. Tech business, make note.

However if you had to position the Dot somewhere in the Echo line-up, it’s a cross in between an Echo Dot and a smaller variation of the Amazon Show.

It’s a bit fiddly placing in your details this way (it will request your Amazon account password, too) yet the entire procedure will certainly take much less than five minutes.

The Amazon Echo Spot is just one of the later additions to the line up, adding a brand-new kind element, which is probably the best-looking of the number.

The system we assessed was black but there’s also a white one available. The display is small, at 2.5 inches (480 × 480 pixels).

Attributes and configuration.

Sure it’s subjective and also depends upon the design of your residence, yet our company believe that it’s an all-natural suitable for a bedside table or desktop, yet this futuristic-looking home window right into the globe of Alexa would certainly impress guests wherever they find it in your house or even your workplace.

Amazon’s variety of Echo devices are anywhere. In just a couple of brief years audio products like the Dot and also the Echo have gone from promising uniqueness to family vital – even amongst those who aren’t generally fussed regarding the most up to date technology.

Then you get that cozy chime sound, which indicates Alexa is on-line and all set to take orders. When this appears it’s a great time to review our best Amazon Alexa Abilities write-up or you can comply with the motivates that come up on the screen. Additionally, you could swipe right on the screen and that will bring up an entire lots of Alexa regulates you can utilize. It’s a truly nice means to learn what to do with Alexa. If you’re seeking some enjoyable and foolish additionals, give our Alexa Easter Eggs listing a try, too.

It’s a great-looking gadget, definitely something you won’t mind carrying show in your home unlike the, er, Show.

The audio speaker grill for the Spot is right at the base of the tool, makings it undetectable when watching the Spot face-on. Bluetooth performance is likewise offered.

The Amazon Echo Spot is unlike other Echo gadget as well as that’s a great point. Its rounded shell does ample to earn up for its sibling’s style failings.

Yet although it could look wonderful, does the efficiency include up? Is a screen that small and also round actually valuable? Can its audio speaker meet the top quality of the remainder of the variety? Read our full Echo Spot review to learn.

Where the huge, bulky as well as bold Amazon Echo Program took over any location you put it in, no many thanks to its brutalist black piece look, the Echo Spot is much more fine-tuned in its round style.

These motivates can be turned off in the Spot’s setups. It’s right here in the settings where you could toggle residence cards on an off too. The home cards are information that shows up on the home display.

Amazon Echo Spot at Amazon AU for $179.
We assume that the 2017 overhaul of the Echo is an excellent suitable for the majority of spaces, while the industrial-looking tube of the Echo Plus makes it one to tuck onto a gadgety rack. The Echo Program has a big display, which is great for culinary video clips for the cooking area, but the Echo Spot, with its round shape and also built-in screen, can sit anywhere.

This is no Echo spot substitute, though – the cost places it from contention for that, as well as it’s likewise a lot better, so to state it is would be doing it an injustice.

When your Echo Spot is operating, you have the alternative to view Amazon’s promo video clip, which informs you just what you could do with the device. It’s not a masterpiece but it deserves enduring so you obtain an idea concerning what you’ve simply bought.

Protecting the Elderly – Part one – Building a Smart Home

Firstly let me make three comments:

We live in strange times and not all of us are safe even in our own homes, as has been seen and talked about on TV , Radio and through the internet in recent times , and this goes for every city in Australia
Our Kids and family are often living in suburbs away from ours and even in cities away from us. So we tend to rely on other elderly friends in our area.
Not all of us are blessed with good health and as we get older in some cases it gets worse or we find it harder to get things done.

The Result :

Too often we feel vulnerable, even if we are not and we feel that we need to get a better and safer way of doing things. Enter the need for building a Smart Home for the Elderly

What do we need to build a Smart Home

We need to be able to contact emergency services in the event of a problem
We need to be able to contact our kids, friends family for Assistance
We need to be able to enter or home safely – with lights on (but not all day)
We need to feel safe and secure at all times
We need to be able to work it without too much hassle and trouble
We need to understand that it is not expensive and that we can control a Smart Home without too much hassle

How do we Achieve All of This

SCENARIO ONE

An elderly Lady or Man living alone slipped over in the bathroom and fell sustaining an injured hip and found that he or she could not get up – her bathroom was connected to the bedroom and she was all alone in the home.

SCENARIO TWO

An Elderly Man suffered chest pains at home and was unable to get out of the chair he was sitting in to get to the phone to call for assistance

What is the Answer? And What do we Need to resolve these three situations

SCENARIO THREE

An Elderly couple were coming home from being out for the day – as they approached the home it was in darkness.

What are the Answers ?And What do we Need to resolve these three situations.

We need access to the lowest cost internet we can get, even although most most homes have access today too either a wireless internet system or a cable internet system or even a portable hand held systems at often less than $25 to $30 per month often with phone line thrown into the mix.
A family member to connect your smart device for you if you do not understand the systems or do it yourself.

What is Amazon Echo – Current Cost $79.00

I am sure that they make these appear complex to scare us – all they are is a device that is run by software that gives the device a voice called “Alexa” that reacts to your voice ( or your partners or both) that once programmed understand your voice commands or your questions and acts upon them.

There are 4 such devices (of varying cost) We need the simplest to start with (and we may leave it at that ) and that would be the Echo Dot (more info here}

We connect the internet – then we connect the Echo Dot device – The Echo dot device finds the internet source and then we teach it to listen to our voice – DONE ( or we get one of the kids to connect it and then we teach it our voice.- Done)

Note: We have two devices one on the ground floor and one upstairs –

Once activated the Echo device can be programmed with all the required phone numbers – family, friends, emergency services, Doctors Surgery Number – etc!

So Now Lets Re-Visit SCENARIO ONE– and look at building a smart home

The injured party simply asks or commands “Alexa” – (The name given to the device communicator) to call the ambulance , Doctor, Family member – or all of them one at a time. The device will do that for you and tell you when it is done – you are now on a hands free communication with who ever you called and you can from anywhere in your home (within voice range) state your situation or call one of the family, friends and ask them to get it done for you.

Lets Visit SCENARIO TWO –

Once again the answer is we make a voice command , the echo device ensures that “Alexa” connects you to the emergency service – Done

Some may say its hard to make a command when you have chest pains – having been in that situation its not quite true , you do have the facility to speak and the requirement is simple – Alexa call ambulance service !

It is easier than that if you have a family member who is also on Echo and you initiate a call to them, and they call the emergency services for you. That way they are aware that something has happened and you need their assistance – even of they are in another state , city or town they can still be contacted. Its a damn site easier than trying to make phone calls or having to carry your phone into the bathroom etc.

Lets bring this all back into perspective.

Understanding what do we need to visit Scenario Three – There are Two options

Option One:

We can do this with an Echo Dot Device – and the small phone app (free the Alexa App) that it requires to connect you to the echo device from anywhere – yes anywhere !! – Using the Internet we can through the app, tell ”Alexa” to switch on the lights at home. From anywhere at anytime.

Option two:

We can also do this with a very simply power point – yes all we need is the TP-Link Smart Plug, ($39.00)

We download the KASA app for our phone (any phone) and we connect it via the internet to the Smart Plug

We will have attached or plugged in the lamps or lights that we want switched on to the TP-Link Smart Plug

Hint: We attached the smart plug to a power board – we turn the power board off using the App on my phone, when we reconnect the app , it switches on the Lamp and the TV and that gives us enough light to see our way into the house and noise .

Note again that this can be done at any time form anywhere for a total costs of $39.00 – Run the Echo and have all of the added safety values for $79.00 (plus internet)

Before we finish I am elderly as is my wife – and I am an internet marketer with Amazon so if you buy a product from me because of this article I will be supplementing my pension and I Thank You in advance

What is Amazon Alexa

What is Amazon Alexa and How does it effect Echo Devices

Be aware that this article is taken from Wikipedia and reflects information provided to them , it is still subject to clarification and often it is edited by persons from Amazon and other associated groups

Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news.Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing “skills” (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps such as weather programs and audio features).

Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Alexa); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android) require the user to push a button to activate Alexa’s listening mode. Currently, interaction and communication with Alexa are only available in English, German, French and Japanese. In November 2017, Amazon Alexa became available in the Canadian market in English only.

In November 2014, Amazon announced Alexa alongside the Echo. Alexa was inspired by the computer voice and conversational system on board the Starship Enterprise in science fiction TV series and movies, beginning with Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The name Alexa was chosen due to the fact that it has a hard consonant with the X and therefore could be recognized with higher precision. The name is also claimed to be reminiscent of the Library of Alexandria, which is also used by Amazon Alexa Internet for the same reason. In June 2015, Amazon announced Alexa Fund, a program that would invest in companies making voice control skills and technologies. The US$100 million in funds has invested in companies including Ecobee, Orange Chef, Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, MARA, and Mojio.In 2016 the Alexa Prize was announced to advance the technology.

In January 2017, the first Alexa Conference took place in Nashville, Tennessee, an independent gathering of the worldwide community of Alexa developers and enthusiasts. The follow-up has been announced, to be keynoted by original Amazon Alexa / Connected Home product head Ahmed Bouzid.

At the Amazon Web Services Re:Invent conference in Las Vegas, Amazon announced Alexa for Business and the ability for app developers to have paid add-ons to their skills.

Functions for Alexa

Amazon Alexa offers weather reports provided by AccuWeather and news provided by TuneIn from a variety of sources including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN. Additionally, Alexa-supported devices stream music from the owner’s Amazon Music accounts and have built-in support for Pandora and Spotify accounts. Alexa can play music from streaming services such as Apple Music and Google Play Music from a phone or tablet. Alexa can manage voice-controlled alarms, timers, and shopping and to-do lists, and can access Wikipedia articles. Alexa devices will respond to questions about items in the user’s Google Calendar. As of November 2016, the Alexa Appstore had over 5,000 functions (“skills”) available for users to download, up from 1,000 functions in June 2016. As of a partnership with fellow technology company, Microsoft, Alexa will be available via its competing virtual personal assistant, Cortana. This functionality was said to come later in 2017; although as of April 2018, is still not available. In March 2018, Amazon rolled out a new “Brief Mode,” wherein Alexa would begin responding with a beep sound rather than saying, “Okay,” to confirm receipt of a command.

In the home automation space, Alexa can interact with devices from several manufacturers including Belkin, ecobee, Geeni, IFTTT, Insteon, LIFX, LightwaveRF, Nest , Philips Hue, SmartThings, Wink, and Yonomi.The Home Automation feature was launched on April 8, 2015. Developers are able to create their own smart home skills using the Alexa Skills Kit.

Take-out food can be ordered using Alexa; as of May 2017 food ordering using Alexa is supported by Domino’s Pizza, Grubhub, Pizza Hut, Seamless, and Wingstop. Also, users of Alexa in the UK can order meals via Just Eat. In early 2017, Starbucks announced a private beta for placing pick-up orders using Alexa.In addition, users can order meals using Amazon Prime Now via Alexa in 20 major US cities With the introduction of Amazon Key in November 2017, Alexa also works together with the smart lock and the Alexa Cloud Cam included in the service to allow Amazon couriers to unlock customers’ front doors and deliver packages inside.

According to a August 2018 article by The Information, only 2 percent of Alexa owners have used the device them to make a purchase during the first seven months of 2018 and of those who made an initial purchase, 90 percent did not make a second purchase.

Alexa supports a multitude of subscription-based and free streaming services on Amazon devices. These streaming services include: Prime Music, Amazon Music, Amazon Music Unlimited, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, Audible, Pandora, and Spotify Premium. However, some of these music services are not available on other Alexa-enabled products that are manufactured by companies external of its services. This unavailability also includes Amazon’s own Fire TV devices or tablets.

Alexa is able to stream media and music directly. To do this, Alexa’s device should be linked to the Amazon account, which enables access to one’s Amazon Music library, in addition to any audiobooks available in one’s Audible library. Amazon Prime members have an additional ability to access stations, playlists, and over two million songs free of charge. Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers also have access to a list of millions of songs.

Amazon Music for PC allows one to play personal music from Google Play, iTunes, and others on an Alexa device. This can be done by uploading one’s collection to My Music on Amazon from a computer. Up to 250 songs can be uploaded free of charge. Once this is done, Alexa can play this music and control playback through voice command options.

Alexa allows the user to hear updates on supported sports teams. A way to do this is by adding the sports team to the list created under Alexa’s Sports Update app section.

There are a number of ways messages can be sent from Alexa’s application. Alexa is able to deliver messages to a recipient’s Alexa application, as well as to all of their Echo devices that are both supported and associated with their Amazon account. Alexa is able to send typed messages only from Alexa’s app. If one sends a message from an associated Echo device, it will be sent as a voice message. Alexa cannot send attachments such as videos and photos.

For households with more than one member, one’s Alexa contacts are pooled across all of the devices that are registered to its associated account. However, within Alexa’s app one is only able to start conversations with its Alexa contacts. When accessed and supported by an Alexa app or Echo device, Alexa messaging is available to anyone in one’s household. These messages can be heard by anyone with access in the household. This messaging feature does not yet contain a password protection or associated PIN. Anyone who has access to one’s cell phone number is able to use this feature to contact them through their supported Alexa app or Echo device. The feature to block alerts for messages and calls is available temporarily by utilizing the Do Not Disturb feature.

Alexa for Business is a paid subscription service allowing companies to use Alexa to join conference calls, schedule meeting rooms, and custom skills designed by 3rd-party vendors. At launch, notable skills are available from SAP, Microsoft, and Salesforce.^[41]

Amazon allows developers to build and publish skills for Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit.These third-party developed skills, once published, are available across Alexa-enabled devices. Users can enable these skills using the Alexa app.

A “Smart Home Skill API” is available, meant to be used by hardware manufacturers to allow users to control smart home devices.

Most skills run code almost entirely in the cloud, using Amazon’s AWS Lambda service

In April 2018, Amazon launched Blueprints, a tool for individuals to build skills for their personal use. echo plus

Amazon allows device manufacturers to integrate Alexa voice capabilities into their own connected products by using the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), a cloud-based service that provides APIs to interface with Alexa. Products built using AVS have access to Alexa’s growing list of capabilities including all of the Alexa Skills. AVS provides cloud-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU). There are no fees for companies looking to integrate Alexa into their products by using AVS.

The voice of Amazon Alexa is generated by a long short-term memory artificial neural network.

On November 30, 2016 Amazon announced that they will make the speech recognition and natural language processing technology behind Alexa available for developers under the name of Amazon Lex. This new service would allow developers to create their own chatbots that can interact in a conversational manner, similar to Alexa. Along with the connection to various Amazon services, the initial version will provide connectivity to Facebook Messenger, with Slack and Twilio integration to follow.

There are concerns about the access Amazon has to private conversations in the home and other non-verbal indications that can identify who is present in the home with non-stop audio pick-up from Alexa-enabled devices. Amazon responds to these concerns by stating that the devices only stream recordings from the user’s home when the ‘wake word’ activates the device. The device is technically capable of streaming voice recordings at all times, and in fact will always be listening to detect if a user has uttered the wake word unless muted.

Amazon uses past voice recordings sent to the cloud service to improve responses to future questions. Users can delete voice recordings that are associated with their account. To delete these recordings, the user can visit the History tab in the Alexa app or contact Amazon customer service.

Alexa uses an address stored in the companion app when it needs a location. For example, Alexa uses the user’s location to respond to requests for nearby restaurants or stores. Similarly, Alexa uses the user’s location for mapping-related requests.

Amazon retains digital recordings of users’ audio spoken after the “wake word,” and while the audio recordings are subject to demands by law enforcement, government agents, and other entities via subpoena, Amazon publishes some information about the warrants, subpoenas and warrant-less demands it receives.