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The latest line of Amazon's voice-activated "home smart devices," including a wall clock and microwave oven, always asks the question: what is it exactly?
In the case of the new design, Echo Dot worth £ 50, which made its way into the market the day before yesterday, it is simpler to consider it as a radio.
It's much more than that, but a radio will do it. It captures all BBC digital stations and any other network in the world that sends a feed to the Internet. This includes all regional commercial services and even local stations like Drystone Radio, a charming name, located in the Yorkshire Dales. It operates on the industry and is therefore not really portable, but as a tabletop device, it has a better price-performance ratio than most DAB radios.
Echo Dot is the entry-level product of Amazon's new line-up, which hopes to extend voice control support through a "personal digital assistant" called Alexa, to more devices than ever at home .
You can tell her "Alexa, turn on the television," and instead of asking you to do it yourself, which would be a good answer, it sends an inaudible signal to the room. As long as your TV has a compatible adapter plugged in, everything will go as it is indicated.
Its use as a radio is done in much the same way. There is no push button to set it because all you need is to say "Alexa, turn on Radio 4" and playback should start with the built-in 1.6in speaker. If you want better sound, the larger £ 90 Echo model comes with two speakers.
It also connects to Spotify, allowing you to stream music of your choice. However, if you want to listen to serious music, you will want to connect it to your h-fi speakers, via Bluetooth or a mini-jack cable.
Amazon lists dozens of other possible uses for its smart devices, but you have to go further in the lineup to take advantage of it, and many are, in any case, gadgets. This is betrayed by the "popcorn setting" on the company's £ 60 microwave oven, which will go on sale later this year and is able to light up when you tell it. But since you first have to manually insert something, you may be wondering if it is a good automation.
The wall clock at £ 30, also available soon, is more functional, but only if you have many other smart devices because it recognizes the timers you have set and turns on so you can see them in one go. 'eye.
More usefully, Alexa software can now listen to smoke detectors or broken windows, and send a security alert to a mobile phone if it is triggered.
But Amazon admits that the concept is still a work in progress, relying on other companies to offer compatible home appliances and consumer electronics. In the meantime, there is a £ 13 adapter that plugs into any 13 amp socket and allows remote control of anything plugged into it. It looks like any other plug-in timer, with the difference that it is part of your Wi-Fi network and can be remotely controlled by an application on your phone.
Amazon insists that the smart market is approaching its tipping point and that a credible £ 50 device that can be bought and used as a standalone radio should definitely put the technology into homes that homeowners might have. to seem indifferent. Others will be happy to turn on their own TVs.
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