Amazon Echo

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Where can I get this: Go to Amazon

Have you ever watched the TV game show- Jeopardy? Isn’t it amazing that there are people out there that know so much about the world? Wish you could have been a contestant in that game show…well it is possible. Amazon has created a device that offers you that learning experience…that device is call Amazon Echo. Amazon Echo often referred to as Alexa, is an interactive device for the family that perform various functions by talking to the device. Communicate with it to do many things such as play music, ask educational questions, obtain traffic reports, news, weather reports and much more. It uses far-field technology to interpret the user commands so you don’t have to speak loudly. The more you interact with Alexa, the greater Alexa gets to know you to provide more specific answers. Alexa operates with Wi-Fi and has an audio auxiliary port to attach external speakers to.

Amazon has 3 models – Echo Dot, Echo and Echo Plus. Now each device does the same thing in terms of interacting with it, but there are minor differences. The echo dot is the cheapest one of them all. It offers the same services as the others but its speaker is not so great and it is recommended not to play music through the device thus its best to use with an external speaker using Bluetooth or the auxiliary port. The Echo, which is my preference, has a better speaker and produces a much better sound quality. Now the Echo Plus produces similar sound quality and the Echo, features a dial system instead of buttons to adjust volume and really and truly the only reason why someone will choose the Echo plus over the Echo is the fact that it features a built-in ZigBee Smart Home Bridge.

ZigBee technology and Wi-Fi uses the same 2.4GHz frequency which will cause them to interfere and affect the performance of the devices. Now this is useful only if your house is outfitted with many smart home products such as lights and motion sensors….but you can always buy a separate ZigBee bridge which is actually affordable.

There has been some controversial issues with the device with regards to security. Alexa powers off when you ask it questions based on the NSA (National Security Agency). Overall Alexa is a great device that provides family entertainment and the Amazon Echo in my opinion is the better choice.

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