Posted Mon Nov 7, 2016 at 04:30 PM PST by Steven Cohen
The voice controlled speaker is now on sale!
In celebration of Alexa's second birthday, Amazon is now offering a special discount on its Echo speaker. The device is now on sale for $140.39, which is 22% off its usual retail price of $179.99. Echo is a cylindrical speaker system with 360° omni-directional audio and support for voice-controlled commands, offering instant information and music.
The speaker is an always-on device that uses Wi-Fi to connect to the cloud through Amazon Web Services. After waking Echo with the wake word "Alexa," the speaker provides similar functionality to Siri or Ok Google on Apple and Android devices, allowing customers to ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. In addition, buyers can use Echo to control lights, switches, thermostats, and more from WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, Insteon, Nest, ecobee, and Wink. Likewise, thanks to its cloud integration, Echo actually adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences over time. The speaker features Far-field voice recognition that uses seven microphones to pick up customer's commands. A 2.5-inch woofer and a 2-inch tweeter are integrated as well, offering 360° omni-directional audio.
In addition to the standard Echo, Amazon also offers a growing collection of Alexa-enabled Echo products, including the Echo Dot and Amazon Tap.
The Amazon Tap is designed to serve as a mobile version of the Echo. The Tap is a portable Alexa-enabled speaker with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. The device uses dual stereo speakers with Dolby processing to offer 360 degree omni directional audio. Users can simply tap the microphone button to enable the Alexa Voice Service, allowing them to ask for music, make searches, hear news, order products and more. The speaker is rated for up to nine hours of playback. The Amazon Tap is now available for $130.
Meanwhile, the Echo Dot is a compact, hands-free voice controlled device powered by Alexa -- allowing customers to ask questions, play music, turn on the lights, set timers, give sports updates, check the weather, access over 3,000 Alexa skills, and much more. The product is designed to be connected to existing speakers through a 3.5mm stereo cable of Bluetooth, allowing users to add voice control to their sound systems. In addition, the device also includes a small integrated speaker for use as an alarm clock or a voice assistant for smart home devices. The Echo Dot uses the same array of seven microphones found in the larger Amazon Echo, and the new 2nd generation model features a more powerful speech processor for improved far-field speech recognition accuracy. The 2nd Generation Echo Dot is now available in black or white for $50.
Source: Amazon
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