Tencent Digital (compilation: Mi Ke) Amazon actually launched its own Echo voice assistant in 2015, but do not worry, when it was only listed in the United States. A year after Echo went public, it finally came to the UK.
In fact, Echo itself is nothing too exciting, and the biggest highlight is its built-in Alexa voice assistant. This is a cloud-based voice-activated personal assistant that allows us to communicate with Alexa just as we would ordinary people. Of course, Echo's sound quality is good, if you don't like Echo, you can also choose to write Echo Dot a little smaller, but can not be used as a wireless speaker.
Amazon hopes to master our smart home system through Echo and Alexa and build its own ecosystem in a smarter way, and Alexa also has additional value.
Settings
Echo's setup is very simple and completed in less than a minute.
We plug the power adapter into the wall outlet and wait for the top round LED to change from orange to blue. After this work was done, Alexa was ready to start.
Echo's App supports iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire Tablet PCs, but it must be downloaded beforehand. At the same time Echo speaker itself is also a more delicate process, only need to access the Wi-Fi network to use. When using Echo for the first time, you need to log in to your Amazon Prime account and associate a third-party service such as Spotify to authorize Alexa. At present, many services can be linked to Amazon accounts.
design
Simply put, Echo looks like an ordinary speaker, with a height of 235 mm and a diameter of 76 mm. If you've only seen Echo's news or renderings before, when you see the real machine, you'll be amazed at Echo's size is much smaller than we thought.
And this kind of design can be placed almost anywhere in the home. Echo's weight is 700 grams, which is quite heavy and there is no need to worry about being easily knocked over by children or pets. At the same time, all operations and displays are at the top of the Echo, so we can put it in the closet or choose to place it in the living room, which can be used in almost any space.
We only need to connect the Echo to the power supply. Unlike most Bluetooth Speakers, the Echo main feature does not cover the portability. Therefore, there is no built-in battery and it needs to be connected to the power supply. Plugging in is actually a good thing. We only need to put Echo at home. It can be on standby at any time, and it always gives us the answer we need the first time. Echo does not have to compete with ordinary wireless Bluetooth speakers, so it uses a wired power connection without any problems.
For control, Echo has three buttons, two physical buttons + a circular LED indicator. One of the more interesting is the top of this independent luminous round LED lamp. When we say the name "Alexa," it emits blue light, similar to Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana. Of course, if you don't like Alexa's name, you can customize a variety of other names, as long as you like, what will be called.
As a speaker, Echo's provincial design is elegant enough.
Alexa voice control
Like all Amazon's value-added services, Alexa's use needs to pay for subscriptions like Amazon's Prime members, but the difference is that no registration is required. Alexa can control our home thermostats (including Hive) and control music played on smartphones or laptops.
At the same time, you can use Echo's App to manage settings, view task lists, shopping lists, networking services, music, and more. You can also review all previously used voice commands and audio clip information.
You can use Alexa to play audiobooks, check Google Calendar, view Amazon's order history, get traffic information, news, sports events, weather, Wikipedia, set alarms, countdowns, customize shopping lists, and to-do lists. At the same time there are a large number of third-party apps also support Alexa, including Uber and Skyscanner.
Alexa has a restriction that, in addition to the weather and the dictionary, Alexa takes all the information data from the fixed Wikipedia and other groups. At the same time, Alexa cannot use Google's services. But overall, we can talk to Alexa about anything, but we need to learn her habits, such as the following conversation.
"Alexa, who is the mayor of London?"
"The current Mayor of London is Sadiq Khan."
This is cool, what's next? "Alexa, add the backpack to my shopping list."
"I've added my backpack to the shopping list." It's done quite well.
"Alexa, come to Bob Marley's music."
Echo has seven microphones built in and supports beamforming technology, which means that Echo sounds can be clearly heard even at the other end of the room. Not just voice and words, but music. Even if spellings such as Bob Marley are not easy to pronounce, Echo can hear it.
I also used Alexa to purchase a lot of music, including some reggae style, which is a practical experience of shopping with Amazon. If you let Alexa help you add any items to the shopping list, there is no problem. If you already have a history order before, you can simply ask Alexa to place an order for you.
Music and sound effects
In addition to voice control, Alexa is still your personal DJ. I like to ask her anytime, anywhere questions, including singers, albums, genres, etc. If she does not search on the Internet, she apologizes and prompts me to buy it on Amazon.
In a sense, Echo is a typical Bluetooth speaker that can connect to any smartphone or wireless streaming service. If you subscribe to a dedicated streaming service, you can read directly from the streaming source. By default, Alexa's music library comes from Amazon Music. Of course we can also set up Spotify or iTunes. In the US market, Pandora and iHeartRadio are also available.
If you want to play the next song or pause the music, you can ask Alexa to help, or use the physical buttons on top of Echo. However, in terms of the sound quality of the playing music, Echo can only be considered as a law-abiding person, not an industry leader.
Alexa sounds good, but it's just from the perspective of searching for music. Echo's bass is not obvious, and there is a certain gap between other Bluetooth speakers on the market.
to sum up
Touch-free voice control is Alexa's biggest highlight, and this is the biggest difference between Echo and ordinary Bluetooth speakers. Whether it’s understanding new knowledge, listening to music, shopping lists, adjusting heater temperatures, or the needs of other applications, Alexa will satisfy us.
Unfortunately, as a Bluetooth speaker playing music, Echo's sound quality can only be said to be ordinary, not a good sound effect, although Amazon said there is a so-called 360-degree effect, but I did not hear it. At the same time Echo does not have a built-in battery, so it needs to be plugged into the power supply.
If you only want to experience the voice assistant and do not want to use Echo to listen to songs, then there is another Echo Dot that is priced at only 49 pounds (about 414 yuan) and is smaller in size.
In general, Amazon's position on Echo and Alexa is very clear, it is related to the user's service focus, and more services will be added over time.
However, Alexa will also face more competitors in the future, including the latest Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana. But after I experienced Alexa, at least I love her now.
Source: pocket-lint
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