Alexa – Tech Raman

Amazon brings Echo Show 8 to India | Price, Features Details

Lakshmi — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 05:33:38 +0000

Amazon is quite gung ho about the Alexa powered Echo devices market in India and keeps introducing its latest products to the Indian market. The latest to join its wide portfolio of Echo Smart devices here is the Echo Show 8 which has been priced at Rs 8,999. It will start shipping from Feb 24 So what does Echo Show 8 offer? Here is a quick rundown.

Everything You need to know about the Echo Show 8

The Echo Show 8 has an 8-inch display and find a middle ground between the Echo Show 5 with its a 5-inch display and the larger Echo Show having a 10-inch display. It has an HD display with a 1200×800 pixels resolution. It weighs 1037 gram. It’s available in black and white colour variants with a textured fabric clothing to dress it up.

The Echo Show 8 has a 1MP front camera for video calling. In case you are worried about the security aspects of the camera, then there is a camera shutter on/off physical toggle. There is also a mic on/off in case you want to keep it quiet. There are a total of 4 mics for the Echo to communicate with us.

So why would you want an Echo Show to begin with? The Show range of Echo devices has a display so you can watch movies and TV shows. It supports streaming apps like Amazon Prime vide, Voot and Apple music. With Alexa, of course, you can talk to the Echo Show like other Echo devices and gets answers to your queries, ask Alexa to share a joke or stories and even order on Amazon via the device and voice commands.

If your friends have Echo devices or Alexa app or on Skype, you can initiate video calling via the Echo Show with its 1MP front-facing camera. If you have other Alexa-enable smart living devices like Smart lights, A/c with Alexa supported plugs etc, you can control via the Echo show.

The Echo Show 8 like other Echo family of devices can converse in both English and Hindi and there are over 30,000 English skills and 800 Hindi skills to make good use of.

With the Echo Show 8, Amazon now retails a trio of Show family with the Echo Show 5 priced at Rs 8,999, the new Echo Show 8 at Rs 12,999 and the larger Echo Show selling at Rs 22, 999.

All-new Amazon Echo 3rd Gen Review

Lakshmi — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 05:21:59 +0000

Amazon’s Echo devices are like a family, new generations keep propping up and they get smarter or better in the process. So the latest addition to the Smart speaker family is the all-new Amazon Echo (3rd Gen) which borrows bits of goodies from the Echo Plus. In India it is priced at ₹ 9,999 and available in black, blue, grey and white color choices. And for those who are not aware of, Alexa now speaks even Hindi in India now. You can either change the language settings in the app or simply tell “Alexa, speak in English and Hindi.” and it will understand both the languages. Here is the Amazon Echo 3rd Gen review to help you understand it better.

Having used the previous gen Amazon Echo, the notable differences is in the audio experience having borrowed the speaker internals from the Echo Plus

Echo 3rd Gen design: Plus Factor

The third generation has got a wee bit stouter, slightly shorter and a tad bit wider than the previous Echo. It’s still the same cylinder and measures 5.8” x 3.9” x 3.9” and weighs 1.3kg. It is wrapped in the fabric around the sides of the speaker. While the blue and gray models have white plastic top panels and bases, the black and dark grey models have black ones.

The top panel houses the controls – four buttons to be precise (Alexa, microphone mute, and volume up/down), there are six pinholes for the far-field microphone. A rubber base keeps the Echo firm. The back of the speaker has a connector for the included power adapter and a 3.5mm audio combination input/output.

The top panel has a translucent light ring that glows blue when Alexa is listening or communicating, red when you mute the microphone or orange when it’s updating software or ready for setup.

3rd Gen Echo sound – Getting Better at it

Like I quoted in the beginning, the Echo has got better at the audio experience now. It sounds better and richer now. Not surprising because it now packs a downward-firing 3-inch woofer, 0.8-inch tweeter and Dolby Audio. If you are upgrading your second-gen, the difference is instantly noticeable. The 360-degree sound makes it a good smart speaker at its price. The bass has improved and roomier and rounded now. It is good to see Amazon upping the ante in delivering a smart speaker that sounds good too.

Amazon Echo Features- Alexa at its heart

Like the rest of the Echo lineup, the heart of the Echo devices rests on Amazon’s smart assistant, Alexa. You can communicate with it, ask it to play songs, tell stories, ask questions (of course it politely says sorry if it’s beyond its comprehension) and there are thousands of skills developed by others to make use of the Alexa assistance. It’s an echo system that works fairly well and is growing.

The Echo can also pair with other Alexa speakers and if you have a couple of them you can create a stereo cluster of smart speakers. The Drop In feature allows you to communicate between the Echo devices.

Echo lacks what the Echo Plus has – built-in Zigbee smart home hub and temperature sensor. It may not be a deal-breaker if you are using Echo only as a smart speaker but if you are planning to interconnect different Alexa supported Smart devices from various brands in your home, it’s slightly at disadvantage but can be overcome by using an external smart home hub. Frankly, I use Echo as a smart speaker and only as a smart speaker and it doesn’t hinder me.

For those who are paranoid about Alexa eavesdropping always, there is a control for microphone and you can turn it off but when you do so the Echo would only be a bluetooth speaker deprived of its smartness. The Echo needs to listen actively and constantly to be at your call of service. Still, there is toggle control for your assurance.

Amazon Echo 3rd Gen Review | Verdict

Amazon has expanded its Echo portfolio vastly, there are multiple devices now and am lucky to have experienced most of them. The all-new Echo (3rd Gen) is currently my favourite one and Amazon has got it’s pricing right vis-à-vis its smartness and the audio experience. The new Echo sounds like an Echo Plus now and definitely the Echo I would recommend for you.

If you are a developer, it's time to code Alexa skills and get rewarded

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 07 Mar 2019 03:28:06 +0000

Developers making skills in the following categories are eligible in the program.

Education & Reference
Food & Drink
Games, Trivia & Accessories
Kids
Health & Fitness
Lifestyle
Music & Audio
Productivity

“Since we introduced Alexa in India last year, thousands of developers have published informative and engaging skills on the India store. In just over a year, the number of skills available for customers has doubled from 10,000 to more than 20,000,” said Dilip R.S., Country Manager for Alexa Skills, Amazon India. “We’re focused on enabling developers to create even more useful and engaging experiences for our customers, and we’re excited to see what experiences the developer community creates next.” If you are a developer and want to know how to create engaging skills for the Indian audience, Amazon has some tips to offer for improving their existing skills and best practices to promote their Alexa skills and reach more customers. If a skill qualifies for the reward, its developer will receive an email from the Alexa team. The email will cover the next steps for registration and payment account setup. Developers must make sure their country/region is correctly set to India in the profile section on the Amazon developer portal. Once the skill you developed is qualified for the reward program, the developer will receive an email from the Alexa team. The email will guide you through the next steps for registration and payment account setup. If you are an Indian developer coding skills for the Indian market, be sure to mark the country/region correctly to India in the profile section on the Amazon developer portal. I have read many success stories of developers in the Alexa blog page, so if you are a developer and had success in the Alexa skill market, do drop us a mail and share your experience. ]]>

Alexa brings over 350 radio stations around the globe to your room

Lakshmi Rajan — Tue, 12 Feb 2019 17:26:42 +0000

Alexa, what radio stations do you have” to get started or you can search the skill sets in the Alexa app. You can listen to a live broadcast of 17 All India Radio stations in 14 Indian languages. For example; All India Radio – Vividh Bharati, FM Gold, and Tamil. Radio City has 14 Alexa skills ranging from Radio City Sufi to Bollywood Mix and Deepam. With the Radio One skill, you can listen to their three live stations from Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Many of my favourite channels are found in TuneIn and probably you would also discover your personal radio station here or head over to myTuner . Be it music from BBC Radio 2 or international sports updates from ESPN Radio and BBC Radio 5 Live. For listening to radio stations with English music just say: “Alexa, open BBC radio 5 live from TuneIn”. The options are sure to wow you Here are some interesting radio skills from India that you can enjoy anytime. While TuneIn is enabled by default, make sure to enable the rest from the skills section in your Alexa app or by visiting the Alexa Skills Store at Amazon.in/skills. Groove to Bollywood songs with Alexa When it comes to the catchy songs that evoke many emotions, nothing can match up to Bollywood songs. Alexa brings perfectly curated radio skills for all the Bollywood lovers out there. Tune in and enjoy listening to Indie-Pop, popular Bollywood compositions and groove to some quirky beats and tracks from India’s leading FM Channels. Just say:

“Alexa, open All India Radio Vividh Bharati”
“Alexa, open Radio City Bollywood mix”
“Alexa, ask Gaana to play Radio Mirchi top 20”

Remember the golden days with Alexa Radio evokes the kind of nostalgia that triggers the memories ranging from, vivid to vague, listening to songs, short plays and infotainment. Remember the childhood days when we used to spend time listening to old Bollywood classics with family! Alexa brings to you iconic radio skills that will help you revisit the good old days and get you nostalgic. Just say:

“Alexa, open All India Radio – F.M. Gold”
“Alexa, play Radio City Gold”
“Alexa, ask Gaana to play Purani Jeans”

Get closer to legendary classics with Alexa Indian musicians and vocalists have stirred many hearts with their soothing voice and soulful creations. Alexa brings to you radio skills dedicated to India’s greatest and influential singers. Enjoy listening to evergreen classics by India’s legendary singers. Just say:

“Alexa, start Lata Mangeshkar Radio”
“Alexa, open Asha Bhosle Radio”
“Alexa, play Mohammed Rafi Radio”

Go on a spiritual journey with Alexa Devotion plays an important role in our upbringing and defines who we become as we grow up. Alexa brings eternal spiritual experiences for all users through simple voice commands. Listen to bhajans, chants, meditations and inspirational wisdom talks by Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Just say:

“Alexa, play Radio City bhakti sangeet”
“Alexa, start Radio City Saibaba Radio”
“Alexa, start Art of Living radio”
“Alexa, open Radio City Faith”

Play your Desi Jam with Alexa Regional music reflects the rich diversity of Indian culture. Each state has its own popular and particular style of music. Alexa allows you to stream music from regional radio stations and listen to the songs in your preferred languages. Just say:

“Alexa, open All India Radio Bangla”
“Alexa, play Mana Radio Entertainment”
“Alexa, play Radio City Tamil”
“Alexa, play All India Radio Marathi”
“Alexa, open All India Radio Assamese”

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5 Alexa Kids Skills to try out in India

Lakshmi Rajan — Thu, 15 Nov 2018 07:06:19 +0000

new kids skill additions ,ranging from nursery rhymes to brain teasers and immersive adventure and game skills. If you haven’t checked it, I would suggest you to check it out HERE. While there are many skills sets, here we list five new skills that would help children explore, innovate and create. Experience an interactive adventure with Chhota Bheem Skills to try: Chhota Bheem Adventures Engage your kid with the best interactive experience featuring India’s most popular hero, Chhota Bheem. The Chhota Bheem Adventures skill for Alexa is a game which lets children immerse themselves in the world of Dholakpur. The experience is not just limited to original voices of Chhota Bheem and friends but also has enough sound effects and visuals to directly teleport the audience to Dholakpur. Just Say, “Alexa, Open Chhota Bheem Adventures” and set off on a mission to explore the caves which have recently been unearthed in Dholakpur with Chhota Bheem. Adventure Ride with Mike Skills to try: forest fortune Indulge your kids in an interactive and adventurous ride of King George’s hidden treasure. This adventure encompasses a Royal Treasure map, exploring through the Wild Forest, interacting with friendly animals and humans, overcoming obstacles and learn fun facts from Mike throughout the adventure. Just Say, “Alexa, Open Forest Fortune” and take your kid through a royal adventure to hunt for King George’s hidden treasure. Life Lessons with Panda Rescue Skills to try: panda rescue Introduce your kid into the fun and interactive world of Panda Wilderness School. In the game, Kids get to be the assigned care taker of an orphan baby panda and teach important life lessons by making the right choices as they move through the game. Just say, “Alexa, open Panda Rescue”. Gamify learning with Playablo Skills to try: Playablo Make learning fun with Playablo, a gamified learning app. featuring thousands of short 7-question quizzes, Playablo helps your child identify his or her strengths and improvement areas and the robust feedback system will help you keep track of your child’s progress. It also features several gameplay elements like points, leaderboards and peer-to-peer competition that will help your child retain what he or she learns in school. Just say, “Alexa, open Playablo” and help your child rediscover the joy of learning. Chronicles of Appu’s Adventure land Skills to try: Appu’s adventures Based on themes and rhymes from Appu’s world, this interactive skill is designed to help develop and improvise listening, comprehending and problem-solving abilities in children. Just say, “Alexa, open Appu’s Adventures” and let your kid experience the interactive world of Appu’s adventures. ]]>

Catch up with the Football frenzy with Amazon Alexa

Lakshmi Rajan — Fri, 22 Jun 2018 06:48:26 +0000

More than half of the world population is catching up with the Football updates and that is a quiet a big number for any game. The biggest football tournament with 32 national teams taking part is currently underway in Russia and the fans across the globe are cheering their favourites. Honestly, I am not a hardcore football fan but I do like to be updated with the news and a quick analysis of what is unfolding, interesting facts and also make sure I don’t miss my favourite matches. With Alexa at home, now it has become easier for me to stay afloat with the Football madness. Cheat code: Alexa also helps me to handle the barrage of inquisitive football trivias my son asks !

Here is a quick guide to get Alexa be your perfect football assistant.

Brush up with the Football Facts and History

Make sure you stay up-to-date about the tournament with right amount of background knowledge. Learn interesting tidbits with skills like Football Vocabulary and Football Facts. You can even improve your own game on the pitch with skills like Football Drills. For some baseline knowledge on the tournament as a whole, you can ask things like:

“Alexa, what teams are playing in the World Cup?”
“Alexa, who won the last World Cup?”
“Alexa, when is the last time France won the World Cup?”
“Alexa, what country has won the most World Cups?”
“Alexa, who is the top scorer for Argentina?
“Alexa, what group is Sweden in for the World Cup?”

Stay updated with the Football Game schedules and updates

Need some talking points to sound informed during the tournament? Alexa can help. Get up-to-the-minute updates by asking things like:

“Alexa, what World Cup games are on today?”
“Alexa, when does Argentina play next in the World Cup?”
“Alexa, who scored for Germany?
“Alexa, what’s the score of the Panama game?”

“Alexa, who scored for France?”

And on a lighter now .. Alexa has her favourite too 🙂

While making sure that you have all the information about World Cup this season, Alexa has also made up her mind on favourites. Find out if you think alike:

“Alexa, which is your favourite football team?”
“Alexa, who is your favourite football player?”
“Alexa, which footballer has the coolest hairstyle?”
“Alexa, which is your favourite football anthem?”

“Alexa, who will win the World Cup?”

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HDFC bank launches Humanoid Robot Assistant IRA 2.0 and Virtual Banking Assistants EVA

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 02 May 2018 04:16:03 +0000

IRA 2.0 Humanoid Robot IRA is the first of its kind implementation in the banking industry in India, introducing a humanoid for customer service. The technology has been developed by HDFC Bank in collaboration with its technology partners Invento Makerspaces and Senseforth Technologies. The first version of the IRA was launched in January 2017 at the Bank’s Kamala mills branch in Mumbai and is now currently stationed at the Palarivattom branch in Kochi. HDFC bank is actively pursuing to better the Humanoid experience and the IRA 2.0 is the next progression level with few more advance skills added to it. By mapping the branch layout, customers can not only ask certain banking queries to the humanoid but IRA 2.0 can also walk them to the designated counters. The future road map for IRA includes communicating in-depth the banking products, suggestions, give information about bank accounts, handle service requests and provide the status of applications or requests.

HDFC EVA – Virtual Assistant

Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa enabled devices are slowly finding into the homes of Indian households and Google Assistant is practically in almost all the Android phones in our hands. Taking leverage of these two powerful assistants, HDFC has integrated their virtual assistant EVA to work with both. HDFC is the first bank to offer voice banking experience on Alexa. Since its launch, EVA which stands for To offer the simplicity and convenience of a voice conversation to banking transactions, HDFC Bank’s virtual assistant ‘EVA’ has been successfully integrated with Amazon Alexa, making it the first bank to offer voice banking experience on Alexa. Since its launch, EVA, which stands for ‘Electronic Virtual Assistant’ has addressed over 65 lakh queries on voice and chat-based channels with over 85 per cent accuracy. With this integration, HDFC Bank customers can now chat with EVA using voice from the comfort of their homes, without having to pick up a phone, tablet or laptop.

EVA Skill on Alexa

So what can customers can ask EVA on Alexa? In the first phase which has been implemented now, an user after integrating the EVA skill on Alexa can ask about

bank’s product features,
fees and charges,
interest rates,
credit card reward points / payment date / expiry date
branches (address, IFSC).
Customers can also enquire about how to block/unblock card, what to do if one forgets pin, and update personal information.

In the first phase, customers can ask EVA on Alexa about bank’s product features, fees and charges, interest rates, credit card reward points / payment date / expiry date, and branches (address, IFSC).Customers can also enquire about how to block / unblock card, what to do if one forgets pin, and updating personal information. In future, EVA on Alexa will support banking transaction and deliver hyper-personalized service using voice. Going forward, EVA on Alexa will support banking transactions and deliver hyper-personalized services using voice. HDFC Bank collaborated with Senseforth and Amazon to build India’s first Banking skill on Alexa.

EVA on Google Assistant

While Alexa is still not at every home, Google Assistant is in almost every Android phone and Android phones have the lion’s share in the mobile segment. By integrating EVA to the Google Assistant, HDFC bank has taken the voice-based banking to the masses. With the launch of the Google home in India, EVA can be accessed on those devices too. Instead of typing, users can simply say “Ok Google, talk to HDFC Bank” to their Google Assistant to interact with Eva. By voice users can make queries on banking products and features like in Alexa skill. IRA 2.0 and EVA are definitely a milestone in the digital banking momentum taking place in the banking industry in India and HDFC bank is taking the lead in the space. Voice based technology interaction is where the future is heading to and HDFC has made a jump start and now provides a simple and intuitive voice interactions through their Smartphones, Alexa Echo and Google home products so that users can conveniently access information anywhere, anytime. Who said banking is a boring affair? Not anymore. ]]>

What is Alexa? Should you buy Amazon Echo? What Can It Do for You?

Lakshmi Rajan — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 18:47:55 +0000

Warning: Alexa can spoil you but in a fun way and once you are into it, there is no going back. I grew up on diet of Star Trek and the likes, so naturally devices responding to voice command had always fascinated me since then. Then came the Assistant, Siri and Bixby of the Smartphone world and people got the glimpse of the future forward. Voice is going to shape up the future and control the gadgets around you and is so much of fun and convenient at the same time. ( as a side effect, it can make you lazy too!)

What is Alexa?

Story goes that the name Alexa was chosen to evoke the legendary Library of Alexandria from ancient Egypt. It also gives a more human sounding name to the AI at work. So that’s Alexa the Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology developed by Amazon which is now working on the Echo devices and many other devices from other manufacturers who have implemented Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant on their products. In this article though, we will keep our purview restricted to Amazon’s own Echo lineup of devices, one of which I been using for a while now. Alexa lets you speak your wishes to an Echo smart speaker (or other Alexa-powered devices) and see the command executed be like stuff like playing your music, dimming the lights, turning on the TV to even booking a cab for you.

How does Alexa work?

Alexa is developed on natural-language processing system and you can talk naturally with it and make it respond to you and do things it is capable of. For an example, when you are listening to a music you can either say Alexa stop, Alexa shut up or Alexa enough and it understands that. You don’t have to memorize specfic commands to communicate with it. Alexa is always listening and is quick to respond. To get this all started of course you need an Echo device, Amazon Prime membership (In India, when you buy an Echo device you also get a complimentary one year of Prime membership free) and WiFi. It’s all in the cloud. Once you are done with the initial setup, you are ready to engage with Alexa. Alexa doesn’t discriminate all it needs is a name-call , you can choose to call it Alexa or Amazon or Echo for it to respond. Once you ask say “How is the weather in Bangalore today” , the always active mics of the device picks the query, instantly send it to the Amazon cloud and answers you , in case you ask something it cannot comprehend, it says a polite sorry.

Why should you get Alexa Echo devices?

If you ask an one-liner – it is so much of fun. My son and me are having fun time playing out tracks alternatively on the Echo and having awesome father-son bonding time. But there is more to it why you should get interested with Echo. Echo is a speaker at the heart (with an odd exception being the Echo dot, will talk about that in a while). I am an audiophile as well as a tech enthusiast , I have piled up quiet a many bluetooth speakers and few of them are to be honest a better speaker than the Echo, but still these days I spend more time listening on Echo for the simple reason it is simply convenient to speak to Alexa to play my song as I enter my home than turning on the Speaker and searching for the song on my playlist. Alexa listens and plays for me. This sets it apart from other audio devices I own now. Plus, I could also ask Alexa to run through the news, dictate a recipe when am in a mood to stir something in kitchen and can also ask some random general knowledge question at it. If you are like me, who like to welcome future to your home, Alexa echo should interest you.

Amazon Echo – The Devices

In India, Amazon sells now three devices – the Echo Dot, Echo and Echo Plus. There is the Amazon Show and Spot with screens, which are yet to be launched in India. All Amazon Alexa devices offer essentially the same Alexa functions but they differ in few ways. If you own an awesome bluetooth speaker already, you can simply buy an Echo dot and can pair it up with your bluetooth speaker. Else, you can buy Echo or the bigger sibling Echo Plus but do note that the later two cannot be paired with other bluetooth speaker. You can group multiple Echo devices though and play the same music on all of them at the same time. Echo, the one I own has its own speaker and if you are more into Smart-home stuff and connected devices you should be looking at the Echo Plus, which has a smart hub built-in.

What can you do with Alexa in India?

Amazon has included Prime Music which is yet to be officially launched here with the Echo devices. To cater to the Indian audience they have Prime music, Savann and TuneIn for the music buffs. They can pull the music of your choice. Alexa is quiet fluent with the English songs but when you go local, it does struggle to pull out specific songs in local languages. It’s more like a hit or miss. Though, it could play radio channels and playlist more accurately than individual songs from Indian languages. Being an AI, it is only a matter of time when it is ease at local languages and their nuances. The only time you would be using the Alexa app, is to configure your device initially and also enable skills. Amazon has opened their platform to developers and there are thousands of skills to be enabled. There are many local skills that bring local flavour to your Alexa experience. You can also setup some routine for the devices. I have set a routine to play a particular devotional song my mom likes to hear at a particular time of the day. You can make your own routines and also reminders. You can also add to your shopping list and let me also add that there was an instance my son innocently ordered a Lego, which triggered the usual SMS that we get when an order is placed. Luckily, I noticed the SMS and still had time to cancel the order. So Alexa can do a bit of stuff for you. Now that you are familiar with Alexa, in the next couple of articles I will talk about the Echo I own and also the various popular skills available in Indian market. ]]>