Echo – 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.

With Echo Flex, Amazon flexes its muscle in the Smart Speaker Category

Lakshmi Rajan — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 06:28:08 +0000

Amazon launches Echo Flex in India

I have played with almost all Echo devices out there and they all come with a long power chord tail that needs to be plugged-in to the power socket. But this is not the case with the newly launched Amazon Echo Flex. You still need to plug-in but with Flex, you can simply plug into a standard electrical outlet, no tails hanging.

Priced at Rs 2,999 it also comes at the lower price spectrum of the Echo range of devices. Additionally, the Echo Flex also has a built-in USB-A port to help you charge your phone (7.5W) or other devices.

Amazon Echo Flex

Echo Flex comes ideal at places where you don’t want the power chord to be hanging around like on staircases or a bathroom. If you have Alexa-compatible devices like smart lights and plugs, you can use the Flex to voice command it to operate them.

Echo Flex Design Features

Echo Flex can also communicate with other Echo devices on the same network. It works the same as any other Echo devices so you could add items to the shopping list or play your favourite songs, check the latest news or keep a tab on the happenings in your favourite sports event. Like other Echo devices, Flex can also be connected to other Bluetooth powered speakers or via a 3.5mm audio cable.

For those concerned of privacy, there is a microphone off button that electronically disconnects the microphone in the device. The Alexa privacy settings allow the user to view, hear, and delete your voice recordings. You can also command “Alexa, delete what I just said” or “Alexa, delete everything I said today” to clear your traces.

Availability and offer

Echo Flex is available for pre-order starting today and will ship next month. To learn more, visit: www.amazon.in/echoflex/. The new Echo Flex joins Echo Dot, Echo, Echo Plus, Echo Show, Echo Show 5, Echo Studio, and companion Echo devices (Echo Sub, Echo Link and Echo Link Amp) to create the Echo family of devices. As a limited period offer, customers can avail a Wipro 9W Smart LED bulb worth ₹2,099 for no additional cost on the purchase of every Echo Flex on Amazon.in.

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Amazon updates the Echo Lineup and Introduces the Echo Sub, a sub-woofer for your Echo devices

Lakshmi Rajan — Sat, 22 Sep 2018 10:01:46 +0000

Amazon has updated their Eco line-up in India including the Amzon Echo Dot, Echo Plus and also have introduced a new Echo companion device, Echo Sub Smart speakers. The Echo Dot comes at a price tag of Rs 4,499, Echo Plus costs Rs 14,999 and the Echo Sub can be picked for Rs 12,999. The new lineup can be pre-ordered on Amazon India, while the new Echo Dot and Echo Plus will ship next month, the Echo Sub will be shipping later this year.

Key features of the new Amazon Echo Dot

new curved shape
all new fabric finish
Available in Charcoal, Heather Gray and Sandstone
More powerful sound

The Echo Dot is the entry level Echo device. It can connect to your home theatre or other speakers via Bluetooth or 3.5mm cable for extra, bigger sound. Like the other Echo devices, it also has Alexa-on board allowing the user to get talk to the device to listen to your favourite music, get weather information or other news, set timers and alarms and control compatible smart home devices.

Key Features of the new Amazon Echo Plus

A three-inch woofer and “increased back volume”
Now has an embedded temperature sensor
All new fabric design
Available in Charcoal, Heather Gray, Sandsone

The Echo Plus is the larger Echo device available and comes with a larger 3″ Neodymium woofer. It also comes with built-in Zigbee smart home hub, making Smart connectivity with the compatible devices easy and automatic without the need for additional hubs or apps. The Temperature sensor allows you to set temperature based routines using other smart home devices. For example, when the living room reaches 32 degree Celsius, Alexa can send a notification to your phone and turn on the AC connected to a smart plug.

What is Amazon Echo Sub

The most interesting introduction is the Amazon Echo Sub, a companion device for your Echo speakers. This is a wireless Echo subwoofer for those who wants to add some extra bass to their Echo speakers. The Echo Sub has a 6-inch woofer which can deliver 100 watts deep bass. The device can be paired to any other Echo device to create a 1.1 or 2.1 pairing for a stereo sound effect. It also has an equalizer to adjust the bass, mid-range and treble of the pairing via simple voice command, say “Alexa, turn up the bass” and so. Cool right? ]]>

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. ]]>