Amazon Echo Dot 2nd Generation Smart Speaker with Alexa

Introduction

AI assistants are the future, and every home ought to have one right now. They are capable of making your life so much easier, and all you need is to speak out commands and ask for basic information. No longer do you need to take out your smartphone just to perform basic tasks.

Right now, the Amazon echo is the closest we get to this without stepping into Terminator territory. The only problem with the Echo is that it will prove a little too big and expensive for some. Enter the Amazon Echo Dot – a smaller and more affordable alternative that offers almost everything the larger Echo does, but for half the price.

The Echo would make a fantastic addition to any home, but now that its key features are available in a smaller and more affordable format, Amazon has crossed the line into must-buy territory. Every home could be improved by the addition of an Echo Dot.

Design & Features

Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device with a small built-in speaker—it can also connect to your speakers or headphones over Bluetooth or through a 3.5 mm audio cable to deliver stereo sound to the speakers you choose. Dot connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, make calls, send and receive messages, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more—instantly.

Echo Dot can hear you from across the room, even while music is playing. When you want to use Echo Dot, just say the wake word “Alexa” and Dot responds instantly.

Sleek and compact design makes Echo Dot a convenient addition to any room in the house. With its built-in speaker, you can place Dot in the bedroom and use it as a smart alarm clock that can also turn off your lights. Or use Dot in the kitchen to easily set timers and shop tens of millions of Amazon products using just your voice.

Echo Dot can also directly connect to speakers using a 3.5 mm stereo cable or using Bluetooth to add voice control to your home stereo system in the living room or den.

Setup and Ease of Use

With the Alexa App, conversations and contacts go where you go. When you’re away from home, use the app to make a quick call or send a message to your family’s Echo. Alexa calling and messaging is free—to get started download the Alexa App. Use Echo Dot to switch on the lamp before getting out of bed, turn up the thermostat while reading in your favorite chair, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie—all without lifting a finger…or even raising your voice.

Tucked under the light ring is an array of seven microphones that use beam-forming technology and enhanced noise cancellation. With a more powerful processor, the Echo Dot has improved wake-word performance to hear you ask a question from any direction—even in noisy environments or while playing music.When you want to use Echo Dot, simply say the wake word, “Alexa,” and Dot lights up and streams audio to the cloud, where the Alexa Voice Service is leveraged to recognize and respond to your request instantly.

Alexa—the brain behind Echo Dot—is built in the cloud, so it is always getting smarter. The more you use Dot, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences. And because Echo Dot is always connected, updates are delivered automatically.