A couple of weeks ago we did a blog featuring the top virtual personal assistants. Since then, we have dug deeper into Google Home, but what about their biggest competitor, Amazon Echo?
Amazon Echo is one of the most popular virtual personal assistants and their features just keeps getting better. Amazon’s hands free speaker is controlled by your voice and can perform services like play music and provide information on news, sports, etc. Alexa is known to be the brains behind Amazon Echo and is a built in cloud that assists you in all of your commands.
First, let’s take a look at using Amazon Echo for music. By just using your voice, you can ask Alexa to play music from Amazon Music, Spotify, Pandora and more. Alexa can hear your request from across the room, even if music is already playing. Plus, the speaker boasts that it will fill the room with 360-degree omni-directional audio.
Not only will the device play music, it will also read audio books with enhanced noise cancellation. And the newest feature includes text to speech for Kindle ebooks.
Just by starting with, “Alexa”, you can find information instantly. Amazon Echo is known to answer questions on just about anything. It is also a great source to receive information on the news, traffic reports and weather updates. The intelligent device can keep you stay up to date on everything, just by using your voice.
Alexa also comes in handy when you are looking for the latest sports scores and updates. Recently added, you can now search for local movie times. If you are looking for information on other local businesses, Amazon Echo has now added a feature by Yelp that will help you find out information on companies in your area.
Amazon Echo is also now compatible with Google Calendar and new features are constantly added to help make your life easier.
One of the coolest things that Amazon Echo offers is controlling lights, thermostats and fans. If your devices are compatible with Amazon Echo, you are able to set up voice-activated lights, fans and more. You can use your voice to turn on the light, turn off the fan or even turn up the thermostat. Amazon is hoping to become compatible with even more systems.
There are a number of virtual personal assistants to choose from, but it looks like with all of the new features Amazon Echo is adding consistently, that Alexa may be taking over.
