Amazon began taking pre-orders from U.K. customers for its Alexa-powered Echo Spot speaker on Tuesday. Announced along with all-new Echo models in September 2017, the compact display-and-speaker unit has only been available in the U.S. before now.
The Spot is capable of standard Amazon Echo functions like controlling smart home devices and streaming music, but can also show users additional information like song lyrics, weather forecasts, and the time on its 2.5-inch display.
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The circular unit can also play content from Amazon Video and YouTube, just like its bigger brother, the Echo Show.
The Echo Spot costs £120, although Amazon is currently offering a discount of £20 per unit when two are bought together (£200). Pre-orders are expected to ship on January 24, which means the entire Echo family will be available to U.K. customers from then on.
The Echo dot was the top-selling Amazon device over the 2017 holiday season, as well as "the best-selling product from any manufacturer in any category across all of Amazon," according to the e-commerce company.
As Amazon's Alexa devices continue to dominate the smart speaker market, Apple has plans to release its own music-focused smart speaker device, called HomePod, early this year.
HomePod will be controlled mainly through the user's voice using Siri, and include access to Apple Music and other expected smart speaker functionalities, like asking about the weather, traffic, setting reminders, timers, and more.
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Top Rated Comments
I don't need one, or want one. But I think Amazon at leading the way here, and are rapidly creating an ecosystem that the users will want to stay in. They've learned how to do that from Apple.. ;)
I carry my phone wherever I am, so just use that piece of hardware if I feel the need to talk to a digital assistant.
More boxes all over the place is a needless waste.
I was so surprised at how quickly I took to using it for more and more. I was always one of those "I have my phone and Apple Watch on me all the time, I'll just use them" people, but I've found the Echo speakers way better.
The only thing I hope Amazon do is improve the speakers, I bought one of the new Echos for the computer room and while the speaker is fine for a small room, it's not good enough for a larger room.
I'll totally be getting an Echo Spot for the bedside, but I'll be waiting until the next big sale when the price is dropped a bit.
Is it possible to choose news source as an alarm clock function.
You can, It's not done using the Alarm clock, you set up a custom command for the echo to play a news briefing at a specific time so it acts the same as an alarm clock.E.g. wake up too bbc or guardian news.