Just under a week before Google’s Launch Night In, Amazon is hosting a hardware event to discuss its latest smart home offerings. The retailer kicked off its announcement with a new line of Echo smart speakers that look exactly like the Nexus Q.
Amazon Echo Stories September 24, 2020
Amazon Echo Stories May 24, 2018
Smart speakers have exploded in popularity for the past couple of years, and Google has seen a lot of growth, particularly this past year. Now, new market research suggests that Google has outsold Amazon for the first time ever…
Amazon Echo Stories January 26, 2018
Google Home, and Assistant speakers in general, have only been on the scene a fraction of the time that the Amazon Echo family has. However, Google’s devices are starting to pick up steam, and they’ve really made themselves known in the market…
Amazon Echo Stories January 3, 2018
Google and Amazon discounted their smart speakers so deeply in the holiday sales that they likely lost money on each unit, say analysts. Amazon discounted its Echo Dot to $29.99 in the run-up to the holidays, with the Google Home Mini also seen for the same price in various sales.
The two companies’ willingness to lose money on the hardware reveals their very different strategy to Apple with its upcoming HomePod speaker …
Amazon Echo Stories October 11, 2017
Amazon’s Alexa picks up a trick from Google Home, can now recognize multiple voices
When Google Home launched, Amazon’s Alexa platform had a massive headstart in several areas. About a year later, though, I think it’s safe to say Google has turned the tables. Now, Alexa is catching up with Home, and today it’s brought over one of Home’s best new features — multi-user support.
Amazon Echo Stories September 27, 2017
As we approach the holiday season, we expect to hear about new products that will hit the market in time for buyers to snatch them for themselves or loved ones. Before today, we knew for sure that Google had plans to introduce the Home Mini at next week’s event. What we didn’t expect was for Amazon to announced an entire line of new Echo products. And on top of that, we exclusively reported that Google had plans to introduce a premium Home called the ‘Max’ (although we don’t know if that’s coming before the end of the year).
This holiday season, do you plan to buy any new Google Home or Amazon Echo products?
A week out from Google’s upcoming 10/4 event, Amazon hosted a surprise hardware event in Seattle. Alexa speakers and accessories took center stage with a new smaller and cheaper Echo, as well as an Echo Plus that doubles as a smart home hub.
Amazon Echo Stories September 20, 2017
In 2014, Google Glass founder and former head Babak Parviz left the X division to join Amazon as it began ramping up on hardware. The online retailer is now reportedly set to launch smart glasses that feature its Alexa assistant and a home security camera system as soon as this year.
Amazon Echo Stories June 1, 2017
Making a digital assistant that really does everything users want is pretty difficult. There are dozens upon dozens of features that everyone wants, so features are added over time. However, one thing that seems pretty obvious, if you ask me at least, is setting reminders. For whatever reason, though, both Amazon’s Echo and Google Home completely missed out on this feature, but now Amazon is adding it.
Amazon Echo Stories May 5, 2017
While the next Google Home is rumored to double as a mesh Wi-Fi router, Amazon’s upcoming Echo is reportedly adding a built-in display. In a leaked image, the new device is more monolithic, featuring a color display and possibly a camera.
Amazon Echo Stories January 24, 2017
Google Home is one of my favorite pieces of tech from last year, but Amazon’s Echo is right up alongside it, and for good reason. The Echo is a fantastic product that paved the way for Google Home, but in some aspects, it’s still a superior product…
Amazon Echo Stories December 29, 2016
One advantage that Google Home has over the Amazon Echo is its knowledge on random trivia and facts. But Google Home has also had a leg up on Alexa since launch in its ability to converse with you about those topics in a contextual manner. For example, you can ask Google Home “tell me about nearby restaurants”, followed by the query “what about coffee shops?” and Google Assistant knows that you still want to know about coffee shops near you.
Now, it appears that Alexa is picking up some of these skills thanks to a quiet update pushed out over the last couple days…
Amazon Echo Stories November 29, 2016
According to a report today from Bloomberg, Amazon is planning a premium “Echo-like” speaker powered by the company’s voice assistant Alexa. While the company building on its Echo success with a new speaker wouldn’t be surprising by itself, this one has a twist: it’s said to sport a large display…
Amazon Echo Stories November 18, 2016
Even though Google Home has been released, it hasn’t taken much attention away from Amazon’s popular Echo devices. The Amazon Echo and Echo Dot both bring a lot to the table, in many ways more so than Google Home does at this point. Many of the Echo’s popular features are enabled by “Skills,” best described as third-party plugins. Now AT&T has released its own Alexa skill, enabling customers to send texts via an Echo.
Amazon Echo Stories October 5, 2016
Along with the Pixel smartphones, Chromecast Ultra, Google WiFi, and more, Google also launched the Google Home, its Amazon Echo competitor. While this new product is insanely compelling, enough to where I’ve already pre-ordered despite owning an Echo, there is one giant obstacle it has to face: compatibility.
Amazon Echo Stories June 30, 2016
9to5Toys Lunch Break: Amazon Echo from $140, UE Roll Bluetooth speaker $50, more
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TODAY’S CAN’T MISS DEALS:
Daily Deals: Amazon Echo (Refurb) $140, Insignia 39-inch LED 720p HDTV $150, more
The UE Roll is one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can buy and it’s on sale for $50 (Reg. $80+)
Amazon Prime Day 2016 revealed: Tons of deals, increased inventory and Alexa specials for Echo owners
MacBook Air is the best Apple laptop for most everyday users, save $200 today on a pair of the latest models
Save nearly $300 on Apple’s latest 13-inch 256GB Retina MacBook Pro: $1,200 shipped (Reg. $1,499)
Apple’s Thunderbolt Display has been put out to pasture, here are the best alternatives at every price point
Vansky’s $23 USB LED light strip gives you multi-color mood lighting
Review: Jaybird’s new Freedom Wireless headphones score high marks on design, sound [Video]
How-to: Put a USB Charging port just about anywhere, without AC power for as little as $50 (Solar+Battery)
MORE NEW GEAR FROM TODAY:
Monoprice has gone off the deep end with this additional 20% off sale – Bluetooth/NFC Speaker $35 shipped (Reg. $44), more
- Lumsing Bluetooth Car Kit Adapter and FM Transmitter $18 Prime shipped (Reg. $28), more
- Ditch your phone service for Ooma’s popular Telo VoIP system: refurb $52 (Reg. $70)
- Sling TV announces new multi-stream packages plus NBC for the Summer Olympics
- highly-rated Audio-Technica AD900X: $115 shipped (Reg. $145+)
- Anova’s Sous Vide Wi-Fi Precision Cooker: $159 shipped (or less)
- Games/Apps: Far Cry Primal X1/PS4 $35, iOS freebies, more
- The remastered BioShock Trilogy is making the leap to current gen consoles
- PowerTime Apple Watch Charging Dock w/ 3 USB Ports: $39 shipped (Reg. $49)
- Just $9 Prime shipped for a new Apple Watch band? Sounds good to me.
- Apple offering free download of sketching app Procreate via Apple Store app
- Best sniper titles on the App Store just went 50% off: Hitman Sniper $1 (Reg. $2)
- LEGO Star Wars titles for Mac: Saga & The Clone Wars for $5 each (Reg. up to $20)
- One of the best RPGs of all-time 50% off on iOS: Secret of Mana $4 (Reg. $8)
MORE DEALS STILL ALIVE:
mophie’s 1840mAh Battery Case will help your iPhone 6/s make it through the day: $40 (Reg. $60)
The Nest Learning Thermostat will help lower your energy costs throughout the summer: $199 (Reg. $249)
Amazon Echo Stories June 1, 2016
2nd gen Chromecast and Chromecast Audio
If you search Amazon for streaming media players, you’ll find plenty of them. The one thing you won’t find is any Chromecast devices, and company CEO Jeff Bezos told the Re/code conference why not. Chromecast doesn’t currently offer access to Amazon’s own Prime Video platform, and Bezos says that isn’t because Google refuses to include it, but because it wants too much money for doing so.
[W]hen we sell those devices, we want our player — our Prime Video player — to be on the device, and we want it to be on the device with acceptable business terms. You can always get the player on the device. The question is, can you get it on there with acceptable business terms?
While he doesn’t say so outright, the meaning of the vague phrase is pretty clear …
Amazon Echo Stories May 31, 2016
Google Home was announced earlier this month by Chromecast head Mario Queiroz. The team responsible for Google’s hit streaming media device headed up development of the Amazon Echo competitor because Home is essentially a “dressed-up version of Chromecast”, according to The Information.
Amazon Echo Stories May 11, 2016
Back in March, The Information reported that Google is working on an Amazon Echo competitor. Today, Recode has confirmed such a device and added that we might get a peak of it at Google I/O. While it won’t launch next week, the conference will reportedly have a big focus on voice search and personal assistants.
Amazon Echo Stories March 3, 2016
We heard a couple of months ago that Amazon was working on a smaller, more portable version of its Echo voice assistant speaker, and now it’s here. Actually, Amazon has announced today two new Alexa-enabled devices, the Echo Dot (which is the aforementioned smaller version of the larger Echo), and the Amazon Tap, which is essentially an Alexa-enabled portable speaker…
Amazon Echo Stories January 11, 2016
