Amazon Discounts its Echo Smart Speaker Range Yet Again

[MacRumors]

As part of its Black Friday Deals Week, Amazon lowered the price of its Echo family of smart speakers, before returning them to their regular prices. Now Amazon has discounted the devices again for a limited time in the U.S. as part of a "Holiday Deals" promotion.

The full-size Echo speaker is $40 cheaper at $139.99, while the smaller Echo dot is available for $39.99 instead of its regular price of $49.99. Amazon Tap, the company's portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled speaker, has also seen its price reduced from $129.99 to $89.99. The Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Tap all have voice-activated assistant Alexa built in.

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Article Link: Amazon Discounts its Echo Smart Speaker Range Yet Again

 

[brianb722]

The regular price of the Dot is $50, so it's discounted price would be $40. That's also what I'm seeing in the US store right now.

 

[maflynn]

They're pushing hard to get them in people's houses for the holidays.

I'm not sold on this sort of thing, regardless if it came from Amazon, Google or Apple. I just don't see the need or allure.

 

[timmyh]

The regular price of the Dot is $50, so it's discounted price would be $40. That's also what I'm seeing in the US store right now.

Correct! I've amended the article, thank you.

 

[Mildredop]

The Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Tap all have voice-activated assistant Alexa built in.

Unless I can say "Alexa, do my washing-up" or "Alexa, vacuum the floor" I just don't see the point of this.

If it's just to be able to say "Play this music track" or "what time is EastEnders on" I'll just stick to using the phone that's always in my pocket.

 

[Applebot1]

Great product and price. Use mine all the time.

 

[9646829]

Always fancy one of these but I don't have hue lights and my central heating is all ready controlled by my phone so I don't see the point.

 

[JackANSI]

I tried one out way back in the beginning... Completly underwhelmed.

It was better at voice recognition than Siri, but I didn't like that outbound traffic on my network (at background times) went up 7-16kbps at all hours of the day with the extra traffic coming from the Echo's IP... too creepy.

 

[djgamble]

They're pushing hard to get them in people's houses for the holidays.

I'm not sold on this sort of thing, regardless if it came from Amazon, Google or Apple. I just don't see the need or allure.

I'm in Australia so it's kinda redundant (they literally won't ship me one unless I jig the system using the good old 90210 post code then pay using a voucher...etc - then I'd need to trick the device into working in my country). However, I don't quite get why talking to devices is such a big thing.

I could talk to my Powerbook 520c and that could trigger all sorts of applescripts. Believe it or not, I basically had an echo as a kid (using my own Applescripts and text to speech). Yes this is a little bit smarter (only a little mind you) but it was a gimmick then and it's still a gimmick now.

 

[robeddie]

I tried one out way back in the beginning... Completly underwhelmed.

It was better at voice recognition than Siri, but I didn't like that outbound traffic on my network (at background times) went up 7-16kbps at all hours of the day with the extra traffic coming from the Echo's IP... too creepy.

Agreed. Valid concern or not, the idea of essentially having a 'listening device' in your house that always on and connected to the internet, ehhh.
I guess I'm too oldschool. Seems
like with all the people oversharing on facebook and everywhere else, that not as many people worry about 'privacy' anymore.

That said, I know thats not how the echo is being used, but just the 'idea' kind of bugs me.
Somehow we made it throough daily life in our homes just fine before virtual assistants, and its not like they make your life 'amazingly better'.

 

[mkeeley]

Bought a Dot in the sales, it's OK but nothing more. Sometimes takes a few attempts to activate even if it's right next to you. It often has trouble with names so trying to get it to lookup wikipedia or plus music or a music station can be a pain and sometimes it will pull some seemingly random wiki entry as a reply. Not seen one worthwhile skill to download. In theory it reading the news would be good but it takes so long.

Considering its size the sound's not bad even when I've not got it plugged in to my speakers.

So mainly using it to ask the time, a timer, the odd conversion and weather forecast at the moment. Would have been extremely disappointed if I'd have paid £150 on the Echo.

 

[6836838]

My girlfriend's name is Alexa so this is no use for me.

 

[NightFox]

My girlfriend's name is Alexa so this is no use for me.

You can set it to respond to "Echo" or "Amazon" instead of "Alexa"

 

[Rogifan]

So using the typical MR members response if this was an Apple product, the Echo must be a massive failure then.

 

[AlliFlowers]

We currently have three in the house. Sometimes I get two of them answering at once. When we visited my mother at Thanksgiving, we took one to her house. She loved it! (She's 82.) I was considering buying her one - now I definitely will.

 

[oneMadRssn]

Always-on microphones freak me out, especially ones tied to a merchant that has every incentive to monetize that data it collects. No matter who it comes from, it's creepy. One of the first things I do now on Apple products is disable "Hey Siri."

For example, here's some creepy always-on microphones inside kids toys:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doll-records-children_us_5849c10ae4b0905b34427964

"The complaint alleges that the dolls My Friend Cayla and i-Que Intelligent Robot, which use speech-recognition software to have conversations with kids, are using this technology to record their personal information."
"The complaint claims that the dolls send the data to a separate company, Nuance Communications, which saves the recordings for future use. It also notes that Nuance, which also makes the dolls’ software, has contracts with military and law enforcement agencies."​

 

[AbSoluTc]

Currently in a relationship with this woman name Siri. Some days it's good, other days it's terrible. We have our moments. I guess that's what relationships are right? The good with the bad?

She would be pissed if I brought another woman home.

 

[JimmyJimmyYam]

Those new MacBook Pro models, eh? Sheesh! The price / battery / graphics glitches / emoticon bar!

Oh, wait, sorry I see this news item actually has nothing to do with Apple products

 

[satchmo]

One thing Apple is good at is global implementation of their products and services. They may not be ready at launch but eventually rolls out to most countries.

Products from Amazon are very US centric and not as useful to those not living there.

 

[Vaportrailz]

I have my phone that does this already and it goes everywhere with me. I just don't get this product and I see from the comments I'm not alone.

 

[tobefirst ⚽️]

Unless I can say ... "Alexa, vacuum the floor" I just don't see the point of this.

Good news. You can.

I love my echo dot. I use it several times a day to control lights, the thermostat, play spotify, set timers, add stuff to my calendar, and order stuff. Amazon is playing this perfectly, discounting their devices to get them into as many homes as possible. I know I'll be adding at least one more to my home before the end of the year. They are genuinely useful to me.

 

[mkeeley]

You can set it to respond to "Echo" or "Amazon" instead of "Alexa"

Lexa works fine at least when it's not ignoring you.

 

[dantracht]

Despite being completely invested in the Apple ecosystem (airport extreme/express routers, MacBook pros for home and work, iPhones, iPads, apple watch, you get the idea) I have an echo dot in my living room and one in my office. I love them. Great little devices and useful to boot.

Apple needs to make one of these. If there was a "siri dot" available, I would have bought one over the echo.

Just my two cents.

 

[gixxerfool]

To add to the always on mic fearing crowd, I am in the same frame of mind, isn't this the same company that stripped all encryption from it's products? Is paranoid? Maybe. I like to err on the said of caution.

 

[barkomatic]

I have one that I purchased as a replacement for my damaged alarm clock. It works fine as long as there is a strong internet connection, which obviously makes sense if you're asking questions and otherwise making Alexa look up information for you. However, I had hoped that a basic function like an alarm could work even without one. Nope. I got to sleep in a few mornings when the wifi went down.