Amazon have now brought their Echo calling functionality to fire tablets in the UK. Alexa Calling and Messaging is now available on your Fire tablet. Just ask Alexa to call, send a message, or video call anyone with other compatible Fire tablet, supported Echo device or the Alexa app. You can also connect quickly with your closest family and friends by asking Alexa to drop in on other Echo devices. Of course, to make full use of this, you have to sync your contacts with the Alexa app on your fire tablet, just as you have to on the Echo device. It will then allow you to use voice to send mess ..read more

Okay, you need to have an Amazon Student account, but right now it’s possible to get two Amazon Echo 2nd generation (not the dot) for £91.98. Just add two to your basket, you’ll get a series of discounts, as shown below ..read more

A recent story by the New York Times has opened the lid on patents filed by Google and Amazon for their smart home devices and what they might one day do with them. The article is absolutely fascinating for a number of reasons, but the key points from the patents for me are: Amazon filed a patent for a ‘voice sniffer’ which would identify a user and listen if they said a word like “love” “like” or “enjoyed” in virtually real-time to hear what it was that they liked. It could then target adverts associated with related products to that person. Google (who own Nest) filed a patent which hints a ..read more

There have been rumours circling for a while that Facebook were preparing a new smart speaker to compete with Google Home and Amazon Echo, it seemed to make a lot of sense given the success of these devices and Facebook’s existing platform and their data on people’s lives. However, it seems that this may now not be at the forefront of Facebook’s mind. Originally people were expecting a device to be announced in May at Facebook’s F8 developer conference, rumours suggested that it would be called “portal” and include cameras for facial recognition; but with the fallout from Cambridge Analytica ..read more

So I have found another genuinely useful Amazon Echo / Alexa skill in the UK and I thought I’d share it with you. You know the story, you’re about to leave the house, you’ve got your keys and wallet…but where the hell is your phone? You search, you ask someone else to call it… but it’s on silent. You end up late or phoneless until it turns up in some ridiculous place that you couldn’t possibly have put it. Well, fear not, Alexa is here to save the day with the TrackR find my phone skill. (By the way, I’ve found it’s pronounced “tracker”). Like all the best skills, it’s simple. I just ask “Alex ..read more

Could Alexa be the newest police officer on the block? According to Lancashire police, she might just be. The concept is a very good one; if people have an Echo in their house, the police could spread local news through those Echo devices to get people aware of anything important happening in their area. The idea could extend in the future to people being able to record incidents (not emergencies) through their echo device too. So, my first thought on this was “well, okay, but why not just deliver that to people’s mobile phones, which they always have on them”, but actually, I guess ideally we ..read more

Earlier this month Google announced that the Google Home speakers can finally start to make phone calls in the UK. The US have had this feature since last August so it’s taken a while to come over to us poor Brits, but finally it is here. You can basically use this in two ways – firstly you can ask Home to call up anyone in your Google Contacts list by simple asking “call John Barnes” for example, but, perhaps cooler than that, you can use google assistant to find numbers for you, so for example saying “call my closest dominoes pizza” means you can order via the phone, rather than having to tr ..read more

I’ve been using the Echo Show in the UK for some time now and thought it was about time I wrote some thoughts down about it. Although I’ve called this a review, it’s more just going to be a ramble, which people who read this blog regularly will no doubt be familiar with by now. What is the Echo Show? If you’re here I doubt you need this explaining, but basically it’s the Amazon Echo with a touch screen stuck on the front. It’s available in the US but not yet in the UK officially. Why does it look like it was made in 1984? I honestly do not know, but the bulk around the screen and the back are ..read more

The Echo is back down at £99.99 on the amazon site here. You can get it for £99.99 from John Lewis with their excellent 2 year guarantee here. You could also get it from Argos, curries and other retailers at £99.99 at the moment but John Lewis offers the best guarantee (I think) and Amazon offers the fact that it’s coming straight from Amazon… so take your pick. Remember that the Echo dot is an excellent alternative for £49.99, especially if you have speakers to connect it to already. The drop indicates that we may be getting a new product soon in the UK, perhaps an Echo Show release. Wait and ..read more

I’ve had a few questions on what’s working in the UK at the moment vs what is not, here are a few notes on this: Working in the UK: IFTTT (Yes, it really does now work!) Named Timers (“Alexa, set a pasta timer for 10 minutes”) Multiple timers (see this post) Reminders (see this post) Multi-room music (with some limitations, see this post) Alexa comes on new Fire Tablets (and I believe also works on older versions via an update)   Not working in the UK: Control fire TV (released 1st August in the US and works with all Fire TV products / generations) Intercom features (thank you Tony) Wh ..read more