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Ocado’s Alexa skill lets you call out your shopping list
With Amazon now a major player in the UK grocery market, supermarkets have been forced to adapt or risk losing some of that all important market share. Some have mimicked their rival by offering one-hour deliveries, while others have attempted to match the online retailer's technological prowess. Already a pioneer of grocery-sorting robots and autonomous deliveries, Ocado has stepped things up a notch, today becoming the first UK supermarket to launch a dedicated Amazon Alexa skill.
Both the Amazon Echo and Google Home are under £100 right now
If you're in the market for a smart speaker but don't fancy shelling out the full retail price for one, Amazon and Google might be able to help. Today, both the Amazon Echo and Google Home have been given price cuts that have taken them below the £100 mark.
Alexa’s mood-matching music suggestions come to the UK
For Amazon Echo owners in the UK, the arrival of Music Unlimited provided the likes of Apple and Spotify with some music needed competition. The company immediately made it the default music service on the smart speaker, allowing users to instantly queue music using their voice once they'd signed up. Understandably, Amazon is keen to differentiate its service from its more popular rivals, so it's banking on Alexa "activities," which have today arrived in the UK.
The Echo Dot was free on Amazon for a hot minute
The Echo Dot, Amazon's $50 in-home assistant, was briefly free on Amazon today, thanks to an "Audible" discount that got added at checkout. The discount applied to both black and white models, though it now appears people trying to score a free Echo Dot are being told the items are no longer in stock. We've reached out to Amazon for clarification on the sudden super-sale. Whatever the reason, happy random Prime Day, folks.
Grab an Amazon Echo for half off today
Amazon's been expanding its line of smart, Alexa-powered home speakers for awhile now. If you're interested in buying an Amazon Echo, well then today is your lucky day. The smart speaker, which usually is priced at $180, is on sale for just $90 at select retailers today. You can also grab an Amazon Echo Dot for $35, a $15 discount off its regular price of $50, and an Amazon Tap for $80, discounted from the regular price of $130.
Alexa will now order you a Domino’s pizza in the UK
There are many ways to order a pipin' hot Domino's pizza. You can use your smartphone, smash a tiny pizza button or even tweet an emoji to the company's official Twitter account. Now, finally, it's possible to buy a Texas BBQ or two by shouting at your Amazon Echo speaker in the UK. The voice-controlled ordering system has been available in the US for some time now — quite why it's taken so long to reach Britain is a mystery. Still, it's a welcome addition that could prove useful while you're watching the game or hosting a sweet Mario Kart 8 Deluxe tournament with friends.
Amazon's Geek Squad-like service installs your smart home gear
Geek Squad is supposed to be one of Best Buy's few clear advantages over internet retailers: you can ask for help from a real human being if you're not sure how to set up your devices. Even that edge is disappearing, however. Recode has learned that Amazon is quietly rolling out a smart home setup service that helps you get started with connected lights, thermostats and (of course) smart speakers. If you have an Echo or another Alexa-connected device, you can get a free 45-minute consultation from an Amazon staffer who'll answer questions, demo Alexa-linked devices and, naturally, create shopping lists. However, the real stars of the show are the in-person visits.
Amazon slashes the price of its smart speaker in half
Prime Day, the Amazon-invented holiday that celebrates the holy tradition of buying things from Amazon, is back again for a third year. As usual, the event will showcase a number of deals that will run through the day, and the company is offering its usual massive discounts for its own branded hardware. Topping the bill is the Echo smart speaker which, for the 30-hour event, is selling for $90, half its usual price.
How to get Engadget UK Flash Briefings on your Amazon Echo
Here at Engadget UK, we want to deliver the latest technology news to wherever you are, on whatever device you happen to be using. You can already find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube, but today we're adding a new "app" to the mix: an Engadget UK Flash Briefing for the Amazon Echo. Simply install our Echo skill and have Alexa read up-to-the-minute updates on what's happening in the world of technology.
Amazon's Echo lets you sign up for Prime just by asking (updated)
As Amazon gears up for next week's annual Prime Day sale, the online shopping behemoth has also opted to lower the barrier of entry for Prime subscriptions. With Prime members previously having to sign up for the service online, Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Amazon Tap, Fire TV or compatible Fire tablet owners can now opt in for a Prime Membership simply by saying "Alexa, sign me up for Prime". Doing so will not only save users time but also money, netting Echo owners a year's membership for $79 -- $20 less than the usual price.
Amazon's Echo Show hides some meaty speakers
iFixit, the teardown kings, built their reputation by ripping open everything from gaming consoles to iPhones -- much to the chagrin of Apple. Their latest guide sees them taking apart the Amazon Echo Show. Having spent some time with the new Alexa-powered device, we decided we quite like it. But the child trapped inside our adult body that wants to pry open every new gadget and marvel at its insides is admittedly keen to see what lies beneath its bulky exterior.
Amazon Echo Show review: Seeing is believing
Siri may have ushered in the era of the digital assistant, but Amazon's Echo (with Alexa) really took that concept and put it in our homes. The Echo wasn't an immediate, breakout hit -- but having Alexa around to ask questions, manage smart-home devices, play music and much more has turned out to be a pretty great thing. It's a concept Google and Apple are now chasing (to varying degrees), but Amazon isn't standing still. The $230 Echo Show is the first Echo with a touchscreen, and since it was announced, we've been wondering how much a display will really add to the Alexa experience. It depends on what you want to do with it and where you put the Echo Show in your home. But after a week with Amazon's latest, I'm convinced that yet another touchscreen in your life actually makes the Alexa experience better in a lot of ways -- and that's not to mention the special tricks the Echo Show brings.
Amazon's Echo Show displays your smart camera's live video feed
Amazon's Echo Show is getting another new trick, err, skill. Now the gizmo will link with the cameras on your home network and display their respective feeds when you say something like, "Alexa, show the front door." A press release notes that this will work with cameras from Amcrest, Arlo, August, EZViz, IC Realtime, Ring, Nest and Vivint. And if you don't have a Show, saying the command phrase will soon give you an audio feed on your Dot or Echo. Better yet, Amazon has released the camera control API into the wild so developers can start cracking on even more implementations for it.
Echo alerts you to voice or text messages with a yellow light
Now that the Echo has become a handy way to place calls and send messages, wouldn't it be nice to be able to tell them apart? Amazon is about to make it a lot easier to do just that by changing how it notifies you of voice and text messages. As before, the device signals that you're receiving calls by illuminating a green rotating ring light, but it now shows any new message, whether voice or text, via a solid yellow light.
Amazon opens Alexa voice control to all video streaming services
Alexa is about to be even more useful when it comes to your entertainment needs. Simple voice commands already let you navigate apps like Netflix, but tools to incorporate those types of commands are now available to any TV company, streaming service and other content providers.
Here's our first look at Harman Kardon's Cortana speaker
We first heard about Harman Kardon's smart speaker earlier this month, but haven't had a chance to try it out or even see what it looks like in person. That is, until now. The Cortana-powered Echo rival made an oh-so-brief appearance here at Microsoft's Computex 2017 keynote. Even though we still couldn't physically touch it, we were at least able to take some close-up pictures of the device. We also caught a fleeting look at an upcoming HP Cortana speaker that looked sort of like a white Echo Dot, but that was only a picture on a slideshow -- the device itself was nowhere to be found at the event. We'll surely hear more about it soon enough, though. Meanwhile, feast your eyes on Harman Kardon's elegant cylindrical gadget with a tapering metal body -- and hang tight while we try our hardest to get you more impressions before it arrives this fall.
Amazon's Echo Look app is ready for your fashionable selfies
Amazon still hasn't said when it plans to ship its new Echo Look camera, but it appears that will be happening very soon. The company has started rolling out companion iOS and Android apps for the device, which costs $200 and is only available via invite to Prime customers -- at least for the time being. To refresh your mind, Echo Look is an Alexa-powered camera for people who want to take pictures or videos of their daily outfits, enhanced by an artificial intelligence algorithm that'll learn your habits and make clothes recommendations based on that.
Pay an American Express bill just by talking to Alexa
With Amazon's Alexa getting smarter every day, soon enough you won't have to do much yourself. American Express is the latest company to tap into the virtual assistant's skills, allowing customers to use voice commands to check their account balance, review recent charges or make a payment. Alexa devices will also connect to Amex Offers, which is going to let card members browse limited-time deals that may be available through their card. It's worth noting American Express isn't the first financial service to bring these kind of features to Amazon's platform; Capital One started doing something similar earlier this year. If you have an Amex card, as well as an Alexa-enabled device, you can learn how to set this up right here.
Alexa’s now a Eurovision trivia buff
Whatever your thoughts are on it, there's no denying that The Eurovision Song Contest continues to go from strength to strength. In 2016, over 200 million viewers watched Ukraine's Jamala triumph over three live shows broadcast from Stockholm, Sweden. And thanks to an ever-increasing US audience, tomorrow's final is expected to help break the record once again. For some, Eurovision is a way of life, but for others, the music event can take some getting used to. To bring people up to speed, Eurovision has created an official Alexa skill that doesn't only provide answers to europop trivia, it can also play back every track performed over the last 60 years.
Ads are coming to Amazon Echo skills
If the Beauty and the Beast and Burger King debacles were anything to go by, owners of smart speakers like the Google Home aren't big fans of ads. But that won't stop marketing companies like VoiceLabs from trying to make them happen. The voice analytics company has announced a new platform called Sponsored Messages, which will let developers monetize their Amazon Echo skills by inserting ads at the start and end of conversations.
