What if you can take a sneak peek on the future – right now? About a year ago the future arrived in a lot of Americas Households. And the future had a name – The Amazon Echo! 

You think I am kidding? Not at all. It was the first real fully grown and functional voice control device on the market. Providing its users valuable and helpful services to ease their daily tasks.

For the market and the Smart Home (home automation) industry, the Amazon Echo was the perfect match. It fitted 100% to the industries needs and even more important; it is a perfect tool for the needs of their customers.

 

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“Convenience & Style”

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This was the aim of the Echo, added to the homes of 100´s of thousands Americans since its release. The little sentences starting with “Alexa ….” have become “normal” for a lot of Echo Owners. The Amazon Echo reached the goal of every smart home company – to become a part of family life.

 

No Compromise! More & more companies make their products controllable with the Amazon Echo`s Voice Control system (Alexa). With its far-field voice recognition, a whole bunch of services like ordering Pizza, calling an Uber, giving you traffic information, answering nearly all questions, timer, playing music, lowering your shades, managing your shopping lists and scheduling your appointments – simple with your voice. Control your SmartThings devices, your WeMo Switches, your Philips Hue Lighting or even your Smart Thermostat. The Amazon Echo has become a kind of personal home assistant.

 

One piece of the puzzle was missing since then! Lets call it a blemish in Amazons strategy. The Amazon Echo was stuck to its place. Therefore the limitless possibilities it sure provides, were simply limited in the places you could use it! The Amazon Tap and Echo Dot change the game. They unleash “Alexa” to the world and this might change – everything.

 

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– C H A N G E –
Amazon Tap and Echo Dot

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Amazon has begun to conquer not only homes but to conquer the world. These two devices may change the way we live – forever!

With Amazon Echo’s Brother Amazon Tap and Echo dot, its new Sister, the Echo family has grown. ALEXA the smart voice of Amazon Echo’s cloud intelligence, will start to be free. With Amazon Tap and Echo Dot, now available everywhere.

 

All the features of the Amazon Echo but expanding the possibilities how and where to use it. From different rooms in your home and garden (Amazon Echo Dot) to nearly everywhere (Amazon Tap). In your car, at the beach, at the Café on vacation.

Now Alexa is free to roam the world; playing your music, answering your questions, helping your guests to get a taxi for their way home after the party. Lets take a closer look!

 

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Amazon Tap

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“Just a WiFi enabled Bluetooth speaker like hundreds from other companies!” If one would state this I would answer. “Basically Yes!” Like others with batteries for portability and possible outdoor use. The sound quality is quite good and can be compared to other good quality Bluetooth speakers. The batteries last, depending on your usage up to 9 hours of playing music. This is longer than a lot of other devices can do.

 

But then you “Just tap!” the microphone button and no other speaker can compete. Ask for your favorite music and you can get anything you might want to hear; from prime music, spotify, iheartradio and others. All at your hand – everywhere. Of course you can pair your own bluetooth devices and use the songs or playlists you already have.

Since Alexa (the Amazon Echo) was released, new skills are continually added. You can order a pizza, opening your garage with Garageio, and requesting a ride from Uber.

The compact size of the device makes it easy to move around. And at just over a pound, it’s easily portable.  The optional Amazon Tap Sling can protect your Amazon Tap against bumps and drops. You can choose a color that fits your personal preferences.

Shipping of the Tap starts at the end of this month but you can order your Amazon Tap here already – if you want.

As soon as we get our hands on the device, we will do an in depth review for you. As always including all the tips, possibilities and ideas – making this device so unique. If you want you can Subscribe to our Newsletter and we will message you as soon as we release New Reviews or Tech-Giveaways. Stay tuned …

 

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The Amazon Echo Dot

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Like the original Amazon Echo, the Echo Dot has all the known features. The always on feature is the greatest difference to the Amazon Tap as you just talk without pressing a button. The Far-Field recognition and all features we already described above are included as it uses the same Amazon Cloud Service “Alexa”. If you want an in depth overview of all the possibilities you can read our Amazon Echo Review.

 

The only thing, missing and this makes the Echo Dot unique are the speakers. It has a small build in speaker, which lets you use things like the timer or alarm function and it can answer you questions, but it is not for playing music or listening to your new Audible Audio Book.

This might sound a little bit annoying at first. The solution as you could see in the video, is to connect the Echo Dot with any Bluetooth or WiFi speaker. The connection can be made via a simple voice command of course(!). This allows you to use all of its functions with a smaller, easier to hide device. This makes it a perfect fit into any home environment.

 

When you take a look at the gallery below you will understand what I mean.

 

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Amazon Tap and Echo Dot
– Conclusion –

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With a price of $89.99 for the Echo Dot and $129.99 for the Amazon Tap, these devices surely will find their customers.

There is nearly no other device in the voice control or even home automation and smart home sector with such a broad variety of use. It will be interesting to see if Amazons plans will pay off?

Making “Alexa” more and more powerful by updating and adding new services nearly every week it will be hard for others to compete. As most of these updates happen in the powerful Alexa-Cloud you even do not have to touch the hardware for this.

Just let me state this one last time. These devices are no longer some beta products or a “nice try”. All these devices are fully grown up and work seamlessly.

To answer the question from above: Maybe Amazons plans really will pay off. Amazon wants to be the voice-control “Management” for everything you own and use.  “Alexa …. article finished!”  “Alexa … publish my post!”

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If you have any questions about Amazon Tap and Echo Dot, fell free to leave me a comment below. I will reach out to you to help as soon as I can. Share your experience with Alexa or the Amazon Echo with our community.

Lets create something smart – together.