For those of you that may not know about it, Amazon have this device called an Echo that is essentially a speaker with a bunch of microphones in it that you can issue commands to then in turn Amazon’s digital assistant known as Alexa does your bidding.
At least that’s the general idea.
So you can ask Alexa to do things in much the same manner as Apple’s Siri, Google Now or Microsoft’s Cortana so long as they and your devices you want to control all talk nice to one another you can just speak and stuff you ask happens as if by magic.
Now GE in the USA have linked up some of their Geneva appliances that are also connected to being able to accept commands from Amazon’s Alexa, for now by way of the Echo.
So for example you could bark “Alexa, tell Geneva to preheat the oven to 350 degrees” at your Echo and Alex will shuffle off and make it so for you. Neat eh?
We appreciate that it’s limited as, Alexa still won’t be able to take the lasagne out the freezer, unpack it and put it in the oven or load the washing machine, put detergent in it and start it up but it is a neat idea nonetheless, if largely pointless to a degree.
Liz VerSchure the lady responsible for GE Appliances connected strategy said, “Voice connectivity has a big role in the Internet of Things, as well as in the home. Integrating our connected appliances with Alexa will help make consumers’ lives easier, more productive and a little more fun.”
Fun for sure, the rest, not so sure.
The Amazon Echo is due to be released in the UK later this month priced at £159.99 but Prime members can order it now with £50 off.
So far as we know, it won’t work with any connected appliances here in the UK at this time.
