Eastside Maison

Winter 2018

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and add Alexa functionality. And if you want a touch screen to see search results and make video calls, check out the Echo Show. Amazon just unveiled a slew of new Echo devices that haven't come out yet, including the tiny, LCD-equipped Echo Spot, as well as the Alexa-spouting Big Mouth Billy Bass (seriously). Your choice of Alexa speakers has really expanded. You can get a little $49.99 Echo Dot and pair it with a better speaker. You can get a $149.99 Echo Plus with a built-in home-automation hub, or a third- party Alexa speaker like the higher-end $199 Sonos One for true multi-room audio and fantastic sound quality. At $99.99 (or $83.33 if you buy three at a time), the Echo is designed to be the workaday, every-room speaker for those who can afford a little more than the Dot, and want a better look and more volume. Amazon also has the $229.99 Echo Show, and the new $129.99 Echo Spot, both of which add screens. The Show is less of a voice-enabled speaker and more of a kitchen tablet with powerful audio, while the Spot looks like a voice- enabled alarm clock. Those two also have cameras for video calling and showing smart home video feeds, and they function as baby monitors. If you aren't familiar with Alexa and the Echo line, they've grown over the years from devices that let you shop and listen to music into all-purpose home assistants. Alexa's big draw is the thousands of third-party skills it enables, from controlling pretty much every smart home brand, to reading out AllRecipes recipes, to ordering you a Lyft or a pizza. You can see the incredible range of Amazon's skill set in PC Magazines article 'Amazon's Highest-Rated Alexa Skills in Every Category'. One of the most talked about automation hubs is the Wink Hub 2, this hub works with devices that use Z-Wave, Zigbee, Lutron Clear Connect, Kidde, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. It is also for the future. That includes just about everything in the smart home spectrum, from Philips Hue lighting and the Netgear Arlo camera, to Google Home. It is a reliable and widely supported hub. Wink Hub 2 World of Echo

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