Target, Best Buy and Amazon have Alexa Echo devices on sale at up to half off during their New Years sale.
Alexa is Amazon’s virtual assistant AI technology. It is embedded in the Amazon Echo smart speakers, the Echo Show video devices, the Fire TV devices that respond to voice commands, and more. Alexa is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control smart devices using itself as a home automation system.
Alexa devices are available at Target, Best Buy, Amazon and other retailers. Below are links to the Alexa devices on sale at Best Buy. You can find the same devices and same prices at Target or Amazon.
Alexa Devices On Sale at Best Buy
- Echo Dot Smart Speaker $30 ($20 off)
- Echo Dot with clockface $40 (save $20)
- Echo Dot Kids Edition $40 (save $20)
- Echo Flex Smart Speaker $10 (save $15)
- Echo Show 5″ $45 (save $45)
- Echo Show 8″ $80 (save $50)
- Echo Auto $20 (save $30)
- Echo Show 5 plus Blink Security Camera $50 (save $75)
Many Best Buy stores have in-store displays that allow you to try out the Echo devices. (A Best Buy store display is shown below.) Prices are generally the same as Amazon’s.
Amazon store display (By Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Scalable Grid Engine)
Alexa Show Review
Below is a review of the Alexa Show from C/Net.
About Amazon Alexa (from Wikipedia)
Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant AI technology developed by Amazon, first used in the Amazon Echo smart speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, and providing weather, traffic, sports, and other real-time information, such as news. Alexa can also control several smart devices using itself as a home automation system. Users are able to extend the Alexa capabilities by installing “skills” (additional functionality developed by third-party vendors, in other settings more commonly called apps such as weather programs and audio features).
Most devices with Alexa allow users to activate the device using a wake-word (such as Alexa or Amazon); other devices (such as the Amazon mobile app on iOS or Android and Amazon Dash Wand) require the user to push a button to activate Alexa’s listening mode, although, some phones also allow a user to say a command, such as “Alexa” or “Alexa wake”.
As of November 2018, Amazon had more than 10,000 employees working on Alexa and related products. In January 2019, Amazon’s devices team announced that they had sold over 100 million Alexa-enabled devices.
In September 2019, Amazon launched many new devices achieving many records while competing with the world’s smart home industry. The new Echo Studio became the first smart speaker with 360 sound and Dolby sound. Other new devices included an Echo dot with a clock behind the fabric, a new third-generation Amazon Echo, Echo Show 8, a plug-in Echo device, Echo Flex, Alexa built-in wireless earphones, Echo buds, Alexa built-in spectacles, Echo frames, an Alexa built-in Ring, and Echo Loop.
