作者彙整: Jeramy Johnson

Amazon offers an affordable way to start building out a voice-activated home automation system for your house or apartment with its Echo devices and Alexa smart voice assistant. On its own, you can use Alexa to play music and find news, sports, and other information. But things get really interesting when you start to connect Alexa up to smart devices, including connected LED bulbs, smart hubs, and smart switches, around your house. We’ve collected some of our favorite Alexa-enabled smart lights below. If you use Alexa to control your smart home, you should consider picking some of these up.

The home automator’s favorite

Philips Hue White Ambience Bulb

Staff Favorite

Philips Hue is the OG of smart lighting, and they make a wide variety of bulbs, lamps, and lighting accessories. They require a hub or bridge to work with smart assistants like Alexa, but this is one expansive ecosystem that also works well with Apple’s Siri/Homekit and Google Assistant/Nest. They may be a bit pr… 閱讀全文 →

The ecosystem of smart home devices that work with Amazon’s Alexa smart voice assistant is vast, and one of the most popular categories of smart home products is smart lighting. With so many options out there, how are you supposed to know which ones work well, or which ones work well with Alexa? My top choice is the Philips Hue White Ambiance Bulb, because it is an industry-leading product, has a massive ecosystem of other Hue products it will work with, and it plays well with Alexa.

Best Overall: Philips Hue White Ambiance Bulb

Chance are that when you think about smart lights, the brand that comes to mind first is Philips Hue. The product line was introduced way back in 2012 and has arguably maintained its status as the dominant brand in the smart lighting space to this day.

Even though Philips Hue makes a lot of different smart lighting devices like bulbs, light strips, and even lamps, I wanted to focus on an easy entry point into this rather expansive ecosystem. The Philips … 閱讀全文 →

As an introvert by nature, one of the things I love most about smart doorbells is the ability for me not to have to get off of my keister and answer every knock or ring at the front door. All I have to do is ask Alexa to show me who is at the front door. We’ve compiled a list of great smart doorbells that work with Alexa, but my favorite is the Ring Video Doorbell 2. There are plenty of good devices on this list, so be sure to check them out and see what might be the best fit for your situation.

Best Overall For Alexa: Ring Video Doorbell 2

It may seem a cop-out to pick a Ring product as my top choice, but the fact is that since Amazon purchased the smart home products company it has been churning out quality products that work well with Alexa. Once you install your Ring Video Doorbell 2 and ask Alexa to discover new devices, you can start checking on who is at the door on the Fire TV from the comfort of your couch. Interacting with people at the door while you are elsewhere is c… 閱讀全文 →

It’s not pretty, but that’s kinda the point.

When Amazon announced the Echo Flex at its September 2019 event in Seattle, the product received a mixed, if muted reception among the tech press and Echo/Alexa fans. Some saw it as another example of Amazon just throwing a bunch of crud up against a wall (which, ironically, is where this thing goes) to see if it would stick, some didn’t pay it much attention at all, and some thought it was possibly the most important product announced at the event.

If you’re wondering “what the heck is the Echo Flex anyway?” then let me back up a step. The Echo Flex is basically a souped-up smart plug that is meant to bring Alexa functionality to those spaces in your home that are not conducive to placing a larger smart speaker or similar device. It plugs directly into any standard wall outlet and allows you to make queries of Alexa and hear her responses.

My initial feelings on the Echo Flex were somewhere between the “throwing stuff against the wall”… 閱讀全文 →

Amazon announced at its Fall 2019 event that it would soon be enabling celebrity voices on Alexa for purchase, starting with Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson. If you want to shake up how you interact with your Echo device, consider purchasing and enabling the Alexa Skill now while it’s on sale!

Products used in this guide

Hold on to your butts: Samuel L. Jackson Alexa Skill ($1 at Amazon)
Keeping in clean: The Tonight Show Alexa Skill (Free at Amazon)

How to enable a celebrity voice on your Echo

Type in Samuel L. Jackson – celebrity voice for Alexa into your search engine of choice (alternatively, you can search for The Tonight Show Alexa Skill if that is more your jam).

This should pull up the Alexa Skill on Amazon.com as your first result. Click on this search result.
If you haven’t already, log in to your Amazon account.
Click on the yellow ‘Buy now with 1-Click*’ button. This Alexa Skill is just $1 during its introductory period, but the price will go up to $5 in the nea… 閱讀全文 →

We acknowledge that this might not be the sexiest gift to pick up for Cyber Monday, but it just might be the most appreciated. This UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector from APC is on sale for $15 off its normal price, and I can tell you from personal experience that it is worth every penny!

Protect your hardware

APC UPS Battery Backup & Surge Protector

In case lightning strikes twice

This UPS from APC has seven outlets to plug in your precious electronics, plus a USB charger port for your smartphone. It will keep your devices safe from a surge and can keep you operational for up to half an hour so you can power down safely.

$59.87 $74.99 $15.12 off

$60 at Amazon $60 at Walmart

Living in central Texas, we get our fair share of freak thunderstorms and power surges, and this UPS has protected my iMac, wireless router, laptop, tablet, phone, and several Amazon Echo devices many times. I can plug several devices in at once, and I know that it will not only keep them sa… 閱讀全文 →

One of the things my 13-year-old has been bugging me most for this holiday season is a gaming laptop and gaming setup. Thankfully, I’ve been following our Cyber Monday deals here at Android Central and Thrifter, and I came across this beauty of a keyboard from Razer.

Grab this for your gamer

Razer Cynosa Chroma Gaming Keyboard

All the pretty colors

The Razer Cynosa Chroma Gaming Keyboard is a top-selling of its kind for good reason. You can personalize the colors and have it integrate with popular game titles, Philips Hue lights, and gear from other third-party vendors. Plus, it’s spill resistant!

$40 $60 $20 off

See at Amazon $40 at Walmart

The Razer Cynosa Chroma Gaming Keyboard lets you customize your keyboard controls and color schemes with nearly 17 million different possibilities. You can sync the colors with products from Philips Hue, a number of game titles, and dozens and dozens of other pieces of tech from other manufacturers. It doesn’t use Bluetooth but rather … 閱讀全文 →

Hey Google, I like my Fitbit tracker #basic

Recently, Google announced that it was acquiring the fitness wearables brand Fitbit in a deal valued at just over two billion dollars. There has been a great deal of debate (at least in tech circles) on what this means for Google, for Fitbit, and for consumers and their data privacy. Will Google kill off the Fitbit brand and move the talent to the WearOS group? Will they develop that long-awaited Pixel Watch? Will they drive Fitbit into the ground and sell it for parts like they did Motorola?

These are all valid questions, but I’m not here to talk about any of that right now. Don’t get me wrong, I care a great deal about these issues, particularly about what Google plans to do with the treasure trove of existing Fitbit user data, and how it plans to securely manage that data moving forward.

No, what I want right now is to give a voice to the not nerdy and the nearly nerdy… those of us who love our Fitbits because they’re good fitness t… 閱讀全文 →

New Show in Town

Echo Show 8

$100 at Amazon

Pros

The Goldilocks of Echo Show devices
Disable camera and microphones with one switch/cover
Significantly cheaper than larger Echo Show (2nd Gen)
Uses “Certified with Humans”

Cons

Can’t adjust viewing angles without a stand
No Dolby processing built-in

Fast on the heels of the popular Echo Show 5, the Echo Show 8 fits right in the middle of this expanding product line. It brings a higher resolution screen than the Echo Show 5 and welcomes more media integrations like an exclusive partnership with the Food Network.

Show Me More

Echo Show (2nd Gen)

$230 at Amazon

Pros

Stunning display
Available with free smart bulb
Dolby processing built-in
Zigbee smart hub built-in

Cons

Most expensive Echo device
No physical camera cover
Might be too big for some

With its softened corners and fabric covering, the Echo Show (2nd Gen) marked a major design shift for the Echo line. Its large HD display and Alexa integration ha… 閱讀全文 →

The Ring Doorbell and Amazon’s Echo Show are a match made in heaven. The Ring Doorbell offers a smart doorbell experience that’ll let you know exactly who’s at the door without having actually to answer it. You can then use that cross-functionality to manage visitors by viewing them through the Ring Doorbell’s camera and communicating with them using the Show’s microphone. Thanks to Amazon Alexa, you don’t even have to use your hands.

Products used in this guide

Alexa, Show Me the Door!: Amazon Echo Show (2nd Gen) ($230 at Amazon)
Hear and See Who’s There: Ring Doorbell ($100 at Amazon)

How to connect your Ring Doorbell with Amazon Echo Show

Connecting your Ring Doorbell with your Amazon Echo Show is easy. It’ll just involve adding the Ring Alexa skill through the Amazon Alexa smartphone app. Here’s how:

Open the Amazon Alexa app.
Tap the three lines in the upper left-hand corner of the app to open the side menu.
Tap Skills & Games.

On this screen, tap the search button… 閱讀全文 →