Get this Alexa Voice Remote Deal
Amazon has just put the new Alexa Voice Remote on sale for $14.99 (£14.99 UK) (€14,99 DE). That is 50% off the regular price of $29.99 and this is the first time that it has ever been on sale. It’s very rare for Amazon to put their remotes on sale, so if you’ve been thinking of buying the new remote, this is your chance to get it at a hefty discount. Read more ›
Amazon has just updated the standard Fire TV Stick to now include the new Alexa Voice Remote, which has power and volume buttons for TV and home theater equipment control. The ncie thing is that they’re maintaining the same $39.99 retail price for the new bundle as they had for the old bundle with the old remote. Read more ›
The Amazon Echo Input has gone on sale for $19.99. The regular price is $34.99 and this is the first time it has ever been on sale. The Echo Input is essentially an Echo Dot without a built-in speaker. It has far-field microphones for the same hands-free Alexa capabilities as the Echo Dot, but the Echo Input is meant to connect to existing speakers, either via Bluetooth or via a 3.5mm audio out cable. Since the Echo Dot 3 is on sale for $29.99 and the Echo Dot 2 is on sale for $24.99, you aren’t saving too much by forgoing the built-in speaker. That said, the Echo Input is a much slimmer and discreet device that is purpose-built for adding Alexa to existing speakers. Read more ›
This week there were 33 new apps and games released for the Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Cube, Fire TV Stick, and Fire TV Edition televisions. Mr. Worm is a free game that is similar to Snake, but more simplistic and forgiving for little kids to enjoy. Bumble TV is a new streaming service that offers “over 65+ networks” for $35 a month. It provides 50 hours of Cloud DVR space for free, but more interestingly, they claim that you can replay anything back that has aired in the last 7 days without needing to have recorded it yourself. Kidsongs & Nursery Rhymes is the new official app for the Kidsongs children’s music franchise that some of you who were kids, or had kids, in the 80’s and 90’s might remember from PBS or their VHS tapes. ArtHola TV is an art sharing platform that you can use to view thousands of pieces of art from their collection or share your own art digitally with family and friends. Continue on for the full list of new apps and games released in the last 7 days. Read more ›
One of the most interesting 3rd-party Alexa devices to come out of CES 2019 is easily the new Lenovo Smart Tab line of Android tablets with an included speaker dock. They are the first 3rd-party tablets to use Amazon’s Show Mode feature with hands-free Alexa built-in, which essentially turns them into an Echo Show when docked. Unlike Amazon’s own Show Mode Dock for their Fire tablets, which is nothing more than a charging stand that triggers Show Mode, Lenovo has put Dolby Atmos speakers and 3 far-field microphones in the dock to make this a true alternative to the Echo Show. Read more ›
Amazon has launched their long-rumored free ad-supported streaming video service in the US. Using the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database for branding, the service is called IMDb Freedive and it’s available on most devices that can already stream Prime Video. On Amazon Fire TV devices, you should see a new Freedive icon at the front of your “Apps & Channels” row on the home screen. If not, you can launch the free service by saying “Alexa, go to Freedive” into your voice remote, paired Echo device, or hands-free Fire TV Cube. Read more ›
SiliconDust, makers of the HDHomeRun line of network tuners, have announced a pair of new DVR devices at CES 2019 that give the Amazon Fire TV Recast and Tablo DVRs a serious run for their money. The all-new HDHomeRun SCRIBE DUO is an all-in-one solution that combines a pair of over-the-air tuners with a 1 TB DVR hard drive for recordings. It merges all of SiliconDust’s existing OTA services and features into a single sleek device that will surely become the best first device to buy for anyone entering the HDHomeRun ecosystem of cord-cutting solutions, all while maintaining the flexibility that differentiates HDHomeRun from competing DVRs. For new or existing HDHomeRun users, SiliconDust has also announced the HDHomeRun SERVIO, which adds 2 TBs of DVR storage to any HDHomeRun setup, while simultaneously eliminating the need to have a PC or NAS as your DVR server. Read more ›
Amazon has announced a couple of big car navigation related partnerships for Alexa at CES 2019. The first is a partnership with Telenav, a connected car navigation platform. The second is a partnership with HERE Technologies, who’s navigation systems are in over 100 million cars. In both cases, Alexa will now be integrated into each companies future products. While this doesn’t directly affect consumers today, it means that Alexa will be found on many more car navigation systems in the near future as a baked-in component from the start. In the case of the HERE partnership, it also means Alexa will have access to much more mapping data, which will improve Alexa’s direction related queries outside of the car as well.
Amazon has announced a few changes to their Key delivery service that allows Amazon packages to be delivered into your home or your car trunk. For starters, the service is getting a slight rebranding and will now be called “Key by Amazon.” The bigger news is that customers will be able to receive deliveries directly into the garages, which is probably a less invasive option for most people than giving Amazon access to their home or car. Read more ›
Sengled is stepping up their smart lighting lineup in a significant way at CES 2019. Among the new products is a 100-watt equivalent smart bulb that puts out 1500 lumens of brightness, which is double what you get out of most smart bulbs on the market. There’s also a new smart flood light with a built-in motion sensor in the middle that can be used to detect room occupancy for automatic lighting control or to alert you of intruders while you’re away from home. Those two new lights require Sengled’s existing hub to function, but they’ve also announced a new line of WiFi smart bulbs that don’t require a hub. Read more ›
