Alexa and Amazon Echo devices are now available in France

Amazon’s Echo devices are now available to pre-order in France. The Amazon Echo will regularly be €99.99 and the Echo Dot will be €59.99. Both will arrive at customer’s doors on June 13th. The Echo Spot is also being made available for €129.99 but it won’t ship until next month on July 23rd. Prices are being discounted for a limited time during launch. Ordering now will land you 50% off all devices. Once the new devices arrive, France will have localized skills from brands like Netatmo, Philips Hue, Uber, Domino’s Pizza, TP-Link, Franceinfo, Legrand, and La Fourchette. Other Alexa-enabled devices will be coming to France from brands like Harman Kardon, Sonos, Ultimate Ears, Netgem, Archos, Boulanger, and Sowee. France is now the 10th country to receive Echo devices after the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, India, Ireland, and Canada.

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Redesigned Echo Dot mount perfects the minimalistic hanging holder

Last year I wrote about a new wall mount for the Amazon Echo Dot that cleverly hung the smart speaker from its power adapter. The creator has just released an updated version of the wall mount, called The Essential Mount, that quite possibly perfects the hanging holder style. The new design is sleeker and more compact than it’s predecessor. It also now allows you to mount the Echo Dot in any direction, depending on your outlet’s orientation. It improves on the first design in multiple ways and yet is also significantly cheaper at $7.99 for one or $14.99 for a pair. The mount includes a custom short USB cable, so you just need to provide the Echo Dot and its stock power adapter.

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The Spot Outlet Cover Plate is the cleanest way to mount an Echo Dot to your wall

Apart from cutting a hole in your wall, the new Spot USB Outlet Cover Plate is the cleanest way to mount an Amazon Echo Dot to your wall. This is the latest mount from Dot Genie, whose mounts have previously involved attaching the Echo Dot to its power adapter. This new mount replaces your power outlet’s cover plate with one that has a cradle for the Echo Dot molded into the side of the plate. The reason it’s such a clean setup is that it relies on a USB outlet for power, so it eliminates the large power adapter altogether. The USB power outlet is not included, so you’ll need to have or install your own for this holder to work. Dot Genie recommends this $12 USB outlet by Top-Greener, but most USB outlets capable of 2 Amps of power should work, since they all generally place the USB ports in the same place. The Spot USB Outlet Cover Plate is currently available for $7.99 in white or black and it comes with the small right-angle USB cable.

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New Spot Deluxe outlet wall mount for Echo Dot is simple and minimalistic

A few months ago I posted about The Spot, which lets you hang an Amazon Echo Dot from its power adapter. The creator of it has just released its successor, The Spot Deluxe, which improves on the concept in numerous ways. The new Spot Deluxe incorporates its own power adapter into the mount to greatly reduce the overall size of the device. It’s easily the most minimalistic outlet mount available. A nice touch is including a dummy ground plug on the included power adapter to improve the mount’s rigidity. This new improved mount also no longer blocks the adjacent outlet, which was a common complaint of the first version. The kit includes the mount, power adapter, and a perfectly sized tiny USB cable, providing everything you need to mount a 2nd Gen Echo Dot to a wall outlet. You can buy The Spot Deluxe for $14.99 from Amazon, which is a very reasonable price, considering it comes with its own power adapter.

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Sonos is offering its customers $25 off the purchase of an Amazon Echo Dot

Sonos is offering their customers a $25 discount on an Amazon Echo Dot, occording to The Verge. If you’re a Sonos customer, you should receive an email about the promotion sometime this week. The email will contain a unique code that can be used to purchase an Echo Dot for $24.99 and can only be used once to buy one Echo Dot. Read more ›

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How to modify an Amazon Echo Dot to play audio through both internal and external speakers simultaneously

Ever since the Amazon Echo Dot was released, the most common question I’m asked about it is if there’s a way to connect an external speaker without disabling the internal speaker. This is because many owners want to use their nice sound system when listening to music through the Echo Dot, but don’t want to have to always turn on or unplug their external speakers when asking Alexa a quick question or request. I set out to find a solution to this common gripe and here’s what I came up with. Read more ›

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Amazon Echo devices now support multi-room audio playback

After several leaks, Amazon has now added support for multi-room audio to the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show. The new feature allows you to group together multiple Echo devices and play music on all devices simultaneously. The feature is also being made available to 3rd-party speaker manufacturers so non-Echo devices can also sync music with Amazon’s own speakers. Read more ›

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Flush Dot Mount by Mount Genie recesses the Amazon Echo Dot in your wall or ceiling

The creator of The Spot outlet hanger for the Amazon Echo Dot, that I posted about last month, has come out with his second product. If you want a more professional look when mounting the Echo Dot to a wall or ceiling, then you should take a look at the Flush Dot Mount. It’s a perfectly sized pocket that gets recessed in your wall to hold an Echo Dot cleanly flush. This is obviously a bigger commitment than the outlet hanger, since you have to cut a 3 5/8 inch hole in your drywall, but the end result is a much cleaner appearance. The mount comes with a 10 foot USB cable so you can power the Echo Dot from inside your wall. The easiest way would probably be to run the cable through the wall to an outlet in your attic or basement. To thank AFTVnews and Reddit visitors for making his first product a hit, the creator tells me he is selling the Flush Dot Mount at an introductory price of $14.99 for the next few days.

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Amazon to turn all Echo and Echo Dots into home intercoms by adding Drop-in feature

Now that you can make calls and send messages with the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, users have been wanting to use the devices as home intercom systems. The upcoming Echo Show, which will be released tomorrow, has a Drop-in feature that will facilitate intercom-like communication, but buying a $230 device for every room isn’t feasible for most. Thankfully, Amazon has announced that they’re adding the Drop-in feature to all Echos and Echo Dots, which will turn them into full-fledged intercoms. Read more ›

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Amazon Echo and Echo Dot will soon be able to stream live audio from security cameras

Amazon today announced additional details about the new security camera capabilities of Alexa. Along with that announcement, it was revealed that Alexa devices without a screen, like the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, will also have access to live feeds from security cameras. Obviously, since those devices don’t have screens, you won’t be able to view a camera feed using them, but you will be able to say something like “Alexa, listen to the baby’s room” to hear a live audio feed of a particular security camera. While that’s not nearly as useful as viewing a camera, it’s better than nothing. This is also a good indication that easy access to security cameras using Alexa will be coming to other Alexa-enabled devices, like the Fire TV and Fire tablets.

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