Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo aren’t exactly known for their audio quality. Instead, their focus is more on its smarts and its connectivity where the idea is that it will help users connect with their smart home devices and help fetch information. However, who says that it needs to be mutually exclusive?

Amazon launched a bunch of products that come with its Alexa assistant baked in earlier this year, a microwave and wall clock were some of those products. The company has now started shipping its Echo Wall Clock. The Alexa implementation in this device is a bit different from what many have come to expect from Amazon’s Echo products.

Amazon has their own music streaming service and we’re sure that the company would love if all users were to sign up for it. However the reality is that many of us are subscribed to multiple platforms, like Mac users who own Android devices, or iPhone users who subscribe to Spotify, and so on.

Chances are when someone buys an Amazon Echo speaker, they are most likely buying it for Alexa and the various skills and connectivity options the digital assistant offers. However if you’d like to use your Echo speakers for more than just a medium between you and Alexa, you might be interested to learn that Tidal has launched for the Echo speakers.

Late last year Amazon launched the Echo Button. This is a button that would work with Alexa-based games, where users could use it as a trigger to respond to games. It seemed very much like a novelty and didn’t really have much use beyond gaming, but now it looks like Amazon has decided to make it a bit more powerful.

While smart devices like the Amazon Echo are great for controlling your smart home objects, finding information online using your voice, and so on, there are some who might also be concerned regarding their privacy, where such smart speakers are typically always-listening which has led some to be worried about having their conversations recorded.

Last month Microsoft announced that Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant would be arriving for the Xbox One. Now it looks like both Microsoft and Amazon are further cementing their partnership as Amazon appears to now be bundling a free Echo Dot device with every purchase of the Xbox One console (including the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X).

Amazon’s Echo Spot and Echo Show come with displays which makes it a useful device for watching videos. In fact both the Echo Spot and Echo Show are ideal devices if you have home security cameras as they can be used to watch live streams, but what about when you want to watch videos that have already been recorded?

Smart speakers are great tools that allow users to control their smart homes using nothing but their voice. However for those who are more privacy-minded, smart speakers also represent an instance in which it could potentially be used as a tool to spy on you by malicious hackers. Unfortunately that’s what researchers discovered with Amazon’s Echo.

Alexa can be used to control all kinds of things around the house as long as they are connected to it and part of the network. This includes lighting, thermostats, locks, and more, but now it looks like Amazon has given Alexa a new set of skills which comes in the form of being able to control equalizer and sound settings on your speakers.

The problem with speakers that are always listening is that you sometimes can’t be sure what could trigger it, which in some instances has resulted in some pretty creepy situations. Unfortunately it seems that these are instances that people might need to get used to, according to a report from Metro.

Last year Amazon announced the Echo Look. This is a camera that can analyze your outfit, rating your daily look, and offer advice from fashion specialists, thanks to the use of algorithms and machine learning. However the Echo Look was limited to those who were invited by Amazon to test it out, at least until now.

It goes without saying that with Amazon getting a head start in the smart speaker race that it’s not surprising that they have a very sizable market share. However it seems that Google could be catching up, at least according to recent data from Canalys in which apparently Google overtook Amazon in smart speaker shipments for Q1 2018.

Smart speakers typically feature an always-on functionality which means that the speakers are always listening out for its trigger word, whether it be “Alexa”, “Hey Siri”, or “Hey Google”. Unsurprisingly there might be some users who are worried that these speakers could be recording their conversations, despite the fact that these companies claim that they don’t.