- Lifestyle & Sports
- 24 Jul 19
Tech Preview: Amazon Echo Show 5
It’s almost 2020 and robots are becoming babysitters. I made this discovery when I found my 9-year-old daughter deep in conversation with Alexa. She’d put a bow on the speaker’s head, in an attempt to humanise this tub of circuits, and was asking it questions about dolphins. The new Echo Show, Amazon’s €89.99 smart speaker, hooks up to a peripheral baby camera. “Alexa, show me the nursery camera,” you ask. Alexa presumably complies.
Show 5 is great for adult routines too: from turning off bedroom lamps at bedtime to showing the weather forecast in the morning. I find Alexa at her most useful when playing songs from Spotify or Amazon Music. Having a 5.5” display and HD camera is handy for watching Prime Video and short news clips from Reuters, BBC News and RTÉ. You can make hands-free calls to friends and family via Skype.
Amazon has promised new features for Echo Show 5. These include “how-to” videos from wikiHow (everything from tips on meditation to cutting up mangos). There are new privacy options as well: you can ask Alexa to delete “everything I said today”. Whether or not this will keep nosy tech giants out of our personal data remains to be seen.
RELATED
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 15 Jan 24
Ronnie O'Sullivan: "I'm everything but zen. I fall apart regularly"
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 28 Jun 21
Tech News: Houses Of The Unholy
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 18 Sep 25
Student Special: Travel Options Beyond The J1
RELATED
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 17 Sep 25
Comedian Rachel Galvo announces Christmas performance of her show The Shite Feminist
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 16 Sep 25
Political sportswriter Dave Zirin speaks to press ahead of documentary screening
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 11 Sep 25
Learning to save lives: Why your college years are the perfect time to start giving blood
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 10 Sep 25
An Garda Síochána - A Job Worth Doing: Build Your Career. Serve Your Community.
- Lifestyle & Sports
- 09 Sep 25