I try very hard to resist piling on when a tech company makes a tone-deaf call, but this time I simply can’t. Seriously Amazon, WTF? If you use Alexa, Echo, or any other Amazon device, you have only 10 days to opt out of an experiment that leaves your personal privacy and security hanging in the balance. On June 8, […]
Read moreI wasn’t impressed the last time I had a chance to play with Amazon’s Fire TV. Some of that was probably the hardware itself, but some of it was also the Amazon first nature of the UI. That said, I haven’t had a chance to play with it lately, and who knows – maybe it’s AWESOME now. Even if it […]
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Given the recent movements in the home automation market, Amazon grabbing Ring didn’t surprise me at all. It will be interesting to see how this works with another recent purchase – Blink. Amazon is expected to keep Ring as an independent business, much like it has with its other acquisitions, like Zappos and Twitch, according to GeekWire, which earlier reported […]
Read moreWhen Amazon announced their new Echo Plus, I was immediately intrigued, and then a bit put off by the decision to use Zigbee instead of Z-Wave (although both radios would have been better). Afterall, Z-Wave has the biggest pool of devices and [near] guarenteed compatiblity. Aparently I’m not the only one who doesn’t get the choice – CEPro just does […]
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I’ve quite pleased with how HA Bridge exposes Vera devices and scenes to my Amazon Alexa, so I’m a little conflicted about signing up. But, if you don’t have that setup, this is perfect for you. Join the Vera Beta Program for Amazon Alexa to experience Vera’s Native Skills Integration, supporting Climate, Lighting, and Scenes. Vera Control Beta Program
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This is going to be a very short review. Don’t buy the Amazon Fire TV Stick, at any price, period. While it works, has access to a great set of content (Netflix, Amazon, iPlayer, etc.), and has a fantastic HDMI CEC implementation it is painfully slow. Too slow. Too onerous. I try to be thorough in everything I review, but […]
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I haven’t had a chance to play with Amazon’s Echo (Alexa) ecosystem yet, but they sure seem to be getting a lot of good press, and OEM support. I think that’s a great thing; we really need some cohesion in the devices market. Today, D-Link announced that their Wi-Fi HA devices will play nice with Echo and IFTTT – […]
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I was tempted by the new 4K FireTV, but seems a bit too focused on Amazon’s services to find a place in my stack. That said, the price is right ($99) and Amazon is making great strides in the content space… Maybe next year :). Last October, Amazon introduced a new version of its Fire TV streaming media player. Following […]
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When Amazon announced the Kindle Fire HD earlier this month, the company also announced its first release of the Kindle Fire line in the UK. Given the popularity of the Amazon-owned LOVEFiLM streaming service, it should be no surprise that many Kindle Fire tablets will probably be used to tap into the LOVEFiLM library of content. Evidently LOVEFiLM and Amazon […]
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Ceton has announced that their Ceton Companion app for Windows Media Center is now available on the Amazon App Store, which is good news for Android-lovers who like to stray from the Google Play corral and for Kindle Fire owners, of which Amazon is hoping there will soon be many more. It costs the customary $4.99, and although the version […]
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