Hello, today we're going to take a quick look at the Amazon Show. The Amazon Show
is an Alexa integrated speaker with a tablet type screen at the top it's quite
a chunky device but that means it's not going to fall over at all it's very
sturdy. Power cable in the back, there's nothing else around the back nothing on
either side and you get controls on the top for volume up, volume down, and also
the mute button for when you don't want her to be listening in. When you press
that you also see a little red light confirming it's in mute mode. The screen
is really great for seeing your upcoming appointments and you can easily add to
them via voice command.
Add to the calendar.
"OK, what day and time?"
Today, 2.30.
"And what's the name of the event?"
Review the Amazon Show.
"I'll schedule review the Amazon show today at 2:30 p.m. OK?"
OK.
"OK, I've added that." This will synchronize
with your phone calendar if you've set it up correctly and will appear on your
phone as well as on the Shows screen and you can very easily scroll up and down
to view your upcoming appointments. By default it'll show some random pictures
in the background but if you use Prime Photos you can set this up to show those
as well. You've got a range of options you can
use this with Bluetooth, it can suggest things to try, you can adjust the sounds,
if you go to Home Screen and Backgrounds you'll see the bottom option is Prime
Photos you'll need to have uploaded some and you can then select either albums or
all photos I've set up an album specifically for the Echo Show, so "Echo
Show Photos". Return to the home screen you'll then see your photos in the
background. The screens also good for showing videos, specifically Amazon Prime videos
Show Amazon Prime Videos.
"Here's what I found."
Once it's loaded up you can scroll through the
videos either using your voice to say 'play number one' or you can touch the
screen and scroll across as well. Typically it will show you things that have
been watched recently and you can also do a search if you look in for something
in particular. The little screen is actually really good, I've been using
this in the kitchen to watch videos while I'm preparing food. Keep in mind
that at the time of review you are restricted this won't play YouTube
videos and when you ask Alexa says: "Google does not currently support
YouTube on Ecco Show."
As with other Amazon devices that have Alexa built in
this can stream music from Amazon music and Spotify it's really nice to see the
screen used with Amazon music selections when you ask it to play a popular song
that it has the lyrics to you'll see the lyrics in the background, so it pops up
with the title and a second...there's the lyrics.
If it doesn't happen to have the lyrics built-in you'll just see the album art
only you won't be able to have a little karaoke party.
It's pretty good at showing you some things...
"Show me a penguin"
"Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds"
...but it's pretty bad at
showing other things for example asking for a map of London came back with 'a map
of your current location' and no actual map.
If you have multiple devices these
can be used together in some really interesting ways
for example calling each other.
Call the kitchen Echo.
[RINGING]
The show is capable of video calling but you will need another show
in order to activate that but you can still use the calling feature in voice
only. You can also set up a multi room music group, this is really good, if
you've got a few of these devices head to the app, head to the group section,
connect them together, so I've got the Echo and the Show connected up, and when
you play music it will play out of both speakers at the same time.
Alexa, show my Kindle books.
I had hoped to be able to view books on the show, so be able to view
recipes for example, like you would on an iPad, but instead its reads it out to you.
"...two food storage containers to store and organize all your tasty meals..."
However if you install certain skills you can in the functionality of this so I've
installed the Recipedia skill and that allows you to view recipes on the show.
"Welcome back! You had previously chosen a American pancakes recipe"
This works slightly better than using an iPad as the screen stays on all the time it gives
you very clear instructions and you can use your voice to flick to the next
instructions. "To move between steps say next step, previous step, or repeat"
This is a big advantage over using an iPad as it means you have to touch the screen at
all you can just use your voice to move on. I've got this in the kitchen and I'm
finding it quite useful, it's a little bit clunky so you are going to need desk
space. I like the fact that it can be a digital photo frame and you can view
your pictures. I also like being able to watch the videos on here but it does
still feel like it's missing a killer app, especially given that the cost is
much higher than the other Amazon products and really hope that in time
the software will develop to make the screen a must-have bit of gadgetry.
"If you've enjoyed this video please subscribe. I hope you found this short
review useful thanks for watching."