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Amazon has created quite a family of Echo devices, all powered by the now-ubiquitious Alexa voice navigation system, but none are anywhere near as cool - and cute! - as the terrific new Amazon Echo Spot.
Tech expert Dave Taylor of https://www.AskDaveTaylor.com/ has a close look at the Amazon Echo Spot and finds that there's quite a lot to like about this little gadget with its 2.5" screen, but one really glaring design hiccup that might give you pause before you make that purchase decision!
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0:00
an Amazon echo that's also an alarm
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clock let's check it out Dave Taylor
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here and I'm looking at another Amazon
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echo device this is the Amazon echo spot
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and it's really pretty sweet as you can
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immediately see it has a screen a round
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screen that's two-and-a-half inches
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across pretty small also has a 1.4 inch
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speaker which isn't gonna break any
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records for audio fidelity but you're
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not getting this because it's a big
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beautiful sounding speaker you're
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getting it cuz it's a really cool
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addition to the echo line supports
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bluetooth so you can push music to it if
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you want but really you're going to be
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using a different service Alexa play BBC
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World Service news if it can get this
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one BBC World Service news from tuning
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cool now notice it actually shows on the
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screen Alexis stop I don't have rights
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to let you listen to it but you can see
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the screen is actually useful and what's
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really great is if you're playing a
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music playlist Alexa play Owl City then
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it actually shows you what song you're
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actually listening to now that's really
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cool Alexa stop if you have some artists
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that you're listening to it might
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actually show you lyrics in my
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experience it's really messy and their
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characters tend to be on top of each
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other so that's a work in progress but
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it has far-field voice recognition so
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you can talk over the music you can
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speak from the other side of the room
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all of that works great it has flash
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briefings all the stuff that you're used
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to it can also do some other cool things
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Alexa play the trailer for Blade Runner
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2049 it can play movie trailers
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now a movie trailer is a rectangular
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image and we're doing it on a circular
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screen
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Alexis stops so not really great for
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viewing but really fun it's really fun
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to have this little circular screen I
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don't know if YouTube's gonna have
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circular as an option or something but
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who knows and like I said music lyrics
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it's obviously great for things like
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weather forecasts and there's actually a
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touch screen here so I can just swipe
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down and touch home for example and I'm
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back to my clock that's also how you
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access a lot of the settings though most
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of the settings you're gonna be
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accessing from the Alexa app on your
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smart phone works with audible.com as do
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all the echos one of my favorite
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features actually it's a great way to
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listen to audiobooks and my kids are
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addicted they listen to way a lot of
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audiobooks obviously your whole smart
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home can work Alexa turn off holiday
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lights and okay that is a really easy
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way to turn off your Christmas tree I
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like it
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you can do hands-free calls which is
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really cool but let me tell you that the
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hands-free calls work great with other
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echo devices if you're just doing voice
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and you can even make calls out to the
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phone network so that's really nice but
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if you want to do video calls as they
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show in the box turns out that that only
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works if the other person has an Amazon
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echo show or this guy the Amazon echo
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spot or they're actually using the Alexa
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app now most of the people that I would
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video chat would don't have the Alexa
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app because they don't have any echos so
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this might be the cool feature on the
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box but my guess is most people aren't
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going to use it very often so it goes
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maybe you buy one and then you give one
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to Grandma and then that works on the
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top you have volume up volume down and a
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mute play button and mute supposedly
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also turns off the camera and let's
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actually talk about the camera for a
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minute because to get the video chat to
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work you need a camera and so there's a
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camera right here on the front but
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you're gonna put your spot in your
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bedroom most likely it's an alarm clock
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so now you have a camera in your bedroom
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probably no bueno now you can turn it
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off and you can mute it but if you mute
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it then it's not listening either so now
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you suddenly have an Amazon echo spot
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that's not listening and that's not so
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fun
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so the logical conclusion is out no
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sweat we'll put a little sticker over it
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like people do on their PC laptops right
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that works except that now disables the
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light sensor so now it can't
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automatically get dimmer as the day gets
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on and as it gets darker now you can set
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daytime nighttime light settings in the
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app and I've already done that so at 10
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p.m. regardless of what's going on this
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thing's gonna get less bright but that
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just it's like ah you know Amazon
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thought this through they came up with a
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beautiful device it's really cool except
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that one feature I just wish there was a
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way for me to like slide a little cover
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over it or something where the light
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sensor maybe was down here or something
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and so wouldn't be affected worth
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knowing though because I think it's
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really important don't just put a camera
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in your bedroom that presumably some
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hacker can get into and start watching
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you I mean we already have those
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problems with laptops you don't really
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want this to turn out to be your worst
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enemy rather than your best friend
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not good so let's see also it has a 3.5
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millimeter audio out Jack super nice
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because then you can plug in much better
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speakers because frankly this isn't
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gonna be really winning any awards for
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its audio reproduction it doesn't sound
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very good it's a little 1.4 inch speaker
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there's not much coming out of it it
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sounds okay it's listenable and
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certainly if you're listening to talk
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radio or audiobooks or something it
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sound great but if you're used to a full
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rich stereo with a full soundstage this
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is not your device but honestly I don't
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think anyone's going to get this because
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of its audio reproduction so probably a
6:00
non-issue now only thing else to talk
6:02
about
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is that there aren't a lot of clock
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faces yet I am really looking forward to
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this huge array of faces where I can
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have a lot of fun with it
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I can put a different photo behind the
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picture but I want just different faces
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I want to see just crazy stuff like in
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the Android world
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Android gear that watches have a ton of
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really cool faces way more than Apple
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watch users you guys have no idea what
6:26
you're missing so I'm hoping that we're
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gonna get the same thing here on the
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spot
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let's just hope Amazon sells a boatload
6:33
of these we'll see now please go ahead
6:36
and click that subscribe button I sure
6:38
appreciate it and if you appreciate this
6:40
video thumbs up I appreciate that too
6:42
all that's left to talk about now
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therefore is the price and the Amazon
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echo spot comes in white or black this
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is the black unit the white one's quite
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beautiful it can I have a slight bit of
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buyer regret that I didn't get a white
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one so it goes they are 120 $9.99 each
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at Amazon and when you buy one from
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Amazon they generally come configured
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already set up for your account so it
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becomes really easy I mean it's
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literally like 2 or 3 buttons to get
7:11
this thing started and you're rockin so
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if you already have an echo system in
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your house this is even better so I
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really like this Amazon echo spot I
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think it's one of the best units in the
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entire array the entire range of
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everything that amazon has out and it is
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in my bedroom with yes a little tiny
7:29
sticker over the camera so it goes this
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is Dave Taylor and I'll catch you in my
7:34
next video
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