The Amazon Echo Spot wants to relieve your smartphone of its alarm clock duties and Alexa’s latest update makes the device a little more capable of handling the task.
The Echo Spot — and indeed all Alexa-enabled devices — can now wrest you from sleep by playing music from your favourite streaming service.
Whether it’s Amazon’s own Prime Music or Music Unlimited, or supported services like Spotify, TuneIn, Pandora and iHeartRadio, Alexa has you covered.
Related: Amazon Echo Show review
Instead of asking Alexa just to set you an alarm you can now request specific songs, genres, artists or playlists to help kick start your day.
So, if you’re waking up for a workout you can say “Alexa, wake my up at 6am with the Rocky IV soundtrack,” or if you’re enjoying a sweet Sunday lie-in, you can ask “Alexa wake me up at 10am with Lionel Richie.”
Unfortunately, if you ask “wake me up at 8am with Kylie and Jason” it’ll only play their music.
Joking aside, this helps the Echo Spot to perform its bedside duties more effectively, while those with Echo Dots on the dresser will also benefit.
Spot the difference
The Spot was announced back in September as a hybrid of the Echo Dot and the Echo Show and will go on sale next week in the United States.
Like the Show, it can play video clips, make voice and video calls, display photos, show a feed from a smart home camera, display the weather and media playback information. Like the Dot, it benefits from a more compact size.
The Spot goes on sale for $129 in the United States on December 19, but Brits are going to have to wait a while, with no release date yet touted.
Thankfully, the music alarms update is available on all Echo devices, as well as others running Alexa, starting today.
Have you purchased an Echo? Which is your favourite in the ever-growing range? Drop us a line @TrustedReviews on Twitter.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
