Having a smart home isn’t just about connected lighting and thermostats, it can also encompass products like the Amazon Echo launched earlier this year, which is essentially a little speaker/mic combination built into a plastic cylinder tower. Yet it’s also much more than that. Amazon developed it with their intelligent Alexa software technology known as Alexa Voice Service which can answer questions for you and do any number of other things like turn on/off your smart lights and it can interact with plenty of other smart home products all just by using your voice. For those who truly like to live on the bleeding edge of the technological frontier, it just might be a great addition to the home.
Today, Amazon has just announced that in the latest update for the Amazon Echo, support for shared Google calendars will be enabled. Reading off Google calendars was already possible with Echo prior to today but with included support for shared calendars you can stay on top of every event entered. This means if someone has shared a calendar with you because of a specific event or you subscribe to certain Google Calendars, Echo can recap and keep you apprised of all the “goings-on” so you don’t miss any details, and that’s something to be happy about if you pride yourself on being punctual and organized.
The update also includes the ability for Echo to help students with homework. Simple math problems like “what’s five times two?” will be no problem for Echo and all people will have to do is simply ask that question. That is of course, just one example. Lastly, Amazon has added in the ability for Echo to add items to your shopping list that you may want ordered from Amazon.com. So whether you need stuff for your kids’ school year coming up or you want to restock on paper towels, Echo can get this done for you. Amazon is in the business of selling stuff after all so people should have expected this last capability to show up at some point, it only makes sense with what Amazon is normally offering, which is things you can buy from their massive merchant website.