Do you think Alexa is confined to a cylinder on your counter or your Fire TV? Think again. Every day Alexa is showing up in more products from radios to watches to cell phone car mounts. And that’s not all. With a little know how or a good tutorial, you can easily create your own Alexa enabled device with a Raspberry Pi and Amazon’s official Alexa Voice Service project.
Here’s a link to the full list of Alexa enabled devices currently being sold on Amazon, and I’m sure there are even more out in the wild. Below are some of my current favorites.
Logitech ZeroTouch Air Vent Car Mount:
This stupidly named cell phone mount brings more than just Alexa to your car. The car mount and companion app give Alexa the ability to text, call, navigate, chat and manage your calendar or email. You also get all of the features available to Alexa, including over 10,000 skills.
If you’re not into air vent cell phone mounts, and prefer a dashboard mount, Logitech has you covered. For an additional $20 (an absurd markup for slightly more plastic, a hinge and some adhesive), you can get the ZeroTouch dashboard mount.
Whether you’re looking to update an old car or you’re looking for a better alternative to your existing in car hands free system, at $59-$79 this is worth a try.
Guess CONNECT Smartwatch with Alexa:
Like them or not, smartwatches are here to stay. Guess blends the familiarity of an analog watch with the features and convenience of a smartwatch in a (*sometimes) stylish package. The face of the watch is 90% analog, with a small digital screen embedded in the bottom, the mic/speaker and charging port are on the side. A tap of the watch face and you have access to all the features of Alexa right on your wrist!
*A quick aside, I chose the picture on the left specifically for the absurd gold/leopard/diamond style that Guess felt the need to create, but I swear there are some really good looking watches if you check the link!
According to Guess, the watch will run for 3-5 days on a single charge with Alexa enabled, or up to two years in analog mode. That’s far longer than almost any other smartwatch on the market, although the digital screen isn’t nearly as useful as most smartwatches. Currently, these are selling for around $249 (all except the leopard one, which you can have for $238).
Nucleus Anywhere Intercom:
The Nucleus Anywhere Intercom can keep you in touch with friends and family both in the house and around the world. Not only does it work as a fully voice activated Alexa device, it’s a phone, a video phone a touch screen and a family hub. Nucleus could be the future of Alexa if the price says around $149 per unit.
Nucleus can be wall mounted or moved around the house with its built in kickstand. Audio and video calls are not limited to calling other Nucleus devices, so it can interact with most phones. They claim it was designed with kids and the elderly in mind, so it is simple enough for virtually anyone to use.
I’d like to see Nucleus stop using the word intercom, because its silly, and start billing this as a family hub. There’s also nothing they can do about giving their product the same name as the OS in Silicon Valley that nearly tanks Hooli.