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Vision of the future

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date05 April 2024
Publication titleHuddersfield Daily Examiner
For me, it's always been about control. I like the voice assistants - they can be quick and reliable, but occasionally, you just want to see what's going on

And for that, you'll need to get your phone or tablet, fire up an app - maybe Google or Apple's Home app, and take it from there.

There has to be a better way, and it turns out there is - enter Amazon's new Echo Hub.

I've been testing this mini marvel, and it's a real winner if you like a visual approach to managing your smart home.

It's essentially a customisable 8ins screen that is designed to hang on a wall in the most convenient spot - you might find it useful by your front door or in your hallway. You can buy a stand for it, too, so you can place it on a surface in a good spot.

It's very focussed on being a smart home control, operated by touch and visuals, but it is also an Alexa smart speaker, so you can control it via voice too.

It also has a decent enough speaker to allow you to use it as a music player - you can sync it with any other Echo smart speakers you might have to control music (or even audiobooks and podcasts) playback all over the house.

That's more or less all it does beyond smart home controls, but if you want more than that, then an Echo Show is probably more up your street.

Because it's so focused on that control system, it makes for easy set-up and simple operation.

It's compatible with thousands of devices, too, via its Matter, Thread, Bluetooth, wi-fi, and Zigbee connectivity - it would, I think, be quite difficult to get hold of a smart home device that it wouldn't work with.

As well as the obvious Ring and Blink compatibility (both brands made by Amazon), it will also work with kit made by Philips Hue, Eve,

Yale, Hive, iRobot, and TP-Link. As well as many others - anything that Alexa can work with works here too.

The interface is essentially a home page with widgets that you can easily customise. So you may have a lighting system, a security system, and a heating system all on your network, and you can add...

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