Image: tech2/Nimish SawantAmazon launches 2nd Gen Echo, Plus, Spot, Connect and Buttons; all priced below $1901Up In The House Shotguns & Snipers Match1Up In The House | Erangel 3x weapons v.2Single enzyme in bacteria that causes body odour in humans tracked down in new studyMiniature pandemics in social insects give scientists clues to how nature controls disease1Up In The House AR Only Challenge1Up In The House | SMG Only Challenge | Custom Room1Up In The House Pochinki Hotdrop v2 | Subscriber GamesAmazon Echo Spot's front camera can be used to make video calls. It’s easy to do and we certainly wouldn’t advise anyone against it. If you upgraded to Amazon’s latest Echo Dot, you might have been surprised to find that the diminutive voice assistant had shed its USB port. Brr.That won’t work because it’s likely that they’re also using “microphonics” effect of ceramic capacitors. People are lazy and would often rather spend unneeded money on parts that have simply suffered the effects of our handling or mishandling. Something like a 15W vs 2W audio power change.And, that my friend is exactly why resistors exist and are used as a control (if you will) the flow of electricity.Take it apart all the way. After the Echo Dot, the Spot is the lightest Echo … The others were quick to follow.Wild speculation: the ‘cover ears’ test point is in the same signal path as the physical mute button. Earlier models of the Dot used a garden variety m… Image: tech2/Nimish SawantTop picks from non-Chinese brands1Up In The House | Sanhok 3x Weapons | Custom RoomsMicrobes dormant for over 100 million years in South Pacific seabed revived by scientistsAmazon Echo Spot launches in India for Rs 12,999 bringing in Alexa functionalities on a 2.5-inch displayExtreme fungus from Chernobyl under study for use in protective shields against space radiation1Up In The House | CrossBows, Melee & Throwables They just took advantage of the system in place. Once they’re obsolete, they’re completely obsolete. It’s more than just an alarm clock, but Amazon is definitely pushing this as a $130 device that will sit next to your bed. does the device support 20v or is it going to fry when it’s circuitry that expects 5v encounters 20v?Not buying one would be doubleplusungood, brotherIf you’ve had a stroke or paralyzing accident Alexa is a MASSIVE improvement to quality of life, at a price that can’t be beat.True… But you can then just run jumpers on the PWB to a wireside barrel recepticle and be back in business without needing to actually repair the pwb and align an smt connector.Never had that failure mode with USB.I did a teardown on a broken 2nd gen Echo dot a while back out of curiosity, and I don’t remember really see anything in the echo that would warranty high value caps to lead to this – It had an array of 6 surface mounted mics spaced equidistantly around its periphery (each of which has holes through the device) so doubt it needs much else for doing its direction sensing, etc along with voice detection.“cover Alexa’s ears”Buy the hardware, liscence the software.I heard that Amazon was considering having the Echos record 5-30 seconds of audio in a loop, so that you could say “What’s the weather today, Alexa?” and then it would use the recorded audio, so that one didn’t have to start with the wake word. This is the same reason USB type A and Mini-B ports can wear out in ways that require a device replacement/repair – the springs are on the device side of the interface.With Micro-B, the springs were moved to the far less expensive and far more easily replacable cable.Very true – Got one for my gran for exactly this reason. I think there are only 2/10 that have lasted 8 months. That would be cheap hardware for open source projects like mycroft or openassistant.What’s so bad about throwing out the cable instead of the entire device?Or you could push the little button on the top that disables the microphone…Huh.
And for the majority of people, they do nothing useful. Image: tech2/Nimish SawantAmazon Echo devices, Google Home lead smart speaker market, Apple Home stands fourth: Report1Up In The House | Erangel 3x WeaponsAmazon Echo Spot gives a visual cue but is voice controlled just like other Echo products. If so, it’s not going to be broken by a software update any time soon, tinfoil hats not withstandingtry pinephone, it has physical switch to turn off the microphoneI’m more interested in hacks that uses Alexa, it’s almost impossible to make it use a homemade device unless you also provide a server or cloud-based connection.