Unboxing and Setup of Amazon Echo Dot

Richard Hay, Senior Content Producer

December 29, 2016

19 Slides
Unboxing and Setup of Amazon Echo Dot

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Earlier this week in our Battle of the Brains article we compared three of the four major personal digital assistants - Siri, Cortana, and Google Home.

Left out of that comparison was Amazon's Alexa. It was not an oversight but a plan because we were waiting on an Amazon Echo Dot to arrive so that we could properly test the service.

Well today marks the arrival of the Echo Dot:

The packaging is compact and efficient - not much room to squeeze another piece of paper into the small blue box that the Dot arrived in.

Once it is out of its box and plugged in there is a short period of start up, as shown in the tweet embedded above, and then you can start the actual setup of the device.

Set up is accomplished via the Amazon Alexa app for either Android or iOS. If you are not on one of those devices you could also download the app on an Amazon Fire Tablet from the app store or just use your browser on Windows and visit http://alexa.amazon.com/ to get started.

You can use the apps or the website to customize the Echo Dot including the wake word which places the Echo Dot in listening mode for a command. You have three choices with the default being Alexa and the other two options being Amazon or Echo. I decided this Dot will answer to Echo.

Among the setup steps you can provide voice training by repeating 25 random commands to Alexa so she can learn your unique way of speaking, apply a confirmation PIN for any voice orders, and of course select and setup Amazon Skills to use with Alexa.

The apps and website pretty much mirror each other in the tools for managing your Echo Dot so I have included some screenshots of the Alexa device website in the gallery. My favorite feature of the apps and website is that a history of my inquiries are listed there on the Home Tab so I can go back and review something I heard or did earlier in the day.

Over the next couple of weeks I will be testing out Alexa and the associated Amazon services to see how this ecosystem compares to the other digital assistants we have already discussed.

 

About the Author

Richard Hay

Senior Content Producer, IT Pro Today (Informa Tech)

I served for 29 plus years in the U.S. Navy and retired as a Master Chief Petty Officer in November 2011. My work background in the Navy was telecommunications related so my hobby of computers fit well with what I did for the Navy. I consider myself a tech geek and enjoy most things in that arena.

My first website – AnotherWin95.com – came online in 1995. Back then I used GeoCities Web Hosting for it and WindowsObserver.com is the result of the work I have done on that site since 1995.

In January 2010 my community contributions were recognized by Microsoft when I received my first Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Award for the Windows Operating System. Since then I have been renewed as a Microsoft MVP each subsequent year since that initial award. I am also a member of the inaugural group of Windows Insider MVPs which began in 2016.

I previously hosted the Observed Tech PODCAST for 10 years and 317 episodes and now host a new podcast called Faith, Tech, and Space. 

I began contributing to Penton Technology websites in January 2015 and in April 2017 I was hired as the Senior Content Producer for Penton Technology which is now Informa Tech. In that role, I contribute to ITPro Today and cover operating systems, enterprise technology, and productivity.

https://twitter.com/winobs

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