Tag Archives: Echo Dot

This Echo Dot speaker stand has the Greek God Atlas holding up your Alexa device

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Call it an eclectic piece of home decor or an odd metaphor for Amazon’s global dominance.

Meet Atlas. Greek Titan, mythical holder of planet Earth, and now a tabletop accessory to plop your 4th Gen Echo Dot smart speaker on. Designed and manufactured by Etsy seller MisfitGeekGifts, this rather quirky little relic comes 3D printed from a special PLA filament which gives it a marble-like finish. Available in plinth and no-plinth varieties, Atlas holds up your Echo Dot perfectly, as if it were a massive globe. My only gripe is that it isn’t designed to conceal the Echo Dot’s charging cable, which would honestly then make it the perfect smart speaker stand in my book!

Designer: MisfitGeekGifts

Legend has it that Atlas, a Titan, was condemned to hold up the earth and skies in eternity after losing the battle versus the Titan gods and Olympian gods. Most representations show Atlas holding up a globe while simultaneously succumbing to its incredible weight. In the case of this little tabletop accessory, though, the globe gets replaced for a spherical Echo Dot 4th Gen. (If you’re a flat earther, you could just use the flatter Echo Dot 3rd Gen too)

The 3D printed stand comes in a plinthed (below) and a non-plinthed (above) version depending on how much vertical space you have on your tabletop surface. The model isn’t aggressively detailed, although that works in its favor since the filament is just translucent enough to look cloudy against the light, looking exactly like marble from afar. You can choose from MisfitGeekGifts’ catalog of other filaments too, including sandstone, wood, rainbow, or even bronze/silver/gold-colored plastic filaments! MisfitGeekGifts will also resize the print for you if you’ve got the larger Echo speaker as opposed to the Echo Dot.

Prefer sci-fi over Greek mythology? Here’s another Echo Dot speaker stand that turns your smart device into the Mandalorian helmet!

The post This Echo Dot speaker stand has the Greek God Atlas holding up your Alexa device first appeared on Yanko Design.

Amazon just gave their Echo Dot speakers a fashion makeover along with designer Diane von Furstenberg

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It’s summertime, lockdowns are lifting, and people are dressing up and stepping out again. While the Echo Dot smart speaker really doesn’t have much of a social life, Amazon’s making sure the Echo Dot has its ‘hot girl summer’ too, with a fresh set of fabric designs in collaboration with fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg.

Click Here to Pre-Order

Labeled as the ‘best-dressed Echo yet’, the speakers look less like a mysterious black orb and more colorful, fitting with your home’s decor. Fashion designer Diane von Furstenberg introduced the three patterns that are very much evergreen styles, with palettes that add a fresh zing to your living space. Titled Midnight Kiss, Ikat, and Twigs, the Echo Dots turn the boring black sphere into an instant point-of-interest in the room.

There is, however, a catch. The speakers are a part of Amazon’s crowdfunding platform, Day 1 Editions. Amazon is inviting people to vote for their favorite designs by pre-ordering them, and if they hit their pre-order goal, the company will ship the product out to its customers. (Customers will only be charged if the product meets its pre-order goal)

The stylish Echo 4th Gen speakers are also available at a reduced price of $59.99 (as opposed to the original $99 price tag). Plus, as a part of the collaboration, Amazon also pledges to make a donation to Vital Voices – a non-profit chosen by Diane von Furstenberg which invests in women leaders tackling the world’s greatest challenges.

Designer: Diane von Furstenberg in collaboration with Amazon

Click Here to Pre-Order

The biggest problem with smart-speakers is that they’re voices without faces – LAYER’s Capsula Mini fixes that

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Filling a rather strangely-ignored UX gap with the smart-speaker market, LAYER Design’s smart-speaker for Russia-based Mail.ru comes with its own expressive little face that reacts as it listens and speaks. Titled the Capsula Mini, the smart speaker runs Mail.ru’s native voice AI – Marusya, while assuming the friendly avatar of a little AI butler that’s ready to answer all your requests.

The speaker takes on the familiar puck-like shape seen with other mini smart-speakers like the Amazon Echo Dot or the Apple HomePod Mini. It sports a fabric clad around the sides where you’d expect the speakers to fire audio out of, and a set of LED eyes shine right through the fabric. The speaker uses a seven-segment LED display for each eye (and a single dot for the nose), allowing it to express emotions like happiness, sadness, nonchalance, and surprise, while also doubling as a clock that displays the time. A touch-sensitive surface on the top lets you physically interact with the Capsula Mini, while an LED ring underneath its touch panel lights up when the speaker’s active (and turns to red when there’s an error).

The voice and touch-activated speaker hopes to do something rather new by associating a face with the speaker’s voice. Given how our visual sense plays such a dominant role in our perception of everything from events to emotions, it makes sense, being able to associate a face with the voice – after all, video chats are so much better than audio calls, no? Capsula Mini’s eyes and nose also pull off the ‘serious’ veneer associated with gadgets that end up scaring people who are tech-phobic or don’t know how to use certain tech appliances – like children or the elderly. The fact that Capsula Mini has a face and a voice anthropomorphizes it, making it much more approachable, especially to people who aren’t tech-savvy.

The smart-speaker will be available to Russian users in two color variants – ‘Dove Grey’ and ‘Charcoal’, with more colors in the future.

Designer: LAYER Design for Mail.ru

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Your Amazon Echo Dot transforms into a Mandalorian Helmet with this 3D printed stand!

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Smart Speakers are seldom designed to be trophy elements. With their unassuming design and fabric clad, they’re BUILT to blend into your home decor, being useful only when wanted. This 3D printed stand, on the other hand, turns your smart speaker into a pop-culture collectible worth showing off!

Say hello to the Mandalorian smart speaker holder for the 4th Generation Amazon Echo Dot. Inspired by the Star Wars spin-off series, the smart-speaker holder comes 3D printed by Etsy shop Slic3DArt, quite perfectly resembling the Mandalorian helmet. Place your spherical Amazon Echo Dot within its head cavity and you’ve officially got yourself a trophy-head worth showcasing on your mantelpiece or coffee table!

The purpose of the Mandalorian smart-speaker holder is purely aesthetic. It doesn’t enhance the speaker’s functions but doesn’t impair them either (it does, however, block the light ring at the base). I just wish Alexa came with a Mandalorian voice option!

Designer: Slic3DArt

YD Also Recommends: The Baby Yoda Smart Speaker Holder for your 3rd Gen Amazon Echo Dot!

Amazon brings group calls to Echo devices in the US

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As promised, Amazon is adding group calling to Echo devices — just in time for those socially distant holiday get-togethers. If you live in the US, you can use Alexa to start a group call on our Echo speaker or display. So long as one person in your...

Amazon Echo devices get steep discounts ahead of Black Friday

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The next round of Amazon Black Friday deals has begun, with most of the company’s Echo speakers receiving heavy discounts. And considering these are the latest Echos with the new spherical design that only became available about one month ago, the de...

Computer and phone accessories that make great gifts

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Let’s face it, it’s rare that we go through life with only our laptops or smartphones. Over time, accessories become crucial to our daily routines -- and that’s been truer than ever in 2020 when we’ve been forced to rely further on technology in lieu...

The best deals we found this week: $50 off the iPad Pro and more

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Even with Amazon Prime Day right around the corner, there was no shortage of deals on the latest gadgets this week. Apple’s iPad Pro is $50 off right now and there’s a rare deal on Animal Crossing: New Horizons at Amazon and Walmart. For those waitin...