Alexa Voice Assistant To Be Available On Amazon’s Fire Tablets

On Wednesday, the Alexa voice assistant will begin rolling out to customers and designed to match what users get on other Alexa devices, such as the Echo speaker. By using voice commands, users listen to music from services such as Pandora or Amazon Music, or they can have the news read out to them.

The Fire tablets will have an apparent advantage over Echo by offering full-screen cards with additional details. For instance, when you inquire about the weather, just as she does on Echo, Alexa will speak out the current temperature and offer the day’s forecast. However, the visual card will also show the week’s forecast. The card also offers playback control such as skipping and pausing for news and music.

For those with both Fire and Echo, as long a user enables a Voicecast feature through the Alexa app, making a request on Echo will activate the Fire’s screen and present the detailed cards.

Amazon says Alexa will vary from Google’s Assistant and Apple’s Siri. It was designed for tablets first, instead of phones. That means aiming at activities usually done at home, such as recipes, entertainment, and timers. For tasks on the go, such as locating nearby establishments, the voice assistant carries out a standard web search or directs you to the Alexa app. Google and Apple have special interfaces with price ranges, restaurant ratings and more. Further, both combine that data into their chat apps, too.

Strength through affordability

Amazon.com Inc. has managed to stay strong despite the downturn in the overall tablet market by slashing prices and persuading people to buy more than one. The value of its base model is just $49. The company introduced last month a new 8-inch tablet for $90, down from $150 for comparable models in the past.

So far, Amazon is dodging business-oriented tablets such as Microsoft’s Surface and Apple’s iPad Pro. Senior product manager for Fire tablets Aaron Bromberg said that while such devices work well as laptop alternatives, “we also see an awful lot of people that want tablets to use around the house for entertainment.”

 

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