Amazon Fire Hd 10 Tablet Alexa

If you own an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Tap, you're already well-acquainted with Alexa, the voice-powered assistant that drives those devices.

What you may not know is that Alexa recently arrived on some of Amazon'south Fire tablets, namely the $50 Fire, the 5th- and 6th-generation Fire HD viii and the fifth-gen Fire Hd ten ($230 at Amazon). (That's it for the moment; even if yous install the Alexa app on other models, Alexa herself will non brand an advent.)

Every bit you might expect, it'southward a slightly dissimilar feel using Alexa on a tablet. For starters, she'due south non always listening like on an Echo or Repeat Dot: You have to tap and hold the onscreen Home icon for a couple seconds, and then speak your command. On the other hand, you don't accept to preface every command with "Alexa." Rather, just say what y'all desire her to do.

So what proficient is a tablet-trapped assistant who can't even be summoned easily-gratuitous? For i thing, she's available to y'all just most anywhere you become, provided y'all're connected to Wi-Fi. Your Echo, past pattern, stays put in a single room.

Let's have a look at some of the absurd things you can practise with "tablet Alexa" -- with i caveat: In my tests, the $50 Fire delivered a poor experience. Some requests were ignored completely, while others were boring to activate. I asked Alexa to "play some Christmas music," for example, and although she responded fairly apace, it took a proficient 30 seconds earlier the music started. Your mileage may vary, but if you're ownership that particular Fire with Alexa in mind, don't expect Echo-similar operation.

Set visual (and mobile) kitchen timers

Alexa makes a not bad kitchen companion -- "Set a timer for 25 minutes" -- but if you desire to know how much time is left, you lot have to inquire her. On a Fire, however, there's an onscreen bill of fare that shows the countdown. What's more, you can venture into a different room while something is cooking; as long as y'all have your tablet with yous, yous won't have to worry about missing the alarm.

Guild stuff

Echo-powered Alexa can social club things for you (from Amazon, natch), but the just description yous'll become is an aural one. That'due south one reason I oasis't actually enjoyed voice-powered shopping. But when you lot ask tablet Alexa to, say, "Social club more proper name tags," you'll go a visual depiction of the particular. Then, when she asks if yous want to buy information technology, you won't feel quite as much unease that maybe it's the wrong thing.

Alexa can at present show and tell you what the weather is like.

Rick Broida/CNET

See the weather

Another tablet advantage: visual atmospheric condition updates. Instead of simply hearing a forecast (ane that encompasses simply today and tomorrow), you lot'll run across a weather carte you can roll to go a total calendar week'southward worth of data. It'due south much closer to what you lot'd get from an bodily weather app.

See what your Echo is up to

Thanks to a feature called Automated Voicecast (accessible via the Alexa app past tapping Card > Settings > Voicecast), tablet Alexa can show information related to what's happening on your Echo -- a now-playing song screen, for case, or an overview of sports scores. This is bachelor only for "sure kinds of content" at the moment, merely it's definitely worth enabling just to check out.

Play podcasts in a flash

You've probably already guessed that tablet Alexa will honour requests to play music or read the news, but she has one more than absurd play a joke on upward her sleeve: podcasts. Every bit long as the prove is available via TuneIn, the podcast source used past Alexa, she'll play the latest episode on need. Even so, if y'all want a specific episode, one from the dorsum catalog, you'll need to venture into the Alexa app or TuneIn proper -- which kind of defeats the voice-powered point.

Turn out the lights

The Echo platform is growing by leaps and bounds, with dwelling-automation gadgets leading the charge. Just almost every modern "smart" switch, apparatus and command can be operated by Alexa. And that's one big reason to own an Alexa-compatible tablet: You can take it with y'all from room to room, thus eliminating the need to shout at an Echo that's far abroad. Thus, if your Repeat Dot lives in the kitchen, you can even so control, say, the thermostat from your bedroom.

All this, of grade, is but the tip of the tablet-Alexa iceberg, as she tin can do many (if not most) of the same things as an Echo. But if you lot've found a item skilful function for tablet users, share information technology in the comments!