The day has finally arrived, Australians rejoice as you can now get your hands on an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus from today plus new services such as Amazon Music Unlimited, Alexa Voice Services and Alexa Skills Kit.
The different thing between the USA Alexa and the Aussie Alexa is not only that she will have an Aussie accent but will understand Aussie slang meaning you could ask where the local servo is, or who is playing this week in the AFL.
A number of Aussie businesses have already signed on to integrate with Alexa such as Qantas, NAB, Virgin Australia, and Dimmi for restaurant reservations. You can also order an Uber through the smart speaker.
Amazon Music Unlimited is the company’s music streaming service which has more than 45 million songs in its library with natural voice controls powered by Alexa. However you can still play music from Spotify and Apple Music through the Echo.
There are three different plans customers can get with the streaming service, including cluding the exclusive Echo Plan at $4.99AUD/month on a single Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Plus; the Individual Plan at $11.99AUD/month; or the Family Plan, allowing up to six members of a household to share a subscription for just $17.99AUD/month.
The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) enables developers to integrate Alexa directly into their products, bringing the convenience of voice control to any connected device. Sonos is one of the companies who will add AVS to its Sonos One smart speaker with availability in the next couple of months.
The Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) is a collection of free, self-service APIs and tools that make it fast and easy for developers to create skills, or capabilities, for Alexa.
The Echo range can be purchased in-store at JB HiFi, Myer, Officeworks and Telstra. The Echo range was launched two weeks ago with pre-ordering available so those who have pre-ordered will get their smart speakers soon.
