Amazon Echo and Tap Devices Are Both on Sale Right Now
If you've been waiting to try Alexa, she can be yours for a discount — if you move fast.
Amazon cut the price of its Echo and Tap speakers--which both use the Alexa voice-activation service for hands-free interactions--on Tuesday by 15%. The one-day-only discount brings the $179.99 Echo down to $153.71, and $129.99 Tap to $111.01.
Although Amazon put the popular Echo on sale over Black Friday, this is the first time the new Tap — which just launched last month — has been discounted. Both devices can be hooked up to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to stream music and come with Amazon's answer to Siri, the voice-activate virtual assistant Alexa. Alexa can answer questions and provide information, find your music, adjust your Nest thermostat and perform other functions when integrated with other "smart home" gadgets.
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The biggest differences between the two is that, with the Tap, you need to tap a button to get the ball rolling; if you have the Echo, you can just start talking to Alexa and the device will respond. The Tap's advantage is that it's battery-powered. The Echo's lack of portability was one of the few persistent complaints Echo users had about the speaker.