Smart speaker for kids help

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Disrespective

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#315380 10-Jul-2024 09:03

So i've been convinced by my 10 year old to buy a smart speaker for him after he managed to achieve a small milestone at home.

The problem is that the house is currently mostly set up in a sonos+homekit/apple environment and I can't justify the expense of either the Sonos or Apple homepod mini for a kids room. Nor do I really want him to have the ability to control any other existing home devices via his speaker.

All he needs it to do is tie into his Spotify account to play music tell him the time and set alarms. I suspect he'll want to use it like an encyclopaedia too of course but this is less critical if the assistant part isn't as good.

I think I'm best just picking up an Amazon or Google device and just not setting up any integration but there are a dozen different versions out there. Can anyone give any first hand recommendations for this sort of situation that can be bought in NZ?

I saw the new Amazon Echo Spot was on Prime day sale but of course I can't buy it in NZ so that's not an option and most others seem to have limited stock availability locally.

Handsomedan

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#3258016 10-Jul-2024 09:20

My eldest has had an Amazon Echo Show 5 in his room for a few years.
It's got great sound, but as the name suggests, it has a 5" screen on it too.
Works as a bedside clock, music player, etc.

It's been flawless and the thing is easy to set up, too.

I am not sure whether you can get one with the same sound quality without a screen, but I'd imagine you can.

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#3258022 10-Jul-2024 09:47

I've seen Echo Pop's for < $100. They are minimalistic & easy to configure.

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PS Q: Why a smart speaker if the intended us is linked to a Spotify account for playing audio? Surely a Bluetooth speaker does the same job?

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trig42

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#3258029 10-Jul-2024 10:02

Echo Dot or Echo Spot. Easy to use and setup. Starting at ~$89

Disrespective

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#3258030 10-Jul-2024 10:06

ANglEAUT:

PS Q: Why a smart speaker if the intended us is linked to a Spotify account for playing audio? Surely a Bluetooth speaker does the same job?

Because that was the deal... I'm sure a BT speaker would be just fine for me and Mrs Disrespective but a deal is a deal and i'm OK with that.

Handsomedan

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#3258040 10-Jul-2024 10:31

Disrespective:

ANglEAUT:

PS Q: Why a smart speaker if the intended us is linked to a Spotify account for playing audio? Surely a Bluetooth speaker does the same job?

Because that was the deal... I'm sure a BT speaker would be just fine for me and Mrs Disrespective but a deal is a deal and i'm OK with that.

To be fair, there's something kind of cool about asking your speaker to tell you the weather, or a news headline, or fact-check something. It's all stuff you can do in other ways, but a smart speaker just feels like the future, to me.

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#3258042 10-Jul-2024 10:40

And, it means you can add smart things in for them later.

My granddaughter has an Echo Dot. We got her a smart strip light for her latest birthday - se can tell her lights to turn on/off/up/down and change colour. Loves it. What 10/11 year old doesn't like coloured lights in their bedroom?

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freitasm

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#3258045 10-Jul-2024 10:41

Amazon Echo Dot (the small globe) or even the just announced Amazon Launches All-New Echo Spot (geekzone.co.nz) for something that will look just a little bit cooler for a young person.

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Disrespective

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#3258046 10-Jul-2024 10:49

freitasm:

Amazon Echo Dot (the small globe) or even the just announced Amazon Launches All-New Echo Spot (geekzone.co.nz) for something that will look just a little bit cooler for a young person.

Yeah the new Spot is what I saw this morning but it's a bit rough on the wallet at full RRP (more so when they're half the price on Prime day sale that we can't take advantage of here).

Regardless the Amazon products are seemingly the ones people recommend so will start having a look around for some deals. Thanks all.

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#3258065 10-Jul-2024 11:10

I';d say the lenovo smart clock....since it';s not just a google assistant speaker but a clock as well. And it does, supposedly, have a hardware cut off switch for the microphone.

I think it's been replaced by the lenovo essential or something, which is a bit of a pity. I like the clock aspect

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#3258279 11-Jul-2024 06:35

davidcole:

I';d say the lenovo smart clock....since it';s not just a google assistant speaker but a clock as well. And it does, supposedly, have a hardware cut off switch for the microphone.

I think it's been replaced by the lenovo essential or something, which is a bit of a pity. I like the clock aspect

on this, I got my daughter one of the these a couple years back.

hideous sound quality, clock works ok, setting alarms can be so times tedious as you have to speak Lenovo English instead of natural English.

The light command function fails often and you have to google how to manually switch this off

google is full of upset people…

it works as a clock, said kid listens to “radio”, sets her own alarms….so does the job but I’m upset it’s kinda bad audio…and often it won’t stream iheart radio or tune in because it says “it can’t “.