I've now just been reading more on the Amazon Echo, and discovered they have now also released the Echo Dot, which is much smaller if you don't need the larger built in speaker, and has additional features over the Echo such as Bluetooth connectivity to stream music to other devices such as a soundbar, and also a 3.5mm audio out to connect it to a better sound system for streaming music. But what I'm most interested in is that this works with Hive, so with some smart lightbulbs I can have my house voice controlled to adjust my water and heating, and turn light bulbs on/off and dim them from voice control. And the Dot is only £50.

It obviously does much more than just that, such as supporting Spotify, Amazon Prime music streaming, and other services. You can also do loads of other stuff such as accessing your Google calender, ordering food from Just Eat, order a taxi etc... more abilities and features are being added all the time. And more IFTTT support is being added so you can ask conditional questions such as when something happens it does something. Quite useful.

When I first saw the Amazon Echo adverts on TV I really didn't understand the point in the device, but now I've actually looked at it I can see it could be useful. I think the cheaper and much smaller Dot is more useful than the larger Echo. That's really only useful if you want a connected speaker for streaming music, as well as Alexa. The Dot has most features other than the speaker and much cheaper.

With the Echo Dot and smart heating and lighting it's quickly becoming like the star Trek Next Generation voice controlled ships computer. Very cool.

I'm now wondering if there will be any Sonos support. Now that would be cool.

The only thing that struck me is that Microsoft have been trying to do this for ages with the Xbox Kinect and not really getting very far because of the need for the console. With Amazon they have taken this the right way by making it compatible with as much as possible from the start. Google must really be worried about the Echo because this was something I really thought they would have invented. Same with Apple. Although with both they would be locked into their own eco systems. Amazon is more interested in selling products, because basically they are a large online department store. The echo can order Prime account holder's products from Amazon, so that sorts that our. It can stream music from Amazon prime and it can read Kindle books to users.

I'm also thinking the Echo Dot would be a brilliant device for my sister. She is completely blind and not very mobile. She currently relies on helpers to put music CDs on for her, or change the channels on Sky for her. With an Echo Dot and an Amazon Prime account she would be free to ask to listen to whatever she wants. From music to audio books and Kindle ebooks. This is going to be a brilliant device for the visually impaired and also for anyone with mobility issues.

This device initially looked a bit pointless to me, but I can really see the uses now.