Episode Details

In this episode of the Unmute podcast, the host Marty and his guest Lucy discuss the Amazon Echo Show and its features. The Echo Show has a screen, camera, and a screen reader called Voice View built into it, which enables those who are blind to use the device. The screen allows users to access YouTube videos, watch Netflix, and Hulu, and identify products by holding them up to the camera through a feature called show and tell. The Echo Show comes in different sizes ranging in price from $39 to $260, and the different models are distinguished by the size of the screen. The Voice View screen reader can be activated by asking the device to enable it or by holding down the reset button and placing two fingers on the screen. The gestures used to navigate the screen are similar to those used on a smartphone. The Echo Show can also be used to call into Zoom meetings and can be hooked up to smart home devices. The hosts recommend purchasing the Echo Show on Amazon and suggest considering the size of the screen when choosing the model. The episode ends with Lucy sharing her email address for any questions or feedback.

Transcript:

[MUSIC]

>> Hey all, Marty here,

and we are back with another Unmute episode.

Today we have our good friend Lucy back,

and she's going to be talking with us about

a lady and all of that fun stuff.

So Lucy, how are you doing?

>> I'm great. I'm excited.

This is going to be fun.

>> So what are we going to be talking about today?

Today we are going to talk about the Echo Show and what you can do with it.

Awesome. Sounds great. So take it away.

Okay. So there are quite a few things you can do with this device that you can't do with the other

lady A devices. And the reason is that it has a screen, a camera, and a screen reader built into it

called voice view. And that's for those of us who are blind, who can't see what's on the screen.

And so we can enable that and have it read to us what's on the screen.

So the the you call it the screen view.

Is that what you called it?

What did the screen reader was?

What was it called?

Voice View.

Voice View.

And that's the screen reader, correct?

Yep.

Awesome.

OK, cool.

All right.

So in a little bit, I will attempt

to demonstrate some of the cool things I've

learned about the device.

But we all know how demonstrations go

when we want them to go well.

Yeah, definitely.

Good luck.

Yeah, I know, I'm just saying. So first, let me just talk a little bit about what this device is.

It's obviously an Amazon Echo device, and it's also called Alexa, or as I like to call them

in my other shows, I do Lady A. So.

Now, these come in different sized screens, is that correct?

Yep.

• Yep.

• So you could get a, you know, depending on your needs,

you can get different size screens, right?

• Yeah, let me, yeah,

I'll talk about that in just a second.

So like I said, there are two features

that distinguish this.

And one is that it has a screen and a camera

and this allows you to perform quite a few things

that you can't do on the other Echo devices.

For example, you can access YouTube videos,

You can watch Netflix and Hulu if you have those accounts

or Amazon Prime Video if you are a Prime member.

And you can also do what is called show and tell.

And it will identify products by holding it up to the camera

and reading the barcodes.

And you can even call into Zoom meetings with this device.

However, this is kind of difficult

and I've only had minimal success with it.

The other feature that distinguishes the Echo Show from the other Echo devices