Is this the coolest Amazon Alexa speaker yet?

[sincity]

Amazon's Echo speaker range is startlingly good at picking up and understanding natural voice commands – and, with the Echo Dot at least, to do it in an affordable package too. 

But it's hard to get too excited about the simple black speaker enclosures used to house those smarts. Understated, sure, but exciting? Not so much.

Those looking to match the futuristic voice assistant with some fittingly sci-fi design may want to check out the C by GE Sol. A table lamp that doubles up as a Bluetooth Alexa speaker, it's like a Tron disc for your living room.

Smart lighting

The lamp features all the Alexa Skills you'd expect, from commanding your Spotify account to getting travel updates. But it works in a responsive LED ring to highlight when it's listening, along with a secondary outer light ring to give a glow to its surroundings.

Originally announced back in December, GE Sol is only now taking pre-orders for the C. An early bird discount sees you able to pick up the C for $160 (about £125 / AU$215), but you'll pay $200 (£155 / AU$270) once it hits shops.

The promo video above shows a prototype model. There were some kinks to iron out here – being able to see the individual LEDs in the ring cheapens the look somewhat, for starters. But if that's been ironed out, it's definitely an Echo alternative to look out for, while you wait for this year's inevitable Black Friday deals blowout.

• The best Amazon Echo Alexa skills and how to install them

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/digital-home/~4/x1al7TPrXZ0

[markhascole]

yes this is the coolest 1.