While our smartphones may be our most heavily used devices, home assistants are quickly becoming more and more popular. Devices like Amazon's Echo and Google Home bring smart, virtual assistants right into our house or apartment and essentially serve as the epicenter for any home automation setup. Google just recently launched their Home assistant for $129, and today you can currently pick up the Amazon Echo at a very similar price point.
The Echo has officially been around for two years at this point in time, and in honor of its second birthday, Amazon is slashing the price of the device from $179.99 to just $140.39. That comes out to a total savings of $39.60, and although it's still about $20 more expensive than Google Home, the Echo has proved to be one heck of a gadget. The device is constantly getting more and more feature with each day that passes, and some of the most notable inclusions that already exist are Google Calendar, Spotify, WeMo, Phillips Hue, SmartThings, iHeartRadio, and many more.
I got the Echo myself when it was first made available to Prime customers, and I've learned to love the gadget more and more every single day. While Google Home certainly is an enticing option, Amazon's Echo is still more than worth checking out 2 years after its original launch.
Things that are NOT allowed: