The voice-controlled wireless speaker market is has seen steady expansion over the last few years. Amazon has ensured this by licensing its Alexa voice assistant to OEMs like Logitech. The latest Alexa version was just announced to be included with the new Logitech Ultimate Ear Blast and Megablast 360 degree Bluetooth speakers.
The speakers integrate an array of far-field microphones that enable Alexa to understand the voiced commands. Right now users can control music from Amazon Music, iHeartRadio and TuneIn, and Logitech ensures that support for Pandora and Deezer will come in the future. The speakers need to be permanently connected to the Internet for Alexa to stream the music from the aforementioned services, but they can still be used as regular Bluetooth speakers that can connect to other devices like smartphones. Logitech also offers three months of Amazon Music subscription for free. Apart from playing music, Alexa can order pizza or control smart home devices. Amazon is constantly expanding the list of skills available for Alexa. Currently, the list includes more than 25,000 distinct skills.
Coming from Logitech, the sound quality of the two new wireless speakers is guaranteed to be up there. They also come with waterproof certification and the batteries lasts for 12 h (Blast model) and 16 h (Megablast model). Logitech provides an optional Power Up charging dock that lets the speakers play music while recharging.
The two models can be pre-ordered form the official Ultimaet Ears site. The UE Blast costs US$229.99, while the UE Megablast is priced at US$299.99. The optional Power Up dock can be ordered for US$39.99.
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I first stepped into the wondrous IT&C world when I was around seven years old. I was instantly fascinated by computerized graphics, whether they were from games or 3D applications like 3D Max. I'm also an avid reader of science fiction, an astrophysics aficionado, and a crypto geek. I started writing PC-related articles for Softpedia and a few blogs back in 2006. I joined the Notebookcheck team in the summer of 2017 and am currently a senior tech writer mostly covering processor, GPU, and laptop news.
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > News > News Archive > Newsarchive 2017 10 > Logitech presents the UE Blast and Megablast Bluetooth speakers with Alexa
Bogdan Solca, 2017-10-20 (Update: 2017-10-20)