Tag: echo
Amazon’s ‘Hey Disney’ voice assistant is coming to your home Echo devices
![An Amazon Echo device outfitted with ears to resemble Mickey Mouse.](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/05SJe6I78SaSHZKhtMQPYNv/hero-image.png)
My kids are obsessed with taking to home voice assistants. Not a day goes by where you won’t hear either my seven-year-old or three-year-old ask Alexa or Google what the weather currently is, to play their favorite songs, or the answer to some random question about wildlife. I’m sure many parents can relate.
Now, imagine if instead of Alexa answering your kids’ questions, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and nearly two dozen Disney characters chimed in. Depending on just how much you love Disney, this will either give you that magical Walt Disney World feel or become the bane of your existence.
At CES 2023, Amazon announced that Disney’s first home voice assistant, Hey Disney, will soon be available on Echo devices in the coming months via the Alexa Skills Store or as part of an Amazon Kids+ subscription. With a simple “Hey Disney!” the voice assistant interacts with kids, parents, and Disney Adults alike in many of the same ways you currently use the Alexa voice assistant, with some additional unique features like Disney Trivia and Star Wars soundscapes to name a few.
Amazon and Disney provided Mashable with a hands-on demo of the home voice assistant at CES, which you can check out in the video below:
We were able to ask Disney basic questions like what the current weather is and have over 20 Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars characters like Genie from Aladdin or Olaf from Frozen respond. During the demo, we also heard an interactive story from Cars’ Mater and set a 30-second timer with the help of Donald Duck. The main voice assistant is called Disney Magical Companion and it leads the query before throwing it to a random Disney character.
After experiencing the demo, I thought the most interesting feature wasn’t the voice assistant itself but how it’s going to interact with Disney’s MagicBand+.
In case you haven’t been to a Disney theme park in the past decade, the MagicBand is basically a watch-sized wearable device that enables you to quickly enter the parks, skip the lines with Disney’s new FastPass system called Genie+, and more. It’s basically your big ticket to Disneyland and Disney World. There’s a premium version of the wearable called MagicBand+ that does all of the same things but includes interactive capabilities. For example, the MagicBand+ will light up when you pass certain statues at Magic Kingdom and when you tap the device, a voice of the character from the statue will interact with you.
One major issue with the MagicBands, however, is that outside the parks…well, they’re useless. That soon won’t be the case. In our demo, when that timer set by Donald Duck went off, the connected MagicBand+ devices all lit up. According to Disney, the company is planning future integrations such as being able to play Disney Trivia with Hey Disney and multiple players tapping on their MagicBand+ in order to buzz in and be the first to answer.
![Disney MagicBand+](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/05SJe6I78SaSHZKhtMQPYNv/images-1.fill.size_2000x1502.v1673295608.jpg)
Credit: Matt Binder / Mashable
Hey Disney actually first rolled out late last year at select Walt Disney World resorts, like Disney’s Polynesian Village. (According to Disney, the company is aiming to eventually roll the voice assistant out to every guest staying in a Disneyland or Disney World resort.) However, the voice assistant found at the resorts is a bit different than the upcoming home version as it’s focused on answering park questions for Disney guests. And until this week, the only place you could try Hey Disney out was at these select Disney resorts.
While not a Disney Adult, I am a bit of sucker for Disney. I grew up on the classics, read Marvel comics as a kid, and was once obsessed with Star Wars. I now have two children who love the characters, movies, and shows and I very much enjoyed how much fun they had on their first trip to Disney World this past summer. Yet, while the idea is rather cool, there are some areas where Hey Disney is rather lacking in execution.
For example, users can’t pick a character they want to regularly interact with. It’s completely random and certain characters are only programmed to respond to certain prompts. Disney explained to me that the company didn’t want characters answering questions that wouldn’t make sense for them to answer. I get it, but being able to select a specific character for all prompts would make it much more fun in my opinion. Also, if a question is out of Disney’s purview entirely, Alexa will take over for Hey Disney (also understandable, yet disappointing). So, for better or for worse, users can’t ask Goofy to provide them with medical advice.
Park guests who have encountered Hey Disney at the resorts have voiced some critiques and concerns about the device. Some have been disappointed that the “main” Hey Disney voice, the Disney Magical Companion, isn’t a beloved Disney character but a brand new personality.
Other Disney guests have had worries about potential privacy issues, a concern often shared about voice assistant technology in general. Amazon tells Mashable that the resort version of Hey Disney doesn’t record guests’ information and voice recordings are not saved as users never personally sign in to the device. The upcoming at-home version will be similar to how Alexa works today, where customers have control of their privacy settings and voice recordings can be deleted at any time. The device only begins recording when users activate the voice assistant by saying “Hey Disney” or “Alexa” and the device lights up. Amazon also says users’ personal information is never shared with Disney.
This Amazon-Disney partnership is the result of a new Amazon solution announced just two years ago, Alexa Custom Assistant. This allows companies to replace Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant with their own branded assistant on Alexa-powered devices. So, in case Disney isn’t quite your thing, maybe another brand you are a fan of will soon answer your questions instead of Alexa.
Have you played… Tiny Echo?
![](https://assets2.rockpapershotgun.com/tiny_echo.jpg/BROK/resize/1920x1920%3E/format/jpg/quality/80/tiny_echo.jpg)
Tiny Echo by Shelter developers Might and Delight is a real hidden gem. It’s very in line with what the studio is known for – creating beautiful handcrafted worlds complete with stories about nature – but with Tiny Echo, instead of making an animal game featuring a group of cute critters trying to survive the brutal wilderness (and that most likely made you cry), the Stockholm team went completely left-field and created a bite-sized ethereal puzzler that deals with ghosts and spirits.
Playing as a one-eyed sprite named Emi, your job is to deliver post to different creatures and spirits that hide within the nooks and crannies of a lush forest. As you join Emi on her rounds, you get to meet the various members of the community as they go about their lives and daily routines in a peaceful, unearthly realm. It’s a point-and-click puzzle adventure but in the breeziest of terms. The focus isn’t really on brain teasers but exploring this strange world and getting to know its spirit folk.
My main reason for hyping up Tiny Echo is that the vibes are immaculate. It’s gorgeous but also eerie, and I’d almost call it spooky, but not in a horror kinda way. With no spoken dialogue or words, Tiny Echo’s world is strange and dreamlike, the crisp sound design and Twin Peaks-esque soundtrack adding a slightly surreal and ethereal feel to everything. There’s also a lot of emphasis on smoke and shadows, which make the entire world seem like it’s about to dissipate with one gust of wind.
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![Amazon Echo Buds with smartphone on kitchen table](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/02DCvRAIB9YaeIKkmjAxAgK/hero-image.jpg)
Save $89.98: Amazon Echo Buds (2nd gen) with Echo Dot (3rd gen) is on sale for $69.99 at Amazon as of Dec. 15. That’s 56% off.
If you’re still on the prowl for the best wireless earbuds, there are plenty of fantastic options beyond AirPods and Apple-adjacent buds.
In fact, Amazon’s less-glitzy Echo Buds are a solid pick that offer active noise cancellation and great audio that you can snag for a much lower price than even the cheapest AirPods. As of Dec. 15, the second-generation Amazon Echo Buds are on sale for $69.99 at Amazon. They’re bundled with a free Amazon Echo Dot (3rd gen) as well, which only sweetens the deal.
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We previously named the Echo Buds our favorite budget pick of 2021, and for good reason. Mashable reporter Alex Perry praised their active noise-canceling ability in his review, which is worth the purchase price alone. They come with thumping bass and decent treble, and most listeners will come away pleased with their audio quality. Their five-hour battery life isn’t particularly impressive, but the charging case gives 15 hours of charge (or three full listening sessions) without having to be plugged in.
The Echo Dot (which you get for free with this deal) is a useful smart speaker that’s small enough to fit wherever you need it. It can help automate smart home commands, play music, let you interact with Alexa, and much more. It has a decently loud speaker as well, which makes it viable for smaller spaces. And with the Echo Buds’ Alexa integration, you can issue commands on the go. That’s smart home synergy at its best.
![Amazon Echo Buds and Echo Dot on white background](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/02DCvRAIB9YaeIKkmjAxAgK/images-1.fill.size_256x256.v1671120891.png)
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Echo Buds (2nd Gen) with Echo Dot (3rd Gen)
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Grab a third-gen Echo Dot for its lowest price ever
![Amazon Echo Dot on shelf next to two books.](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/03SGf7enfDxJ0BH4sL5Aoq5/hero-image.jpg)
SAVE $37.99: The Echo Dot (3rd Gen) with Amazon Basics Smart Color Bulb is on sale for $14.99 at Amazon as of Dec. 14. That’s 71% off, and the lowest price we’ve seen.
Looking for an easy, no-frills way to manage your smart home devices? Pick up one of Amazon’s smart speakers (and an extra smart bulb) for less than $15.
The third-generation Amazon Echo Dot is on sale for $14.99 at Amazon. It comes bundled with a free Amazon Basics smart color bulb as well, making this deal even better. That’s a savings of 71%, or $37.99 off the bundled products, and $12.99 less than buying each item separately. It’s also the lowest price we’ve seen on the third-gen Echo Dot alone.
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The versatile Echo Dot is a small and unobtrusive way to automate smart home commands, interact with Alexa, listen to music, and more. It’s compact enough to stay out of the way, but loud enough to make it a viable audio hub for smaller homes.
With the smart color bulb, you can add some fun lighting to your home for the holidays. It has a brightness of 800 lumens, and you can control it via the Echo Dot. Turn its brightness and color up and down, adjust its rainbow of colors, and have a light show in your own home.
Grab multiple bulbs for a festive holiday scene that you can use your Echo Dot to control without having to use individual light switches. Create a custom lighting schedule that turns on and off automatically, or set the mood with your favorite music and color scenes.
Whatever mood you decide to set at home, you can do it cheaply and effectively with this smart speaker, and for less than the price of takeout.
![Echo Dot (3rd Gen) with Amazon Basics Smart Color Bulb on white background](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/03SGf7enfDxJ0BH4sL5Aoq5/images-1.fill.size_256x256.v1671032952.png)
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Echo Dot (3rd gen) with Amazon Basics smart color bulb
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