How To Turn Off The Echo Show’s Screen At Night (Or When You’re Away)

The brightness slider adaptive brightness and sunrise effect options on an Echo Show 8

The Echo Show is a fun and useful device, but there are times when you want to dim or turn off the screens in your home. Thankfully this is often straightforward to do, and the gist is: You can turn off the Echo Show screen by using the “Alexa, turn off the screen” voice command … Read more

Can The Nest Doorbell & Cameras Turn On Your Lights?

A veranda/porch with an overhead light turned on.

A fairly desired (and standard) feature of smart doorbells and cameras is that they notify another service about motion, so that automation routines can run – for example, turning a smart light on when motion is detected. This is possible with many smart doorbells and cameras, and is often as easy as integrating your device … Read more

Using Amazon Echo As A Baby Monitor (But Is It Worth It?)

Two Echo devices (a full size Echo and an Echo Dot), along with a 'Love You' baby bear.

So you’ve just found out that you’re expecting a little one? Congratulations, that’s awesome! Speaking as a fairly new dad myself, I’m sure that clearly the first question you’ll be asking yourself is “How can I hook-up two Echos to function as a DIY baby monitor“? Since this is obviously an important topic, I thought … Read more

Will Ring Doorbells And Cameras Work Without WiFi or The Internet?

Ring screenshot showing a device being disconnected from the internet

More than ever, our world is heavily dependent on the internet. It’s to the point that most smart home devices manufactured today rely on Wi-Fi and the internet in order to operate properly.  Ring devices are one such example of smart devices that rely heavily on Wi-Fi and the internet. While there are a couple … Read more

Echo Podcast & Audio Book Support: Can You Speed Up/Slow Them Down?

Podcast on Amazon Music with play speed

In this digital age, it’s becoming more common for people to listen to audiobooks as opposed to reading actual physical books. Couple with that the fact that most people are incredibly busy, and taking time to sit down and read is becoming less commonplace.  Podcasts, with the wide variety of topics they cover, have also … Read more

Can You Screen Mirror To Your Amazon Echo Show?

Screen Mirroring Option in iPad Menu

The Echo Show has proved useful time and again, and in so many ways. It’s a step up from the classic Echo Dot as well as other versions of the Echo. This is because the Show’s screen adds a world of possibilities for controlling the modern smart home. Of course, you can watch videos on … Read more

Echo Show Song Lyrics Not Showing Or Being Really Buggy

A song playing on an Amazon Echo Show with the Lyrics button at the bottom

Amazon Echo Show is a great piece of smart tech when it comes to listening to your favorite tunes, but what should you do if it’s being not-so-great when it comes to displaying lyrics? Lyrics might not be showing on your Amazon Echo Show because of a software bug that you can fix by resetting … Read more

Live View on the Echo Show: Which Camera Has the Best Support?

Echo Show waiting for Wyze

Amazon’s Echo Show is a great tool for the smart home. Being able to see your camera footage live on the Show is just one perk of having one. By connecting it to your smart cameras, you can see exactly what’s going on with each of your cameras. However, each brand of smart camera works … Read more