Alexa is a cloud-based voice service that is always getting smarter—she answers questions, plays music, controls lights and thermostats, gives you sports scores, reads Audible and Kindle books, and more

Amazon Echo is a revolutionary device designed entirely around your voice—priced at just 99 €, it’s always ready, hands-free, and fast—just ask Alexa and get answers instantly

Put an Echo Dot in every room—connect it to an external speaker or use it as a standalone device to enjoy all the capabilities of Alexa for just 59 €

Stylish, compact Echo Spot has a screen—Alexa can show you news, weather, smart home camera feeds, video calls, Alexa skills, and more for 129 €

Boulanger will offer Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Spot for sale at more than 140 stores, online, and via its mobile app

Enjoy special introductory pricing of 50% off Echo devices—get an Echo Dot for just 29,99 €, Echo for only 49,99 €, and Echo Spot for 64,99 €

Luxembourg—5 June, 2018—Amazon today announced that Alexa, the brain that powers the Echo family of devices, is coming to France, along with three Alexa-enabled devices: Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Spot. Customers can pre-order devices beginning today at www.amazon.fr/echo. Echo and Echo Dot will begin shipping the week of 11 June, with Echo Spot to follow next month.

Customers can enjoy special introductory pricing of 50% off Echo devices—get an Echo Dot for just 29,99 €, Echo for only 49,99 €, and Echo Spot for 64,99 €.

Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Spot are voice-controlled speakers designed entirely around your voice—they are always ready, hands-free, and fast. Alexa is the brain behind Echo—since she runs in the cloud, Alexa is always getting smarter. Just ask, and Alexa will answer questions, play music, read the news, control lights and thermostats, read Audible and Kindle books, and much more. With far-field voice control, you can do all this from across the room using your voice.

Echo devices are the most popular voice-controlled speakers in the world—tens of millions of Echo devices were sold in 2017 alone, and to date customers have left over 150,000 5-star reviews. Alexa arrives in France with an all-new experience built from the ground up for French customers, including a brand new French voice, French language support, local knowledge, hundreds of local skills built by French developers, and more.

“Tens of millions of customers around the world are already using Alexa, and today we’re excited to introduce Alexa to our customers in France,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President, Amazon Devices International. “In France, Alexa is French. We’ve built an entirely new experience from the ground up that honours the French language and culture, allowing customers to just ask to get music, weather, news, information, and more. And with Echo Spot, Alexa can also show you things—you can see the weather, watch video news briefings, view security camera feeds, make video calls, and more.”

Customers around the world have left more than 150,000 5-star reviews for Alexa and Echo—here’s what they’re saying:

  • “I love, love, love Alexa. I use it every single day. I can't even count how many people I have recommended Echo to.”
  • “Echo is easy to setup and easy to use. I love it. Five stars out of five.”
  • “I absolutely LOVE my Amazon Echo. One of those bits of modern technology that quickly becomes indispensable. I cannot believe the variety of things I use it for.”

Amazon Echo—The Hands-Free, Always Ready Speaker for just 99 €
Echo is a hands-free, voice-controlled speaker that allows you to access Alexa from anywhere in the room with far-field voice control. It uses on-device software to detect the wake word, “Alexa.” When Echo detects the wake word, the device’s light ring turns blue and begins streaming the request to the cloud where Alexa processes the request. Since Alexa is built in the cloud and leverages Amazon Web Services, the Voice Service is always getting smarter and adding more functionality.

2nd Generation Far-Field Voice Recognition with Beam-Forming Technology
Amazon Echo has an array of seven microphones that use beam-forming technology and noise cancellation so it can clearly hear you from across the room. This advanced beam-forming technology combines the signals from the individual microphones to suppress noise, reverberation, the music currently playing, and even competing speech, to make sure Alexa clearly hears your request, even when in a noisy room.

Omnidirectional, Room-Filling Sound
Amazon Echo has been fine-tuned to deliver crisp vocals with dynamic bass response. Its 63mm down-firing woofer, dedicated tweeter, Dolby processing, and 360° omnidirectional audio deliver crisp vocals and dynamic bass throughout the room. Echo can stream music directly from popular music services such as Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, Deezer, Spotify Premium, and streaming radio from NRJ, RTL2, FIP, Skyrock, Virgin, and more. Echo is also Bluetooth-enabled so you can also stream music directly from your phone or tablet.

Designed to Fit Into Your Home
Amazon Echo is designed to fit into any room of your home. Pick from a variety of shells to fit into your home’s décor—choices include sandstone, heather grey, and charcoal fabrics or oak and walnut finishes.

Echo Dot—Add Alexa to Any Room for Only 59 €
Echo Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that’s powered by Alexa and uses the same far-field voice recognition as Echo. Echo Dot has a sleek and compact design, comes in either black or white, and is priced affordably so you can put an Echo Dot in every room. Use the built-in speaker to talk with Alexa and listen to music, or directly connect speakers you already own through Bluetooth or a 3.5mm stereo cable.

Echo Spot—Stylish, Compact with the Added Convenience of a Screen for 129 €

Available in black or white, the newest edition to the Echo family, Echo Spot, delivers everything customers love about Alexa with the added convenience of a circular screen so that Alexa can show you things. The size and viewing angle of the screen make Echo Spot ideal for use on a desk or bedside table so you can turn your compatible lights on and off, get the weather, check the time, wake up to music alarms, and more.

With the convenience of the display, you can also watch video flash briefings from sources including BFMTV, Franceinfo, LCI, and Brut or book a ride with Uber. You will also be able to use Echo Spot in the kitchen to set and view timers, call friends and family with an Echo device or the Alexa App, see shopping and to do lists, and more.

Alexa—the Brain Behind Amazon Echo
Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Spot are powered by Alexa. Built in the cloud, and with tens of thousands of third party developers around the world creating skills, Alexa is always getting smarter. With Alexa, you can use just your voice to:

Hear the News
Alexa can read the news and give customised updates based on your preferences. You can choose your favourite outlets to provide including Le Figaro, 20 minutes, Le Parisien, Les Echos, RTL, and France Inter or get live results from your favourite football team with L’Equipe and RMC Sports. Just say “Alexa, what’s the news?” or “Alexa, read my flash briefing.”

Get the Weather
Ask Alexa about local, national, and international weather forecasts. Just ask, “Alexa, will it rain tomorrow?”, “Alexa, what’s the weather in Paris?” or “Alexa, what’s the weather in Lyon this weekend?”

Play Music
Alexa offers a seamless, hands-free music experience with premier music services including Amazon Music Unlimited, Prime Music, Deezer, and Spotify Premium. Control volume and playback for millions of songs by saying “Alexa, turn it up” or “Alexa, skip this song.” If you aren’t sure who an artist is, just say “Alexa, which song is this?”

Prime Music, launched today in France, allows Prime members to access more than two million songs offline and online on mobile devices, tablets, Fire TV, web browsers, and Alexa-enabled devices, ad-free and at no additional cost.

Listen to Multi-Room Music
You can group multiple Echo devices for synchronised music streaming in every room. Simply use the Alexa App to create groups with two or more Echo devices by naming the group, such as “living room.” Once you’ve created the group, say “Alexa, play music in the living room.”

Control your Smart Home
With Alexa you can turn up the thermostat before getting out of bed, or dim the lights from the couch to watch a movie—all using just your voice. Alexa works with a variety of Wi-Fi enabled products including lights, thermostats, smart plugs, and switches from brands including Philips Hue, Netatmo, Legrand, TP-Link, Nokia Health, and Tado. You will also be able to use the added convenience of the Echo Spot’s screen to view your live camera feed from the nursery, or see who is at the front door, using smart home skills and devices from Arlo, Logitech, Ring, Blink, and more.

In addition, you can use the Routines feature, which allows you to automate a series of customizable actions using a single voice command of your choice. For example, say, “Alexa, good night,” and Alexa will dim the lights and turn off the TV. You can also create Routines based on the time of day—for example, you can create a Routine that has Alexa turn on the kitchen lights, start the kettle, and read the weather forecast at 6 a.m. every weekday and at 9 a.m. every Saturday and Sunday.

Enjoy Hands-free Calling and Messaging
With Echo, you can easily talk hands-free to anyone with a supported Echo device or the Alexa App—no tapping or searching required. Your contacts will see your number when they receive the call so they know who is calling. Additionally, you can send messages via voice or text to anyone with a supported Echo device or the Alexa App. Just say “Alexa, call papa,” or “Alexa, send a message to Jules.”

Let your household know when dinner is ready, ask someone for help with a task, or remind the kids to go to sleep—without having to raise your voice. With the Drop In feature enabled for room-to-room calling, quickly connect with compatible Echo devices in your home. Just say “Alexa, drop in on the kitchen.”

Ask Questions
Ask Alexa all kinds of questions, including those about famous people, dates, places, calculations, conversions, spelling, local information, and much more. For example, “Alexa, who is the President of France?”, “Alexa, how long is the Seine?” or “Alexa, what is cassoulet?” Or, ask Alexa for a poem by saying “Alexa, read a poem.”

Follow your Favourite Sports
Ask Alexa for live scores or scores for completed games, find out when your favourite team plays their next game, and more. Ask “Alexa, when is the next Ligue 1 match?”, “Alexa, who won the Tour de France last year?” “Alexa, when is the next Roland Garros match?”

Set Timers and Alarms
Set up multiple alarms and timers with your voice, including setting repeating alarms. Just say “Alexa, wake me up at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning”, “Alexa, how much time is left on my timer?”, or “Alexa, set a repeating alarm for Tuesday at 9 a.m.”

Create Shopping and To-Do Lists
Alexa can help you stay organised by creating and managing your To-Do and Shopping lists. Just say “Alexa, add fleur de sel to my Shopping list,” or “Alexa, put ‘take out the recycling bin’ on my To-Do list.”

Listen to Audiobooks
Alexa can read Audible. Echo device owners can try Audible on Alexa and listen to five top selling audio books without a subscription. Try non-fiction with, “La liberté de ma mère” by Jean-Michel Aphatie, romance novel “Après tout” by Jojo Moyes, explore a thriller with “Un avion sans elle” by Michel Bussi, contemporary fiction via “Vers la beauté” by David Foenkinos or a children’s title “Les Malheurs de Sophie” by Jean-Pierre Kerloc’h and read by Sophie Marceau. Just ask Alexa to read the respective title to get started.

Customers can also listen to Kindle books that support text-to-speech via Alexa, including books from Kindle Owners' Lending Library, or Kindle Unlimited.

Echo Spatial Perception (ESP)
If you have multiple Echo devices within hearing distance, Amazon’s ESP technology intelligently calculates the clarity of your voice and determines which Echo is closest and should respond to the request—instantly. This feature is smart—performance gets better over time, so ESP will continuously improve as you use Echo. In multi-Echo households, ESP resolves the problem of two Echo devices answering you at the same time.

Third Party Skills
Developers can use the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) to build skills. With over 200 skills available in France, including skills developed by local brands, you can book a restaurant from La Fourchette, find local businesses with Pages Jaunes, get recipe suggestions from Marmiton, order a pizza from Domino’s, listen to the latest TV program from Téléloisirs, ask what’s in the theatre this week with Allociné, play with Akinator, listen to short stories for kids with Quelle Histoire, get your train status with OUI.scnf, check flight information with Air France, and inquire about your energy bill with Sowee. For more information on Alexa skills, visit www.amazon.fr/skills.

Additional Alexa-Enabled Devices
The Alexa Voice Service (AVS) enables developers to integrate Alexa directly into their products, bringing the convenience of voice control to any connected device. Companies including Boulanger, Bose, Harman Kardon, Sonos, Sowee, Ultimate Ears, Netgem, Archos, Jabra, Haier, and more plan to release Alexa-enabled AVS products in France, enabling customers to access a growing number of Alexa features, smart home integrations, and skills on their favourite devices. For more information on Alexa-enabled products available in France, visit https://www.amazon.fr/alexa-integre.

Pricing and Availability
Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Spot are available for pre-order beginning today www.amazon.fr/echo, www.amazon.fr/echodot, and www.amazon.fr/echospot. Echo and Echo Dot will begin shipping 13 June with the Echo Spot to follow next month.

Boulanger will offer Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Spot for sale at more than 140 stores, online, and via its mobile app, with online pre-order also starting today. Beginning 13 June, Echo and Echo Dot will also be available offline followed by the Echo Spot in July.

Customers can enjoy special introductory pricing of 50% off Echo devices—get an Echo Dot for just 29,99 €, Echo for only 49,99 €, and Echo Spot for 64,99 €.

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