Amazon Launches Dash Wand With Alexa, Basically Free For Prime Members

Amazon has announced the latest addition to its ever growing family of devices which can take advantage of its Alexa personal assistant, with an updated version of its Dash Wand now also carrying the software.

The Dash Wand was previously available, but with the addition of new Alexa capabilities it has now progressed from a cool way of ordering things into an extension of the smart home.

Available for Amazon Prime customers in the United States, and basically for free (more on that later), the updated Dash Wand with Alexa connects to a user’s account and allows them to add products to their shopping cart by scanning their bar codes. Users will have to check out via the website or mobile apps, but all of the hard work of getting products that far is taken care of by the newly updated Dash Wand.

Where the additional functionality comes into play is the new Alexa integration. Just like Alexa-powered speakers, the Dash Wand can be asked questions and respond as appropriate, and it can also be used to control home automation functionality for anything that is connected via the required protocols.

Anyone who thinks that the Dash Wand is the missing piece of the puzzle for their connected life can order one for $20 from Amazon, with the company offering the same amount back as free credit against your first order. This makes the Dash Wand effectively free, just like the standard Dash buttons. That’s a good deal no matter how you slice it, and could well be an excellent way of getting Alexa into your home without having to splash out on an Echo or Echo Dot device.

Amazon’s moves to make ordering anything and everything from its web store as easy as possible have become the thing of legend, and the updated Dash Wand is just another example of the company removing barriers that may have prevented orders being placed in the past.

Buy: Dash Wand With Alexa from Amazon: $20 | Free credit cash-back after first order: $20

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