Amazon Echo starts talking to your thermostat
You can tell Ecobee gear to turn up the heat.
Amazon's voice-guided Echo speaker can serve as everything from an exercise coach to a game machine, but its latest addition could be particularly helpful if you're shivering as you read this. The Echo now offers voice control over thermostats, starting with the Ecobee3 -- you can ask it to set a specific temperature, or give it vague directions to warm things up or cool them down. This won't do much if you have a rival smart thermostat (more support is coming, Amazon says) or are willing to use your phone. Look at it this way, though: if you dread getting out of bed on a cold day, this will let you warm things up without lifting a finger.
