Why You Can Trust CNET Use your voice to get great deals, and more cheap coffee
From Home Deals: You can get some great deals on smart home and related stuff in a way you might not have thought of -- your voice.
The Amazon Echo Dot, just $40 right now.
Welcome to Home Deals, where we pick out the best deals on things you need for your home, garden and beyond. Like our cousin, the Cheapskate, we'll give you a regular selection of smoking-hot deals, but we'll cover things like smart home tech, washing machines, wireless security cameras and anything else your home or garden requires.
Sometimes the best way to get a great deal is simply to ask for it. That's the case when shipping in person, but it can also work when shopping with more high tech means. Take this deal from Amazon : a WeMo smart plug for $19.99. That's $10 off the current price.
However, you can't get this deal through the link above. Instead, you have to order it through Alexa, Amazon's voice-driven assistant.
If you're an Amazon Prime member and have an Amazon Echo , all you need to do is to say, "Alexa, order a WeMo smart plug," and you'll get one shipped to you for $19.99. This deal is part of Amazon's Voice Shopping program, an attempt to take over the world by getting you to use Alexa for everything, including buying stuff.
The Nespresso VertuoLine Espresso and Coffee maker, on sale for $159.99.
The retailer is offering a number of good deals to tempt you into impulse buying, though, including an August Smart Lock for $138.99 (a $79 saving) or a pack of six LED lights for $14.91, $5 off the usual price. It's also running a competition that is offering five $1,000 Amazon gift cards, which you can enter by asking, "Alexa, what are your deals?" or through the site.
If you don't have an Alexa-enabled device yet, the cheapest way onto this bandwagon is the Amazon Echo Dot. For $40 (usually $50), this tiny device brings Alexa into your home, and is cheap enough that you can have one in every room. It also works as a wireless speaker, so it's an easy way to get Alexa into every room.
A couple of weeks ago, I featured a number of great coffee deals. It seems that coffee is a hot item right now, as the deals keep coming like refills at your local diner.
Amazon has a very attractive deal on the Nespresso VertuoLine Coffee and Espresso maker, above. $159.99 gets you both the capsule coffee maker and the optional milk frother. This combination usually goes for nearly $250, so it's a great deal. It is a slightly older model, but it still makes great coffee, and helps keep George Clooney and Danny Devito in work.
If you prefer drip coffee, this low-end Hamilton Beach 12-cup coffee maker is also on sale at Amazon for $32.36, $8 off the usual $40 price.