The short USB cable between the car charger and speaker module leaves it hanging in a awkward location. Some people might also prefer a 3.5mm cable with an L-shaped jack, so it sits flush against the AUX input on the front of the stereo. If the USB cable was a bit longer, and perhaps the speaker module had its own sticky magnetic mount, then it would be easier to tuck the speaker module out of sight. While the design is a big improvement over the first Echo Auto, that super-short USB cable is a hassle because it leaves the speaker module hanging awkwardly from the car charger – looking even worse if the 3.5mm cable is snaking to the car stereo’s AUX input. The power adapter features a USB-A port to power the Echo Auto and a USB-C port to power another device, with support for fast charging. Motorola MA1 Wireless Car Adapter: a fiddly but helpful Android Auto enabler (review)Ī 5cm USB cable extends from the other end of the speaker module, which plugs into the supplied 12-volt car power adapter. You can link the speaker module to your car via Bluetooth, or via the 3.5mm audio jack and supplied 60cm audio cable. This module has a tiny built-in speaker which allows Alexa to talk to you during setup, but most of the time she wants to make herself heard via your car stereo. The microphone is on the end of a 90cm cable that runs back to the speaker module. With the microphone attached to the magnetic mount, it’s easy to talk to Alexa and reach the buttons. Plus, it makes it easier to reach the action and mute buttons on the front, which are accompanied by a status light. More choice over where you place the microphone also ensures that Alexa can hear you more clearly. One advantage of the magnetic mount is that it’s easy to detach the microphone and hide it out of sight when you leave the car. Simply stick the mount in a convenient location and then attach the microphone to the magnet.Īlternatively, you can pay a few extra dollars for Amazon to include an air vent mount for the microphone. To assist with this, Amazon provides a tiny mount that is sticky on the back and magnetic on the front. The microphone half of the second-gen Amazon Echo Auto is only the size of your thumb, making it much easier to tuck away somewhere on the dashboard. Amazon has improved on this by splitting the unit into separate pieces for the speaker and microphone. The original palm-sized Amazon Echo Auto was designed to attach to your car’s air vent, but it was a bit cumbersome and looked unsightly. Amazon Echo Auto (2nd gen) first impressions It’s easy to stick the magnetic mount in an a convient location, rather than rely on an air vent mount. You can chat to her while you’re cruising the streets, but her usefulness is limited by the fact that she’s still completely dependent on your phone. We have reached out to Motorola for additional information on this front and will update the article if and when we get an answer.To fill this gap in your life, the Amazon Echo Auto brings Alexa to life in your car. There’s a chance the company is already working on a mobile companion app, but at the same time, Motorola could very well allow for firmware updates to be installed using a connection to a PC via the USB port and a dedicated Win32 application.įor now, however, there’s no way to update the MA1 adapter, so it’ll certainly be interesting to see how Motorola ends up dealing with the bugs that users will undoubtedly come across in the coming weeks and months. On the other hand, we can’t tell for sure if Motorola has other plans in mind regarding new firmware versions. Motorola launched its wireless Android Auto without a companion app on the mobile device, so in theory, the typical way of installing firmware updates isn’t supported. In other words, the device may not get new firmware updates, and in the long term, this could be quite an issue. No software updates?File this in the unconfirmed section, but it looks like the MA1 comes without the support for new software updates.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |