As smartphones have become more prevalent, people have become used to having all of their information and entertainment with them 24/7. That growth has sparked a surge in portable wireless speakers. I always found these wireless speakers to be a bit too “single use”. If I’m going to haul around a device, I prefer to have it able to do more than just one thing. The iLive Voice Activated Amazon Alexa Portable Wireless Fabric Speaker is just such a device.

What is it?

The iLive Voice Activated Amazon Alexa Portable Wireless Fabric Speaker is a wireless speaker that implements Amazon Alexa and several other streaming services to provide a very well rounded listening experience. The rechargeable battery allows for portability at home or on-the-go.

What’s in the box?

• Concierge Speaker
• Micro-USB to USB cable
• 3.5mm Audio cable
• User’s Guide

Design and features

One of the main features of this speaker is that it can connect to your the internet via WiFi. The free iLive app is then used to control the device over WiFi instead of using Bluetooth, which provides for much more range than Bluetooth.

The iLive Voice Activated Amazon Alexa Portable Wireless Fabric Speaker can also play music from your phone music library and also has a 3.5mm auxiliary audio input jack that can play audio from just about any source.

If you are away from home or don’t have access to WiFi, the speaker can connect to your devices via Bluetooth.

The iLive Voice Activated Amazon Alexa Portable Wireless Fabric Speaker looks and feels like a quality product. It features a nice tweed speaker grill over much of the speaker, indicator LED’s and ring, as well as well understood rubberized buttons and a non-slip foam base.

The full feature list is well rounded:

• Wireless speaker
• Voice-activated Amazon Alexa
• Bluetooth wireless
• Built-in Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct & multi-room play
• Multi-user capable
• Aux in (3.5mm audio input)
• Stream from iHeartRadio, TIDAL, or audio stored directly on your device
• Built-in microphone
• Micro-USB port for battery recharge
• Play/pause/pairing button
• On/off switch
• Digital volume control
• LED light ring
• LED function indicator
• Charge indicator
• Wireless range: Bluetooth – 33 feet, Wi-Fi – 98 feet
• Cloth speaker grill
• DC battery power: built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery
• Battery life using WiFi: ~1-2 hours at 50% volume
• Battery life using Bluetooth: ~5 hours at 50% volume

The Amazon Alexa service is voice controlled, and all of the other services are controlled through the iLive app on your smartphone, however, Amazon Alexa does play the music on your phone.

As a software developer, I’m pretty particular when it comes to apps. If there’s one thing I can do that would be finding bugs and user interface discrepancies in apps. I’ve been writing commercial software for over 20 years so I have seen my share of bad software. This is where the iLive app really impressed me. Starting from the step-by-step setup all the way through to the main operation of the app, the iLive app was easy to use and understand.

Perhaps one of the most intriguing features of this speaker is the ability to pair up to 6 of these speakers together and have them all play simultaneously and synchronized. However, when they are paired only the primary speaker can be used to control Amazon Alexa. To add or pair more speakers you simply slide left to reveal the Device List tab, then tap the plus icon and follow the on-screen prompts, just like setting up a device for the first time.

Once the device is added it can be controlled separately, or you can simply drag the device in the list onto another device to pair it. Once it is paired you can select which speaker is the left channel, right channel, or have each speaker play the same. If you don’t remember how to do this, simple tap the “How to switch between solo and multi mode?” text and you’ll get an instruction screen.

I really like the fact that the iLive app also has the ability to update the firmware in the speaker – wirelessly. Normally most devices require you to use a USB connection with a desktop computer to update the firmware.

Initially, Amazon Alexa had an almost unbearable 8-second delay in providing answers or responding, which was quite a bit more than other Amazon Alexa devices, but an update for the iLive speaker firmware fixed that so it’s now only about 2 seconds or less which is right on par with Amazon’s own devices.

Verbal requests to Amazon Alexa are handled seamlessly, muting what ever audio is playing while Alexa responds to your requests.

Another thing that really impressed me was that the specifications state 1 to 2 hours of battery life on WiFi, but I found that it operated much longer than that. For example, after four and half  hours of streaming music and podcasts via WiFi at 50% volume the app showed that the battery level was still at 64% – wow!

What I like

• Excellent Printed Quick Start Manual
• Surprisingly good smartphone app
• Very nice FAQ guide
• Rechargeable battery, I can carry the speaker to another room with me and not have to pause music or miss what I’m listening to on live radio.
• Longer than advertised battery life.
• Built-in services within the iLive App: Amazon Alexa, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, TIDAL, plus all of the music on your phone.
• You can search for stuff in the other services (like TuneIn) while your previous audio continues to play.
• Responsive customer support. I contacted iLive with a question in the late afternoon about the different models and received an e-mail response in less than 20 hours.
• The Bluetooth mode is extremely useful for playing audio through the speaker while watching video on my phone. I often find myself in a room other than my office watching and listening to a video while doing something else and the phone speaker is not loud enough. This speaker is definitely loud enough.

What needs to be improved

• Although not a big issue, it would be nice if there was a desktop version of the app.
• Audiophiles may not like the quality of the sound on the device. For me, it sounds good enough, although it could use a little more bass. It’s extremely good for listening to podcasts and talk radio.
• There’s a device tab in the app, but there’s no indicator that it’s there. Swiping left reveals the Device List, which shows all of your devices (speakers) and for each one you can see what’s playing, pause, play, pause all, play all, and access the settings for that device as well as view the battery level. If you have multiple devices, this is where you can select the device then go to the services list and choose audio to play on it.

Final thoughts

I’ve seen many devices in my time that were great on the hardware side but severely lacking on the software side of things. This iLive speaker excels at providing a great app that makes operating the device simply a joy.

Price: $65.00
Where to buy: iLive Electronics and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by iLive Electronics.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Alexa, Bluetooth speaker

iLive Voice Activated Amazon Alexa Portable Wireless Fabric Speaker Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 9, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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Give me a speaker, a Bluetooth or wifi connection, throw in a dollop of Amazon Alexa’s brains and witty personality and top that off with a pinch of Spotify or Amazon Music and it looks like a recipe for sheer gadget bliss.  The great thing about this recipe is that all the ingredients are accessible through the Fabriq Chorus Smart Speaker. Let’s have a look-see. 

In the Box (See pic below)

1 Chorus speaker
1 Charging dock
1 Cable for charging with USB to wall adapter

Set up

The set up was pretty simple for both wifi and Bluetooth. After you plug in the unit (it does come precharged, but why not charge it more?) and download the app from either the Apple Store or Google Play, you’ll go through the setup process which is guided by the Fabriq app.

One thing to keep in mind is that you need to make sure you are connecting to the same network that your phone is connected to.  I know that seems painfully obvious, but you could run into problems if you have two networks in your home like I do.

After the device is powered on, the ring around the bottom lights up like the pic below and blinks white and plays a little tune. This white light lets you know it’s either connected to wifi, or it’s ready to be connected (the device is pictured here off the charging dock). After the initial setup, whenever it is turned on, it will still blink, but after a couple of seconds, it says, “connected” so you know you are ready to rock.

The next step is locating the “pair” button that is hidden under the secret plastic door on the back of the device (see photo below). This is the button you will use to connect to Bluetooth or a wifi connection. If your phone is connected to a wifi network, the speaker will try and connect to it, so if you want to use Bluetooth, you need to turn off the wifi connection on your phone and press the pair button again. Note: If you use the speaker with a Bluetooth connection and you arrive home again and wish to use it on the wifi network, you must repair the device using the app. Don’t worry, it’s a very quick process, but it’s good to know.  I didn’t realize this and I just kept pressing the pair button over and over and it wouldn’t pair.  It tells you to see the app for help though (here’s your sign!), and when you do, the app walks you through connection again.

After pairing, you can begin to explore the wonderfulness of the speaker. I haven’t personally tried, but the directions say that you can pair up to 10 Fabriq speakers and use them together, or control them individually….that would be some pretty cool surround sound.

A great thing about this speaker, in my opinion, is once you set it up to use on wifi, you don’t have to keep referring to the app to control it. The lighted ring around the bottom can tell you what you need to know and there are volume control buttons on the back.  I already discussed the white light, the blue light (above pic) is when you’ve enabled the Bluetooth setting…go figure! There is a red light also and that is what tells you the battery is about to die. This happens typically after about 5-6 hours after being off the charger, depending on what the speaker is being used for. I feel like my face is in my phone enough and being able to use this speaker easily, by just speaking to it and observing what color the rings are has been great!

What can it do?

If you already have an Amazon Alexa app on your phone, you simply need to connect Fabriq to the account. If you don’t have it, you need to get it in order to use the Amazon Alexa functions.  Once you do that, you can say the wake word, “Alexa” and then any command that you would tell your Amazon Echo.  The one problem that I have found with this device is that she doesn’t “hear” as well as my Echo, and I find myself having to raise my voice, or my other devices in other rooms will pick up my command first. In order to combat this, I changed the wake word on my Echo to “Amazon” and my Echo Dot is now called “Echo”.  The Fabriq speaker gets to have the name “Alexa” because I went into the Alexa app and the option to change the wake word was not available…but it’s okay with me because I think she looks more like an Alexa anyway. So now, just like with my children, I end up saying all of their names before I get to the one I want. It’s pretty comical actually…Alexa, Echo…. Amazon!

The above pic allows you see how the unit sets on the charger and what the connectors look like on the bottom. It doesn’t have to click, lock, or be set down in any certain way in order to charge or to be removed from the dock.

The sound quality of this little speaker is actually comparable to the Amazon Echo, and much better sounding than the Dot. I was hoping to add this speaker to my group I named “Everywhere” so that I could have my Amazon Music play from all three devices simultaneously instead of just the two, however, that option is not available.  So, if you want to connect this speaker to others to play together for a multi-room effect, you’ll just have to get more Fabriq speakers!

Final Thoughts

I’ve been pretty impressed by this speaker and it’s sound quality, it’s portability and frankly, I think its got a pretty cool look.  I have enjoyed being able to take it to the tennis court for some motivational hype music while my daughter and I hit the ball around and to the beach for some relaxing music as we sunbathe.  I found the setup to be simple, and once I renamed my other Alexa devices, there was harmony in the house once again, and everyone was able to “listen” without interrupting each other.  I don’t think that this Fabriq Smart Speaker hears as well as the Amazon Echo speakers, but that is a pretty high bar because Echo speakers hear it all! Lastly, it looks as if Elsa the cat has accepted the Fabriq speaker into our home….and that is not something you see every day!

Source: The sample for this review was provided by Fabriq. Please visit www.thefabriq.com for more information and go to Amazon to order.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Alexa, Bluetooth speaker

FABRIQ Chorus Portable Smart Speaker with Amazon Alexa review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 14, 2017 at 11:00 am.

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