Smart Speaker Gets Brain Surgery, Line-Out - Sometimes you find a commercial product that is almost, but not exactly perfect fo... - https://hackaday.com/2025/05/02/smart-speaker-gets-brain-surgery-line-out/ #digitalaudiohacks #musicalhacks #smartspeaker #3.5mmaudio #audiodac

This Potato Virtual Assistant is Fully Baked - There are a number of reasons you might want to build your own smart speaker virtual assi... - https://hackaday.com/2025/04/15/this-potato-virtual-assistant-is-fully-baked/ #artificialintelligence #3dprinterhacks #home-assistant #smartspeaker #raspberrypi #respeaker #portal2 #portal

Can Hackers Bring Jooki Back to Life? - Another day, another Internet-connected gadget that gets abandoned by its creators... - https://hackaday.com/2025/03/30/can-hackers-bring-jooki-back-to-life/ #digitalaudiohacks #obsolescence #smartspeaker #bankruptcy #rootaccess #toyhacks #jooki

I am unplugging my Amazon Echo device for good and switching to the Apple HomePod Mini as my #SmartSpeaker of choice. While #Alexa always recorded some voice, the new Alexa+ privacy policies (starting March 28) were a tipping point for me. You can read more about the recent Alexa changes here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/everything-you-say-to-your-echo-will-be-sent-to-amazon-starting-on-march-28/

After Amazon's news this week,
I feel the need to share this advice from my Privacy Guides article again:

Notify guests if you are
using a smart speaker

If you are using a smart speaker device in your home such as Amazon's Echo (Alexa), Apple's HomePod (Siri), Google's Nest,

Inform your guests about it when they enter your home

These devices have the capacity
to record all conversations, and there has already been instances of accidental privacy invasion reported about this

Even if you don't mind yourself,
offer your guests to UNPLUG your smart speaker while they are visiting you

https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/03/10/the-privacy-of-others/#notify-guests-if-you-are-using-a-smart-speaker

Hey #HomeAssistant gurus, looking for some ideas here. I ditched my Echo devices, and I'm looking to replace them with HA alternatives. Mainly, I just need something Bluetooth- and (preferably) Internet-enabled that I can link Spotify to, and possibly setup a timer, weather service, etc (though those last two aren't as critical).

I've never used HA before, so fire away with any suggestions! Thanks in advance!