Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

With the Securifi Almond 3, its associated Alexa skills, even your router can be smart

securifi almond 3 bundle lifestyle head
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Back in May, Securifi, the company known for creating the world’s first touchscreen router, announced the release of its Almond 3 Smart Home Wi-Fi system. Integrated with Amazon Echo’s Alexa, the Almond 3 allows multiple units to come together to create a broad Wi-Fi network that can cover an entire home or office. With its dual‐band AC1200 Wi-Fi, a ZigBee radio, and a programmable siren for security, the product is intended to provide wireless internet for the true 21st-century household. And now, there’s a new Almond Smart Home Skill for Alexa that allows users to control their lights, switches, dimmers, and thermostats using nothing but their voice.

The latest skill lets Alexa easily discover compatible smart devices that are connected to Almond. From there, users can control much of their smart home simply by speaking to Amazon’s virtual assistant. Whether you want Alexa to turn on your patio lights or dim your bedroom lights by 60 percent, Almond’s new integration has you covered. Moreover, this update means that you can now tell Alexa that your Almond needs to block your kids’ access to Wi-Fi, or enable your guest network.

Recommended Videos

“The bar for what defines a ‘home Wi‐Fi system’ continues to rise, and the Almond 3 Smart Home Wi‐Fi System is one of the most comprehensive products on the market today,” said Rammohan Malasani, CEO of Securifi. “We are bringing a complete Wi‐Fi solution to the home with a robust feature set that is, most importantly, easy to setup and manage.”

Related Offer: See more from Securifi here

The real draw of the smart router itself is its ability to provide a single Wi-Fi network to every nook and cranny of your home. Promising faster streaming, gaming, Web surfing, video chatting, and more, each Almond 3 is capable of covering 1,300 square feet. And if you connect a number of these devices together, you’ll create an even stronger mesh network that Securifi claims will do away with dead zones in your home.

The Almond 3 also features a built-in smart home automation hub. This takes advantage of the router’s ZigBee technology, allowing the router to communicate with your light bulbs, door and window sensors, thermostats, locks, and other smart devices, simply by pairing these devices to your Almond via its free companion app. The app also gives users a control center from which they can view and control all Wi-Fi-supported and smart home products. And of course, with its Alexa integration, users can control hundreds of Almond-compatible devices using nothing more than their voice and their Amazon Echo (or any other Alexa-enabled device).

“We’re thrilled that Securifi has expanded its integration with Alexa,” said Amazon Alexa Director Rob Pulciani. “Now our connected home customers can control multiple devices, sound systems, and thermostats with Almond products using just their voice. Having a connected home with Alexa has never been easier.”

Currently available for pre-order at the introductory price of $120 per unit, you can buy a three-pack bundle for $300 (significantly less than its retail price of $400). Securifi expects these devices to ship in June.

Pre-order on Amazon

Article originally published in May. Updated on 09-22-2016 to reflect news of new Amazon Alexa skills. 

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Got a song you love on your Echo? Alexa users can now share it with friends
Amazon Echo Studio Alexa Smart Speaker

How often are you listening to the radio when a song comes on and you think, "My best friend would love this?" Thanks to Alexa's new music sharing feature, you don't have to try to remember the name of the song. If you're listening to music through Alexa and hear a song you know someone would like, just say "Hey Alexa, share this song with ____."

Provide Alexa with the name of a contact and she will send the song to that person. They can then listen to the music through their own Echo device or through the Alexa app and send a reaction to let you know what they thought of it.

Read more
Alexa can estimate how much electricity smart home devices consume
An Amazon Echo on a table in between a few books and a coffee mug.

A smart home is convenient, but is it energy-efficient? Alexa can now tell you. Today, Amazon rolled out a new feature called the Energy Dashboard. It shows the amount of energy consumed by Alexa-compatible smart home devices. Just open up the Alexa app to see how much energy is used by smart home devices connected to your Alexa system, including smart plugs, switches, water heaters, thermostats, and TVs.

The Energy Dashboard shows not only daily, but also weekly and monthly trends. It's not the same as having an energy monitor installed in your home, but it's definitely a step in the right direction to giving Alexa even more functionality than before.

Read more
It’s time to give Siri, Alexa, and other smart home devices a feminist reboot
siri alexa feminist reboot voice assistant feminism

A few years ago, when people figured out how to make Apple’s voice assistant swear, reporters were quick to blame the tech. “Siri’s got a bad mouth;” she gave a “shockingly inappropriate response” or a “randy robo response” to anyone who asked for a second definition of “mother.” When the voice assistant answers sassily to a request to divide zero by zero, we determine that she’s run amok and we’re one step away from Terminator times.

It’s easy to see why we anthropomorphize Siri and her A.I. brethren. She has a name and, apparently, a gender. But faulting a device -- not those who program it -- is a symptom of a much larger problem, according to Dr. Yolande Strengers, an associate professor, Department of Human Centred Computing at Monash University, and Dr. Jenny Kennedy, a postdoctoral research fellow at RMIT University, Melbourne. Their new book, Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot, explores the harmful stereotypes that lie behind Alexa’s upbeat answers and Siri’s snark.

Read more