Covi is an Alexa-enabled Echo rival with a whole lot of glow

If Alexa is to become our AI overlord (which sci-fi dictates is an inevitability), she might as well do so in domestic style. If the towering black cylinder of the Echo isn’t your thing, try Senic’s Covi (€179, already funded on Kickstarter): an aluminium base topped with a tapered tube of sand-blasted glass, it plays nice with Alexa – which means connecting to all kinds of kit around your home. Better still, it’s open source, so you can while away the days until the apocalypse by setting it up with IFTT, Sonos, HomeKit and more. It does lighting better than Echo, too, thanks to four built-in LEDs which adjust their light cycles to your daily routine.