Turn a Raspberry Pi into an Echo-like speaker with this recipe from Amazon

If you'd rather not spend 180 on an Amazon Echo speaker, Amazon will now help you rig up a poor man's version with a Raspberry Pi. As Lifehacker points out, Amazon has posted instructions on Github for connecting a Raspberry Pi to Alexa, the company's virtual assistant software. Although Amazon says that project requires basic programming experience, the instructions are detailed enough that anyone who's good at following directions could probably pull it off. Beyond the 35 Raspberry Pi itself, you'll need a USB microphone ( 2.55 on Amazon), plus a USB keyboard and mouse and an HDMI-equipped monitor for setup. Although some intrepid hackers had figured out how to build Raspberry Pi Alexa setups on their own, the new instructions come straight from Amazon, and are far more in-depth than any tutorials out there already.