The Amazon Echo was the one of the darlings of the online retailer's record-breaking holiday season, so it was only a matter of time before a competitor popped out something similar. That competitor will be LG with its SmartThinQ hub, which looks very similar to the Echo and includes a large speaker for streaming music. But LG's device will focus on the connected home--monitoring various sensors and monitoring and controlling smart home appliances--where the Echo is more of a personal digital assistant. To that end, the SmartThinQ will support the Z-Wave, ZigBee, and Bluetooth protocols, as well as Wi-Fi and the AllJoyn Internet of Things platform. Also unlike the Echo, LG's SmartThinQ will have a 3.5-inch LCD on its angled top, which will display notifications from connected devices as well as reminders from personal calendars.

The SmartThinQ ecosystem is also adding wall outlets and lightbulbs. LG announced that its SmartThinQ home automation hub will now work with Amazon's Alexa personal assistant. In addition, LG is unveiling a bunch of new connected products, including lightbulbs, wall plugs, and motion sensors. LG's announcement comes on the heels of another report of Alexa integration from a major PC manufacturer: Citing an executive at Lenovo, CNET reported on Friday that Amazon is in talks with the Chinese-owned company to add the Alexa virtual assistant to its computers and other devices. Lenovo is the world's largest maker of PCs.

When LG launched its SmartThinQ hub at CES this year, you couldn't help but notice that it was a dead ringer for Amazon's Echo but, well, dumber. That's because the device could play music and control LG SmartThinQ appliances, but wouldn't obey your voice commands like an Echo. However, LG has announced that that it will join Amazon rather than fighting it by adding support for the Echo's Alexa voice assistant. Amazon recently opened Alexa up to third-party companies, but the SmartThinQ hub will get a limited set of features to start with, according to CNET. While it will listen to your commands, let you play music and schedule events on a calendar, it won't control lights, thermostats or other smart home devices like the Echo. That's a bit of an odd shortcoming, considering that the SmartThinQ hub is part of LG's SmartThinQ appliance family, so it's specifically designed for smart home devices.