Nucleus Life calls itself the "Anywhere Intercom" and from the web site and some information supplied by the company, it looks impressive. The tablet also looks to be the first product made by a third party that includes the Amazon Alexa voice control language.

Aimed to be almost an almost no effort, single touch communications and information retrieval device that works room to room, it actually works "room to any room" anywhere, as a room can be down the street, across town, the country or even around the world. Nucleus life reminds me of the Jetson's videophone or a desktop version of the Dick Tracy wristwatch as it allows simple and easy communications with a lot of other functionality that's as simple as a touch of a button. 

What's more, apps for iOS and Android devices exist to. This means simple and easy direct to home communications to any "room's" Nucleus Life tablet. With a technical potential limit of 128 Nucleus devices connected, the company told me that Nucleus is designed to accommodate 20 comfortably. 

The Nucleus uses Alexa, Amazon's cloud-based voice service, to play music, get the news & weather, control smart devices and more. It also connects Amazon Prime Music, iHeartRadio and TuneIn via Alexa, and with Alexa it can control dozens of compatible smart home products through the Alexa app. Currently though, Nucleus does not support Spotify, Pandora (because of licensing issues), nor does it manage the Belkin WeMo and Philips Hue but since it supports Alexa, and Alexa supports IFTTT the latter two can likely be worked around.

The Nucleus requires that it's connected to the Internet either via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable. You can even connect to the 'net using a mobile device that's become a personal hotspot as long as it's producing a strong signal. This means families partially on vacation, a working parent on the road, or with kids away at camp can stay connected the same way they are used to talking at home.

 

While I have not yet had the opportunity to test the Nucleus, I am impressed with the concept, simplicity, approach and it's capabilities. Given  I had this same feeling about the Echo, and became a first round beta tester, I'm as excited at what the Nucleus Life can be.