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Amazon announces Echo, a dedicated, Siri-like speaker system for quick information

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkOCeAtKHIc

Amazon today announced a new hardware product called Echo. It’s essentially a speaker unit dedicated to being a voice-control system. It kind of sounds like Siri but in a speaker for a single room instead of in your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.

You can set alarms, control music, ask about the weather, search the web, ask questions, and access local news. It streams content via Bluetooth and WiFi, and connects to the Fire Phone (if you have one, lol), iOS via the browser, Android, and desktop computers via the web. Instead of “Hey Siri,” you say “Alexa” to start speaking the device. You’ll need a Fire OS/Android device to take full advantage, but music should work fine via iOS.

The whole concept is very futuristic, and it’s unclear how beneficial this will be to people with voice-controlled phones. But, hey, this comes from the developers of a faux-3D phone and delivery drones, so this is not completely out of left field. The Echo is $99 for Amazon Prime users, $199 for everyone else, and (for some reason) you need an invitation to receive the honor to buy one of these untested things.

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Comments

  1. hmurchison - 9 years ago

    No one is going to pay $199 for this. It’s a stealthy way of Amazon getting a lot of voice data for future Kindle/Fire devices.

  2. totencough - 9 years ago

    This is terrible. It’s exactly like Amazon’s Fire phone videos where they show features that have been on the iPhone for years and act like they are COMPLETELY new and never-before-seen.

    • It’s almost as bad as Apple’s iPhone videos where they show features that have been on Jailbroken or Android phones for years and act like they are COMPLETELY new and never-before-seen.

    • herb02135go - 9 years ago

      Oh, you mean like Apple announcing features that Samsung phones already have?

      • 89p13 - 9 years ago

        Always the Troll, huh, Herb!

      • herb02135go - 9 years ago

        Always the messenger of the truth.

        And you know it.

  3. Stephen Hall - 9 years ago

    For those moments when you can’t remember how to spell cantaloupe.

  4. Eric Haislar - 9 years ago

    Amazon bring you things you never asked for.

  5. daving313 - 9 years ago

    This is the ultimate kitchen device. Where in a house of kids and making a messy dinner – iPads and iPhones stay far away.

    The $199 price is insane for it – but at $99, take my credit card now!

  6. herb02135go - 9 years ago

    This sucks.
    My dog’s name is Alexa.

  7. zorn85 - 9 years ago

    I may be in the minority here but I think this is really cool. Definitely more useful than just an average bluetooth speaker. I never use Siri only because its annoying to have to fish out my phone, then hold down the button, then talk into the phone. Most stuff I would ask just isn’t important enough for all that hassle. But if there was something that was always available just by a few words, I would see myself using it. First world problems and such, I know. But it’s true. This seems very easy and always available which is pretty interesting.

  8. It seems nearly no one paid attention to the term “Alexa” being chosen by the family in the video. You set your own trigger word for the Echo.

  9. hmurchison - 9 years ago

    If Amazon is smart they’ll begin to integrate this Echo with services like IFTTT and other IoT. The utility of Echo becomes more clear when I can trigger actions based on the voice. Echo needs to be talking to Philips Hue and iLumi teams pronto.

  10. Michael Andrei Trimm - 9 years ago

    To be honest, I find Siri tedious at simple questions – it never really READS you back a legit response, it makes you start tapping around. The use case of a utility while cooking is useful, the timer functionality is, especially when your hands are tied up is nice. It has a use case and its certainly designed for a yuppie….

  11. Chris Born (@pelted) - 9 years ago

    I just stumbled on this from Amazon’s site a bit ago, and I’m really liking this idea. I use Siri every day, and have since almost day one. Setting reminders, timers, and other such things around the house is just natural for me. Hey Siri has not really worked well, and this is really something I wanted to see from Apple in an AppleTV update. As a Prime customer this will very likely make it on my buy when available list. Whatever their motives are, and I will pay attention to privacy issues with it, but simply this is something I have wanted in a simple form factor. It may not be for everyone, but if works as good as the video shows I will use this everyday.

  12. leifashley - 9 years ago

    So… it does what my 7yo does with his iPhone and a wrist watch?

    Now if I could say “Echo, clean my room” or “Echo, brew more coffee”…