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Amazon Unveils Echo, a Speaker With a Siri-Like Voice Assistant

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Amazon today unveiled a new product called Echo, a cylindrical piece of hardware with a built-in Siri-style voice assistant that's able to answer a variety of requests and perform functions like playing music.

The cloud-connected Echo is entirely controlled by voice and will wake to answer a question when the word "Alexa" is spoken. Like Siri, it can answer questions like "What time is it?" "What's the weather like?" and more, plus it's able to complete tasks like setting an alarm, playing music, or creating a shopping list.

According to Amazon, Echo uses far-field voice recognition capabilities with seven microphones to detect a request from anywhere in a room, and its downward-firing speakers "can fill any room with immersive sound." Echo lets users have access to Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio and TuneIn, and with built-in Bluetooth, Echo is also able to play music from a phone or tablet.

As it's connected to the cloud and Amazon Web Services, Echo is designed to learn and gain functionality over time, and an accompanying Amazon Echo app (Android/Fire OS only) or web interface is what lets Echo create alarms, music playlists, shopping lists, and more.

amazonecho-800x438.jpg
Echo is priced at $99 for Amazon Prime members and $199 for non-Prime members, but currently users must request an invitation from Amazon to be allowed to purchase the device.

Article Link: Amazon Unveils Echo, a Speaker With a Siri-Like Voice Assistant
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/11/06/amazon-unveils-echo-speaker/
Z

Z400Racer37

macrumors 6502a
Feb 7, 2011
711
1,664
Just in case you... don't have your cell phone on you, and are in/on exactly the right room/floor?

#MassMarketAppeal
 
D

donster28

macrumors 68000
Oct 5, 2006
1,722
805
Great White North
This is a good idea. I've been longing to have a multifunction clock radio for a long time.

Somehow, it's still very convenient to have a stand alone unit other than synching or docking my iPhone every time.
 
S

Sonmi451

Suspended
Aug 28, 2014
792
385
Tesla
I think this could be interesting 10 years from now, but i think it's going to be too slow, and limited in what it can do.

Integration is key. If it can companies on board to integrate it with daily activities somehow - turning tv on/off, lights, air conditioning etc, I think it could be neat.

I never got in the habit of using Siri, and I don't really see this as getting me used to using a personal assistant.
 
M

MasterRyu2011

macrumors 65816
Aug 22, 2014
1,064
359
way too big??? It will be nice if you can just name it anything. Alexa sounds like an evil AI...
 
bbeagle

bbeagle

macrumors 68040
Oct 19, 2010
3,541
2,981
Buffalo, NY
"Looks like a trash can!"

"What if I had a daughter named 'Alexa' - wouldn't work for me!"

Those are the comments we would get if this was an Apple product. Will we get those here?
 
ghsDUDE

ghsDUDE

macrumors 68030
May 25, 2010
2,921
740
"Alexa, can you tell us how to make Amazon profitable?"
- Jeff Bezos
 
F

FieldingMellish

Suspended
Jun 20, 2010
2,440
3,108
I dislike voice mail with voice prompts. No way am I going to buy a product that depends upon voice. I remember calling into Apple support and this Siri-like voice asked me for my serial number. Whoa, was that an immediate fail.
 
A

AppleSOS

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2014
39
2
Ohio
So.... It's basically the functionality of "Hey Siri" for an extra $100 and requiring an entirely separate piece of hardware... Why? They could have just put it into their Fire Phones(Ha).
 
Col4bin

Col4bin

macrumors 68000
Oct 2, 2011
1,892
1,583
El Segundo
Why not just build this functionality into Amazon's Kindle Fire phone and tablets, surely they're selling very well….. Ohhh no, you say? :cool:
 
G

GeneralChang

macrumors 68000
Dec 2, 2013
1,676
1,514
Another piece of neat-sounding hardware that Amazon is selling at cost to Prime subscribers. Have they made any money on devices they sell? I know that's not their main business and that most of their devices are intended to drive customers to their digital content and shopping service, but if I were an Amazon investor, I'd be a little bugged that they continue to sell these things so cheap.

Of course, as a consumer, I'm totally fine with having cheap options to everything, even if I'd never buy a device from Amazon (I don't like having every interaction with my device turn into an ad).
 
Small White Car

Small White Car

macrumors G4
Aug 29, 2006
10,966
1,463
Washington DC
Fascinating device.

In the good old "personal computer" days Apple was content to sit at the top with their top-of-the-line desktops and laptops and that was good for them.

As the mobile world took over they've been content to do pretty much the same thing with phones and tablets. (Yes, with older models coming down in price, but by and large the approach is the same.)

But this kind of stuff is going to be the next big thing and I'm curious if Apple is going to make this jump or not. Might we see a future where households don't have five $1,000 Apple products but instead fifty $100 Apple products? I don't know if they have that in them.

Their home kit stuff for iOS shows they're getting ready, but it does seem like Apple is going to let other companies take the lead on hardware and Apple will be content to be the platform.

While we never know the future we've at least had a sense of what Apple was trying to be in the past. I feel like that's not so clear anymore. Will be interesting to find out.
 
H

HarryKeogh

macrumors 6502a
Jun 25, 2008
609
863
I called the FBI on that family. I have a bad feeling there are dozens of bodies in their basement. And possibly a spaceship in their backyard.
 
M

MacVault

macrumors 65816
Jun 10, 2002
1,144
59
Planet Earth
1) Can one turn off the listening feature so Amazon isn't eavesdropping 24/7 on my household?
2) No native iOS app? Major FAILLLLL :mad:
 
Donoban

Donoban

macrumors 65816
Sep 7, 2013
1,218
440
bbeagle said:
"Looks like a trash can!"

"What if I had a daughter named 'Alexa' - wouldn't work for me!"

Those are the comments we would get if this was an Apple product. Will we get those here?
Click to expand...

You can set your own activation name, well that's what the guy said as he was setting it up.
 
F

FactVsOpinion

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2012
321
543
Juli,

Alexa is the "chosen wake word" in the video. Presumably there is a list of options or you can choose anything.
 
W

WJKramer

macrumors 6502
Jun 8, 2008
422
39
WTF is this!? "Well the Fire phone didn't work, on to the next dumb idea" - said Amazon.
 
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