Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

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

Chad-VI said:
Even if you can turn off the listening feature , how can you be sure that it isn't really listening ? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

View/sniff the wifi data packets coming from it and compare what comes from it in a quiet room, when you are talking and when you ask it to do something.
 
Blakjack said:
Don't know why so many people are trashing this. It's a really cool and common sense idea. Yes, it's SIRI in a tube, but with this, I don't have to find my phone, pick it up, and hold down the home button just to get the number of ounces in a cup when I'm cooking in the kitchen with flour all over my hands.

I would use this like crazy when watching football on Saturdays when I need to know the score of another game I'm not currently watching. Really cool device Amazon. Only question is, is how smart is it really. I myself am going to want it to be pretty smart if I buy it.

I honestly think this is a very Apple idea. But it's not Apple who built it. It's Amazon, therefore, it will have a hard time taking off.
Click to expand...

Exactly. This has finally set us on the path of those talking computers from the sci-fi movies and books. The underlying technology was there, of course, for some time now, but the application of those technologies is crucial(you would expect apple users to know this), and this seems to be the right direction.
 
even if it broke down to a blue tooth speaker only for me it would almost be worth it. I already pay for amazon prime so that cost is a fix. The extra stuff it can do makes it worth it to me.

100 bucks I could see a use for it. I saw that fire stick thing and for 20 bucks it was a worthy gamble. I bought Chrome cast for the same deal as I view the 2 months of netflix as a bonus yet again that was a fixed cost and not paying it for 2 month came from the device.


As for the Echo speaker honestly it looks pretty first gen and it holds some promise. For the tech this could really be promising and it is where the future of things are going. My biggest issue with it over all is it hooks only really into amazon services. If googled offered something you are damn right I would jump on it.
Google I would jump on it as I am pretty deeply invested in that ecosystem with Google music and android devices.
Amazon feels safe to go with as I know at the very least it should keep working with android based devices. Apple I just would not trust so much.
Over all I honestly believe Echo is first gen of the future of this tech. At some point we will be comfortable speaking to smart objects in our house. I foresee at some point I will have a fully wired smart house so to speak.

----------
Blakjack said:
Don't know why so many people are trashing this. It's a really cool and common sense idea. Yes, it's SIRI in a tube, but with this, I don't have to find my phone, pick it up, and hold down the home button just to get the number of ounces in a cup when I'm cooking in the kitchen with flour all over my hands.

I would use this like crazy when watching football on Saturdays when I need to know the score of another game I'm not currently watching. Really cool device Amazon. Only question is, is how smart is it really. I myself am going to want it to be pretty smart if I buy it.

I honestly think this is a very Apple idea. But it's not Apple who built it. It's Amazon, therefore, it will have a hard time taking off.
Click to expand...

yep kind of my view. I find it funny people seem to think that we keep our phones on us all day. I get home and my phone is often times set down on the counter or put in my bed room. I wonder around my apartment, do other things with out my phone with me at all times.
 
Is It Any Good As A Speaker?

gagaliya said:
yeah i will just use it as a bluetooth speaker at $100. All the other fluff is just something extra.
Click to expand...

I kinda thought the same thing at first - maybe it'll be a decent Bluetooth speaker - but frankly without stereo it's kinda a non-starter. You can get really good sounding, smaller, water-resistant, portable Bluetooth speakers from TDK for around the Prime price of this thing, or less. And they have a built-in rechargeable battery.

Likewise, for less than the non-Prime price of Amazon's Echo, Amazon is selling Harman Kardon's Onyx, which sounds fantastic, and also includes a rechargeable battery. And it's stereo, not mono.

I think Echo will be a massive fail, but we'll see.

On the other hand, an Onyx with a microphone and the ability to interact with Siri via "Hey Siri" would be kinda cool...

----------
Blakjack said:
Don't know why so many people are trashing this. Yes, it's SIRI in a tube, but with this, I don't have to find my phone, pick it up, and hold down the home button just to get the number of ounces in a cup when I'm cooking in the kitchen with flour all over my hands.
Click to expand...

Uh, you do realize that the latest version of iOS supports "Hey Siri!", right?

Just say, "Hey Siri!" and start interacting with Siri. No need to find your phone or hold down any buttons.

Echo might have been cool(er) last year, but at this point it's pretty obsolete - a mono Bluetooth speaker with no battery for $200 ain't exactly a great deal.
 
sunspot42 said:
Uh, you do realize that the latest version of iOS supports "Hey Siri!", right?

Just say, "Hey Siri!" and start interacting with Siri. No need to find your phone or hold down any buttons.

Echo might have been cool(er) last year, but at this point it's pretty obsolete - a mono Bluetooth speaker with no battery for $200 ain't exactly a great deal.
Click to expand...


Even with that in play. First your phone has to be powered on and unlocked.
2. It mike is not set up for receiving those commands anywhere in the room. It still requires you having your phone on you. It is not going to respond if it is set up on the other side of the room like the Echo would.
 
I think this is just the beginning for these sort of devices. Imagine when they expand them to consume APIs for external websites that offer services, like:

- Alexa, order some more nappies from Amazon.
- Alexa, add 1kg of Tomatos to my Tesco's order
- Alexa, buy a plane ticket to LA for tonight.
- Alexa, make a reservation at Leo's tonight at 9.
- Alexa, how much cash do I have in my current account?
- Alexa, tell me the headlines from macrumors
- Alexa, order a new iphone 6 32GB.
 
AppleSOS said:
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).
Click to expand...

In case it isn't obvious, you dont need a costly carrier contract.
The one which actually pays for the rest of the iPhone price.
Non contract prices start from $649.

Echo is for home use. Always on. 'Hey Siri' works only when the iPhone's connected to power.
Unless you jailbreak. But the power drain would be annoying.

It's about time we have a smart gadget like this for the home. Echo seems like a good start.
 
subsonix said:
You're wrong.. But I guess it's going to be a waste of time trying to convince you about it. Never mind.
Click to expand...


My company uses this....

AirWatch MDM Agent by AirWatch, LLC
https://appsto.re/us/mKrmu.i

Supposedly they could technically use it to track your location and what apps you install, use, etc. We've been reassured that it's only being used to allow the phone to be remotely wiped in the event of loss or termination of employment, etc.
 
spacerays said:
In case it isn't obvious, you dont need a costly carrier contract.
The one which actually pays for the rest of the iPhone price.
Non contract prices start from $649.

Echo is for home use. Always on. 'Hey Siri' works only when the iPhone's connected to power.
Unless you jailbreak. But the power drain would be annoying.

It's about time we have a smart gadget like this for the home. Echo seems like a good start.
Click to expand...

Regardless if I would ever have use for something like this it does seem a bit different then having your phone set up to hear you well along with you being able to hear your phone. Out of all the stuff people buy I doubt $99 and $199 is all that bad if there is a use for it.

It could likely be more useful for a family then one that is single (computer, phone etc...)

For a home use device I could see some getting use out of it.
 
burne said:
Just try it. Ask her to tell you a joke, of how to hide a body, or to remind you when you leave to take out the trash..
Click to expand...

I did all of that when I first got my iPhone 4S 3 years ago. The novelty wore off within a month. From that point forward, I only used her when it would actually be faster to get her to understand me than for me to just do whatever I want myself.

Setting an alarm takes ~3 touches - swipe up, tap the alarm icon, tap start. It takes about a second to do it all. I can have an alarm set before you've finished telling Siri "Set".

I have found that for calendar entries, she's faster than using the iOS Calendar app. But Fantastical is much faster than Siri or the iOS Calendar app, so I use it instead. About all I do with her is "Call <name>" while driving, and that's not new to Siri. The old voice command system in iOS 3 / my 3GS could handle that, too.
 
I had a chuckle at the caption of "deep bass response" pointing to the 2.5" woofer.

----------
ghsNick said:
"Alexa, can you tell us how to make Amazon profitable?"
- Jeff Bezos
Click to expand...

Amazon doesn't need to be profitable. The investors don't seem to mind.
 
I give Amazon kudos for at least trying to offer something new. To many companies have been resting on their laurels lately.
 
sparky08 said:
I give Amazon kudos for at least trying to offer something new. To many companies have been resting on their laurels lately.
Click to expand...

My first reaction on watching the video was "Ha, I'm surprised Apple didn't do this first." That's a compliment to Amazon. If this device can actually listen and respond across an entire room, that will be a major improvement over anything Siri or Google Now is currently capable of from a phone. It looks very handy. I kinda want to see a self-contained non-cloud option, though. A lot of the functions would be useful without having to look things up on the internet, and storage is cheap anyway.
 
Emailed this to my mom. She was sold on the spot to just use it as a voice activated kitchen timer. At $100 they are going to sell.

Why so much negative feedback? It's weird products like this that eventually turn into something that really works. I'm pretty excited to see voice controlled home automation. Yes, it's like Siri but I would actually like to not be looking at my phone every 5 seconds. Sometimes it's just nice to put the phone down... I just hope it's quick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back