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Amazon's Echo: a $200, Multi-Function, Audio-Centric Device

Posted by timothy on from the jarvis-is-on-the-other-line-with-eliza dept.

An anonymous reader writes Amazon today quietly unveiled a new product dubbed Amazon Echo. The $200 device appears to be a voice-activated wireless speaker that can answer your questions, offer updates on what's going in the world, and of course play music. Echo is currently available for purchase via an invite-only system. If you have Amazon Prime, however, you can get it for $100. I've put in a request for one; hopefully we'll get a hands-on look at the Echo soon. It looks useful and interesting for random searches, and for controlling devices, but one small speaker (interesting driver arrangement notwithstanding) doesn't bode well for "fill[ing] any room with immersive sound," as Amazon's promo materials claim.

4 of 129 comments (clear)

  1. One of the features is "always on" by mi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Connected to the cloud so it's always getting smarter

    Suppose, you are disciplining your child, or singing in the shower, or having a tender moment with your spouse... The device listens — and is connected to the cloud "getting smarter".

    Will it start offering suggestions? Will it start reminding us to wash hands — if it hears flushing, but not running water in the sink? Will it call police upon detecting "domestic violence" — and wouldn't Amazon some day be sued for not doing so?

    The Big Brother we were warned about nearly 100 years ago, does not necessarily need to be entirely for monitoring — the watching interface could also deliver weather reports and other useful information.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  2. Looks like it might make a good speakerphone by rwa2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you actually scroll down the page a http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo you'll see it actually has two speakers, a "woofer" and a tweeter.

    More interesting is the array of 7 mics. Should be possible to get some good positional audio capture and noise reduction that way.

    I picked up an el-cheapo bluetooth speaker/mic a while ago, and it works decently enough. I can see people paying 10x more for a "premium" version of something like http://www.amazon.com/Wireless... I suppose... "Real" speakerphones for conference rooms with good NC and AEC are pretty expensive.

  3. Voice-only might work by iamacat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It could be that losing screen is as essential for voice interface as losing keyboard and stylus was for multitouch tablets. Not in a technical sense, but to get both users and developers to embrace new way of interacting and discover what works. I see this working very well with kids, especially if wrapped in a cute toy and an age-appropriate content selection. If nothing else, this device will have terrific accessibility for blind users.

    If only NSA didn't spoil the fun by displaying complete disregard for law and common sense! Now people will never trust the hotword detection and assume it can be overridden from remote to listen all the time.

  4. Re:Play it safe by tlhIngan · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Go to http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/ AFFILIATE DELETED directly instead of trusting that URL above. While the URL above may be safe, we don't need to be teaching people to click on just any link if it's on a trusted source.

    I see what you did there... (when you get a "ref=" part in an Amazon URL, it means it's an affiliate link.)

    Nice cheap way to earn a few extra bucks by using your own affiliate link, I see, all in the guise of "web surfing safety".