Amazon Built An Echo Simulator You Can Use In the Browser (venturebeat.com)

Jordan Novet, writing for VentureBeat: Amazon today announced the availability of Echosim.io, a website that simulates the capabilities of the Amazon Echo speaker, which employs Amazon's Alexa voice assistant technology. The thing about Alexa is that many people who don't own the Echo -- or its smaller siblings, the Tap and the Echo Dot -- haven't been able to see what Alexa is capable of. The new tool -- which was inspired by the Alexa in the Browser application that Nexmo developer advocate Sam Machin came up with during a hackathon last year -- solves that problem. All you have to do is head to the website, sign in with your Amazon credentials, and start holding your mouse down over the microphone button to see what Alexa can do. It's nifty for anyone to use, but it's also potentially useful to developers. "Developers worldwide can use Echosim to experience Alexa," Amazon Alexa developer marketing manager Glenn Cameron wrote in a blog post.Interesting move, especially for people who either do not want to -- or can't -- purchase the device (unavailability being one reason). You will need to login with your Amazon account in order to test Echosim.

Comments

No nerds in Slashdot crowd any more... :(

[Pulzar]

Readers here used to be interested in nerdy toys and discussed how they worked, and how to hack them and get the most of out them... Now it's a bunch of people with tinfoil hats complaining about Amazon is trying to track them and feed their data to the cops of Jeff Bezos.

Aren't there some nerds in the crowd that wanted to play with an Echo but didn't want to buy one just to try it out, and are happy that they can now see what it does? Doesn't anyone appreciate the engineering challenge of this?