Amazon Echo

JUST ANNOUNCED

November 6, 2014

Amazon Echo is not only a new product but a new category of product. That is something that always catches the eye of the Tech Toy Wizard here at Tech Toy Playground.

We haven't seen one yet, the actual shipping date is not determined as of press time, but we did receive an "offer to be invited" to purchase one of the first units at half the expected retail price of $199.

WHAT DOES IT DO?

Amazon describes it this way:

Information, music, news, weather, and more instantly

Controlled by your voice for hands-free convenience

Voice recognition hears you from across the room

Connected to the cloud so it's always getting smarter

So in other words, it is a stand-alone "brain" (think HAL from the movie 2001) that you simply talk to from anywhere in the room ... it has a very sophisticated and sensitive microphone system ... and it responds with either information or action.  Things like:

- What time is it?
- What is the capitol of Uruguay?
- Set a timer for 8 minutes
- Add eggs to my shopping list
- Play a Barry Manilow song for me

Another way to put it, Echo is a lot like Siri, except it is always on and always listening for you and anyone else in the room.

Echo is WIFI connected and Cloud-enabled so, as Amazon says, it's always getting smarter and adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.

YOU MEAN IT'S ALWAYS LISTENING TO ME?

Um, well the idea is that you're supposed to say a user-set password first before it responds, but yes, since it is listening for the password it IS always listening to you. That is kind of a first for consumer electronics, and to some people maybe just a little too scary for them. Amazon doesn't talk about who can listen to those voices and sounds in your room that are continually being sent to The Cloud. Going back to HAL, what does Echo think about what you're saying? What if it senses danger, will Amazon feel obligated to take emergency action? What if you don't want Echo to hear you and you dress up in your space suits in the launch bay?  Will Echo resort to reading your lips?  Can Echo sing "Daisy, Daisy"?

Let's clarify that. As we learn more about Echo we have already discovered that there is a switch (with a light) that let's you turn the microphone off. I'm looking forward to testing that first-hand.

TECHIE STUFF:

Echo is a cylinder 9.25" tall and 3.27" in diameter. It has a 2.5" woofer and a 2" tweeter and 7 microphones. It plugs in using a wall transformer.

Tech Toy Playground will keep you updated as we learn more, and will do a full hands-on once we get to play with a working unit.


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