November 11, 2016
Shiny New Gadget: The Amazon Echo
With 5-star ratings submitted by over 43 thousand happy customers, the Echo has made itself heard in the market. The Echo is not just new, it’s the first in a new category: “Smart Speakers.”
From The Economist (October 1st, p.65):
“One reason for the rapid adoption is that Amazon has turned Alexa, its digital assistant, into a “platform”: a set of services that other developers can combine to build a “skill”, the equivalent of an app on a smartphone.
More than 3,000 such skills—some created by Amazon, many more by a growing number of third parties—are already available, ranging from simple tasks such as setting an alarm to more complicated ones such as managing a share portfolio.”
Competitors have been racing to catch up; Google Home was released October 4th.
This is definitely something to watch. The Echo can answer questions, read books, play music (of course), and even hear your voice commands from across the room while it is playing music.
We are giving an Echo away as a Door Prize at our party November 17th!
