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Amazon announces Echo, a stand alone Siri like device.

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outunderthestars said:
It does seem odd to announce a product and then refuse to sell it to people.
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They're probably rolling it out slowly to iron out bugs before a wide release. Doesn't change the fact that I'd like it for $100 instead of $200.

Hell, I've even been promoting it in the undergraduate course I teach.
 
ZedIndyLil said:
My guess is that it's going to journalists/bloggers or to people with big social media presences first, to spread the word that way. Hey Amazon, my 37 Twitter followers aren't enough for you?!?
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Maybe so, but that dude who did the video above has like no videos (but a fantastic voice omg).

It does seem odd to announce a product and then refuse to sell it to people.
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OneplusOne.

But seriously, I bet manufacturing is just getting going.
 
It's probably nothing to do with manufacturing, and everything to do with stress testing their back end service slowly until they are confident they can handle wide release.
 
Looked as good as expected. As said earlier in the thread, I can see the desire to have the always on Google box. With phones there are extra steps, crappy speakers, battery life concerns, etc.
Always on inconspicuous device that also doubles as a simple bluetooth speaker for cheaper than many bluetooth speakers... Yeah good deal to me unless it absolutely sounds like shit.

Hopefully they eventually add integration to 3rd party services. Not exactly sure I'm gonna move to do lists and shit to whatever prime offers
 
My first thought was, this is fucking stupid. But then the amount of stupid questions I am asked at home by various members in my family could make this device a God-send.
 
I just received mine today. I initially thought it was somewhat lame but needed a Bluetooth speaker and received an invite.

I think Amazon has hit gold with this device. I positioned it in our kitchen. It also come with a remote that easily attachs to any metal surface.

I think this is a steal for Prime members.
 
The Teachinator said:
I just received mine today. I initially thought it was somewhat lame but needed a Bluetooth speaker and received an invite.

I think Amazon has hit gold with this device. I positioned it in our kitchen. It also come with a remote that easily attachs to any metal surface.

I think this is a steal for Prime members.
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I just got an invite. Any more detailed impressions? I'm also really interested in the speaker aspect. Is it good? Do the voice commands work well? What do you find to be the most currently limited factor?
 
I really hope MS does this with cortana on XB1. I don't need a standalone speaker I would be more than happy to this kind of thing with my tv and speakers.
 
Somnid said:
I just got an invite. Any more detailed impressions? I'm also really interested in the speaker aspect. Is it good? Do the voice commands work well? What do you find the most currently limited factor?
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I have a pretty high end audio setup(Ascend Sierras) so I know what great sound is. For a $100 the sound is fantastic. I'm not familiar with other Bluetooth speaker offerings but it's impressive. Alexa's voice is quite impressive as she sounds like she's a person standing in the room it's pretty great.

I can see this being the next big product category as opposed to say smart watches for tech companies. Amazon has really out done themselves.

The voice commands are slightly limited but work better than either Siri or Google. I have no experience with Cortana.

I guess the limiting factor for me is that it doesn't have a way to control my Nest thermostat or Hue bulbs. I would expect a device like this to work to integrate that.

The build quality is also impressive. It's very heavy and dense feeling. The top of it adjusts the volume and has a really smooth and solid feel upon adjustment.
 
Ol No Bones said:
I really hope MS does this with cortana on XB1. I don't need a standalone speaker I would be more than happy to this kind of thing with my tv and speakers.
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Given it's ability I think it currently makes he most sense in a studio apartment or kitche of a larger home. Being able to have multiples would be great too. This could really sink Sonos ship.
 
The Teachinator said:
I have a pretty high end audio setup(Ascend Sierras) so I know what great sound is. For a $100 the sound is fantastic. I'm not familiar with other Bluetooth speaker offerings but it's impressive. Alexa's voice is quite impressive as she sounds like she's a person standing in the room it's pretty great.

I can see this being the next big product category as opposed to say smart watches for tech companies. Amazon has really out done themselves.

The voice commands are slightly limited but work better than either Siri or Google. I have no experience with Cortana.

I guess the limiting factor for me is that it doesn't have a way to control my Nest thermostat or Hue bulbs. I would expect a device like this to work to integrate that.

The build quality is also impressive. It's very heavy and dense feeling. The top of it adjusts the volume and has a really smooth and solid feel upon adjustment.
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This all sounds fantastic. I really hope I get an invite soon...
 
Future said:
Can't believe all the hate haha. Corny video but if it works anywhere close to as well as that then they might have something. At minimum its a bluetooth speaker so if sound quality is decent Id try this thing

Problem with siri and Google now oddly enough is that they aren't consistently available enough to use often. My phone is closest to me while out.... Where I am least likely to use it. At home phone is often sitting somewhere not exactly where I need it if I were to use it.

An always plugged in speaker that stands alone and can be placed nicely around the house is definitely a good idea.
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I actually didn't see this thread until after I got my Echo this morning and it's amazing how much hate there is in this thread. The device is amazing IMO. I was hesitant based on my horrible experiences with voice recognition. Everything from my car to my phone to my consoles has the worst time understanding what I am saying, but so far Echo has recognized every command I've given it today. People who think they have this on their phone are mistaken, not only is the sound excellent compared to a phone but the voice quality and recognition are far superior, at least in my experience. Not to mention, I don't know anyone who walks around with their phone in their hand asking it questions while in the house. This is a hands free experience you can use while you are at the fridge, on the sofa, or even on the can without having to pull out a phone. Or with the remote I can use it anywhere in the house and have the info sent directly to my tablet.

Watching the video makes it seem all to easy and staged, but that's been my exact experience so far. For $100 this thing is a steal, and will get used constantly. I've already used it for lists, timers, spell check, and even a NeoGAF wiki lookup for the hell of it, which it found first time, no yelling, no repeating like I usually have to do with these things. My only worry with this thing at this point is that it's so easy to use that I'll end up buying a bunch of stuff through it without even thinking about it. Well, there's that and the fact I can't change the activation name to anything other than Alexa or Amazon. It would also be nice to be able to have this integrated with my tv so I could just tell it to put on a movie or show through voice commands.

Yeah, it has the new car smell and that might taint my current view of it, but if this device performs as flawless in the future as it has today I think Amazon has a winner on it's hands and I'm happy as hell I got an invite.
 
WHOO-HOO I just got mine today! Excited to see if it lives up to expectations...........actually I am just really looking forward to setting timers for my tea in the morning!
 
Thanks for the inpressions this far guys.
I cannot believe how natural her voice sounds in that last video. Seriously cool stuff.
 
I got mine for $100 and consider it a bargain but I am too lazy to make playlists and for some reason all the music I used to have in my cloud account didn't transfer to the new layer of cloud music


/end vague rant
 
A part of me is bitterly jealous that some GAFers got it before me, but luckily it's a small part :P Definitely curious in reading more impressions here.
 
iOS app released: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id944011620?mt=8

I've spent about 2 weeks with mine now. I'll probably have a detailed write up sometime.

The short of it is that $100 is the right price but it's a bit limited for $200. The voice recognition is amazing but the functions it does with them are a lot more limited even versus other voice assistants but quite handy. As a speaker it's probably on par with other $100 ones.
 
Somnid said:
Not a whole lot to hack. Most of the work is not done on the device itself. It's just a matter of Amazon getting some hardware partners.
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That is the long term hope, that they just straight up integrate with other systems or other systems offer a bridge. I intentionally put hack in quotes because all the voice processing is cloud based but it will be connected to your wifi network and has bluetooth. So, getting it to send any commands outbound would be the trick. I would have to imagine they have plans to do that. Would be great to be able to give voice commands to a logitech smart hub or Insteon devices.
 
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