Amazon Echo

The Crazy New Interactive Speaker You Ought To Know About

If smart devices talking back to you when asked don't intimidate you and are used to giving voice commands by now, here's a new interactive device that's smart and can sit in a corner of your room. Amazon, the e-commerce giant, has launched a new voice-controlled speaker called Echo that not only lets the users purchase and listen to music available on Amazon, but it goes beyond and does much more. It listens to the user's commands and answers questions about information, news, weather etc. The hands-free device is connected to the cloud and can be paired & controlled effortlessly with any Android/iOS/FireOS device, Amazon's smartphone or desktop browsers using the Amazon Echo app. Jeff Bezos, the CEO of the online retailer is pretty excited about the new virtual assistant.

Right from setting alarm to answering and doing the needful when asked to "Add bread to my shopping list", "How's the weather in Los Angeles this weekend?", "Play music by Bruno Mars", "Wikipedia Martin Luther King" or "How many teaspoons are in a tablespoon", the Amazon Echo is supposed to be your family's companion.

How does it work?

The technical answer is "Far Field Voice Recognition". In simpler words, Amazon Echo's features an array of seven microphones, which are capable of hearing the users from any direction. It responds to any wake-up word such 'Alexa' as is mentioned in the video below. Moreover, Echo can multi-task. If a music is already playing out of the speaker, thanks to the enhanced noise cancellation, Echo can still hear you ask a question. As mentioned earlier, Echo is connected to the cloud i.e. it is running on Amazon Web Services and therefore as you keep using Echo, it adapts to your vocabulary, patterns of speech and personal preferences.

That's ok, what about the music and sound quality?

The company boasts off about the dual downward-firing speakers incorporated in Amazon Echo that produce 360° omni-directional audio for an immersive sound experience. Apart from listening to your favorite playlists on Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn, Amazon Echo can stream music via iTunes, Spotify or Pandora via Bluetooth connectivity.

The official page for Echo lists that some more features are coming soon and Echo will get auto-updates as and when they arrive. Priced at $99 for Amazon Prime members, the Amazon Echo is otherwise officially priced at $199. Those keen on buying should check the website for invites opening this week. Till then, do take a look at a video put together by Amazon to explore how Amazon Echo actually works -

What are your thoughts on the new Amazon Echo interactive speaker? Share with us in comments below.