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@rrhoover this and the Fire phone makes me wonder whether Amazon wants to follow a Google strategy in hardware, but in-house rather than acquisitions.
@rrhoover IMHO - Amazon APIs are pretty transparent even when not explicitly "open". Haven't messed with other Fire devices, but Kindle had some cool integrations off the bat.
@rrhoover UBI (http://www.theubi.com/) is more similar, but with its $299 price tag, lame speaker it's less interesting.
@atroyn my thoughts exactly. They're trying really hard to keep up with google, but keeping it all in house isn't a smart differentiator...
Please take my money. I can think of a few ways this would be fun and convenient in my little SF apartment:)
Weirdly solves a very specific problem for me. I've always wanted a device to talk to from the shower that track tasks/ideas as they come to me. I'm a shower thinker but often forget stuff by the time I'm out. If this works well, I'd be very excited.
@alexmr wow yeah. I think the cooking example is a little stretched. Everyone showers. It can turn a 30-min shower into a great preparation for the day.
NSA's best ever dream coming true. However I still love it and can't wait to get one.
The most cringe video I've ever seen. But looks like a really cool product! Thanks for the Hunt!
@erikfinman agreed with the video - It was somehow regressive for both genders. I'm actually a little nervous if the team was tone deaf enough to release this video, there will be implicit sexism in the product too :(
While cool, I see see an army of hackers trying to use them to listen in on people's homes. So I'll be interested in the security features.
TechCrunch had an article that summed it up as a always on shopping cart. Add things to it, have them delivered without thinking twice.
edit - I can't wait to hear the 2am drunk ordering stories. Trying to get refunds for something embarrassing and the amazon customer service rep playing back the customer's voice order. "Well sir, this sounds like your voice ordering the Marge Simpson blowup sex doll."
This is pretty cool. I never use Siri or other voice commands through my phone but I can see myself using this since "it's always listening" and you never have to take out a phone or press any buttons.
One thing I'm curious about is the speaker quality for playing music. I'm a huge fan of Sonos (I'm not expecting Echo to provide anything close to the sound quality of Sonos, at least not yet) but it would be awesome if Sonos added this functionality sometime in the near future.
@Nivo0o0 IDK about other Android phones, but my Moto X responds to a keyphrase without me even touching it. I know that Siri does the same now if it's plugged in charging. The use case for this device suggests that it's meant for when you're home or at the office, in which case your phone is not likely to be in your pocket.
@ghobs91 I basically do what this device does every morning with my phone and a bluetooth speaker. Srsly though, I'd buy this. $99 is less than I paid for the speaker - and - I don't have to fool with pairing issues every other day.
Cool, yet creepy at the same time. Not sure how I feel about this.
// signs up for invite.
I am note sure about an always on listening device in my house.
I know its early days but does anyone know with commands like "set an appointment" will that sync with my Google Calendar ( which I use for everything these days ) . I am guessing it wont.
I've had mine for a couple weeks and its pretty awesome. Mostly use it for music and my 2 year old is getting the hang of "Alexa, Taylor Swift" so I'm gonna need to figure out some IFTTT type stuff to get her to ignore that command....
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