The Echo: Amazon’s answer to Siri and Cortana

Move over Siri and Cortana. Amazon has the cannonball to blow all voice-activated oncomers out of the water. The online marketplace has unveiled the Amazon Echo, its own iteration of the voice-activated virtual assistant. What makes it so revolutionary? While Siri and Cortana exist as spiritual entities in cyberspace, hopping from device to device, the Amazon Echo has its own materialized body. Primarily a tubelike speaker, the Amazon Echo responds to voice commands regardless if it’s playing music.

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The speaker is 9.25 inches tall and 3.27 inches in diameter. The device is armed with seven microphones: six surrounding the circumference of the top and one in the center. It picks up commands from any direction. Noise cancellation technology picks up your voice even if there is music playing. The speaker is Bluetooth-capable. It promises to deliver sound from the whole circumference of the cylinder. With a 2.5 inch woofer and a 2.0 inch tweeter, it can go the whole spectrum of sound. The top lid is also a volume ring.

Here’s how the assistant works: it is activated by saying either “Alexa” (after the great library in Alexandria of ancient times) or “Amazon.” More wake words will be added once it’s released. Functionality is similar to Siri and Cortana. You can ask it to search Wikipedia, update your shopping list, set an alarm, or play the next track. Again, more features will be added once it gets developed. Speaking of which, features and functionalities are easily added because the device is synced to Amazon’s cloud, ensuring the latest updates get sent straight to your device.

An app (to be made immediately available on Android upon release and an iOS version in the works) will run in tandem with the device to organize alarms, searches, and shopping lists. Although packed with these new features, the device needs to be plugged in for it to work.

This announcement comes surprisingly after Amazon announced that its flaunted Fire Phone isn’t doing well. Despite the risk, Amazon is pushing through with this new direction head-first. While the device is not out in the market yet, it is available by signing up for invites from Amazon. It will cost $199, but $99 only for Amazon Prime members.