Amazon Echo

[Sushubh]

Amazon Echo - Official site - Request an invitation

This is Amazon's version of Google Now but with dedicated hardware. I love it!

Amazon Echo is designed around your voice. It's always on—just ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. Echo begins working as soon as it hears you say the wake word, "Alexa." It's also an expertly-tuned speaker that can fill any room with immersive sound.
Tucked under Echo's light ring is an array of seven microphones. These sensors use beam-forming technology to hear you from any direction. With enhanced noise cancellation, Echo can hear you ask a question even while it's playing music.
Echo's brain is in the cloud, running on Amazon Web Services so it continually learns and adds more functionality over time. The more you use Echo, the more it adapts to your speech patterns, vocabulary, and personal preferences.
Echo has been fine-tuned to deliver crisp vocals with dynamic bass response. Its dual downward-firing speakers produce 360° omni-directional audio to fill the room with immersive sound. Echo provides hands-free voice control for Amazon Music, Prime Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn. Plus, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled so you can stream your favorite music services like Spotify, iTunes, and Pandora from your phone or tablet.
Echo doesn't stop working when you're away from home. With the free companion app on Fire OS and Android, plus desktop and iOS browsers, you can easily manage your alarms, music, shopping lists, and more.

 

[udayan]

Will be available in india?

 

[Sushubh]

Unlikely. It is not likely to do well in the USA.

 

[udayan]

Why not likely to do good?

 

[Sushubh]

Because it is a product that you do not know that you need. Sure there would be some folks who might see some value in something like this. But it is something that you would need to proactively use to make use of it. Plus it just replicates what your phone already offers you.

 

[Sushubh]

Amazon just does not have the clout that Apple has. If Apple had launched it as an iSiri, it would have sold millions of units. Amazon? Nah.

 

---

[udayan]

It's already a portable speaker plus more, I think have some potential

 

[Sushubh]

Amazon Introduces the Alexa Skills Kit—A Free SDK for Developers
Amazon Opens Alexa Voice Service to Third Party Hardware Makers

 

[Sushubh]

Alexa Skill Testing Tool - Simulator

 

[Sushubh]

Source

 

[IBF]

Source

 

[IBF]

Source

 

[Rehan Kumar]

Amazon seems to have launched amazon echo, echo dot and echo plus in india for 10k, 4.5k and 15k respectively and also provides 1 year of prime membership for free and 30% off as promotion, it also seems that amazon india will soon be launching prime music as well because in the subsection on voice control with alexa it mentions prime music as an option along with saavn and tunein.
But there seems to have some kind of invitation system to get the product.

Amazon Echo (Includes 1 Year Prime Membership)

 

[Rehan Kumar]

oh wait, please delete/merge this thread as there is one more thread which is same.

 

[IBF]

Source