Amazon announces: Echo

[whitearrow]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

The review breakout is interesting.
First, the sheer number: well over 18,000.
(For comparison, FIRE TV has 30k and Fire TV stick 44K generated over a full year and six months respectively. Total sales of ~4.5M.)

They also had that non-standard Amazon splash page where you couldn't see or write a review for a long time.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I gave her 3 stars in my review. She totally ignores my husband no matter what he says. She only understands me 75% of the time. I have to repeat myself alot to get her to just tell weather or time.

So what you are saying is: they gave her too accurate of an artificial personality...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by murg

So what you are saying is: they gave her too accurate of an artificial personality...

She does sound like a teenager...

[rem736]

Originally Posted by SCION

I'd like to get a second one for the bathroom now that Audible is supported.

got an email from amazon this morning saying that 1. echo is now available for the general public, 2. you can ask your current echo to order another echo ("Alexa, re-order Echo").

i'd like to say this: "Alexa, order yourself a sister".

[fjtorres]

Apps incoming!

http://www.zdnet.com/article/amazon-...tag=TRE17cfd61

ECHO's SDK is out.
And Amazon is throwing $100M in support.

Amazon is moving to build an ecosystem for Alexa, the voice service that is the brain of Echo, via a software developer kit, third party hardware vendor hooks and a $100 million investment fund.

The blitz comes just a few days after Amazon opened Echo sales up to the masses. Echo has generated a good bit of buzz and has piqued developer interest. "Since introducing Amazon Echo, we've heard from developers, manufacturers, and start-ups of all sizes who want to innovate with this new technology," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

The software developer kit (SDK) is called the Alexa Skills Kit, which is a series of application programming interfaces that allow developers to create voice features for Alexa.

The aim for Amazon is to enable developers to integrate Alexa into their applications or create new services. The SDK for Alexa will have a developer preview that starts Thursday. Intuit, StubHub, AOL and Citrix are some of the early companies using the Alexa Skills Kit.

And most importantly:

On the hardware front, Amazon said that it will open Alexa's voice services up to third party hardware makers. Amazon will allow hardware vendors to use the Alexa Voice Service for free.

The goal on both hardware and developer fronts is to integrate Alexa into a bevy of devices.

Sample partners:

The Alexa Fund has seven investments at launch including Orange Chef, a mobile app connecting kitchen tools; Scout Alarm, a home security provider; Garageio, a garage door monitoring service; Toymail, a connected toy specialist; Dragon Innovation, a garage to factory framework; MARA, a voice based running assistant; and Mojio, a connected car company.

More at the source.

[WT Sharpe]

Oh, this is sweet!

[conan50]

This is very good. But it seems to me they should have done this first, rather than after releasing the Echo to the public.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by conan50

This is very good. But it seems to me they should have done this first, rather than after releasing the Echo to the public.

No.
This way there is something on the order of a million ECHOs for partner services to address.
No promises or potential customers but an actual installed base to target with Echo-compatible devices and services.

[fjtorres]

http://www.aftvnews.com/amazon-opens...rld/#more-7528

Device makers like Pebblebee, a tracking beacon you can attach to anything, have already begun working with the ASK to allow you to simply ask “Alexa, find my keys” to locate the Pebblebee attached to your keys.
Mint.com, the free web-based personal financial management service, will integrate into Alexa and allow you to ask things like “what is my account balance.”
Popular tech blogs TechCrunch and Engadget are playing with the idea to allow Alexa to read headlins and articles outloud.
Glympse, a mobile app that lets you share your location with friends and family, is integrating with Alexa to allow users to ask “Where is Billy?” or “When will George get here?”
These are just a few examples Amazon has given of companies already expanding Alexa and the Echo’s capabilities.

Expanding Alexa’s capabilities is great, but it wouldn’t be nearly as useful if Alexa was confined to only the Amazon Echo. That’s why the second part of this announcement, AVS, allows third party hardware makers full access to Alexa and its capabilities. Amazon envisions hardware manufacturers adding buttons or always listening microphones, like on the Echo, to numerous devices that will connect to Alexa in the cloud.
They give examples like car manufacturers adding an Alexa button to steering wheels, a wifi alarm clock that can tell you the weather or check your calendar, and a movie ticket kiosk that lets you buy tickets with your voice.

At this point it sounds like Alexa will be coming to the FIRE tablets with the FireOS upgrade this fall. Much like CORTANA is coming to everything Microsoft-ish.

It would be cool if they added it to the Kindle Voyage2.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by conan50

This is very good. But it seems to me they should have done this first, rather than after releasing the Echo to the public.

I am of two minds on that:

1. It's a typical chicken and egg problem. Sell hydrogen powered cars to get people clamoring for a hydrogen fuel infrastructure, or invest in infrastructure and hope people will buy hydrogen powered cars afterwards?

Amazon chose to get people interested in devlopment by putting the device out first to stoke imaginations.

Seems to have been as good a call as any. Better than whatever the hydrogen fuel folks are doing....

2. The Echo was just "officially" released to "the public" this week, so technically, they had it both ways!

[wodin]

When will I be able to ask my Android phone "Alexa, what do you think of Google Now?" rather than "OK Google, what do you think of Alexa?"

Or my Android Wear smart watch for that matter?

[conan50]

I just think they should have left it at $99 for Prime members in beta for about another year while adding this expansion of services to third parties. Then take it out of beta in a year when it actually is worth the $180 price tag. Meanwhile get it on Fire Tabs and the Fire Phone.

[copyrite]

I might've bought another one at $99. Not at this price though.

[fjtorres]

Like clockwork, they added support for another home automation platform: WINK.

Brings in GE among others.

http://www.aftvnews.com/amazon-echo-...home-products/

[DreamWriter]

New Echo features - from an Amazon e-mail I received today:

Listen to live events and concerts with TuneIn on Echo. Just ask, "Alexa, play [station name] on TuneIn."

Catch live coverage of the 2015 Open Championship from St. Andrews on ESPN Radio Special Coverage 1
http://tunein.com/radio/ESPN-Radio-S...age-1-s111051/

Didn't make it to any of the Grateful Dead concerts? Enjoy recordings from the band's final shows on Grateful Dead Radio
http://tunein.com/radio/Grateful-Dead-Radio-s54607/

Echo now supports the WNBA in addition to the MLB, MLS, NHL, NFL, NCAA, and NBA. To hear scores or find out when your favorite team plays next, just ask:

- "Alexa, who won the Seattle Storm game?"
- "Alexa, who is winning the Chicago Cubs game?"
- "Alexa, when do the LA Galaxy play next?"

Last week, we introduced support for additional voice-controlled lights and switches. Thanks to @RyanPratt for showing how he now controls his lights with just his voice.
https://twitter.com/RyanPratt/status/618951489730531328

A full list of Echo compatible devices from WeMo, Philips Hue, Wink, GE, Lutron, and Leviton can be found here.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=11874301011