Looks very cool. I submitted an invite request to buy one. http://www.amazon.com/oc/echo/ref_=ods_dp_ae http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/6/7167793/amazon-echo-speaker-announced
Talk to products still suck, imo. I won't use them until they are much more reflective of how you talk in real life.
submitted invite request, looks easily worth 100 bucks. saying "weather" "time" or "countdown timer" already beats any other interface.
It's not just what you have to say, it's how the information is relayed back to you. It's still feels completely non natural to me. So I guess this comes in handy when I need to know the time and for some reason don't have my watch, my phone, or any of the other clocks around me on?
I think it would be very useful to have around the kitchen / living room area. Almost daily we have a questions about something...looking for a phone number, etc...and have to get on a computer or phone. If this can help us do those things hands free then its worth $100 (for prime members)
For time a clock is way faster, that wasn't an example. For temperature, rain forecast, timer, and other things depending on how smart it is, not having to look at a device is great. If it can even read your daily calendar, text to speech emails, might be really useful. Plus it will stay in the same spot and always ready to go unlike a Google or Siri. edit: Well massive fail on my part, I did say "time" I should have said day/date.
I would. They seem to be going for more than 100 bucks so after a week of testing it, you could probably sell it for at least or a little more than what you bought it for. I wish it was tied into my google account instead of my amazon. I'm already invested in that eco system.
I think this is going to fail. I could be wrong, but shelling out $100 to be able to talk to your electronics, rather than maybe two or three touchscreen presses to get what you want on your phone seems a bit too much.
I use the "OK GOOGLE" feature on my phone constantly and I'm usually amazed by how accurate it hears my request and how "human" the responses are. I think this technology (in general) is leaps and bounds ahead of where it was even 3 - 5 years ago.
Is it really that quick to respond to answers or did they cut out the wait? If there's next to zero wait, I could see it being something worth purchasing.
I'm sure the Echo takes significantly less time to respond to answers than it's taken you to provide answers regarding vivi.
Ugh, sounds like hell (hate touchscreens' usability). There's also the time to walk to pick up your phone (which may be charging) and if it's something that requires typing search terms, well you can just kill me now (though I guess you would just speak it into your phone). Seriously though, I would be in the market for something like this as it becomes more proven with more competition and the features become a bit more clear. Definitely see the advantage of walking into a room and saying "shuffle pretentious hipster playlist, turn the treble to 11" and then awkwardly attempting to dance where I stand.
This is redundant if you have an android device. Google search engine with Google now is far superior to anything Amazon conjures up. BTW, half the search queries you perform on this is going to direct you to a "Based on this search query, how about you consider these amazing products on Amazon.com" result. It's just a gimmicky device that is another way for Amazon to get you to shop more on their site, which I have no problem with as I shop on Amazon plenty. But don't be fooled into thinking it's anything more than a a glorified Amazon click bait device as are all Amazon devices.
Any new android device with the google now launcher allows you to go directly to a speech to text search query by just turning the screen on and saying "okay google" without unlocking the device. If the device is plugged in you can activate the search without even needing to awaken the device