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| Amazon Echo : Connected Devices |
Amazon’s Echo, a connected device that combines the abilities of Siri and a bluetooth speaker in a 9.25-inch tall cylinder, is now available for anyone to buy if they have $179.99. And I’m here to tell you that if you have a music collection on Amazon’s cloud then you should fork over the cash and get one. For everyone else, keep reading to see if this product, which ships July 14, makes sense for you.
I’ve owned the Amazon Echo since December, and was in the first wave of people who were invited to purchase the product at a special $99 rate for Amazon Prime members. When it first arrived I was wowed by how well the Echo worked, compared to other voice recognition devices I’ve tried in the home.
However, you couldn’t do much with it, because Amazon only linked it to its services and the Bing search engine. But since February, Amazon has opened up to developers and the device shows promise as a voice-activated home automation control, a way to order products online. and a convenient link to some cloud services such as Google and If This Then That.
What is it?
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| Amazon Echo : Connected Devices |
Some people set it up as an alarm clock, and have it read the day’s news from NPR when it wakes them up. It also is linked to Amazon Prime Music, which means it acts as a credible speaker that will play any music that’s available in your personal Amazon music library or the free music available for Prime members.
The sound quality is akin to what you get on a Jambox or other bluetooth speaker. It’s good, but it won’t replace a high-end stereo. Amazon launched with access to streaming music from TuneIn and Rdio, but it now growing to other services including Pandora. I’m waiting for it to link to Spotify, so I can ask it to play me any song on that particular service.
My daughter loves this aspect of the Echo, and requesting the Echo play a song is probably the most used command we give it. Which is why if your music is on Amazon Prime, I think this device is a no-brainer. It gives you a way to verbally access your entire music collection, plus some other fun voice-activated features.
The Echo also can act as a Bluetooth speaker for your phone, so I could play Spotify on the Echo’s speaker using my phone, although that defeats the purpose for me. It does double as a speakerphone if you want to get the whole family around to sing Happy Birthday to someone.
The speaker fills up a normal-sized room, but isn’t enough to cover my entire downstairs. You can adjust the volume by turning a ring at the top of the Echo, asking it to turn it down, or using a remote control that you can buy for $29.99.
Living with Alexa
That’s what the Echo is, so what’s it like to live with it? The device arrives in a single box and takes about five minutes to set up. I put mine on a counter in the kitchen because we can talk to it from anywhere downstairs and it can hear us. I wish I had one upstairs in my bedroom as well, but I’m not entirely sure I need two of them.
You plug it in, download the Amazon Echo app, and then use the app connect it to your Wi-Fi network or Pocket WiFi. The app also offers a way to see what the Echo hears, so you can check weird results. My Echo came with a remote control, but the current Echo requires a separate remote control purchase.
The remote lets you issue spoken commands from farther away or in a noisy environment, and also allows you to skip songs or adjust volume. You can affix the remote to something using double-sided tape or a built-in magnet. It connects to the Echo via Bluetooth so it’s not super effective over long distances.
Once the Echo is plugged in, you have the option of setting up a few things. The first is the “wake word” that will trigger the device to listen. While the Echo has seven microphones (so it can hear you wherever you are in a room), the device only “listens” and opens a connection to the Amazon cloud service when it hears either “Alexa” or “Amazon” (the user chooses one of those words, and Amazon has promised other wake words eventually).
We chose Alexa, which means that anytime someone says “Alexa” the Echo wakes up.
You’ll know it is listening because the ring of LEDs at the top of the cylinder will glow blue, with the lightest blue light facing the direction that the Echo last heard you. It’s a subtle user interface that makes it feel like the device is attuned to you without being creepy.
Once the lights are on (or even a bit before) you can ask your question or issue your command. There is also a setting that will turn the microphones off, so you don’t have to worry that Jeff Bezos is spying on you. However, turning the mics off defeats the purpose of using voice as a hands-free interface.
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