22 ms·

Amazon Echo Show

390 points by metaedge 9y ago

ejtek 9y ago
It continues to surprise me how far ahead of them Apple is letting Amazon/Google get in this area. I've always been a big fan of Apple (despite their closed ecosystem), but have to admit that Amazon is seriously outplaying them on this front. Hopefully Apple surprises me and comes up with something even more innovative that can compete.
- pryelluw 9y ago
  I figure Apple is letting them figure out the basics and then they will introduce Siri-in-a-box kind of thing. No sense in being first to market if your execution is flawed.
  - pwaivers 9y ago
    Isn't "Siri in a Box" basically the current Apple TV?
    - mhermher 9y ago
      Does AppleTV have HDMI pass through? You would need it for it to compete with the echo. The echo is always on, always listening and accessible. Having to turn on the TV and change inputs and all that removes all of the conveniences of the echo. My feeling is that some company is gonna do that eventually, use the set top box as the home hub, but there are some convenience issues to be figured out.
      - netsharc 9y ago
        Why not sell a display that will work with it wirelessly? It would basically be the iPad with WiFi but no touch screen, no camera, maybe even no battery (always plugged-in), and a stripped down iOS with limited CPU/RAM/storage. You talk to the AppleTV box, the display lights up and shows you what you asked for. Add a microphone to the display so it can hear where you are and display you the results in your kitchen display, bedroom display or wherever. And add a feature to listen to commands like "Show me X on my phone" or "Send this to my phone" and it will display whatever you just asked for on your iPhone. Or even "Send this to [contact name]".
        CyberDuck 9y ago
        There are a lot of smart TVs already integrating with internet... I would imagine most would be like that in the future. It didn't make sense to me why they integrated a screen (other than to get people to use it in every room/ some sort of Amazon strategy that usually works for an unforeseen outcome). What I haven't seen is something like the electronic-paper Kindle... a calm display. Most of the time I have my laptop and tv on quick shut-down because the ambient light feels grating (maybe it's the feeling of losing energy? not sure why it annoys me). A calendar or XKCD board would be awesome.... have the echo just populate a poster with stuff that's slightly irritating to lookup... this leads into an idea of having 'settings' for the environment/ room...hmm
  - digi_owl 9y ago
    Bascially this. Since the return of Jobs, Apple has not been first about anything (and one may argue about them not being so back in the day as well). But Jobs always had a flare for marketing.
    - aljones 9y ago
      Can you have loyal customers with just marketing? Certainly you can get them to buy a product, but marketing doesn't create satisfied customers post purchase. Being first is similar. You can certainly get some nice industry buzz (marketing) by being first. People will buy the product, but will they be satisfied? Only if it is well designed.
      - quineoa 9y ago
        I feel like the Blue Origin / SpaceX "first to land" is relevant here. Blue Origin (another Bezos company) was technically first to land a rocket, and gloated about it. But SpaceX has a more useful implementation as of now.
    - pryelluw 9y ago
      I think he understood what people wanted and knew how to communicate that to his team and the market.
- dkrich 9y ago
  When I saw this, I actually had the opposite reaction. I remember when I first saw an iPod Nano with the color screen and the scroll wheel that magically scrolled up and down by just moving your finger around it without actually turning a wheel. It seemed like magic. Same thing when I first saw the iPhone/iPod Touch. Apple's products were very carefully designed and only released when they were perfect, and very rarely failed to wow you. Amazon on the other hand, always seems to rush things to market and then see what sticks. I understand that this is largely their ethos, but when it comes to Amazon hardware, I've found myself pretty cynical towards it because they've released so much poorly-executed crap over the years. Even with Alexa, I like many others, find that it's pretty much useless for anything beyond playing music or setting a timer. Having an Echo, I saw this and my first thought was "meh." I have a feeling that if Apple released a similar product category, that wouldn't be the case.
  - ganfortran 9y ago
    But Amazon's products are cheap. Echo first gets out, it is merely 99 dollars, and at the time, a vanilla bluetooth speaker worth that much. It is about accessibility.
    - lowtolerance 9y ago
      Amazon Echo was $199 when it was first introduced, which was still fairly competitively priced against premium bluetooth speakers.
      - dkrich 9y ago
        Also the Fire Phone, which as I remember was priced at about $650.
      - aslkdjaslkdj 9y ago
        It was $99 for Prime members.
      - btgeekboy 9y ago
        If you preordered when it was first announced, it was $99. Once it was released, the price returned to full $199.
- thinkling 9y ago
  I have wondered whether Apple has tried to buy Sonos. Seems like HomeKit + Sonos + Siri + iOS gadget displays could be a great mix.
FLGMwt 9y ago
Any echo owners feel like they would get additional value out of this? 90% of my interaction with my standard echo has been "what's the weather". Even when I want visual controls for music, I'd rather pull out my phone than walk over to a screen.
- pryelluw 9y ago
  Not really. This lacks basic tablet-level functionality. I cant see this taking off.
- non_sequitur 9y ago
  I think the biggest benefit is video calling. Get your parents one, get one yourself, schedule a video call with them once a week (or whatever). Easier than Facetime since you don't have to hold up the phone. Reminds me of the videophones in the Starship Troopers movie.
  - tetrep 9y ago
    Why not get a tablet with a basic cover/stand? It has far more overall utility and isn't difficult to use.
    - non_sequitur 9y ago
      Cheaper cost, even easier to use since it has voice? I can see this going over well with older generations who are still fumbling around or slower with with phones and ipads.
  - Allower 9y ago
    NO. this is a far worse experience than simply using my laptop or even phone
  - ashark 9y ago
    Surely two phone stands would be cheaper. You can even initiate the call with voice if you really don't want to touch anything.
trapperkeeper79 9y ago
Amazon is killing it in IoT/Smart Home. However, IMHO, they are making a bit of mistake by not allowing developers to monetize their platform (at least the last time I checked). There were also certain device functions that apps could not utilize (e.g. programmatically mute and unmute). I suspect they'll have a wall garden approach to their new Echo devices too ... if this was open, they'd win it all (again, just my opinion).
- irq-1 9y ago
  Amazon subsidizes hardware by collecting information on the users, so they can't open their hardware. It's ironic because, like uBlock on Chrome, only a small percentage would change the hardware/OS anyway -- and those are the people who could try radical experiments and show Amazon what works. Hopefully Google, Samsung or Microsoft(?!) will sell open hardware/firmware that isn't subsidized by collecting information. Amazon is basically following the CueCat strategy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat#Failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat#Failure > The company's response to these hacks was to assert that users did not own the devices and had no right to modify or reverse engineer them. Threats of legal action against the hackers swiftly brought on more controversy and criticism.
  - deegles 9y ago
    Sources? Those are big claims to make.
- sgs1370 9y ago
  This is not what you're taking about because it is not the Echo hardware, but I think Amazon lets hardware manufacturers access Alexa API from their devices, and those hardware makers can charge whatever they want (and could put whatever type of "app store" or "hackability" into their hardware, all of which could call the Alexa voice API: https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-voice-service https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-voice-service
- hbosch 9y ago
  Software mute/unmute has too much of a potential to be abused by 3rd parties in my opinion. For your other comment, what kind of command-response skill could be monetized? Surely for the majority of use cases, the Alexa skill should remain free with your purchased/subscribed product on the other side? E.g. the "skill" to read NPR should always be free, but NPR is still monetized via subscription or commercials. The only example that jumps out at me would be Amazon Echo Games, something like text-based adventures built for voice. Otherwise, skills themselves are just a gateway to an already monetized service, no?
kayoone 9y ago
Love the concept of the Echo, however i don't see too much value in a screen, as for most tasks you'd need that for it's usually worth the effort to pull out the phone since you are also not bound to a specific location.
kasperset 9y ago
Looks like a mini tablet? Why cannot tablet be used for the same purpose? Perhaps audio capability?
- UnfalseDesign 9y ago
  I thought the exact same thing. It basically looks like a tablet with really good speakers that runs "skills" as opposed to "apps." I have no doubt that Amazon will be able to sell a ton of these but I'm clearly not the demographic. Though, it does make me wonder, where is the ceiling for personal assistant features? At what point does Amazon saturate its own market?
- darkstar999 9y ago
  Better audio and microphone capability.
UXCODE 9y ago
In the United States, what is the need for speech recognition devices? At least in Japan and China, speech recognition technology does not reach practical level and needs are small.
- iplaw 9y ago
  There isn't a need; it's more of a want. I have a few Echos and use them to control my whole home audio system. "Alexa, play Kendrick Lamar on Spotify." Just like that, I have music throughout the house and in the front and back yards. You can also get more specific with commands in order to limit where the music plays, what music service is polled, etc. It is much easier than pulling out a device, navigating to the application, typing in a search string, selecting the artist, and clicking shuffle playback for all of the artist's songs.
  - Nullabillity 9y ago
    Presumably you only listen to chart-topping american pop and music made by people with common english names? Because so far I've never had any luck whatsoever with anything else.
    - Accacin 9y ago
      Downvoted but a very valid observation. I listen to a lot of Black Metal and as most of it isn't in English, it's hard for Siri to understand what I'm asking for, or to even know if I'm pronouncing it correctly.
    - xforteversilov 9y ago
      I literally asked my Google home this morning: "Hey Google, play some Peruvian psychedelic cumbia" and it found exactly what I wanted (using Spotify). For me, these home assistants are the best thing I have bought since my first smartphone.
      - Nullabillity 9y ago
        That's still a genre with a relatively english name. Good luck searching for a specific artist/track.
pwaivers 9y ago
A few thoughts: - This is way less creepy-looking than the Amazon Look (https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistant/dp/B0186JAEWK https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistan...), but it is actually very similar. - It is great to add a screen to the Echo. Just more feedback on interacting with it, and possibility to watch YouTube, Netflix, etc. casually. - It doesn't have the same cool minimalism as the Echo. The Echo sits on my counter and looks nice when not in use. I think this one looks much clunkier. - I definitely want to try one.
- odonnellryan 9y ago
  I wonder, why go this route instead of creating a device to add to your TV? My echo is right next to the TV.
  - thatwebdude 9y ago
    Doesn't the FireTV/Stick do full-on Alexa now?
    - sailfast 9y ago
      Yes - though it's not listening and you need the voice remote to be in your hand and/or you need to spin up the app on your phone. While that doesn't sound like a barrier to much, it definitely has been for me asking for simple things especially from across the room. Voice interfaces are good for hands-free action, which FireTV doesn't really allow.
      - cbhl 9y ago
        As someone who owns both an Echo and a Fire TV Stick, I found it initially surprising that the Echo couldn't control things on the TV. I also found it surprising that the same APIs returning voice responses had been returning data about things to display on a screen the whole time. This seems like an obvious product for those who completely buy into the Alexa ecosystem.
PascLeRasc 9y ago
Are they just "announcing" these devices by putting them up for sale? It feels like we need an Echo keynote to learn about their direction and they could get a lot more hype that way.
- DaggerDagger 9y ago
  Why? I think a company that sells products can just use their website, the #12 most visited website on the planet to announce it. The Steve Jobs style keynote is so gauche now, even Apple seems sort of clunky doing it. You can't do the same magic trick over and over and expect people to be into it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
colemannugent 9y ago
I feel like this entire product could be a Chromecast-esque dongle that connects to a TV. Having a personal dashboard would actually be quite useful, but this seems like they want to sell appliances not experiences. Maybe they've gone with this form factor because of the 2x 2" speakers? But why would I want that when it could be plugged directly into my home audio setup? Or maybe it's so they can include a touchscreen? But I thought the whole point was hands-free conversational interaction? I guess I'm missing the point of this. Why would I, as a normal consumer, get this instead of a regular Amazon Echo?
- Klathmon 9y ago
  I thought that as well, but now that i've gotten into the home automation game, i've found that TVs just aren't fast enough for it. My TV takes 15 seconds on average to start up, and then another 3 or 4 to have sound. There is no easy way to turn them on and off in a reliable manner, and for some unknown reason many disable CEC by default... Not to mention that having to choose between watching something on TV and using the device is an annoying decision to make in a lot of cases.
  - mhermher 9y ago
    You can leave the TV always on, but muted and blacked out by the set top box. That may be a good solution to that? Not sure if anyone has designed that on a set top box.
    - Klathmon 9y ago
      most TVs are then still using almost full power, some still aren't "black" when a black screen is up (it provides light at night, enough to see with in my case!), and still puts off heat. It's a hack that might work for something personal, but I wouldn't be comfortable selling a product that did this.
      - mhermher 9y ago
        Fair points. I'm really kind of tied to the idea that someone is going to do this as a set-top box format. What you mention is a major issue though. Maybe it can use the video output only if the TV is already on, and just failsafe to audio in those cases, like a regular echo.
eclipxe 9y ago
People are missing this: "With the Alexa App, conversations and contacts go where you go. When you’re away from home, use the app to make a quick call or send a message to your family’s Echo. Alexa calling and messaging is free—to get started download the Alexa App." Alexa is now in the messaging and communication game. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/09/amazon-enables-free-calls-and-messages-on-all-echo-devices-with-alexa-calling/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/09/amazon-enables-free-calls-...
- jaboutboul 9y ago
  Well they are definitely pushing into that space with Amazon Chime, so it only makes sense. This is also absolutely going to kill Nucleus[1] which was the first device released with Alexa Voice Service integrated and was heavily hyped by Amazon at the time. [1]: https://nucleuslife.com/ https://nucleuslife.com/
  - stingrae 9y ago
    I wonder what the Amazon strategy with this is, given they invested through the Alexa fund.
    - sushid 9y ago
      Probably just hedging their bets. But they definitely want their own horse to win the race.
  - ribs 9y ago
    Damn that thing's almost $400! You're right, they'll be dead.
    - andrewaylett 9y ago
      In fairness, that's the cost for two -- they're $249 individually, so a bit cheaper than a Show. But that's not entirely obvious from the page.
  - 9y ago
chaostheory 9y ago
It would be nice to control FireTV with an Echo. Still waiting.
tetrep 9y ago
I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.
- CoolGuySteve 9y ago
  I have an old iPad taped to my kitchen wall for recipes, YouTube, and playing music via Bluetooth. It's really handy but "Hey Siri" works maybe 30% of the time. I don't really use it anymore. The worst part is that Siri can't integrate with other music apps, other note taking apps, other video players, or pretty much anything. So it's incredibly crippled despite being able to parse my requests. If Alexa can fix that, this would be pretty neat.
- oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
  > can do more things You answered your own question. Not every device used in a home (remote control, light switch, thermostat) needs to be replaced with a full tablet computer, even if it could be.
  - alxvio 9y ago
    Who would want this Amazon product for every light switch, remote control, and thermostat? No, most buyers will probably just buy one for a household. In that case, I agree that a regular tablet would suffice.
    - oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
      My point was that you have a remote control already; you don't use a tablet instead of that, just for use as a remote control. In a similar way, a tablet might be overkill for a 'home assistant', and the Amazon Echo seems designed to address that.
- mhermher 9y ago
  It has a much better microphone array. It's actually probably the one thing that stands out about the echo to me. The mic is really good.
ganfortran 9y ago
Here is a crazy idea: What didn't Amazon make this its own Nintendo Switch? A stand with a detachable tablet? Won't this be even better?
- tartuffe78 9y ago
  Because then it would be an entirely different product.
Allower 9y ago
wish they would support calls on the base echo device..
GrumpyNl 9y ago
Why would you wanna have a electronic spy at home is beyond me.
- bovermyer 9y ago
  Because I want a Jarvis, and this is the closest thing. If you can think of a way to have an artificial assistant of that class without being tied in to a corporation, I'm all ears.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
  Do you turn off your cell phone and computers at home? Even if you do, most people don't. And won't.
yalogin 9y ago
Great now the echo will record all video as well and "anonymize" it and use it to improve their systems. This class of devices are the most puzzling to me. People know their value proposition is to record everything but then keep buying them. I keep waiting for the day when the scales tip in favor of privacy but that never happens.
- ryanwaggoner 9y ago
  Actually, people don't know that. The Echo doesn't "record everything", and I'd challenge you to provide any evidence that it does.
  - shostack 9y ago
    True/false: Can Amazon technically enable it to record without the user's knowledge? What if a government compelled them to activate this to spy on someone?
    - djrogers 9y ago
      Ability to create a new (creepy and likely illegal) feature is not the same thing as it being the Echo's "value prop"...
- ashark 9y ago
  I doubt the typical user of Internet(-enabled) services has any idea how much is recorded about them, or what it's used for. They probably intuitively think that recording and retaining these sorts of things on such a scale and for such purposes is already illegal.
- deepGem 9y ago
  Can you please explain a bit more about your privacy concern ? Are you implying that Amazon might 1. Inadvertently leak these videos 2. Succumb to a massive breach that will expose all these videos. 3. Use the private data as a signal to sell more stuff. I only ask this because, if there is some company that genuinely cares about their customers, it's Amazon but from personal and anecdotal experience.
mandeepj 9y ago
A better alternate to Sony dash which got abandoned
- sxates 9y ago
  Yes - my Dash finally died last year, which I mourned. This looks like the next gen. https://www.amazon.com/Sony-HIDC10-Personal-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B00375MPA8 https://www.amazon.com/Sony-HIDC10-Personal-Discontinued-Man...
slackoverflower 9y ago
What is Amazon's long term strategy with all these devices with the main feature still being voice?
- jaboutboul 9y ago
  Behavioral data. The more they know about you, the more they can accurately target products/services/etc at you.
- CaveTech 9y ago
  Collecting video data for future use.
- vertebrate 9y ago
  preventing future crimes
- VLM 9y ago
  My honestly non-sarcastic guess is the dash button form factor will merge with Alexa resulting in something like disposable fashionable ST:TNG communicator buttons. I'm not kidding at all, although I can sympathize this might seem a touch ridiculous. Billions were made off the "its kinda like a tricoder or a ST:TOS communicator but its mostly a phone". Its highly likely a lot of money will be made selling each member of the general populace a handful of ST:TNG communicator buttons in or around 2030. Schools will spare no expense to make sure each kid has one "for security and learning purposes only of course". Your music service will be part of the communicator badge ecosystem or it won't exist much longer, and so on.
JimmyAustin 9y ago
Interesting choice going with an x86 chip. This could potentially be a hackers dream if you got Linux running on it.
- dawnerd 9y ago
  It's probably running their fire os.
  - JimmyAustin 9y ago
    AFAIK FireOS is ARM only and a brief look on wiki says all the other devices (FireTV, Echo, Echo Dot, etc) are all ARM. Either way, I'd imagine you would want to wipe it completely. Can't wait for the iFixit teardown.
    - nezza-_- 9y ago
      FireOS is based on Android which definitely runs on x86
    - com2kid 9y ago
      FireOS is just Android with a UI skin and some Google services ripped out. I'd be surprised if an x86 fork wasn't always maintained, if for nothing else than ease of debugging!
pmcpinto 9y ago
So this is kind of a tablet, but with voice as main UI
voltagex_ 9y ago
It's the Chumby for 2017, with less freedom to hack.
- fenwick67 9y ago
  This is motivating me to do more work on my chumby clone project I've been putting on the back burner.
verytrivial 9y ago
I must be one of those old farts who prefers privacy over convenience. I do not want what amounts to an always-on black-box surveillance device in my home and I simply do not understand why other people think it is okay. I honestly don't. Down with this sort of thing!
- eclipxe 9y ago
  Do you own a cellphone with a camera and microphone?
  - ghostly_s 9y ago
    Yes, but only one from a vendor with a well-demonstrated commitment to privacy and with no 'always listening' features enabled. Believe it or not this is not some sort of extremist stance!
  - danielbln 9y ago
    Personally, I have a sticker on all cameras (front-facing phone camera, monitor, laptop). I can't do anything against having hot mics everywhere, but I'll be damned if I have internet connected cameras pointed at me, I don't trust IoT security one bit.
  - pdkl95 9y ago
    No, and unless I have to some type of on-call job in the future, I never will. POTS works fine for telephony, and my computer is much faster, has better features, is far easier to read, and isn't de facto controlled by Apple|Google. While portable devices can be a useful tool, far too many people are addicted to the dopamine hit they get by hitting "refresh", and/or distracted by shiny tech baubles.
    - nebabyte 9y ago
      Good on you. I've gone back and forth between having a smart device and not, and while I've been on the move for a while and thus benefitted from having one, will likely go back to pre-smartphone hardware once settled. Other than net browsing (which I find woefully underpowered on mobile even today) and listening to music, I rarely if ever use this thing's auxillary functions. Most of the "defaults" are just clutter reminiscent of the pre-smartphone vendor days (complete with the "but look, you can make them less visible, just move them around!"). Can relate on the distraction bit as well, as that used to be a bigger problem for me.
vineet 9y ago
The video calling capability seems especially neat - I wonder if they will interoperate with Facetime, Google Duo/Hangouts, and other video calling protocols. It will make our lives so much easier.
- eclipxe 9y ago
  ?
  - vineet 9y ago
    Companies with closed platforms do have a track record of collaborating and integrating. However, if you are making a case for standards in this space - I agree.
- smileysteve 9y ago
  If anything, it's looking like Alexa might be the only one that will work across the 3. You can install hangouts duo on IOS, but likely not on alexa. You can install Alexa on Android (not through google play). You can't install facetime on Alexa or Android.
rrggrr 9y ago
This was the direction I expected Apple to take prior to Jobs passing. It seemed the rumored Apple TV would combine Siri with traditional television. Apple faces serious threats across the entertainment spectrum, from content to device. Everyone speculating on Apple acquisitions should be considering a Sony or LG buyout. I own stock in neither.
danso 9y ago
I'm not willing or interested enough to enable voice activation (Siri) on my phone or desktop, but thought Echo would be nice to have as a music player. The voice recognition is so reliable -- not just the NLP, but the mic array (unlike trying to activate Siri on the iPhone) -- that it's converted me to a true believer in voice interfaces, at least for simple tasks, such as playing music, turning on NPR, and activating timers and alarms. I do have the Fire stick connected to a projector but I've definitely longed for the ability to navigate YouTube or HBO on a tablet-like device with Alexa (again, not just the NLP, but the mic array, which Fire tablets don't have) This seems like a nice step in that direction but I've been spoiled by the low cost of the Echo Dot, which when it's on sale is so cheap it can be a stocking stuffer. I don't think I could pay $229 for the first generation version of the Show, but will likely get its cheaper, more advanced iterations.
- Roritharr 9y ago
  Same here on all accounts, I'd just add that before I buy more Echoes Amazon needs to make the Multi-Room Integration better so it's better to furnish out a larger apartment or house. I mean there's probably no difference between a single NSA listening device and a suite of them.
noonespecial 9y ago
Why does it have to be a tiny self contained screen? Until I can say "Alexa, on the main view screen" (right after "Alexa, Earl Grey, hot" of course), we've got progress to make. Which reminds me, I've got a Keurig to hack...
- veli_joza 9y ago
  You hit the nail on the head. Back in 90s we could connect any audio/video device to any other device, because manufacturers agreed on basic analog signals. Now, everything is "smart" and isolated. Is it too much to ask to be able to route audio/video/other signals from sources to sinks regardless device boundaries? It's not helping that big companies like Amazon want to establish themselves as _the_ hub for IoT.
- lostboys67 9y ago
  MM the Alex Replicator :-)
- Godel_unicode 9y ago
  Ok Google, show me Futurama from Netflix on living room. Ok Google, fast forward 27 seconds. As soon as they get the ability to play specific episodes (it knows what you're asking, it just can't do it yet) and hook it up to the knowledge graph? Ok Google, show me the Futurama episode where Hermes loses his job on living room.
  - jerf 9y ago
    The Friends episode naming scheme is going to look extra prescient in the future, since they all (with rare exception(s)) are called "The One With [2-6 word summary of the episode's A plot]": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_episodes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_episodes
uptown 9y ago
“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug into your wire whenever they wanted to.” -Orwell, 1984
- obstinate 9y ago
  Kneejerk Orwell quote referencing minor advance to existing technology: check.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - criley2 9y ago
    Yeah Orwell was all about heavy handed government oppression, not willing consumer behavior. This is more Huxley (check another box, the Huxley vs Orwell comparison). At any rate, the quote would be better served when discussing Snowden style revelations, because we know for a fact that people in the US security apparatus could (and did) abuse their ability to spy on the internet behavior of everyday American citizens without due process.
- sharkweek 9y ago
  "And but so why the abrupt consumer retreat back to good old voice-only telephoning? The answer, in a kind of trivalent nutshell, is: (1) emotional stress, (2) physical vanity, (3) a certain queer kind of self- obliterating logic in the microeconomics of consumer high-tech." David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527 http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527
- sgift 9y ago
  The joke's on us. Not even Orwell thought people would be willing to pay for that kind of technology. He thought government would have to force people to get it into their homes.
scotchio 9y ago
Love that Amazon is throwing a lot of options out there. Only wish the outer shell on this one looked a bit nicer / slicker. Really want an "Alexa" type replacement for smoke detectors. Location seems perfect for speakers / music in a house. Scary to think that privacy for average consumer is basically dead.
vthallam 9y ago
This is more like an iPad with a better Siri. I guess talking to parents, watching child cams are the target audience for this. A device which sits in living room or bed room need not show me CNN in there.
- djrogers 9y ago
  I think it's more like an iPad with a better microphone (well, 7 or 8 actually). When Siri can hear you clearly, it's much better at most tasks in my experience. The problem is often that it can't hear you clearly...
agumonkey 9y ago
Kinda merging tablet/webcam + alarm clock usage. Not bad.
coding123 9y ago
They used the same picture of Dad seeing his grandchild like 3 times, they need to push out different pics.
- iamatworknow 9y ago
  Now introducing Amazon Stock Photos! (I had to search to make sure this didn't already exist, and I'm surprised it doesn't.)
  - fenwick67 9y ago
    Can I use the Amazon Echo to lead an imaginary life? "Show me pictures of my family" (stock photos) "Show me my vacation photos" (synthesizes a photo of me at the grand canyon with my waifu)
    - iamatworknow 9y ago
      "Alexa, show me reasons why fenwick67's waifu is shit and my waifu is best girl." 4chan by voice. What could go wrong?
    - VLM 9y ago
      I've proposed this for social media for a long time. Rich and famous people have handlers run their social media to meet their goals. I think it fair for poorer people to experience the same relaxation and freedom. Why can't I hire a cloud powered bot to manage my kids social media presence to get him into an ivy "Hey everybody, like my pix of me doing voluntourism in some 3rd world country where I'm photoshopped into a pix of a school being constructed." "How do you do, fellow kids, I am very concerned today about (insert randomly selected progressive cause)". It wouldn't be a social problem as legacy social media is so yesterday, only auntie and grandma still use facebook and corporations and bots are now the majority users. You just know grandma is going to get into the weirdest flamewar ever on myspace or ICQ or twitter with your social media bot avatar. I think it would be useful to have a bot run my linkedin for me. A form letter to respond to recruiter form letters. Every week it goes to Google Trends, runs a query on "computer language" to find the trendy framework of the week, and ta da I am now an expert on linked-in for "computer graphics programs in c language with output" "what does pdf mean in computer language" "computer in hindi language" and sure you laugh today, but normies (like HR gatekeepers) google for this kind of stuff all the time, and if my bot's effort posting gets me jobs you're not getting, well, we'll see who gets the last laugh ...
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silvanojr 9y ago
I was battling back and forth FOR A MONTH with their skill certification approval team for a skill update that would allow customers to call people by name, where in the first version it was only by phone number. They would fail the certification because apparently people didn't know how to test, or used fake numbers to make phone calls and complained the call would not connect, or the certificate validation (that was working before) would fail, etc. All sorts of things. VERY frustrating process. I wouldn't make any change, submit the skill again for certification and get different results. Now they announce their own calling feature, a week after finally approving our update.
- sgift 9y ago
  Kind of sad for you guys, but at the same time not so surprising - it is the fate of every useful platform add-on to be integrated into the platform over time. And calling people by name seems like a low-hanging fruit for Amazon.
  - silvanojr 9y ago
    Yes... also, when people started talking about an Echo device that could allow phone calls to happen I sent them an e-mail asking if we could have early access to develop our skill using the new device capabilities and asking if they had a beta program, their only response was: we don't comment on rumors. Silly me.
  - shostack 9y ago
    That seems to be their MO for a lot of things. Mine product sales data to release their own Amazon version and take that extra margin. They do it here as well.
- alttab 9y ago
  Which skill might I ask? Does it work well?
  - silvanojr 9y ago
    RingByName You need to link the skill with a RingByName account in order to use it. Yes, it works well. However, Amazon's speech recognition from Alexa is a challenge for names. Works fine most of the time for American names, but it struggles with foreign names. Results also vary depending on the accent of the user, so our skill always repeats what it got from Amazon to make sure users don't call someone else. We had to do some "magic" in the backend to try to find a contact even though an exact match wasn't found, which works very nicely.
jlebrech 9y ago
I could see the use in the kitchen as ask alexa to look up recipes or turn the page while my hands are greasy or covered in flour. this functionality will probably need a custom firmware tho.
pound 9y ago
Now they're much closer to solving 'smart home assistant' online shopping. Communication only via voice results in two uncomfortable options: either you're blindly believing that you'll get best price/option ("order xyz") or you may stuck in very slow listening of options (try to read search result list). That barrier will be stepped over with this little screen enhancing shopping experience, if needed.
salimmadjd 9y ago
iPhone for grandparents? or Echo for grandparents. For me this product makes sense for elderly in the digital age to keep them connected.
Kiro 9y ago
Perfect for viewing and browsing recipes and recipe videos without having to touch the screen.
MarketingJason 9y ago
IMO Amazon should focus on enabling and assisting the development of more skills and integrations for echo devices before pushing out newer models or adding features.
staz 9y ago
"Alexa, show me the kids' room." Am I the only one that's creeped up by that?
- blang 9y ago
  It's a bit creepy, but we do already sell network enabled baby monitors that do the same thing minus voice commands. Clearly a few have been sold as they were what were blamed for the Dyn DDOS
- thatwebdude 9y ago
  "Honey, I'm going to go check on the kids..."
amelius 9y ago
> If you want to limit your interaction with Alexa, simply turn the mic/camera button off. Of course, that button is a handy indicator for Amazon to know when to record stuff :)
mholmes680 9y ago
Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they're throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in. I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice controlled speaker. Give them a remote! Now, give them a voice-controlled camera! Now, give them a voice-controlled screen! Soon, give them <insert novel sensor> and let them go hands free! Rinse-repeat.
- sumoboy 9y ago
  This is something expected that should have been expected from Apple, not Amazon when it comes to innovative gadgets. Amazon really learned there lesson with phones so create a new market instead of competing in a saturated one. Google can't be far behind. With a screen now, it's like my own personal drive-thru to order whatever, products, food, whatever amazon is selling.
- prklmn 9y ago
  churn out as much crap as possible and see what sticks!
- anonymousthx 9y ago
  They started working on this late 2014 / early 2015. Work started on Look in late 2015. Source: ;)
  - mholmes680 9y ago
    Awesome. Now, one more thing: Echo Car. I dunno why, i just want Alexa in my car. She's already in 4 rooms in my house (no wait, 5 including Fire Stick? 7 including the Kindles?), and in my pocket.
    - thinkling 9y ago
      A bit off-topic, but: is Amazon the only company with substantial machine learning talent that doesn't seem to be working on a self-driving car? Are the people who would be doing that busy developing Amazon's drones?
dharma1 9y ago
The main thing that annoys me about Echo is that the knowledge graph is so poor. I can only choose from a limited amount of things to ask the damn thing, WikiPedia or start installing 3rd party skills. I wish I could install OK Google on Echo. Edit - looks like you can, with a custom skill - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-LVPMU7F4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-LVPMU7F4
justcommenting 9y ago
The Amazon Echo Show seems very much like a telescreen, straight out of Orwell's 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen
- aphextron 9y ago
  Agreed. I can't possibly see the value in these integrated devices for anyone but Amazon. Beyond that, these things can and will be hacked immediately.
  - lucasmullens 9y ago
    "will be hacked immediately" is a bit of a bold claim.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - sixothree 9y ago
      I would be surprised if this device were not already compromised by our government.
  - Kiro 9y ago
    So people buying Alexa products are delirious or what are you suggesting? Because saying there's no market for them is obviously incorrect.
    - aphextron 9y ago
      >Because saying there's no market for them is obviously incorrect. No I'm not saying that at all. Of course people will buy these things. It's just really creepy to me that we've gotten to this point as society where people willingly accept having a webcam and microphone connected to the biggest corporation in the world sitting in their living room, able to monitor anything at any time. People don't realize how much power they are giving to these companies. Do you really think they won't start listening in to conversations and using key phrases to modify your advertising profile? How far do we let these things go?
CreepyGuy101 9y ago
Well, that just got creepy. As if security wasn't an issue before.
themtutty 9y ago
Their demo video is cringe-worthy. I understand that you're also marketing to non-technical folks, but it's like a film from grade school.
CreepyGuy101 9y ago
I have to ask why these things aren't gesture activated ...
remind_me_again 9y ago
<sarcasm> <q>Is it NSA enabled</q> </sarcams>
hungtraan 9y ago
I honestly think that with the use cases the Echo Show would be much more useful had the static structure has a rotating base, which allows the Echo Show to rotate to the source of voice command (disable-able via setting for privacy concern). That would allow ultimate versatile use for its screen to offer the same hands-free experience.
kensai 9y ago
"Alexa, submit this comment to HN" It works! :D
deleted 9y ago
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davidcollantes 9y ago
From a user's perspective, I think there are too many Echoes. It makes it hard to decide which to get, especially for those who can only afford (or want to deal with) one. Too much fractioning.
- iampuero 9y ago
  Really? Ignoring Echo Look (which is invite only and for fashion) there will now be three: 1. Echo Show $230 2. Echo $170 3. Echo Dot $50 These three are very different in terms of hardware and price.
cturitzin 9y ago
This is exciting for healthcare use-cases. Simple stuff like video clinician checkups or remote monitoring such as tracking and recording physical therapy progress.
imartin2k 9y ago
Maybe that's just me, but based on the photos, this device looks quite ugly - which matters for a gadget that people put inside their homes, doesn't it? The "original" Echo has a futuristic design. This one feels more like created in 70s or 80s.
- rckclmbr 9y ago
  I think that's intentional. It's more like something my grandma would own. And it looks less likely that they would be spying and recording everything I'm doing. I guess it makes people feel safer since it looks "dumber"
  - imartin2k 9y ago
    Good point.
- ghostly_s 9y ago
  They tried their damnedest to hid it in the product photos, but I'm surprised at how chunky this thing is. You could almost squeeze a ray tube in there!
deleted 9y ago
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rtechnologies 9y ago
I developed this same thing 6 months ago. Setup and commands are a bit cumbersome due to being 3rd party but all you need is an Echo device and Android device with the Echo Sidekick app. Does everything the Show does except voice calls but you can send messages through Echo devices to other devices with the SideKick app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.renovotechnologies.alexafcm.free&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.renovotech...
bettyx1138 9y ago
the video seems like a parody
archeantus 9y ago
Looks great. But how about that mural?? The main takeaway I had from that video is I need to pick up sponge painting in my kid's rooms.
wppick 9y ago
Eventually, with the internet of things, there will need to be a "home brain" type device to control all of the devices in your house. The company that holds that position of controlling what devices can work with others will have a lot of market power.
sergiotapia 9y ago
Looks like something out of Robocop or Total Recall. I'm not sure if I'm excited or terrified! Let's say both.
cphoover 9y ago
People here are really missing the point... This isn't another ipad it's a different way of interacting. It's not just video message either, it's a new human interface for interacting with software. You can communicate with someone and get suggestions at the same time. Think conversing with a friend and having Alexa aid in the discussion. Friend 1: Where do you want to go to the movies tonight? .. Friend 2: I dunno Alexa have any good suggestions? Alexa: Star Trek is playing x:00 at X theatre. Things of this nature.
LeoNatan25 9y ago
It’s amazing how much of a difference a marketing video makes. This and the Echo Look are not at all that dissimilar, yet one appears to be friendly and essential, while the other is creepy as hell.
mycodebreaks 9y ago
why should a Fire tablet paired with speakers not be able to do this? I am not against any category of products, but as a person who likes to own and manage fewer devices, I like my devices to be versatile.
test6554 9y ago
If they are going to enable calling, I sincerely hope they learn from the current phone spam and email spam mess and don't let just anyone call you at any time. Ideally, you could authorize people to call you by giving each person/entity a different token that authorizes them to call you. Then if that person/entity sells the token to 3rd parties, you not only know who sold you out, but also you have the ability to revoke that token easily.
dafty4 9y ago
Brushed aluminum would look nicer. Plastic black matte is bleh.
dafty4 9y ago
Brushed aluminum or some other color scheme would look better. Plastic black matte looks cheap and meh.
malchow 9y ago
What does a Sonos user do when he has already deployed a dozen Sonos speakers throughout his house? Will there ever be a microphone-only Echo device that can link into a Sonos system?
- Wookai 9y ago
  Well, Sonos is actively working on Alexa integration (actually, integration with any voice-controlled assistant): https://www.cnet.com/news/sonos-demonstrates-amazon-alexa-control-says-other-assistants-are-coming/ https://www.cnet.com/news/sonos-demonstrates-amazon-alexa-co... In the meantime, you can connect an Echo Dot to a Play:5 (or any other Sonos speaker that has a line-in): http://www.sam-mallery.com/2016/12/5-tips-for-using-amazon-echo-dot-with-sonos/ http://www.sam-mallery.com/2016/12/5-tips-for-using-amazon-e...
pateldeependra 9y ago
This is similar to a tablet kept in my room.
gcb0 9y ago
so amazon is trying to corner the market of tablets-junior-cant-take-to-the-restroom market?
relyks 9y ago
If you can place multiple of these in a house and use them all together as an a/v intercom system, that'd be by a far killer feature. E.g. you can talk to your child who's in the basement or talk to coworker at another cubicle
Animats 9y ago
Not only can you watch it - it watches you!
Boothroid 9y ago
Why am I reminded of this: http://www.sinclairlair.co.uk/amstrad_emailer.htm http://www.sinclairlair.co.uk/amstrad_emailer.htm

390 points by metaedge 9y ago

It continues to surprise me how far ahead of them Apple is letting Amazon/Google get in this area. I've always been a big fan of Apple (despite their closed ecosystem), but have to admit that Amazon is seriously outplaying them on this front. Hopefully Apple surprises me and comes up with something even more innovative that can compete.

pryelluw 9y ago
I figure Apple is letting them figure out the basics and then they will introduce Siri-in-a-box kind of thing. No sense in being first to market if your execution is flawed.
- pwaivers 9y ago
  Isn't "Siri in a Box" basically the current Apple TV?
  - mhermher 9y ago
    Does AppleTV have HDMI pass through? You would need it for it to compete with the echo. The echo is always on, always listening and accessible. Having to turn on the TV and change inputs and all that removes all of the conveniences of the echo. My feeling is that some company is gonna do that eventually, use the set top box as the home hub, but there are some convenience issues to be figured out.
    - netsharc 9y ago
      Why not sell a display that will work with it wirelessly? It would basically be the iPad with WiFi but no touch screen, no camera, maybe even no battery (always plugged-in), and a stripped down iOS with limited CPU/RAM/storage. You talk to the AppleTV box, the display lights up and shows you what you asked for. Add a microphone to the display so it can hear where you are and display you the results in your kitchen display, bedroom display or wherever. And add a feature to listen to commands like "Show me X on my phone" or "Send this to my phone" and it will display whatever you just asked for on your iPhone. Or even "Send this to [contact name]".
      - CyberDuck 9y ago
        There are a lot of smart TVs already integrating with internet... I would imagine most would be like that in the future. It didn't make sense to me why they integrated a screen (other than to get people to use it in every room/ some sort of Amazon strategy that usually works for an unforeseen outcome). What I haven't seen is something like the electronic-paper Kindle... a calm display. Most of the time I have my laptop and tv on quick shut-down because the ambient light feels grating (maybe it's the feeling of losing energy? not sure why it annoys me). A calendar or XKCD board would be awesome.... have the echo just populate a poster with stuff that's slightly irritating to lookup... this leads into an idea of having 'settings' for the environment/ room...hmm
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Bascially this. Since the return of Jobs, Apple has not been first about anything (and one may argue about them not being so back in the day as well). But Jobs always had a flare for marketing.
  - aljones 9y ago
    Can you have loyal customers with just marketing? Certainly you can get them to buy a product, but marketing doesn't create satisfied customers post purchase. Being first is similar. You can certainly get some nice industry buzz (marketing) by being first. People will buy the product, but will they be satisfied? Only if it is well designed.
    - quineoa 9y ago
      I feel like the Blue Origin / SpaceX "first to land" is relevant here. Blue Origin (another Bezos company) was technically first to land a rocket, and gloated about it. But SpaceX has a more useful implementation as of now.
  - pryelluw 9y ago
    I think he understood what people wanted and knew how to communicate that to his team and the market.
dkrich 9y ago
When I saw this, I actually had the opposite reaction. I remember when I first saw an iPod Nano with the color screen and the scroll wheel that magically scrolled up and down by just moving your finger around it without actually turning a wheel. It seemed like magic. Same thing when I first saw the iPhone/iPod Touch. Apple's products were very carefully designed and only released when they were perfect, and very rarely failed to wow you. Amazon on the other hand, always seems to rush things to market and then see what sticks. I understand that this is largely their ethos, but when it comes to Amazon hardware, I've found myself pretty cynical towards it because they've released so much poorly-executed crap over the years. Even with Alexa, I like many others, find that it's pretty much useless for anything beyond playing music or setting a timer. Having an Echo, I saw this and my first thought was "meh." I have a feeling that if Apple released a similar product category, that wouldn't be the case.
- ganfortran 9y ago
  But Amazon's products are cheap. Echo first gets out, it is merely 99 dollars, and at the time, a vanilla bluetooth speaker worth that much. It is about accessibility.
  - lowtolerance 9y ago
    Amazon Echo was $199 when it was first introduced, which was still fairly competitively priced against premium bluetooth speakers.
    - dkrich 9y ago
      Also the Fire Phone, which as I remember was priced at about $650.
    - aslkdjaslkdj 9y ago
      It was $99 for Prime members.
    - btgeekboy 9y ago
      If you preordered when it was first announced, it was $99. Once it was released, the price returned to full $199.
thinkling 9y ago
I have wondered whether Apple has tried to buy Sonos. Seems like HomeKit + Sonos + Siri + iOS gadget displays could be a great mix.

FLGMwt 9y ago

Any echo owners feel like they would get additional value out of this? 90% of my interaction with my standard echo has been "what's the weather". Even when I want visual controls for music, I'd rather pull out my phone than walk over to a screen.

pryelluw 9y ago
Not really. This lacks basic tablet-level functionality. I cant see this taking off.
non_sequitur 9y ago
I think the biggest benefit is video calling. Get your parents one, get one yourself, schedule a video call with them once a week (or whatever). Easier than Facetime since you don't have to hold up the phone. Reminds me of the videophones in the Starship Troopers movie.
- tetrep 9y ago
  Why not get a tablet with a basic cover/stand? It has far more overall utility and isn't difficult to use.
  - non_sequitur 9y ago
    Cheaper cost, even easier to use since it has voice? I can see this going over well with older generations who are still fumbling around or slower with with phones and ipads.
- Allower 9y ago
  NO. this is a far worse experience than simply using my laptop or even phone
- ashark 9y ago
  Surely two phone stands would be cheaper. You can even initiate the call with voice if you really don't want to touch anything.

trapperkeeper79 9y ago

Amazon is killing it in IoT/Smart Home. However, IMHO, they are making a bit of mistake by not allowing developers to monetize their platform (at least the last time I checked). There were also certain device functions that apps could not utilize (e.g. programmatically mute and unmute). I suspect they'll have a wall garden approach to their new Echo devices too ... if this was open, they'd win it all (again, just my opinion).

irq-1 9y ago
Amazon subsidizes hardware by collecting information on the users, so they can't open their hardware. It's ironic because, like uBlock on Chrome, only a small percentage would change the hardware/OS anyway -- and those are the people who could try radical experiments and show Amazon what works. Hopefully Google, Samsung or Microsoft(?!) will sell open hardware/firmware that isn't subsidized by collecting information. Amazon is basically following the CueCat strategy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat#Failure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat#Failure > The company's response to these hacks was to assert that users did not own the devices and had no right to modify or reverse engineer them. Threats of legal action against the hackers swiftly brought on more controversy and criticism.
- deegles 9y ago
  Sources? Those are big claims to make.
sgs1370 9y ago
This is not what you're taking about because it is not the Echo hardware, but I think Amazon lets hardware manufacturers access Alexa API from their devices, and those hardware makers can charge whatever they want (and could put whatever type of "app store" or "hackability" into their hardware, all of which could call the Alexa voice API: https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-voice-service https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-voice-service
hbosch 9y ago
Software mute/unmute has too much of a potential to be abused by 3rd parties in my opinion. For your other comment, what kind of command-response skill could be monetized? Surely for the majority of use cases, the Alexa skill should remain free with your purchased/subscribed product on the other side? E.g. the "skill" to read NPR should always be free, but NPR is still monetized via subscription or commercials. The only example that jumps out at me would be Amazon Echo Games, something like text-based adventures built for voice. Otherwise, skills themselves are just a gateway to an already monetized service, no?

kayoone 9y ago

Love the concept of the Echo, however i don't see too much value in a screen, as for most tasks you'd need that for it's usually worth the effort to pull out the phone since you are also not bound to a specific location.

kasperset 9y ago

Looks like a mini tablet? Why cannot tablet be used for the same purpose? Perhaps audio capability?

UnfalseDesign 9y ago
I thought the exact same thing. It basically looks like a tablet with really good speakers that runs "skills" as opposed to "apps." I have no doubt that Amazon will be able to sell a ton of these but I'm clearly not the demographic. Though, it does make me wonder, where is the ceiling for personal assistant features? At what point does Amazon saturate its own market?
darkstar999 9y ago
Better audio and microphone capability.

UXCODE 9y ago

In the United States, what is the need for speech recognition devices? At least in Japan and China, speech recognition technology does not reach practical level and needs are small.

iplaw 9y ago
There isn't a need; it's more of a want. I have a few Echos and use them to control my whole home audio system. "Alexa, play Kendrick Lamar on Spotify." Just like that, I have music throughout the house and in the front and back yards. You can also get more specific with commands in order to limit where the music plays, what music service is polled, etc. It is much easier than pulling out a device, navigating to the application, typing in a search string, selecting the artist, and clicking shuffle playback for all of the artist's songs.
- Nullabillity 9y ago
  Presumably you only listen to chart-topping american pop and music made by people with common english names? Because so far I've never had any luck whatsoever with anything else.
  - Accacin 9y ago
    Downvoted but a very valid observation. I listen to a lot of Black Metal and as most of it isn't in English, it's hard for Siri to understand what I'm asking for, or to even know if I'm pronouncing it correctly.
  - xforteversilov 9y ago
    I literally asked my Google home this morning: "Hey Google, play some Peruvian psychedelic cumbia" and it found exactly what I wanted (using Spotify). For me, these home assistants are the best thing I have bought since my first smartphone.
    - Nullabillity 9y ago
      That's still a genre with a relatively english name. Good luck searching for a specific artist/track.

pwaivers 9y ago

A few thoughts: - This is way less creepy-looking than the Amazon Look (https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistant/dp/B0186JAEWK https://www.amazon.com/Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistan...), but it is actually very similar. - It is great to add a screen to the Echo. Just more feedback on interacting with it, and possibility to watch YouTube, Netflix, etc. casually. - It doesn't have the same cool minimalism as the Echo. The Echo sits on my counter and looks nice when not in use. I think this one looks much clunkier. - I definitely want to try one.

odonnellryan 9y ago
I wonder, why go this route instead of creating a device to add to your TV? My echo is right next to the TV.
- thatwebdude 9y ago
  Doesn't the FireTV/Stick do full-on Alexa now?
  - sailfast 9y ago
    Yes - though it's not listening and you need the voice remote to be in your hand and/or you need to spin up the app on your phone. While that doesn't sound like a barrier to much, it definitely has been for me asking for simple things especially from across the room. Voice interfaces are good for hands-free action, which FireTV doesn't really allow.
    - cbhl 9y ago
      As someone who owns both an Echo and a Fire TV Stick, I found it initially surprising that the Echo couldn't control things on the TV. I also found it surprising that the same APIs returning voice responses had been returning data about things to display on a screen the whole time. This seems like an obvious product for those who completely buy into the Alexa ecosystem.

PascLeRasc 9y ago

Are they just "announcing" these devices by putting them up for sale? It feels like we need an Echo keynote to learn about their direction and they could get a lot more hype that way.

DaggerDagger 9y ago
Why? I think a company that sells products can just use their website, the #12 most visited website on the planet to announce it. The Steve Jobs style keynote is so gauche now, even Apple seems sort of clunky doing it. You can't do the same magic trick over and over and expect people to be into it.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

colemannugent 9y ago

I feel like this entire product could be a Chromecast-esque dongle that connects to a TV. Having a personal dashboard would actually be quite useful, but this seems like they want to sell appliances not experiences. Maybe they've gone with this form factor because of the 2x 2" speakers? But why would I want that when it could be plugged directly into my home audio setup? Or maybe it's so they can include a touchscreen? But I thought the whole point was hands-free conversational interaction? I guess I'm missing the point of this. Why would I, as a normal consumer, get this instead of a regular Amazon Echo?

Klathmon 9y ago
I thought that as well, but now that i've gotten into the home automation game, i've found that TVs just aren't fast enough for it. My TV takes 15 seconds on average to start up, and then another 3 or 4 to have sound. There is no easy way to turn them on and off in a reliable manner, and for some unknown reason many disable CEC by default... Not to mention that having to choose between watching something on TV and using the device is an annoying decision to make in a lot of cases.
- mhermher 9y ago
  You can leave the TV always on, but muted and blacked out by the set top box. That may be a good solution to that? Not sure if anyone has designed that on a set top box.
  - Klathmon 9y ago
    most TVs are then still using almost full power, some still aren't "black" when a black screen is up (it provides light at night, enough to see with in my case!), and still puts off heat. It's a hack that might work for something personal, but I wouldn't be comfortable selling a product that did this.
    - mhermher 9y ago
      Fair points. I'm really kind of tied to the idea that someone is going to do this as a set-top box format. What you mention is a major issue though. Maybe it can use the video output only if the TV is already on, and just failsafe to audio in those cases, like a regular echo.

eclipxe 9y ago

People are missing this: "With the Alexa App, conversations and contacts go where you go. When you’re away from home, use the app to make a quick call or send a message to your family’s Echo. Alexa calling and messaging is free—to get started download the Alexa App." Alexa is now in the messaging and communication game. https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/09/amazon-enables-free-calls-and-messages-on-all-echo-devices-with-alexa-calling/ https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/09/amazon-enables-free-calls-...

jaboutboul 9y ago
Well they are definitely pushing into that space with Amazon Chime, so it only makes sense. This is also absolutely going to kill Nucleus[1] which was the first device released with Alexa Voice Service integrated and was heavily hyped by Amazon at the time. [1]: https://nucleuslife.com/ https://nucleuslife.com/
- stingrae 9y ago
  I wonder what the Amazon strategy with this is, given they invested through the Alexa fund.
  - sushid 9y ago
    Probably just hedging their bets. But they definitely want their own horse to win the race.
- ribs 9y ago
  Damn that thing's almost $400! You're right, they'll be dead.
  - andrewaylett 9y ago
    In fairness, that's the cost for two -- they're $249 individually, so a bit cheaper than a Show. But that's not entirely obvious from the page.
- 9y ago

chaostheory 9y ago

It would be nice to control FireTV with an Echo. Still waiting.

tetrep 9y ago

I don't see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people's homes.

CoolGuySteve 9y ago
I have an old iPad taped to my kitchen wall for recipes, YouTube, and playing music via Bluetooth. It's really handy but "Hey Siri" works maybe 30% of the time. I don't really use it anymore. The worst part is that Siri can't integrate with other music apps, other note taking apps, other video players, or pretty much anything. So it's incredibly crippled despite being able to parse my requests. If Alexa can fix that, this would be pretty neat.
oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
> can do more things You answered your own question. Not every device used in a home (remote control, light switch, thermostat) needs to be replaced with a full tablet computer, even if it could be.
- alxvio 9y ago
  Who would want this Amazon product for every light switch, remote control, and thermostat? No, most buyers will probably just buy one for a household. In that case, I agree that a regular tablet would suffice.
  - oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
    My point was that you have a remote control already; you don't use a tablet instead of that, just for use as a remote control. In a similar way, a tablet might be overkill for a 'home assistant', and the Amazon Echo seems designed to address that.
mhermher 9y ago
It has a much better microphone array. It's actually probably the one thing that stands out about the echo to me. The mic is really good.

ganfortran 9y ago

Here is a crazy idea: What didn't Amazon make this its own Nintendo Switch? A stand with a detachable tablet? Won't this be even better?

tartuffe78 9y ago
Because then it would be an entirely different product.

Allower 9y ago

wish they would support calls on the base echo device..

GrumpyNl 9y ago

Why would you wanna have a electronic spy at home is beyond me.

bovermyer 9y ago
Because I want a Jarvis, and this is the closest thing. If you can think of a way to have an artificial assistant of that class without being tied in to a corporation, I'm all ears.
ryanwaggoner 9y ago
Do you turn off your cell phone and computers at home? Even if you do, most people don't. And won't.

yalogin 9y ago

Great now the echo will record all video as well and "anonymize" it and use it to improve their systems. This class of devices are the most puzzling to me. People know their value proposition is to record everything but then keep buying them. I keep waiting for the day when the scales tip in favor of privacy but that never happens.

ryanwaggoner 9y ago
Actually, people don't know that. The Echo doesn't "record everything", and I'd challenge you to provide any evidence that it does.
- shostack 9y ago
  True/false: Can Amazon technically enable it to record without the user's knowledge? What if a government compelled them to activate this to spy on someone?
  - djrogers 9y ago
    Ability to create a new (creepy and likely illegal) feature is not the same thing as it being the Echo's "value prop"...
ashark 9y ago
I doubt the typical user of Internet(-enabled) services has any idea how much is recorded about them, or what it's used for. They probably intuitively think that recording and retaining these sorts of things on such a scale and for such purposes is already illegal.
deepGem 9y ago
Can you please explain a bit more about your privacy concern ? Are you implying that Amazon might 1. Inadvertently leak these videos 2. Succumb to a massive breach that will expose all these videos. 3. Use the private data as a signal to sell more stuff. I only ask this because, if there is some company that genuinely cares about their customers, it's Amazon but from personal and anecdotal experience.

mandeepj 9y ago

A better alternate to Sony dash which got abandoned

sxates 9y ago
Yes - my Dash finally died last year, which I mourned. This looks like the next gen. https://www.amazon.com/Sony-HIDC10-Personal-Discontinued-Manufacturer/dp/B00375MPA8 https://www.amazon.com/Sony-HIDC10-Personal-Discontinued-Man...

slackoverflower 9y ago

What is Amazon's long term strategy with all these devices with the main feature still being voice?

jaboutboul 9y ago
Behavioral data. The more they know about you, the more they can accurately target products/services/etc at you.
CaveTech 9y ago
Collecting video data for future use.
vertebrate 9y ago
preventing future crimes
VLM 9y ago
My honestly non-sarcastic guess is the dash button form factor will merge with Alexa resulting in something like disposable fashionable ST:TNG communicator buttons. I'm not kidding at all, although I can sympathize this might seem a touch ridiculous. Billions were made off the "its kinda like a tricoder or a ST:TOS communicator but its mostly a phone". Its highly likely a lot of money will be made selling each member of the general populace a handful of ST:TNG communicator buttons in or around 2030. Schools will spare no expense to make sure each kid has one "for security and learning purposes only of course". Your music service will be part of the communicator badge ecosystem or it won't exist much longer, and so on.

JimmyAustin 9y ago

Interesting choice going with an x86 chip. This could potentially be a hackers dream if you got Linux running on it.

dawnerd 9y ago
It's probably running their fire os.
- JimmyAustin 9y ago
  AFAIK FireOS is ARM only and a brief look on wiki says all the other devices (FireTV, Echo, Echo Dot, etc) are all ARM. Either way, I'd imagine you would want to wipe it completely. Can't wait for the iFixit teardown.
  - nezza-_- 9y ago
    FireOS is based on Android which definitely runs on x86
  - com2kid 9y ago
    FireOS is just Android with a UI skin and some Google services ripped out. I'd be surprised if an x86 fork wasn't always maintained, if for nothing else than ease of debugging!

pmcpinto 9y ago

So this is kind of a tablet, but with voice as main UI

voltagex_ 9y ago

It's the Chumby for 2017, with less freedom to hack.

fenwick67 9y ago
This is motivating me to do more work on my chumby clone project I've been putting on the back burner.

verytrivial 9y ago

I must be one of those old farts who prefers privacy over convenience. I do not want what amounts to an always-on black-box surveillance device in my home and I simply do not understand why other people think it is okay. I honestly don't. Down with this sort of thing!

eclipxe 9y ago
Do you own a cellphone with a camera and microphone?
- ghostly_s 9y ago
  Yes, but only one from a vendor with a well-demonstrated commitment to privacy and with no 'always listening' features enabled. Believe it or not this is not some sort of extremist stance!
- danielbln 9y ago
  Personally, I have a sticker on all cameras (front-facing phone camera, monitor, laptop). I can't do anything against having hot mics everywhere, but I'll be damned if I have internet connected cameras pointed at me, I don't trust IoT security one bit.
- pdkl95 9y ago
  No, and unless I have to some type of on-call job in the future, I never will. POTS works fine for telephony, and my computer is much faster, has better features, is far easier to read, and isn't de facto controlled by Apple|Google. While portable devices can be a useful tool, far too many people are addicted to the dopamine hit they get by hitting "refresh", and/or distracted by shiny tech baubles.
  - nebabyte 9y ago
    Good on you. I've gone back and forth between having a smart device and not, and while I've been on the move for a while and thus benefitted from having one, will likely go back to pre-smartphone hardware once settled. Other than net browsing (which I find woefully underpowered on mobile even today) and listening to music, I rarely if ever use this thing's auxillary functions. Most of the "defaults" are just clutter reminiscent of the pre-smartphone vendor days (complete with the "but look, you can make them less visible, just move them around!"). Can relate on the distraction bit as well, as that used to be a bigger problem for me.

vineet 9y ago

The video calling capability seems especially neat - I wonder if they will interoperate with Facetime, Google Duo/Hangouts, and other video calling protocols. It will make our lives so much easier.

eclipxe 9y ago
?
- vineet 9y ago
  Companies with closed platforms do have a track record of collaborating and integrating. However, if you are making a case for standards in this space - I agree.
smileysteve 9y ago
If anything, it's looking like Alexa might be the only one that will work across the 3. You can install hangouts duo on IOS, but likely not on alexa. You can install Alexa on Android (not through google play). You can't install facetime on Alexa or Android.

rrggrr 9y ago

This was the direction I expected Apple to take prior to Jobs passing. It seemed the rumored Apple TV would combine Siri with traditional television. Apple faces serious threats across the entertainment spectrum, from content to device. Everyone speculating on Apple acquisitions should be considering a Sony or LG buyout. I own stock in neither.

danso 9y ago

I'm not willing or interested enough to enable voice activation (Siri) on my phone or desktop, but thought Echo would be nice to have as a music player. The voice recognition is so reliable -- not just the NLP, but the mic array (unlike trying to activate Siri on the iPhone) -- that it's converted me to a true believer in voice interfaces, at least for simple tasks, such as playing music, turning on NPR, and activating timers and alarms. I do have the Fire stick connected to a projector but I've definitely longed for the ability to navigate YouTube or HBO on a tablet-like device with Alexa (again, not just the NLP, but the mic array, which Fire tablets don't have) This seems like a nice step in that direction but I've been spoiled by the low cost of the Echo Dot, which when it's on sale is so cheap it can be a stocking stuffer. I don't think I could pay $229 for the first generation version of the Show, but will likely get its cheaper, more advanced iterations.

Roritharr 9y ago
Same here on all accounts, I'd just add that before I buy more Echoes Amazon needs to make the Multi-Room Integration better so it's better to furnish out a larger apartment or house. I mean there's probably no difference between a single NSA listening device and a suite of them.

noonespecial 9y ago

Why does it have to be a tiny self contained screen? Until I can say "Alexa, on the main view screen" (right after "Alexa, Earl Grey, hot" of course), we've got progress to make. Which reminds me, I've got a Keurig to hack...

veli_joza 9y ago
You hit the nail on the head. Back in 90s we could connect any audio/video device to any other device, because manufacturers agreed on basic analog signals. Now, everything is "smart" and isolated. Is it too much to ask to be able to route audio/video/other signals from sources to sinks regardless device boundaries? It's not helping that big companies like Amazon want to establish themselves as _the_ hub for IoT.
lostboys67 9y ago
MM the Alex Replicator :-)
Godel_unicode 9y ago
Ok Google, show me Futurama from Netflix on living room. Ok Google, fast forward 27 seconds. As soon as they get the ability to play specific episodes (it knows what you're asking, it just can't do it yet) and hook it up to the knowledge graph? Ok Google, show me the Futurama episode where Hermes loses his job on living room.
- jerf 9y ago
  The Friends episode naming scheme is going to look extra prescient in the future, since they all (with rare exception(s)) are called "The One With [2-6 word summary of the episode's A plot]": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_episodes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Friends_episodes

uptown 9y ago

“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug into your wire whenever they wanted to.” -Orwell, 1984

obstinate 9y ago
Kneejerk Orwell quote referencing minor advance to existing technology: check.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- criley2 9y ago
  Yeah Orwell was all about heavy handed government oppression, not willing consumer behavior. This is more Huxley (check another box, the Huxley vs Orwell comparison). At any rate, the quote would be better served when discussing Snowden style revelations, because we know for a fact that people in the US security apparatus could (and did) abuse their ability to spy on the internet behavior of everyday American citizens without due process.
sharkweek 9y ago
"And but so why the abrupt consumer retreat back to good old voice-only telephoning? The answer, in a kind of trivalent nutshell, is: (1) emotional stress, (2) physical vanity, (3) a certain queer kind of self- obliterating logic in the microeconomics of consumer high-tech." David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527 http://declineofscarcity.com/?page_id=2527
sgift 9y ago
The joke's on us. Not even Orwell thought people would be willing to pay for that kind of technology. He thought government would have to force people to get it into their homes.

scotchio 9y ago

Love that Amazon is throwing a lot of options out there. Only wish the outer shell on this one looked a bit nicer / slicker. Really want an "Alexa" type replacement for smoke detectors. Location seems perfect for speakers / music in a house. Scary to think that privacy for average consumer is basically dead.

vthallam 9y ago

This is more like an iPad with a better Siri. I guess talking to parents, watching child cams are the target audience for this. A device which sits in living room or bed room need not show me CNN in there.

djrogers 9y ago
I think it's more like an iPad with a better microphone (well, 7 or 8 actually). When Siri can hear you clearly, it's much better at most tasks in my experience. The problem is often that it can't hear you clearly...

agumonkey 9y ago

Kinda merging tablet/webcam + alarm clock usage. Not bad.

coding123 9y ago

They used the same picture of Dad seeing his grandchild like 3 times, they need to push out different pics.

iamatworknow 9y ago
Now introducing Amazon Stock Photos! (I had to search to make sure this didn't already exist, and I'm surprised it doesn't.)
- fenwick67 9y ago
  Can I use the Amazon Echo to lead an imaginary life? "Show me pictures of my family" (stock photos) "Show me my vacation photos" (synthesizes a photo of me at the grand canyon with my waifu)
  - iamatworknow 9y ago
    "Alexa, show me reasons why fenwick67's waifu is shit and my waifu is best girl." 4chan by voice. What could go wrong?
  - VLM 9y ago
    I've proposed this for social media for a long time. Rich and famous people have handlers run their social media to meet their goals. I think it fair for poorer people to experience the same relaxation and freedom. Why can't I hire a cloud powered bot to manage my kids social media presence to get him into an ivy "Hey everybody, like my pix of me doing voluntourism in some 3rd world country where I'm photoshopped into a pix of a school being constructed." "How do you do, fellow kids, I am very concerned today about (insert randomly selected progressive cause)". It wouldn't be a social problem as legacy social media is so yesterday, only auntie and grandma still use facebook and corporations and bots are now the majority users. You just know grandma is going to get into the weirdest flamewar ever on myspace or ICQ or twitter with your social media bot avatar. I think it would be useful to have a bot run my linkedin for me. A form letter to respond to recruiter form letters. Every week it goes to Google Trends, runs a query on "computer language" to find the trendy framework of the week, and ta da I am now an expert on linked-in for "computer graphics programs in c language with output" "what does pdf mean in computer language" "computer in hindi language" and sure you laugh today, but normies (like HR gatekeepers) google for this kind of stuff all the time, and if my bot's effort posting gets me jobs you're not getting, well, we'll see who gets the last laugh ...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

silvanojr 9y ago

I was battling back and forth FOR A MONTH with their skill certification approval team for a skill update that would allow customers to call people by name, where in the first version it was only by phone number. They would fail the certification because apparently people didn't know how to test, or used fake numbers to make phone calls and complained the call would not connect, or the certificate validation (that was working before) would fail, etc. All sorts of things. VERY frustrating process. I wouldn't make any change, submit the skill again for certification and get different results. Now they announce their own calling feature, a week after finally approving our update.

sgift 9y ago
Kind of sad for you guys, but at the same time not so surprising - it is the fate of every useful platform add-on to be integrated into the platform over time. And calling people by name seems like a low-hanging fruit for Amazon.
- silvanojr 9y ago
  Yes... also, when people started talking about an Echo device that could allow phone calls to happen I sent them an e-mail asking if we could have early access to develop our skill using the new device capabilities and asking if they had a beta program, their only response was: we don't comment on rumors. Silly me.
- shostack 9y ago
  That seems to be their MO for a lot of things. Mine product sales data to release their own Amazon version and take that extra margin. They do it here as well.
alttab 9y ago
Which skill might I ask? Does it work well?
- silvanojr 9y ago
  RingByName You need to link the skill with a RingByName account in order to use it. Yes, it works well. However, Amazon's speech recognition from Alexa is a challenge for names. Works fine most of the time for American names, but it struggles with foreign names. Results also vary depending on the accent of the user, so our skill always repeats what it got from Amazon to make sure users don't call someone else. We had to do some "magic" in the backend to try to find a contact even though an exact match wasn't found, which works very nicely.

jlebrech 9y ago

I could see the use in the kitchen as ask alexa to look up recipes or turn the page while my hands are greasy or covered in flour. this functionality will probably need a custom firmware tho.

pound 9y ago

Now they're much closer to solving 'smart home assistant' online shopping. Communication only via voice results in two uncomfortable options: either you're blindly believing that you'll get best price/option ("order xyz") or you may stuck in very slow listening of options (try to read search result list). That barrier will be stepped over with this little screen enhancing shopping experience, if needed.

salimmadjd 9y ago

iPhone for grandparents? or Echo for grandparents. For me this product makes sense for elderly in the digital age to keep them connected.

Kiro 9y ago

Perfect for viewing and browsing recipes and recipe videos without having to touch the screen.

MarketingJason 9y ago

IMO Amazon should focus on enabling and assisting the development of more skills and integrations for echo devices before pushing out newer models or adding features.

staz 9y ago

"Alexa, show me the kids' room." Am I the only one that's creeped up by that?

blang 9y ago
It's a bit creepy, but we do already sell network enabled baby monitors that do the same thing minus voice commands. Clearly a few have been sold as they were what were blamed for the Dyn DDOS
thatwebdude 9y ago
"Honey, I'm going to go check on the kids..."

amelius 9y ago

> If you want to limit your interaction with Alexa, simply turn the mic/camera button off. Of course, that button is a handy indicator for Amazon to know when to record stuff :)

mholmes680 9y ago

Its interesting to see how fast Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they're throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in. I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice controlled speaker. Give them a remote! Now, give them a voice-controlled camera! Now, give them a voice-controlled screen! Soon, give them <insert novel sensor> and let them go hands free! Rinse-repeat.

sumoboy 9y ago
This is something expected that should have been expected from Apple, not Amazon when it comes to innovative gadgets. Amazon really learned there lesson with phones so create a new market instead of competing in a saturated one. Google can't be far behind. With a screen now, it's like my own personal drive-thru to order whatever, products, food, whatever amazon is selling.
prklmn 9y ago
churn out as much crap as possible and see what sticks!
anonymousthx 9y ago
They started working on this late 2014 / early 2015. Work started on Look in late 2015. Source: ;)
- mholmes680 9y ago
  Awesome. Now, one more thing: Echo Car. I dunno why, i just want Alexa in my car. She's already in 4 rooms in my house (no wait, 5 including Fire Stick? 7 including the Kindles?), and in my pocket.
  - thinkling 9y ago
    A bit off-topic, but: is Amazon the only company with substantial machine learning talent that doesn't seem to be working on a self-driving car? Are the people who would be doing that busy developing Amazon's drones?

dharma1 9y ago

The main thing that annoys me about Echo is that the knowledge graph is so poor. I can only choose from a limited amount of things to ask the damn thing, WikiPedia or start installing 3rd party skills. I wish I could install OK Google on Echo. Edit - looks like you can, with a custom skill - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-LVPMU7F4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR-LVPMU7F4

justcommenting 9y ago

The Amazon Echo Show seems very much like a telescreen, straight out of Orwell's 1984: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescreen

aphextron 9y ago
Agreed. I can't possibly see the value in these integrated devices for anyone but Amazon. Beyond that, these things can and will be hacked immediately.
- lucasmullens 9y ago
  "will be hacked immediately" is a bit of a bold claim.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - sixothree 9y ago
    I would be surprised if this device were not already compromised by our government.
- Kiro 9y ago
  So people buying Alexa products are delirious or what are you suggesting? Because saying there's no market for them is obviously incorrect.
  - aphextron 9y ago
    >Because saying there's no market for them is obviously incorrect. No I'm not saying that at all. Of course people will buy these things. It's just really creepy to me that we've gotten to this point as society where people willingly accept having a webcam and microphone connected to the biggest corporation in the world sitting in their living room, able to monitor anything at any time. People don't realize how much power they are giving to these companies. Do you really think they won't start listening in to conversations and using key phrases to modify your advertising profile? How far do we let these things go?

CreepyGuy101 9y ago

Well, that just got creepy. As if security wasn't an issue before.

themtutty 9y ago

Their demo video is cringe-worthy. I understand that you're also marketing to non-technical folks, but it's like a film from grade school.

CreepyGuy101 9y ago

I have to ask why these things aren't gesture activated ...

remind_me_again 9y ago

<sarcasm> <q>Is it NSA enabled</q> </sarcams>

hungtraan 9y ago

I honestly think that with the use cases the Echo Show would be much more useful had the static structure has a rotating base, which allows the Echo Show to rotate to the source of voice command (disable-able via setting for privacy concern). That would allow ultimate versatile use for its screen to offer the same hands-free experience.

kensai 9y ago

"Alexa, submit this comment to HN" It works! :D

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

davidcollantes 9y ago

From a user's perspective, I think there are too many Echoes. It makes it hard to decide which to get, especially for those who can only afford (or want to deal with) one. Too much fractioning.

iampuero 9y ago
Really? Ignoring Echo Look (which is invite only and for fashion) there will now be three: 1. Echo Show $230 2. Echo $170 3. Echo Dot $50 These three are very different in terms of hardware and price.

cturitzin 9y ago

This is exciting for healthcare use-cases. Simple stuff like video clinician checkups or remote monitoring such as tracking and recording physical therapy progress.

imartin2k 9y ago

Maybe that's just me, but based on the photos, this device looks quite ugly - which matters for a gadget that people put inside their homes, doesn't it? The "original" Echo has a futuristic design. This one feels more like created in 70s or 80s.

rckclmbr 9y ago
I think that's intentional. It's more like something my grandma would own. And it looks less likely that they would be spying and recording everything I'm doing. I guess it makes people feel safer since it looks "dumber"
- imartin2k 9y ago
  Good point.
ghostly_s 9y ago
They tried their damnedest to hid it in the product photos, but I'm surprised at how chunky this thing is. You could almost squeeze a ray tube in there!

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

rtechnologies 9y ago

I developed this same thing 6 months ago. Setup and commands are a bit cumbersome due to being 3rd party but all you need is an Echo device and Android device with the Echo Sidekick app. Does everything the Show does except voice calls but you can send messages through Echo devices to other devices with the SideKick app. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.renovotechnologies.alexafcm.free&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.renovotech...

bettyx1138 9y ago

the video seems like a parody

archeantus 9y ago

Looks great. But how about that mural?? The main takeaway I had from that video is I need to pick up sponge painting in my kid's rooms.

wppick 9y ago

Eventually, with the internet of things, there will need to be a "home brain" type device to control all of the devices in your house. The company that holds that position of controlling what devices can work with others will have a lot of market power.

sergiotapia 9y ago

Looks like something out of Robocop or Total Recall. I'm not sure if I'm excited or terrified! Let's say both.

cphoover 9y ago

People here are really missing the point... This isn't another ipad it's a different way of interacting. It's not just video message either, it's a new human interface for interacting with software. You can communicate with someone and get suggestions at the same time. Think conversing with a friend and having Alexa aid in the discussion. Friend 1: Where do you want to go to the movies tonight? .. Friend 2: I dunno Alexa have any good suggestions? Alexa: Star Trek is playing x:00 at X theatre. Things of this nature.

LeoNatan25 9y ago

It’s amazing how much of a difference a marketing video makes. This and the Echo Look are not at all that dissimilar, yet one appears to be friendly and essential, while the other is creepy as hell.

mycodebreaks 9y ago

why should a Fire tablet paired with speakers not be able to do this? I am not against any category of products, but as a person who likes to own and manage fewer devices, I like my devices to be versatile.

test6554 9y ago

If they are going to enable calling, I sincerely hope they learn from the current phone spam and email spam mess and don't let just anyone call you at any time. Ideally, you could authorize people to call you by giving each person/entity a different token that authorizes them to call you. Then if that person/entity sells the token to 3rd parties, you not only know who sold you out, but also you have the ability to revoke that token easily.

dafty4 9y ago

Brushed aluminum would look nicer. Plastic black matte is bleh.

dafty4 9y ago

Brushed aluminum or some other color scheme would look better. Plastic black matte looks cheap and meh.

malchow 9y ago

What does a Sonos user do when he has already deployed a dozen Sonos speakers throughout his house? Will there ever be a microphone-only Echo device that can link into a Sonos system?

Wookai 9y ago
Well, Sonos is actively working on Alexa integration (actually, integration with any voice-controlled assistant): https://www.cnet.com/news/sonos-demonstrates-amazon-alexa-control-says-other-assistants-are-coming/ https://www.cnet.com/news/sonos-demonstrates-amazon-alexa-co... In the meantime, you can connect an Echo Dot to a Play:5 (or any other Sonos speaker that has a line-in): http://www.sam-mallery.com/2016/12/5-tips-for-using-amazon-echo-dot-with-sonos/ http://www.sam-mallery.com/2016/12/5-tips-for-using-amazon-e...

pateldeependra 9y ago

This is similar to a tablet kept in my room.

gcb0 9y ago

so amazon is trying to corner the market of tablets-junior-cant-take-to-the-restroom market?

relyks 9y ago

If you can place multiple of these in a house and use them all together as an a/v intercom system, that'd be by a far killer feature. E.g. you can talk to your child who's in the basement or talk to coworker at another cubicle

Animats 9y ago

Not only can you watch it - it watches you!

Boothroid 9y ago

Why am I reminded of this: http://www.sinclairlair.co.uk/amstrad_emailer.htm http://www.sinclairlair.co.uk/amstrad_emailer.htm