The Amazon Echo

Amazon has recently unveiled a new piece of technology that they have produced called the Echo. The main purpose of the Echo is to stream music and search the internet using voice recognition. It is uses voice recognition to surf the web and take song requests and has not screen, just speakers.

Link to an article with more information on Amazon's new product: https://www.yahoo.com/tech/amazons-new-gadget-is-like-a-siri-voice-assistant-for-101942916809.html

Although the speaker seems like it is a good idea I think that it is probably just a waste of money. The product seems to be a solution to a problem that could just be solved using an application that would be on your phone. I do think that the ideas behind the product are cool. The fact that the product lets you browse and playback music and surf the web is pretty awesome. The starting price of the device is said to be at 199 dollars, which is pretty steep for a device that has so little capabilities. I think that it would be nice if the device had some type of display that the user could use to make the experience of using it  a little more straight forward. I don't think that many people will end up shelling out the money required to buy the product. I think that Amazon should focus on making their voice recognition software available in an app that they release on mobile devices such as the iPhone or Android mobile phones before they make too many of the devices. I think that the voice recognition software that they developed has more of a place in someone phone than in a pair of speakers.

Overall I think that the recent efforts of Amazon to expand their market to more than just selling stuff over the internet is pretty cool. They have developed a lot of cool ideas that could be implemented into other devices, the Echo is one such example. I think that they just need to focus on developing software for other devices instead of making their own products (with the exception of their Kindle tablets). I hope that they keep on developing new ideas that help us do everyday activities more efficiently.

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