$99 for Amazon Prime members/$199 for non-Prime orders

Internet-connected speaker features voice-activated commands to ask questions, listen to music, create shopping lists in the cloud and more.

For the last three months my family has been striking up conversation with Alexa, the voice behind Amazon’s thermos-sized Internet-connected speaker called the Amazon Echo. When asked nicely, Alexa gives us the local weather, news, traffic and even has a few jokes to share with us.

Amazon lists the price of Echo at $199, but has been selling the unit for $99 to Amazon Prime members. Amazon Prime Membership itself costs $99 per year and entitles members to:

• Free two-day shipping,
• Prime Instant Video—a video streaming service with access to thousands of videos and TV shows,
• Prime Music—song streaming services with access to more than a million songs and albums),
• Prime Photos—a cloud-based photo storage and sharing service, and
• Kindle Owners’ Lending Library—One free book per month from a select set of titles that can be read on Fire or Kindle devices.

To build excitement over its release and encourage early adopters, customers must request an invitation to purchase an Echo from Amazon. I am an Amazon Prime subscriber and have been looking to replace either our Tivoli AM/FM Radio in the kitchen or an iPod docking speaker for my office. I thought that the Amazon Echo might be an attractive replacement option at the special $99 price for Amazon Prime members and put in a request to Amazon for an invite to purchase an Echo. In late December, Amazon notified me of my “opportunity” to purchase an Echo; I had one week to act or “my” Echo would go to someone else. The process must be working, because Amazon is still only selling the Echo through invitations. It is also unclear how long Prime members will be entitled to the discount. Students of behavioral psychology will recognize this common and effective selling technique that builds buzz for a product and puts it the hands of early adopters.

Out of the Box

The Echo arrives in a very attractive package. The unit itself is a black metal cylinder, 9.25 inches tall and 3.27 inches wide. There are two stacked downward-firing speakers. On the top of the Echo is a light-up ring that rotates for volume control. There only two buttons on top: an action button and a microphone off button. The Echo has a dedicated “wall wart” as a power supply. There is no battery. To operate, the Echo must be plugged in. This is the first big strike against the Echo. It is small enough to be portable, but you must plug it in to a power outlet. The Echo has a seven-microphone array to hear your voice commands even when it is playing music. In operation, we did not experience any significant problems when issuing voice commands.

The Echo also includes a microphone-enabled remote control. It features buttons for play/pause, previous, next, volume up, volume down and talk. The talk button allows for voice control of the Echo while speaking into the remote.

The Echo is designed to be always connected to the Internet and can be controlled via voice, remote and iPhone and android apps. I obtained a free Echo app for my iPhone, which assisted with my configuration of the Echo to the wireless network at home and when I moved the device to a different wireless network at the office. I found the iPhone Echo app very useful and tend to reach for my phone to control the Echo instead of the remote.

Let’s Talk

The Amazon Echo is always connected to the Amazon Web Services and is listening for a wake word to take action. Alexa is the default word that the Echo “listens” for; when it hears it, a blue and white ring of lights on top of the device activates to indicate that the Echo detected its wake word and is waiting for its voice command. Echo ships with a cheat sheet of common commands. For example, saying “Alexa, what’s the weather?” will lead to a local weather forecast played back on the Echo. If the Echo does not understand your command it will provide vocal feedback. The Echo app displays a list of all the commands you have given your Echo, and the app also has a voice training procedure to tune the service to your voice.

Amazon Echo

 

Since the Echo is always “listening,” Amazon has provided a microphone mute button on the device to help deal with the creep factor of “Big Brother” always hearing your words. The light ring turns red to indicate that the microphone has been disabled. The light ring flashes blue and white to indicate that it is streaming your voice to Amazon’s servers to process your command. Users can enable an audible tone that plays at the start and end of the upload of audio to Amazon. Since the vocal processing is done in the cloud, Amazon is able to easily upgrade the feature set of voice commands. For example, Amazon just enabled a traffic feature, but it first requires users to enter start and end points in the Echo app.

Here is an example of some of the voice commands:

• Alexa, what’s the forecast this weekend?
• Alexa, add milk to my shopping list
• Alexa, set the alarm for 7 a.m.
• Alexa, set the timer for 15 minutes
• Alexa, Wikipedia: Abraham Lincoln
• Alexa, how many ounces in a cup?
• Alexa, what’s the definition of serendipity?
• Alexa, tell me a joke
• Alexa, how is traffic?

All of this functionality means that Echo requires an Internet connection to function. If an Internet connection is not available, nothing on the device will work.

Streaming Portal

The Echo is an always-connected speaker and is geared toward streaming audio from the Internet or through a Bluetooth-connected source. Echo offers weather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, NPR and ESPN. Echo can also stream radio stations through TuneIn or iHeartRadio.

TuneIn is a service that allows users to streaming the audio of over 100,000 radio networks and radio stations worldwide. Additionally, over four million podcasts are available for streaming through TuneIn. TuneIn has partnered with numerous broadcasters to offer sports, news, talk and music to its listeners. Some examples include partnerships with CBS, ESPN Radio, NPR, Public Radio International, Hearst Corporation and Bonneville International. I have used TuneIn’s iPhone app in the past to stream local radio stations, ESPN and Bloomberg radio and was able to stream these stations through an Echo voice command or by selecting stations from the Echo app.

iHeartRadio is an Internet radio platform that functions as both a music-recommending system and a radio network that aggregates audio content from over 800 local Clear Channel radio stations across the United States, as well as hundreds of other stations and various other media.

Amazon Prime Music offers ad-free streaming of over a million Prime songs. I found myself normally selecting music via a genre request—“Alexa, play some Jazz from Amazon Prime Music”—or loading a playlist to my library. You can also look for specific artists or recordings. As I am writing this I am listening to an entertaining Jazz Prime playlist that I requested through a voice command. If you have ever purchased music through Amazon, even a CD from years past, you will likely find a digital copy of your music also available for playback through Amazon Prime Music. You can also upload music from your computer to the Amazon Cloud. I have uploaded the audio presentations from past AAII Investor Conferences.

Bluetooth Speaker

I generally found myself using the Echo as a Bluetooth speaker for the music and podcasts on my iPhone. I found it easy to pair the Echo with my phone and stream from the device. I use the app Instacast on my iPhone and iPad to follow a number of podcasts, and I prefer to centrally control my subscriptions and content through that app. We have three podcast listeners in my family, and we all maintain our separate podcast subscriptions, rather than share them centrally. The Echo was a good Bluetooth speaker, although I felt that I was underutilizing the system in that way.

Other Features

You can also call out to Alexa and have her record shopping lists and to-do items. The to-do list really needs to be segmented by user or tied to a more popular platform. The shopping list might hold promise as a way for family members to add to an electronic shopping list that you can reference on the Echo app when you are at the store. My daughter once tested this feature, but we never adapted either element into our normal routines.

Conclusion

Amazon’s Echo is a good-sounding speaker with a strong connection to the Amazon infrastructure. I confess that I am not much into voice commands. I do not use Siri on my phone or tablet. I have voice commands in both of our family cars and have never bothered to memorize the voice commands to turn up the heat or control the navigation system. It just seems easier to turn a dial. However, I did find the voice commands for the Echo easy to use and fairly intuitive. I enjoy being able to easily stream content from my phone or access Web content from TuneIn and Amazon Music. The on-command weather updates are handy. The traffic information is a great addition, but it currently requires the companion app to change destinations. I do wish that the Echo had a built-in battery. With spring around the corner, I can see wanting to use the Echo on the patio. Echo makes a good addition to the family with an Amazon Prime membership; for others, a traditional Bluetooth speaker may make more sense.

Pros

• Good sound quality
• Voice control works very effectively
• Comes with button and voice-controlled remote
• Good integration with Amazon Prime, TuneIn Ratio and iHeartRadio
• Bluetooth connection
• $99 price for Amazon Prime members

Cons

• No battery, needs power connection
• Need Internet connection to function
• No line-in connection
• Some users may not desire a device that “listens” continuously for voice commands and is constantly connected to the Internet
• $199 price for non-Amazon Prime member

Amazon Echo

$99 for Amazon Prime members/$199 for non-Prime orders