Skip to footer

Amazon introduces smaller, cheaper versions of Echo

You will soon be able to hear Alexa's voice pretty much everywhere.

|
Jeff Chiu/AP
An Amazon Tap in San Francisco (March 2, 2016). Amazon.com is introducing two devices, the Amazon Tap and Echo Dot, that are designed to amplify the role that its voice-controlled assistant Alexa plays in people's homes and lives.

Amazon's Alexa is going small.

Amazon is planning on introducing two new products in the tradition of its Echo speaker: the Echo Dot and the Amazon Tap. They are scheduled to go on sale at the end of March, but can be pre-ordered now.

Echo Dot, the first of the two new products, is more or less a smaller version of the regular Echo. Amazon is also positioning it as a companion to its larger cousin -- currently, it is only available for purchase by using the voice-command function on a full-size Echo. Unlike the big Echo, the Dot is wireless, with a small speaker that could be used for listening to headlines or as an alarm clock.

The Amazon Tap is marketed as Echo’s younger, cooler sibling. It’s designed to be lightweight and portable, with an optional carrying sling so people can take it with them wherever they want to go, whenever they want to travel.

Another key feature of the Tap is its musical abilities: like the Echo, the Amazon Tap can access a full suite of music apps like Spotify, Pandora, and iHeart Radio, but it doesn’t need Wi-Fi. It can play music by using mobile hotspots. Another crucial difference is that because it is battery powered, the Amazon Tap doesn’t rest in standby mode like the Echo or Dot, waiting for its name to be spoken.

Since its debut last year, the Echo has been a hit with consumers and developers alike. The appeal lies in its simplicity. The speaker’s internal cloud computing system can be awoken, Ex-Machina style, by speaking her name, Alexa, and then giving her simple commands, like ordering take out or calling an Uber. That’s made Echo extremely popular with consumers, with over 20,000 five-star reviews for the product online. Some industry analysts have speculated that the Echo’s tremendous success may make it a new billion-dollar business for Amazon going forward.

It’s also become popular with developers, who have been developing “skills,” or capabilities, for Alexa to follow. For example, developers at Campbell’s have created prompts that allow Alexa to respond with a collection of recipe options when asked. On Tuesday, NBC News announced that it had created a skill that authorizes Alexa to read headlines and news updates about the 2016 elections.   

Alexa’s capabilities are very similar to the ones that Siri, Apple’s personal assistant for iOS devices, has. With the new HomeKit function, for example, Both Siri and Echo, for instance,have the power to manage smart-home capabilities like dimming the lights or adjusting music when prompted.

The key difference between them is that Echo needs to be connected to other apps and devices, like Spotify or Pandora. Siri needs some of those, too, but already has many of its own answer-giving abilities in-house.

Google Voice is a completely different function, and holds more similarity to free calling and messaging services like Skype or WhatsApp than Siri or Echo. Using Google Voice, users can set up one number that works across all of their phones. Users can also check their voicemail and send text messages from their Internet browsers.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Amazon introduces smaller, cheaper versions of Echo
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2016/0303/Amazon-introduces-smaller-cheaper-versions-of-Echo
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe