10 Things To Know About The New Amazon Echo

What Is Amazon Echo?

Amazon unveiled a new product on Thursday that is the talk of the tech world. The ecommerce giant introduced Echo, its high-tech portable speaker that also acts as a digital voice assistant that has analysts comparing it to Siri, Cortana, Google Now and others.

The Echo digital assistant is its main functionality, but what's different is that it's not in your phone. Instead, it's in your home and works to answer the everyday random thoughts that pop in your head.

So how does it work? And what else is to it?

Here are 10 things to know about the new Amazon Echo.

How Echo Works

As mentioned in the previous slide, Echo is a digital voice assistant similar to Google Now, Cortana or Siri. The only difference is that it's in a speaker and not a phone.

Amazon said that Echo is "always on," meaning that it's always in "sleep mode" waiting for users to activate it and ask it something.

When in the same room as Echo, users can call out the activation word "Alexa" to get it ready to respond to questions. This is similar to the "OK Google" feature in Google Now or "Hey Siri" voice activation with Siri.

Once Echo wakes up to the "Alexa" command, users can follow up the voice activation by asking it a whole slew of questions, which it will answer via its Internet connection.

What We Can Ask It

Once Echo is activated, users can ask it about the weather, ask it to stream music, set an alarm, and make a note or a reminder, add something to a shopping list, or just ask generic questions like how many feet in a mile or to search something on the web.

As you can see, Echo can do a whole variety of tasks and answer all sorts of simple questions that it gets from the web.

Far-Field Voice Recognition

The way Echo receives questions is actually pretty high-tech. The top of the 9.25-inch tall speaker is the "volume ring," where users can adjust the volume of Echo's voice or music that is streamed on it. Underneath that 3.25-inch-wide cap hides seven microphones. Amazon said that these microphones use beam-forming technology so it can hear a voice from whatever direction it is coming. With Far-Field voice recognition, users don't need to yell from across the room to ask a question. Simply talk at a normal tone and it will still hear you.

If a user is streaming music on Echo and wants to ask it a question while the music is playing, Echo has enhanced noise-cancellation technology, so a person's voice won't be drowned out even when music is playing.

Always Learning

Another highlight of Echo is that it's connected to the cloud.

The device runs on Amazon Web Services and Amazon said, "Echo's brain is in the cloud," adding that it is constantly learning over time. Amazon said it adds more functionality the more it is used.

Echo is constantly adapting to a user's speech patterns, vocabulary and personality. Not exactly the robot from "Lost In Space," but definitely an interesting feature.

Amazon said because Echo is connected to the cloud, it will be automatically updated whenever a software update becomes available.

High-End Audio

Being a high-end digital voice assistant that lives in a speaker, it only makes sense that speaker is also of good quality.

Amazon said the speaker uses dual downward-firing speakers producing 360-degree omnidirectional audio.

Inside Echo is a 2.5-inch woofer delivering quality bass and a 2-inch tweeter to clearly hit higher notes. There is also a reflex port near the top of the device to prevent distortion.

The speaker isn't just for Echo's voice as the Echo is designed to have great music-streaming capabilities from multiple streaming platforms.

Mobile App

Echo works on smartphones and tablets and a user needn't have to be near the device.

Users can manage their alarms, shopping lists, music playlists, reminders and more with the Amazon Echo App.

The App is compatible with Android, iOS and, of course, Fire OS. Amazon said it works with desktop browsers as well.

Music Streaming

Music streaming is one of the big features on Echo, as it is a speaker after all. Amazon said users can use Echo to listen to Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn and ihearRadio. Simply by giving Echo the voice command to play a song, Echo will do it hands-free. Users also can stream music from their desktop PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone using Bluetooth, meaning users can stream from music-streaming platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, iTunes and more onto Echo.

News And Weather Outlets

Users can ask "Alexa" for news, weather, sports and other informational updates. Echo uses up-to-the-minute resources from a plethora of media outlets, including NPR, local stations and ESPN from TuneIn.

Simply ask, "Who won the Monday Night Football game last night?" and Echo will tell you. Amazon shows off the feature in a video demo on its website where a user commands, "Alexa, give me my flash news briefing," and Echo gives realtime news headlines to keep users up to date with current events.

Connections

Once Echo is set up and connected to a home network via Wi-Fi, it is ready to go.

Amazon said Echo is always connected to a home's Wi-Fi connection and is always ready to respond to users' questions and requests once the activation word "Alexa" is spoken.

As mentioned earlier, Echo is Bluetooth-enabled, so it can stream music from any other Bluetooth-enabled device or PC that is nearby.

Price And Availability

Currently, Echo is only available by invitation only, but invites can be requested on the Amazon website. This is expected to change at a later date as the device was just launched on Thursday.

Amazon is retailing Echo for $199 but is running a promotion for prime members who can save $100 for a limited time. Prime members would be able to buy the device for $99 under the promotion.

Amazon adds that as Echo automatically updates through the cloud, more features and services will be added in the future, but has not previewed what sort of features are expected. Possibly ordering items from the Amazon Store? We'll see.