November 10, 2014

Thoughts About Amazon Echo

Filed under: Main — admin @ 12:01 am

1110-figure1 Right on the heels of the disastrous Fire phone, Amazon unveils another unique gizmo. It’s the Amazon Echo, which is a . . . well, I don’t know what it is.

First, let me expand upon my words “disastrous Fire phone.”

As you know, I wrote a book on the Fire phone, Amazon Fire Phone For Dummies. Obviously, it would be in my best interests if that phone sold like crazy and billions of people desired a For Dummies title to help them as a reference to such an amazing device.

Amazon also held high hopes for the Fire phone’s success.

Both of us are disappointed.

While I like the Fire phone and believe it would be an amazing alternative for a technology-savvy consumer, the thing just isn’t selling. The world didn’t get as fired-up about the Fire phone as Amazon desired.

I hope that Amazon continues to push the device, but who knows? Things flop all the time, and a handful of one-time flops eventually see success. It’s a strange world, which brings me to the Echo.

What is it?

Well, it looks like a black can of Red Bull.

It’s not a beverage, of course. Instead, the Echo is a speaking and listening device. You bark orders at it and it obeys, kind of like the Apple Siri and Google Now. So, for example, instead of looking out the window, you can say, “Alexa, what’s the weather like?”

Alexa is the wake word, similar to “Okay, Google” or “Xbox One.”

And while I’m at it, “Xbox One” is a silly wake word. I walked in on my son playing on his Xbox One and I asked, “Is that the Xbox One?” and he had to start shouting, “Xbox, stop listening!” over and over. I’d think Microsoft was smarter than that, but apparently not.

The day of the robotic personal assistant is coming soon. (And then follows the Robot Revolution where humanity is massacred — again — but that’s a rant for another day.) Amazon Echo appears to be a step in that direction, without the physical stepping part, of course.

The device begs the question, if it does things similar to Siri and Google Now, and most everyone has an iOS or Android device, then why is the Echo even necessary?

I’ll tell you what: This thing should be wearable technology. As I’ve written about before, wrist-based smart technology should be voice activated. Most of the smartwatch-like devices in fiction are voice-only. That makes sense because you can’t put a useful touchscreen on your wrist. Why didn’t Amazon just pack all the power of the Echo into wearable technology?

I dunno.

Then again, I’m not in charge of anything, so I just rant on this blog.

My guess is that Amazon Echo, like the Fire phone, will be a unique toy that people look at and wonder about for a while. Its sales won’t go anywhere. And hopefully Amazon eventually builds upon the technology to make something great. Again.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.


Powered by WordPress