Read original story on: The Verge
Out of nowhere, Amazon announced a new product named Echo, the world’s first smart speaker that comes with an always-on, Siri-like virtual assistant. Connected to the cloud via Wi-Fi, the AI assistant, dubbed “Alexa,” can provide you with news, weather, and even Wikipedia-generated answers to random questions. When connected with your mobile device, it can also perform tasks such as setting alarm clocks and managing to-do lists, all handsfree via voice command.
Of course, the wireless speaker also serves its traditional purpose: playing music. It has built-in support for Amazon Prime Music, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn, it’s also fully Bluetooth compatible, making playback from Spotify, Pandora, and other audio apps from other devices possible.
