I finally got to order the Amazon Echo, but it won’t ship until late May
Amazon Echo is a connected Bluetooth speaker that is always-on and always ready to serve up information. Taking the best from Siri, Cortana, and Google Now, Amazon calls the personal assistant that is built into Echo “Alexa,” and if the reviews so far are to be believed, it’s leaps and bounds ahead of all three of these other services – supposedly it’s more natural-sounding, responds better to natural speech, and is just smarter all around.
Amazon Echo is designed to fill any room with sound, since the speaker faces all directions, and its got really good far-field voice recognition technology with an array of seven microphones, all pointed in different directions, listening for your voice. Its noise cancellation technology also works well enough that it can supposedly hear you across the room, even when it’s playing music loudly. And because it’s always-on and always-connected, it’s one of those devices that is always getting better, too.
Reviews have been spectacular so far – but Amazon hasn’t opened the floodgates quite yet. To be able to order Amazon Echo, you have to request an invitation. Then you have to wait a really long time. Then, when you get your invitation in your email, you only have 72 hours to respond before it’s no longer valid.
I requested an invite as soon as I heard about Echo – and I just now received it, weeks later. The only problem is, I placed my order, and it’s not expected to arrive at my house until May 21.
Yes, you read that right. May 21.
I’ll have to play the waiting game, I suppose, and hope I don’t get buyer’s remorse in the next four (FOUR!!!) months. In any case, keep your eyes peeled – as soon as I get my Echo, I’ll put it through the ropes, and let you all know how I like it. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Echo. check out the official Amazon page below.
[Amazon]
