Amazon Echo just Trounced Siri and Google Now

[cereal killer]

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Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt's worst fear has just become a reality. Back in October Schmidt said "Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon. People don't think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon."

The Amazon Echo is not only a game changer, it's disruptive. It has the serious potential of putting the search giant and Siri out of a job when people are at home. Why even pick up your smartphone when the Echo can do everything for you and more.

When people talk about disruptive technology, the Echo will have a nice little spot in that discussion. Eric Schmidt is probably pacing the halls as you read this and I'd probably be doing the same if I were in his shoes.

Watch the video and see for yourself at our announcement article on the Amazon Echo: Amazon Echo Device Announced Surprises from Out of the blue Android Forums at DroidForums.net

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[94lt1]

Uh oh sketti ohs...

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I'm not seeing it...

 

[cereal killer]

I'm not seeing it...

Please elaborate.....

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I don't see how this is better than Google Now on my phone, which comes with me from room to room.

I'm sure it's a nice bluetooth speaker, but beyond that, unless you can afford to have one in every room, I'm really not seeing how this is some revolutionary, amazing, must-have device.

Sure, it's kinda cool, but let's not kid ourselves. It's a bluetooth speaker with voice recognition. I'm not seeing any advantage it has over Google Now other than the speaker aspect.

 

[cereal killer]

I don't see how this is better than Google Now on my phone, which comes with me from room to room.

I'm sure it's a nice bluetooth speaker, but beyond that, unless you can afford to have one in every room, I'm really not seeing how this is some revolutionary, amazing, must-have device.

Sure, it's kinda cool, but let's not kid ourselves. It's a bluetooth speaker with voice recognition. I'm not seeing any advantage it has over Google Now other than the speaker aspect.

Ahhh, you should watch the video then

You don't need one in ever room and it goes beyond what Google Now can do. With the exception of making calls/texting/emailing your smartphone will become obsolete in your home. I'm sure in future updates the Echo will address calls/texts via Bluetooth

 

[gadgetrants]

I guess I'm with Jonny...not totally "seeing it" either. What I *did* see was some damn good voice recognition married to your state-of-the-art adaptive search algorithms. What gives us all goose bumps with demos like these is the way the technology is seamlessly integrated into daily life. On the other hand, EVERYONE and their cousin is working on smart home tech. Amazon's Echo will look like a 13" CRT TV with bunny-ear antennae in about 2-3 years, when we begin to see touchscreens mounted in each room (a la Star Trek), cameras, microphones...all piped into a central computing system...hopefully running a version of Android. My point is that the intelligent and connected home is around the corner. This is just an engaging hint of what's to come, and I don't think Amazon really earns first-mover rights with this.

-Matt

 

[Jonny Kansas]

Ahhh, you should watch the video then

You don't need one in ever room and it goes beyond what Google Now can do. With the exception of making calls/texting/emailing your smartphone will become obsolete in your home. I'm sure in future updates the Echo will address calls/texts via Bluetooth

I watched the entire video. They had one in every room, or they unplugged it and moved it to each room as they went. Either way, it's only handy in the kitchen if it's not in the living room. If it is in the living room, my smartphone will only possibly be obsolete in the living room.

As for its ability to recognize speech and etc, well, that video is a commercial, and we all know how well speech recognition works sometimes, but not always. Maybe their 7 mics will help eliminate background noise, but I have to mute the tv when I'm watching an action movie with the volume at the level that God intended so the Kinect can hear me tell it to pause...

 

[cereal killer]

I watched the entire video. They had one in every room, or they unplugged it and moved it to each room as they went. Either way, it's only handy in the kitchen if it's not in the living room. If it is in the living room, my smartphone will only possibly be obsolete in the living room.

As for its ability to recognize speech and etc, well, that video is a commercial, and we all know how well speech recognition works sometimes, but not always. Maybe their 7 mics will help eliminate background noise, but I have to mute the tv when I'm watching an action movie with the volume at the level that God intended so the Kinect can hear me tell it to pause...

I'm very interested to see how the Echo will handle the background noise. With any voice activated device you can't have the TV/Stereo/background noise blaring in the background, but to what degree will you be forced to turn down the volume is a big ??? of mine. 7 mics is a lot of mics

 

[Heero121]

really impressive tech, which I can see leading the way for household integrated products almost like how they have those radios that look like light switches that can act as an intercom in each room. lets see what the price point is, because i dont mind carrying my phone and asking it questions and allows me to multitask, but this just seems like a bluetooth speaker with voice recognition capabilities and hopefully isnt outrageously priced. heck even give it away for free since well, you would probably have to agree to the terms of using your voice or everyones voice as compiling data whenever amazon pleases.which in turn they will sell to advertisers, because nowadays absolutely everything is being sold to advertisers -_-

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I'll be interested to see the reviews for sure, but I just don't see myself as being someone who'd use it enough to justify the sticker price.

Sent from my Note 4

 

[Jonny Kansas]

really impressive tech, which I can see leading the way for household integrated products almost like how they have those radios that look like light switches that can act as an intercom in each room. lets see what the price point is, because i dont mind carrying my phone and asking it questions and allows me to multitask, but this just seems like a bluetooth speaker with voice recognition capabilities and hopefully isnt outrageously priced. heck even give it away for free since well, you would probably have to agree to the terms of using your voice or everyones voice as compiling data whenever amazon pleases.which in turn they will sell to advertisers, because nowadays absolutely everything is being sold to advertisers -_-

I'd be all for a whole home system, but it'd be my luck that I'd never be in the right room when I needed it to answer a question & I'd still just use my phone.

If we had more company over for parties, it might be a nice addition, but that's just not the case.

Sent from my Note 4

 

[Jonny Kansas]

The more I think about it, give me this unit + 4-5 smaller speaker/mic units that can send & receive info to & from the main hub over wifi & play music through decent little speakers in more rooms & I might bite.

Sent from my Note 4

 

[pc747]

At first I thought CK was being sarcastic but I see he is for real on echo.... Ill stick with Google now.

 

[cereal killer]

The more I think about it, give me this unit + 4-5 smaller speaker/mic units that can send & receive info to & from the main hub over wifi & play music through decent little speakers in more rooms & I might bite.

Sent from my Note 4

ha...you know those have to be future add ons. I think BT calling/texting will be future features as well