Echo: Amazon’s latest development in hardware

A top view and side view of the Amazon Echo. The Echo consists of an action and mute button, along with a volume button around the top to control music playback.

Courtesy of Amazon

A top view and side view of the Amazon Echo. The Echo consists of an action and mute button, along with a volume button around the top to control music playback.

Amazon announced the release of the Echo yesterday on its website as a versatile and capable piece of technology.

Whenever we face pressing questions, we usually refer to Google by typing in our question and viewing the result. With Amazon Echo, you can announce your query following the name of your device, defaulted to “Alexa.” The device will respond with an answer.

Amazon Echo comes with seven speakers that use beam-forming technology to pick up a voice from anywhere in the room. Its noise-cancelling capabilities allow it to hear you even while music is playing. Instead of running on battery, the Amazon Echo remains plugged in with its power adapter.

Amazon Echo receives its information from the cloud, using Amazon Web Services. Over time, it will adapt to your speech habits and preferences. Whenever you speak to Amazon Echo, it responds clearly with audio pervading the room it rests in.

“Probably the best part of the Amazon [Echo] is the surround system,” Rahul Balakrishnan (12) said. “If they can capitalize on that, they should probably be good to go in the market for tech products.”

The interface of Echo is simple to activate and continually use. With the aid of a companion app, downloadable on Fire OS, Android and iOS, you can play music, change your shopping list, change your alarm times, and much more. On top of Amazon Echo is a light ring, to tell you that it is working, a mute button for the microphone, an action button, and a volume switch.

Amazon does not want to make the mistake of ordering too much inventory as they did with the fire phones. The Amazon Echo currently retails at $199, but costs $100 for Amazon Prime members.

“Yeah the price is too high,” Eric Wang (12) said. “Like it costs 200 bucks, and I think they should lower it for everybody, not just prime users, and not just for the pre-orders.”

It is probable that Amazon will release more hardware products later on. Updates are expected to be made to Amazon Echo and Amazon Web Services in the future to allow for more capabilities and better functionality.