Amazon working on touchscreen Echo speaker with higher-quality audio - report

Raising the bar even before Apple's rumored entry into the "smartspeaker" market, Amazon is at work on a new "Echo-like" model which will have a 7-inch touchscreen and high-end audio, a report said on Tuesday.

Amazon's current flagship Echo.

The touchscreen will make it easier to fetch content like news, calendars, and weather forecasts, two sources told Bloomberg. The speaker is also expected to be bigger, and tilt upwards, so that people can glance down at it while it's sitting on a counter.

It should run a version of Amazon's Fire OS — based on Android — and may offer a feature letting people pin content like photos to their homescreen, turning it into a sort of virtual fridge door.

New speaker technology should make it sound superior to current Echo models, one of the sources suggested, adding that the product could be announced in the first quarter of 2017.

The Echo line, controlled mainly through Amazon's Alexa voice assistant, has proven an unexpected hit since it launched in 2014, selling over 5 million units. That prompted Google to ship its own competitor, the Home, on Nov. 4.

Several reports have hinted that Apple could join the same space in 2017. The device would use an enhanced version of Siri, and might feature unique additions such as a camera for auto-detecting users and switching to their personal preferences. HomeKit integration could be a key focus, much in the same way that Echo speakers are integrated with various home automation platforms.

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44 Comments

Metriacanthosaurus

said about 7 years ago

Is this any real data in the market to indicate how successful Amazon and Google's home hub/voice control products have been?

They just do not strike me as a realistic step forward in home automation. A single device that just sits in one place is no better or more useful than any iPhone or iPad that is laying around plugged in at the time. As an Apple Watch user, I don't need to shout across the house for Siri, I can say it quietly to my wrist.

So is there really a great need for another separate device that sits around waiting to process requests? It's not something you're going to walk up to and ask a question. The commercials show people that just happen to be in the vicinity of the device, and busy doing something else, that call out questions or commands. I feel like they have to show it this way, because any other use case is ridiculous. They aren't going to show people getting up from across the room/house and walking up to it to ask a handsfree question.

I remain at a loss for what these devices are.

randominternetperson

said about 7 years ago

Metriacanthosaurus said:

Is this any real data in the market to indicate how successful Amazon and Google's home hub/voice control products have been?

They just do not strike me as a realistic step forward in home automation. A single device that just sits in one place is no better or more useful than any iPhone or iPad that is laying around plugged in at the time. As an Apple Watch user, I don't need to shout across the house for Siri, I can say it quietly to my wrist.

So is there really a great need for another separate device that sits around waiting to process requests? It's not something you're going to walk up to and ask a question. The commercials show people that just happen to be in the vicinity of the device, and busy doing something else, that call out questions or commands. I feel like they have to show it this way, because any other use case is ridiculous. They aren't going to show people getting up from across the room/house and walking up to it to ask a handsfree question.

I remain at a loss for what these devices are.

Well said. Maybe we're supposed to stick these devices all over the house. "Alexa, we're out of toilet paper."

schlack

said about 7 years ago

Metriacanthosaurus said:

Is this any real data in the market to indicate how successful Amazon and Google's home hub/voice control products have been?

They just do not strike me as a realistic step forward in home automation. A single device that just sits in one place is no better or more useful than any iPhone or iPad that is laying around plugged in at the time. As an Apple Watch user, I don't need to shout across the house for Siri, I can say it quietly to my wrist.

So is there really a great need for another separate device that sits around waiting to process requests? It's not something you're going to walk up to and ask a question. The commercials show people that just happen to be in the vicinity of the device, and busy doing something else, that call out questions or commands. I feel like they have to show it this way, because any other use case is ridiculous. They aren't going to show people getting up from across the room/house and walking up to it to ask a handsfree question.

I remain at a loss for what these devices are.

You don't walk up to it. It hears you clearly from across the room at normal voice levels. Alexa is much faster to understand and respond than Siri in my experience (especially true when compared to the Apple Watch), with better recognition as well. I rarely have my iPhone plugged in and it's typically in my pocket and locked so Siri won't work...so a bunch of these around the house with omnipresent listening is kinda compelling...and at $50 a pop you can cover your whole house for cheap. But yeah, I've been buying these as gifts bc they are cool, yet I don't have one myself. Not because I can just use my iPhone/Watch, but because I just don't see the use case.

ben20

said about 7 years ago

Alexa is everything Siri was supposed to be. It might be hard for you to understand if you don't own both....

sirlance99

said about 7 years ago

Metriacanthosaurus said:

Is this any real data in the market to indicate how successful Amazon and Google's home hub/voice control products have been?

They just do not strike me as a realistic step forward in home automation. A single device that just sits in one place is no better or more useful than any iPhone or iPad that is laying around plugged in at the time. As an Apple Watch user, I don't need to shout across the house for Siri, I can say it quietly to my wrist.

So is there really a great need for another separate device that sits around waiting to process requests? It's not something you're going to walk up to and ask a question. The commercials show people that just happen to be in the vicinity of the device, and busy doing something else, that call out questions or commands. I feel like they have to show it this way, because any other use case is ridiculous. They aren't going to show people getting up from across the room/house and walking up to it to ask a handsfree question.

I remain at a loss for what these devices are.

Obviously you've never used either one on a day to day basis. You never have to shout or get up and walk to it to ask a question. It hears you clearly as if you were having a normal conversation with anyone else in the room. You can have multiple around the house as well for cheap.

I can ask Google Home to play any music I want through my sound system around my house, play YouTube, turn down/up/off/on any of my lights in my house, change the temperature in my house, get my daily schedule as I'm getting ready in the morning with weather and traffic on how long it'll take me to get to work and a ton more. It's actually pretty amazing what it can do. I petty much have almost everything automated. It just can't make me coffee yet.