Amazon Echo

Amazon Echo Now Available for Purchase Without Invitation

Sean Riley | June 23, 2015

[Blogger's Note: I have been a beta tester for Amazon Echo for some months and find it an ingenious gadget that simplifies life. Echo is talked to by a name of your choice, and I just use the default Alexa. I start the day by saying, "Alexa weather" and get the latest. Also "Alexa Flash Briefing" and get the latest news from my choices of services. You can get the time, put things on your shopping list or to-do list, all by voice. And no shouting. Alexa has good ears and picks up voice with extreme accuracy, as long as you as "her" about things she knows. She can tell you Wikipedia information, do math, and entertain with "Alexa Joke". Although I did not think I needed Echo at the time, I would hate to give it up now.]
It has been more than 7 months since Amazon announced the Echo, a speaker that doubles as a personal assistant, and in that time Amazon has expanded the capabilities considerably from the somewhat limited initial feature set. While the question of what exactly can it do was a bit of a stumbling block for the Echo, the fact that it was only available by invitation, and even then with a shipping date that was often 4-5 months out, really stacked the deck against early adoption.

Source: http://androidandme.com/2015/06/news/amazon-echo-now-available-for-purchase-without-invitation/

<more at http://androidandme.com/2015/06/news/amazon-echo-now-available-for-purchase-without-invitation/; related link http://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2015/06/26/amazon-echo-just-turned-your-living-room-into-a-battleground/ and http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/technology/personaltech/amazon-echo-aka-alexa-is-a-personal-aide-in-need-of-schooling.html?ref=technology>