Amazon Echo Show

People are missing this:<p>&quot;With the Alexa App, conversations and contacts go where you go. When you’re away from home, use the app to make a quick call or send a message to your family’s Echo. Alexa calling and messaging is free—to get started download the Alexa App.&quot;<p>Alexa is now in the messaging and communication game.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;05&#x2F;09&#x2F;amazon-enables-free-calls-and-messages-on-all-echo-devices-with-alexa-calling&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;techcrunch.com&#x2F;2017&#x2F;05&#x2F;09&#x2F;amazon-enables-free-calls-...</a>

A few thoughts:<p>- This is way less creepy-looking than the Amazon Look (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistant&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B0186JAEWK" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Echo-Hands-Free-Camera-Style-Assistan...</a>), but it is actually very similar.<p>- It is great to add a screen to the Echo. Just more feedback on interacting with it, and possibility to watch YouTube, Netflix, etc. casually.<p>- It doesn&#x27;t have the same cool minimalism as the Echo. The Echo sits on my counter and looks nice when not in use. I think this one looks much clunkier.<p>- I definitely want to try one.

Its interesting to see how <i>fast</i> Amazon can come to market with these new hardware pieces. I guess the fallout of the Amazon Phone at least had some lessons learned in hardware suppliers, etc... I realize they&#x27;re throwing hardware out there prior to seeing what the software can do with it, but I think its necessary to get people locked in.<p>I like their approach from the business perspective. Give the people a voice controlled speaker. Give them a remote! Now, give them a voice-controlled camera! Now, give them a voice-controlled screen! Soon, give them &lt;insert novel sensor&gt; and let them go hands free! Rinse-repeat.

I was battling back and forth FOR A MONTH with their skill certification approval team for a skill update that would allow customers to call people by name, where in the first version it was only by phone number.<p>They would fail the certification because apparently people didn&#x27;t know how to test, or used fake numbers to make phone calls and complained the call would not connect, or the certificate validation (that was working before) would fail, etc. All sorts of things. VERY frustrating process. I wouldn&#x27;t make any change, submit the skill again for certification and get different results.<p>Now they announce their own calling feature, a week after finally approving our update.

The Amazon Echo Show seems very much like a telescreen, straight out of Orwell&#x27;s 1984: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Telescreen" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Telescreen</a>

I must be one of those old farts who prefers privacy over convenience.<p>I do not want what amounts to an always-on black-box surveillance device in my home and I simply do not understand why other people think it is okay. I honestly don&#x27;t.<p>Down with this sort of thing!

Any echo owners feel like they would get additional value out of this?<p>90% of my interaction with my standard echo has been &quot;what&#x27;s the weather&quot;.<p>Even when I want visual controls for music, I&#x27;d rather pull out my phone than walk over to a screen.

It continues to surprise me how far ahead of them Apple is letting Amazon&#x2F;Google get in this area. I&#x27;ve always been a big fan of Apple (despite their closed ecosystem), but have to admit that Amazon is seriously outplaying them on this front. Hopefully Apple surprises me and comes up with something even more innovative that can compete.

I feel like this entire product could be a Chromecast-esque dongle that connects to a TV. Having a personal dashboard would actually be quite useful, but this seems like they want to sell appliances not experiences.<p>Maybe they&#x27;ve gone with this form factor because of the 2x 2&quot; speakers? But why would I want that when it could be plugged directly into my home audio setup?<p>Or maybe it&#x27;s so they can include a touchscreen? But I thought the whole point was hands-free conversational interaction?<p>I guess I&#x27;m missing the point of this. Why would I, as a normal consumer, get this instead of a regular Amazon Echo?

I&#x27;m not willing or interested enough to enable voice activation (Siri) on my phone or desktop, but thought Echo would be nice to have as a music player. The voice recognition is so reliable -- not just the NLP, but the mic array (unlike trying to activate Siri on the iPhone) -- that it&#x27;s converted me to a true believer in voice interfaces, at least for simple tasks, such as playing music, turning on NPR, and activating timers and alarms. I do have the Fire stick connected to a projector but I&#x27;ve definitely longed for the ability to navigate YouTube or HBO on a tablet-like device with Alexa (again, not just the NLP, but the mic array, which Fire tablets don&#x27;t have)<p>This seems like a nice step in that direction but I&#x27;ve been spoiled by the low cost of the Echo Dot, which when it&#x27;s on sale is so cheap it can be a stocking stuffer. I don&#x27;t think I could pay $229 for the first generation version of the Show, but will likely get its cheaper, more advanced iterations.

Maybe that&#x27;s just me, but based on the photos, this device looks quite ugly - which matters for a gadget that people put inside their homes, doesn&#x27;t it? The &quot;original&quot; Echo has a futuristic design. This one feels more like created in 70s or 80s.

People here are really missing the point... This isn&#x27;t another ipad it&#x27;s a different way of interacting. It&#x27;s not just video message either, it&#x27;s a new human interface for interacting with software. You can communicate with someone and get suggestions at the same time. Think conversing with a friend and having Alexa aid in the discussion.<p>Friend 1: Where do you want to go to the movies tonight? .. Friend 2: I dunno Alexa have any good suggestions? Alexa: Star Trek is playing x:00 at X theatre. Things of this nature.

Why does it have to be a tiny self contained screen? Until I can say &quot;Alexa, on the main view screen&quot; (right after &quot;Alexa, Earl Grey, hot&quot; of course), we&#x27;ve got progress to make.<p>Which reminds me, I&#x27;ve got a Keurig to hack...

I don&#x27;t see the value in this over a tablet with a stand. The tablet is portable, can do more things, and already exists in many people&#x27;s homes.

It&#x27;s the Chumby for 2017, with less freedom to hack.

In the United States, what is the need for speech recognition devices? At least in Japan and China, speech recognition technology does not reach practical level and needs are small.

Great now the echo will record all video as well and &quot;anonymize&quot; it and use it to improve their systems. This class of devices are the most puzzling to me. People know their value proposition is to record everything but then keep buying them. I keep waiting for the day when the scales tip in favor of privacy but that never happens.

If they are going to enable calling, I sincerely hope they learn from the current phone spam and email spam mess and don&#x27;t let just anyone call you at any time.<p>Ideally, you could authorize people to call you by giving each person&#x2F;entity a different token that authorizes them to call you. Then if that person&#x2F;entity sells the token to 3rd parties, you not only know who sold you out, but also you have the ability to revoke that token easily.

Amazon is killing it in IoT&#x2F;Smart Home. However, IMHO, they are making a bit of mistake by not allowing developers to monetize their platform (at least the last time I checked). There were also certain device functions that apps could not utilize (e.g. programmatically mute and unmute). I suspect they&#x27;ll have a wall garden approach to their new Echo devices too ... if this was open, they&#x27;d win it all (again, just my opinion).

The main thing that annoys me about Echo is that the knowledge graph is so poor. I can only choose from a limited amount of things to ask the damn thing, WikiPedia or start installing 3rd party skills.<p>I wish I could install OK Google on Echo.<p>Edit - looks like you can, with a custom skill - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PR-LVPMU7F4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PR-LVPMU7F4</a>

Looks like something out of Robocop or Total Recall. I&#x27;m not sure if I&#x27;m excited or terrified! Let&#x27;s say both.

I honestly think that with the use cases the Echo Show would be much more useful had the static structure has a rotating base, which allows the Echo Show to rotate to the source of voice command (disable-able via setting for privacy concern). That would allow ultimate versatile use for its screen to offer the same hands-free experience.

This was the direction I expected Apple to take prior to Jobs passing. It seemed the rumored Apple TV would combine Siri with traditional television. Apple faces serious threats across the entertainment spectrum, from content to device.<p>Everyone speculating on Apple acquisitions should be considering a Sony or LG buyout. I own stock in neither.

Interesting choice going with an x86 chip. This could potentially be a hackers dream if you got Linux running on it.

Why would you wanna have a electronic spy at home is beyond me.

It would be nice to control FireTV with an Echo. Still waiting.

Brushed aluminum or some other color scheme would look better. Plastic black matte looks cheap and meh.

Eventually, with the internet of things, there will need to be a &quot;home brain&quot; type device to control all of the devices in your house. The company that holds that position of controlling what devices can work with others will have a lot of market power.

Love the concept of the Echo, however i don&#x27;t see too much value in a screen, as for most tasks you&#x27;d need that for it&#x27;s usually worth the effort to pull out the phone since you are also not bound to a specific location.

I developed this same thing 6 months ago. Setup and commands are a bit cumbersome due to being 3rd party but all you need is an Echo device and Android device with the Echo Sidekick app. Does everything the Show does except voice calls but you can send messages through Echo devices to other devices with the SideKick app. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=com.renovotechnologies.alexafcm.free&amp;hl=en" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;play.google.com&#x2F;store&#x2F;apps&#x2F;details?id=com.renovotech...</a>

This is more like an iPad with a better Siri. I guess talking to parents, watching child cams are the target audience for this. A device which sits in living room or bed room need not show me CNN in there.

why should a Fire tablet paired with speakers not be able to do this?<p>I am not against any category of products, but as a person who likes to own and manage fewer devices, I like my devices to be versatile.

What does a Sonos user do when he has already deployed a dozen Sonos speakers throughout his house? Will there ever be a microphone-only Echo device that can link into a Sonos system?

&gt; If you want to limit your interaction with Alexa, simply turn the mic&#x2F;camera button off.<p>Of course, that button is a handy indicator for Amazon to know when to record stuff :)

Now they&#x27;re much closer to solving &#x27;smart home assistant&#x27; online shopping. Communication only via voice results in two uncomfortable options: either you&#x27;re blindly believing that you&#x27;ll get best price&#x2F;option (&quot;order xyz&quot;) or you may stuck in very slow listening of options (try to read search result list). That barrier will be stepped over with this little screen enhancing shopping experience, if needed.

This is exciting for healthcare use-cases. Simple stuff like video clinician checkups or remote monitoring such as tracking and recording physical therapy progress.

They used the same picture of Dad seeing his grandchild like 3 times, they need to push out different pics.

Love that Amazon is throwing a lot of options out there.<p>Only wish the outer shell on this one looked a bit nicer &#x2F; slicker.<p>Really want an &quot;Alexa&quot; type replacement for smoke detectors. Location seems perfect for speakers &#x2F; music in a house.<p>Scary to think that privacy for average consumer is basically dead.

Looks like a mini tablet? Why cannot tablet be used for the same purpose? Perhaps audio capability?

If you can place multiple of these in a house and use them all together as an a&#x2F;v intercom system, that&#x27;d be by a far killer feature. E.g. you can talk to your child who&#x27;s in the basement or talk to coworker at another cubicle

Why am I reminded of this: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sinclairlair.co.uk&#x2F;amstrad_emailer.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.sinclairlair.co.uk&#x2F;amstrad_emailer.htm</a>

It’s amazing how much of a difference a marketing video makes. This and the Echo Look are not at all that dissimilar, yet one appears to be friendly and essential, while the other is creepy as hell.

The video calling capability seems especially neat - I wonder if they will interoperate with Facetime, Google Duo&#x2F;Hangouts, and other video calling protocols. It will make our lives so much easier.

From a user&#x27;s perspective, I think there are too many Echoes. It makes it hard to decide which to get, especially for those who can only afford (or want to deal with) one. Too much fractioning.

Are they just &quot;announcing&quot; these devices by putting them up for sale? It feels like we need an Echo keynote to learn about their direction and they could get a lot more hype that way.

Brushed aluminum would look nicer. Plastic black matte is bleh.

I could see the use in the kitchen as ask alexa to look up recipes or turn the page while my hands are greasy or covered in flour.<p>this functionality will probably need a custom firmware tho.

IMO Amazon should focus on enabling and assisting the development of more skills and integrations for echo devices before pushing out newer models or adding features.

Their demo video is cringe-worthy. I understand that you&#x27;re also marketing to non-technical folks, but it&#x27;s like a film from grade school.

Looks great. But how about that mural?? The main takeaway I had from that video is I need to pick up sponge painting in my kid&#x27;s rooms.

What is Amazon&#x27;s long term strategy with all these devices with the main feature still being voice?

Perfect for viewing and browsing recipes and recipe videos without having to touch the screen.

I have to ask why these things aren&#x27;t gesture activated ...

Kinda merging tablet&#x2F;webcam + alarm clock usage. Not bad.

So this is kind of a tablet, but with voice as main UI

Not only can you watch it - <i>it watches you!</i>

A better alternate to Sony dash which got abandoned

This is similar to a tablet kept in my room.

iPhone for grandparents? or Echo for grandparents.<p>For me this product makes sense for elderly in the digital age to keep them connected.

&quot;Alexa, submit this comment to HN&quot;<p>It works! :D

so amazon is trying to corner the market of tablets-junior-cant-take-to-the-restroom market?

&quot;Alexa, show me the kids&#x27; room.&quot;<p>Am I the only one that&#x27;s creeped up by that?

Well, that just got creepy. As if security wasn&#x27;t an issue before.

the video seems like a parody

“The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it; moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug into your wire whenever they wanted to.”<p>-Orwell, 1984

Here is a crazy idea: What didn&#x27;t Amazon make this its own Nintendo Switch? A stand with a detachable tablet? Won&#x27;t this be even better?