Introducing Amazon Echo: A New Family Product Based Around A Weird Speaker That Talks To You

Amazon has just thrown a curve ball out of nowhere with the unveiling of a speaker that talks to you—and you can talk back to. Called Amazon Echo it's an interactive black cylinder which can tell you the time, play music, and give you the exact height of Mount Everest should you ever need to know such a thing.

Maybe you're having a quiz of something.

Hooked up to the cloud, you can just seemingly fire any inane question you want at it and it'll come back with an answer. A bit like Siri but trapped inside an ergonomic black cage instead of a cell phone.

It can also sync to a phone app so you can interact with it remotely.

Amazon Echo is designed around your voice. It's always on—just ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. Echo begins working as soon as it hears you say the wake word, "Alexa." It's also an expertly-tuned speaker that can fill any room with immersive sound (via).

It uses what's called far-field voice technology so it can hear you voice anywhere in the room, so you don't have to scream at it. Unless you want to, of course.

It'll also sit next to you on your bedside cabinet silently waiting for the technological singularity, when it will rise up and destroy you. Soon.

Bonus: Reddit user The_Invincible has created a much more amusing take on Amazon's cringe-inducing advert, editing it into something much more palatable. And downright hilarious.

via The Verge