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Echo Users Manual: Get Your Money's Worth From Amazon's Echo
Amazon has delivered a home run with the Echo, a voice-command device that plays music, answers your questions, and adds things to your grocery list just by listening to you. It's an always-on personal assistant and the first such device that's simple enough for the average consumer to begin using right away, without any technical knowledge.
Although it's a relatively small cylindrical device about the same size as two stacked soup cans, Echo delivers impressive sounds--lifelike speech and full-bodied music.
Echo is fun, useful, and a great value. Just think what it would have cost you two or three decades ago to assemble a decent home stereo--plus hundreds of dollars more for a record or tape collection! Forget that, the Echo delivers impressive sound from a collection of a million songs (through Amazon Prime) and streaming via your home Wi-Fi connection to music sites such as iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. Its pricetag is a bargain for the music function alone and new features are being added every day. And as the first generation of voice-commanded devices from Amazon, who knows what it will be able to do in a year or two's time.
Echo is the second big innovation delivered by Amazon's laboratory in Silicon Valley, following the Kindle eBook reader. The gadget runs wirelessly on the "Cloud," also known as Amazon Web Services. And that's how it's seamlessly updated with new features, as soon as they are developed by Amazon or its army of third-party software partners.
You may wonder if Amazon's Echo is just Apple's Siri in a can or Google's Now and Microsoft's Cortana, which all work with certain smartphones. Echo's Alexa may just well be another voice in the dark, but she's a sure sign that the tech giants are gearing up for computers that talk back, perform menial tasks, interface with other electronic devices, and make our lives easier and more fun.
Although it's a relatively small cylindrical device about the same size as two stacked soup cans, Echo delivers impressive sounds--lifelike speech and full-bodied music.
Echo is fun, useful, and a great value. Just think what it would have cost you two or three decades ago to assemble a decent home stereo--plus hundreds of dollars more for a record or tape collection! Forget that, the Echo delivers impressive sound from a collection of a million songs (through Amazon Prime) and streaming via your home Wi-Fi connection to music sites such as iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. Its pricetag is a bargain for the music function alone and new features are being added every day. And as the first generation of voice-commanded devices from Amazon, who knows what it will be able to do in a year or two's time.
Echo is the second big innovation delivered by Amazon's laboratory in Silicon Valley, following the Kindle eBook reader. The gadget runs wirelessly on the "Cloud," also known as Amazon Web Services. And that's how it's seamlessly updated with new features, as soon as they are developed by Amazon or its army of third-party software partners.
You may wonder if Amazon's Echo is just Apple's Siri in a can or Google's Now and Microsoft's Cortana, which all work with certain smartphones. Echo's Alexa may just well be another voice in the dark, but she's a sure sign that the tech giants are gearing up for computers that talk back, perform menial tasks, interface with other electronic devices, and make our lives easier and more fun.
44 pages, Paperback
First published June 23, 2015
113 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 11, 2015
***Review courtesy of my husband, Doug. Book won as a Goodreads First Reads giveaway***
If you own an Amazon Echo or are planning to purchase one, please do yourself a favor and get this book too. We got our Echo when they were first released in late 2014. We loved it at first, but it was quickly forgotten.
After reading this book, I was able to program my work address to get expected driving times. I added the Echo app to our phones so I can tell Echo to add items to our “Shopping List”. When my wife checks her phone she will see what I want her to buy. No more forgetting to buy tortillas at Costco.
You can also play Prime Music, which has a lot of my favorite songs for free. Every night I play “Ocean Waves” soundtracks to fall asleep easier. The sound quality is amazing. I feel like I’m sleeping on the beach in Hawaii.
This book will teach you how to set alarms and timers, get weather reports, tune-in to radio programs, sync Google Calendar, get traffic reports, get a daily news briefing, create a to-do list, control house lights, and even re-order items through Amazon using your voice.
We didn’t know most of these features until I got this book. Now we use our Echo everyday and we absolutely love it.
If you own an Amazon Echo or are planning to purchase one, please do yourself a favor and get this book too. We got our Echo when they were first released in late 2014. We loved it at first, but it was quickly forgotten.
After reading this book, I was able to program my work address to get expected driving times. I added the Echo app to our phones so I can tell Echo to add items to our “Shopping List”. When my wife checks her phone she will see what I want her to buy. No more forgetting to buy tortillas at Costco.
You can also play Prime Music, which has a lot of my favorite songs for free. Every night I play “Ocean Waves” soundtracks to fall asleep easier. The sound quality is amazing. I feel like I’m sleeping on the beach in Hawaii.
This book will teach you how to set alarms and timers, get weather reports, tune-in to radio programs, sync Google Calendar, get traffic reports, get a daily news briefing, create a to-do list, control house lights, and even re-order items through Amazon using your voice.
We didn’t know most of these features until I got this book. Now we use our Echo everyday and we absolutely love it.
August 18, 2015
I received this as part of a Goodreads Firstreads promotion.
Our family received the Amazon Echo last year before it was offered to the public. I have been disappointed in it and was excited to receive this book hoping to learn some new information. The book goes over a lot of basic information that you probably received with your Echo, or could find easily online. I did learn a few things that I was not aware of, and there are quite a few phrases that you can ask Alexa and she will give you witty answers. So that was fun to learn.
Our family received the Amazon Echo last year before it was offered to the public. I have been disappointed in it and was excited to receive this book hoping to learn some new information. The book goes over a lot of basic information that you probably received with your Echo, or could find easily online. I did learn a few things that I was not aware of, and there are quite a few phrases that you can ask Alexa and she will give you witty answers. So that was fun to learn.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews