Amazon Unveils Echo Show, It’s an Echo With a Screen
This month Amazon officially revealed its latest Echo product. It is called the Echo Show. It is a touchscreen device with built-in Alexa. The device was extensively leaked this month. Echo Show is now available to preorder from Amazon for $229.99.
Feature Upgrade from previous Echo.
- With Echo Show you can see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, and more. All hands-free.
- The Echo Show lets you make hands-free video calls. Also, make voice calls to anyone who has an Echo or Echo Dot.
- Just ask to play a song, artist or genre, and stream over Wi-Fi and see lyrics on-screen. Also, stream music on Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and more.
- Echo Show comes with powerful, room-filling speakers with Dolby processing for crisp vocals and extended bass response.
Basic functionality.
The Show has the same basic capabilities as the regular, voice-only Echo. That includes setting timers and listening to music. But the built-in display adds plenty of new functionality. The Show’s screen will give users more information about their Alexa queries. It displays a full weather report or the steps in each recipe. It can be used to play videos, including news briefings from channels like CNN, and content from YouTube and Amazon Video.
Photos and lyrics on screen.
The Echo Show also works best with the company’s own services. The screen can function as a digital photo frame. You can do this by pulling pictures stored on Prime Photos. It will also put the lyrics up on-screen, when it’s playing songs from Amazon Music. Amazon claims that the Echo Show can also be connected to Wi-Fi-enabled security cameras. This let users check their video feed with commands.
Video & Voice Calls.
The most interesting new feature of the Echo Show is the access to video and voice calls. You easily can make or receive a call through the Echo Show if you have the Alexa app. There is no support for Skype as of right now. Amazon is also unveiling a new feature called “Drop In.” The Drop In feature lets designated friends and family make a call at any time. The receiver then has a 10-second window to reject a Drop In call or switch it to audio-only. Amazon says it imagines this feature will only be used in a limited number of situations.
Shipping next month.
The Show comes with a microphone technology similar to the regular Echo. Although it has eight microphones instead of seven. There is a front-facing five-megapixel camera in the frame, along with a pair of two-inch speakers. The new Echo Show will start shipping to customers on June 28th. Amazon is currently running a promotion where customers can buy two for $360.
Rajiv Patil is the founder & Managing Director of Nimblechapps, an innovative iPhone app development company. He takes a keen interest in topics related to mobile app development and mobile game development and often like to share his knowledge through informative posts on leading blogging sites.