Amazon has introduced a new type of ‘smart device’ – the Echo – that’s a reimagining of the home stereo as a always-connected, voice activated speaker.
It’s got some impressive features – combining Siri-style voice recognition, with search, music and news service. You can tell it to play some music by Boards of Canada, tell it to wake you up at 7am or ask what the weather is going to be like, and Echo will handle it.
It’s not much of a stretch to imagine an App Store for a device like this, where you could download new types of music applications for it. Brian Eno has already done this on iOS, turning his classic Music For Airports album into a generative music application. An audio ‘smart device’ could be a perfect platform for generative music making.
But, while the Amazon Echo has some super cool aspects, it’s also a little creepy – because it’s always on and listening to you. Even in your bedroom.
And, as Amazon says – it’s ‘Connected to the cloud, so it’s always getting smarter.”
Here’s the official video intro:
What do you think – super cool or super creepy? You make the call!
