Online retailer Amazon has a new year’s resolution to slim down Echo. However the current Echo is a cylindrical device that can follow your voice commands and turn on IOT lights and other appliances, but the new smaller version will be so tiny to fit in your palms. Code named ‘Fox,’ the all-new version will be able to charge on a docking station and also costs lower than Echo’s recent price tag $180.
Amazon’s new speaker is being developed at its secretive hardware lab in Silicon Valley, called Lab126. In same lab many other Amazon devices have been created including Kindle e-reader and Fire tablet and phone. What new features will be included in the system are not announced yet, but in order to preserve battery, the newer version will stop its voice-activation feature and only respond when you push a button for activation manually.
The original version of Echo was debuted in late 2014, and still liked by consumers- as it can acts like a single smart hub to monitor all your connected home devices. The device uses Amazon’s Alexa software to voice command. This made e-commerce giant the direct competitor of other renowned voice assistants, such as Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s Google Now speech-recognition software.
But what makes Echo different from all the aforementioned competitors is that the Alexa is not used in any smartphone and instead is a plug-in speaker. But now the e-commerce company wants to take it to another level. The newer version is expected to be wireless and smaller in size, which means the users will be able to take Alexa along with them to any desired location like a smartphone. It’s truly going to be an incredible, smarter and efficient smart hub for homeowners. We’re looking forward to this smaller and cheaper version of Echo and see what more will be included into the upgraded device.
Via: Cnet
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