Amazon's Echo speaker has become something of an icon of the Internet of Things age today. Just as the thermostat Nest has been for some years now. Not just a plain music gadget, Echo could go as far as to control the connected home. And now, the rumours have it that Amazon is planning to release a smaller, portable, battery-powered Echo that you can take everywhere with you.
Echo is special because it's a listener, not just a speaker. Echo has a virtual assistant built right into it - Alexa. Originally, it was meant for users to just say what music they wanted to hear. Alexa would listen and Echo would oblige by playing your tunes. Amazon being Amazon, music could be bought from the Amazon store through Alexa. But then, why stop at music. Alexa could answer questions such as on the weather. Or read the news. And why shouldn't she remind you of the tasks you had to tackle that day, or your agenda? And pretty soon, other devices have begun to integrate with the Echo speaker. If you have a device sitting around, able to be always listening and make sense of what you say, able to respond, and able to connect on a home network to other devices, it stands to reason that it could make for a great hub for a connected home.
Just a couple of days ago, at the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, in Las Vegas, Echo was one of the centerpieces of the show, without actually being officially showcased there. Ford has just announced that it is working on an integration with Echo with its connected car technology. Alexa will work in the car and the car can be controlled by Alexa at home. So, you could be sitting in your favourite chair in the living room and you can find out if your car has enough fuel by asking Alexa. You could find out other stats and if the car has some self-driving tech, call the car to the door. Switch the air conditioning on. Or just unlock the car. From the car, you could lock the house, switch off the lights, or start up the coffee machine when you're getting home. You can even play Jeopardy with Alexa on Echo.
Other things are beginning to integrate with Echo and Alexa. Amazon itself is building in third-party integration of workout instructions. You can set up the speaker to start a 7-minute workout by audio instruction. This is a good way to make a workout immediate, giving you no time for excuses and procrastination. Before you change your mind, the workout is in progress.
Amazon released an SDK or software development kit to allow other devices to work with Echo. Home lighting can be set up to work with Alexa control. SmartThings, Philips Hue bulbs and more can be turned on and off and dimmed by just asking Alexa to do it. Voice-controlled assistants like Alexa - that would be Siri and Cortana - are set to become part of everyday life through connected devices like the Echo.
Other home systems such as Nexia integrates with Echo to work with outdoor cameras, doorbells, diagnostic data from home systems and even with tablets. Diagnostic info can be sent to service centers so that repairs can be initiated when needed.
Amazon wasn't destined to remain the only player to bring out a connected device like the Echo. LG has promptly come up with SmartThinkQ Hub, also a cylindrical speaker but with an added touchscreen which can show notifications and well, just look a bit different, which it actually doesn't.
A portable Echo which can go everywhere with you would have its own challenges. Keeping it on and always listening would soak up the battery very quickly. And would you need to cart around a speaker everywhere when the smartphone could well control your home from wherever you are. But at this point, it's not certain that there will really be a portable Echo, though there may be a smaller cheaper one.
Echo is not directly available for India on the Amazon.in store and nor is it optimised for this country, but that doesn't mean you can't get one some way or the other.
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.