Amazon's new smart speaker is like Siri for your house, said Heather Kelly at CNN. The Echo is a personal assistant that you can station anywhere in your home, where it's "ready to answer questions, provide news updates, and set personal reminders." Using far-field microphones that pick up voice commands from across a room, you can simply say, "Remind me to buy shampoo," or "Play some bluegrass music," or "utter the keyword 'Alexa,' and the speaker's virtual assistant springs to life." The Echo will retail for $199.
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