Amazon Echo Part 2: Let's catch a glimpse of the future:
Around last November, Amazon announced their talking-joking-music-playing cylinder which they called Echo; I even wrote a blog questioning the wisdom of porting a virtual assistant from one's mobile phone to a stationary wifi-reliant device. The said cylinder has been made available to the public for $179, and has been dutifully sitting in my living room since June, and well, the experience is something very similar to the Star Trek movie from the 80s. While it is true that almost everything Alexa can do, Siris can do faster, there is just something about the voice-controlled nature of the Echo that made it especially charming. I can walk into a room saying, "Alexa, News." or, "Alexa, what's the weather like tomorrow." or I can take a look at my Smartphone, the result isn't going to differ much. The same goes with environmental control features in conjunction with Belkin WeMo switches, and/or Philips Hue. I can either say, "Alexa, turn on/off Wem