Amazon has now converted its AI-based speaker meant for use inside the home into a touchscreen video device with all the original features plus even more. The Amazon Echo Show can do many things on hearing your voice command. You need not be anywhere close to the device either. You can go about doing your chores while the Amazon Echo Show keeps vigil.
For example, if you receive a call, the device will inform you who is calling and you simply say “ Alexa accept the call” and Alexa not only connects you to the caller, but his or her video appears on the screen and yours on theirs. Of course, the other person should also have an Amazon Echo Show to enable this. But it eliminates so much of effort for you to make. You don’t have to leave what you are doing to reach for the instrument to pick up the call. Just make sure to keep the device in a place and at an angle that you are captured on the screen.
The same goes for many other tasks that can be made to perform through the Amazon Echo Show device. If you have left your baby to sleep in her room and you are busy in the kitchen, you can check from time to time if the kid is safely asleep by asking Alexa to show you the baby’s room.
The list goes on and on. Have Alexa play your favourite music or play from YouTube or just check the weather forecast. It can even show you the lyrics of the songs being played on the screen. All this can be done without your having to step across and to touch the device. Your voice command is good enough.
The Dolby assisted speakers enable the device to be heard clearly throughout the room. Similarly it is capable of hearing you clearly even if you are not facing the Echo Show.
The Amazon Echo Show might be the only device in the market with the video feature; otherwise Google Home is already out in the market doing almost everything that the Echo Show does minus the video screen. It is reported that Microsoft is already working on a device that can employ its voice assistant Cortana and be used in homes. The market is just warming up for such devices and can only move northward.
The Amazon Echo Show will start shipping, that too, only in the US, from June 28 and the pre-orders are being accepted on Amazon at a price of $229.99 (Approx. Rs 14, 750). Amazon may not take long before making the device available to customers in India, though the initial market may be very small.