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Voice-controlled devices and utilities are growing more popular as smartphone and cloud technology become more robust. Apples Siri, Androids Google Now, and Windows Cortana digital assistants are all powered by voice recognition, and Amazon entered the fray with voice controls for its Amazon Fire TV technology. Amazons latest voice-controlled technology offering, the Amazon Echo Bluetooth speaker and virtual home assistant, raises the stakes even further. Echo was released in 2015 to mixed but mostly positive reviews, which emphasized the future potential of the device. Amazon Prime members could buy Echo for just $99, while normal Amazon customers had to pay $199.Currently, Echos functionality is simplistic, but useful. The device is always on, but requires its wake word to prime it for interaction the only two choices are Alexa or Amazon at the moment. You can ask Echo questions, have it play music, create a to-do list, or get the weather. Echo can also play a digest of the biggest news stories or play reports of specific issues that users ask to hear. The Echo companion app allows you to customize settings, keep a record of your queries and the answers to those queries, and view the shopping and to-do list items that youve previously dictated to Echo. Amazon is also developing a developers kit to allow developers to create Echo apps, which are likely to make it even more multi-functional in the future.Echo is a move by Amazon to enter the voice-controlled technology space, but it also has potential as a smart home appliance, which is a growing market. Echo might someday be able to integrate with your home appliances, adjusting the temperature, locking and unlocking doors, and turning lights on and off. Amazon might envision a future where Echo is a kind of hub where you can manage and connect with all of the smart appliances in your home in one centralized location.Echo lacks a battery option and has to be plugged in to function, limiting its portability. Its also able to glean information from Wikipedia, but not from Google or other search engines. That will likely change in the future as both Amazon and Echos developers gain more familiarity with the device. The speaker quality is also limited, with testers reporting distortion at higher volumes. Users report that Echo experiences some confusion with queries that dont fall within its narrowly defined specifications, although Echo also learns from its mistakes and adapts to the types of queries you most frequently make.Its not currently clear how Amazon uses the information it gleans from users questions and commands, or whether theres any capacity for storing things you say that arent directed at Echo itself. From Amazons perspective, the Echo could be an invaluable new tool for learning more about its customers, with an ability to generate heaps of granular data about the routines and preferences of each individual user.On the other hand, privacy advocates have ample reason to be concerned about a device that can quickly transmit your every word to the cloud, where it can be stored along with the rest of Amazons trove of your personal information and used to make product recommendations and generate marketing materials. However, Amazon notes that any users uncomfortable with the collection of their data can simply go into their History using their Echo app, and delete queries either individually or in bulk, which will also delete the information from Amazons servers.At this point, theres no telling what the Amazon Echo of 2020 will look like compared to the launch version of 2015. It could be a staple in homes across the country, or it could flame out like the Amazon Fire phone long before then. Amazon seems poised to commit the necessary resources to ensure the former.

1. What functionality does Amazon Echo display during the video?

2. What kind of technology does Amazon Echo use?

3. Why does Amazon Echo make sense as a hub for home appliance automation?

4.What might be some privacy concerns involving Echo? Are these well founded? Why or why not?

5. Why is releasing a developers kit for Echo important for Amazon to keep pace with services offered by Apple, Google, and Microsoft?