Amazon's Echo, a Voice Controlled Speaker is now Available to Everyone

Amazon announced its artificially intelligent bluetooth speaker—the Amazon Echo—is being made publicly available for purchase. The Echo was first unveiled in November 2014, but it was sold on an invitation-only basis until this week. The device is one of the first always-on, voice controlled intelligent home appliances that connects to the Internet and controls third-party services. It can answer trivia questions, tell you the weather, add items to a shopping list, and much more.

Echo is a connected device that combines the abilities of Siri and a bluetooth speaker in a 9.25-inch tall cylinder and it's price is $179.99.

The Amazon Echo is essentially a voice-activated personal assistant for your home. People in the house can ask it questions, ask it to read books from Audible, ask for sports scores, set timers and even get it to tell terrible jokes.

It also is linked to Amazon Prime Music, which means it acts as a credible speaker that will play any music that’s available in your personal Amazon music library or the free music available for Prime members.

The Echo is based on Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, Alexa, which can hear, comprehend, and resolve any question or command. The speaker is always listening, and it’s activated when the a user says the name Alexa.

With the Alexa Skills Kit, Amazon stands to make a serious push for the job, as Echo can use its built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi radios to communicate directly with devices ranging from smart deadbolts and connected lighting kits to app-enabled kitchen gadgets and wireless security systems. It's an attractive arrangement for the device-makers, many of whom stand to benefit from hitching their wagon to a high-profile name like Amazon.

Begun as a bookseller, Amazon has been selling many of its own products, including a video streaming device, e-book readers and tablets. It also has a streaming video service, grocery delivery and music streaming and has created original TV shows such as the critically acclaimed "Transparent" starring Jeffrey Tambor.