Amazon's Echo Speaker

I have been listening to one of my favorite podcasts for a while now and one of the hosts talks from time to time about how much she likes Amazon's Echo Speaker system and I finally saw an article in Engadget discussing the fact that Audible files now can be directly accessed through the speaker.

I am such a big Audible fan that having another source through which I can listen to the books I am reading, yes I understand that I'm listening to them but to me it's the way that I consume most of the books I read for enjoyment.

However, the Echo Speaker is available through invitation only through Amazon so I have to put my request for an invitation to purchase one through the Amazon service. As a Prime user you can an automatic discount of $50 of the price of the unit is $149.

Connectivity is one of the things that you always are looking for in today's new speaker devices and the Echo Speaker does a lot of the things that you would expect. First to connects through Wi-Fi back to the Internet so that as you are asking questions it will use that Internet connection to gather information to respond to you with an answer. It is also Bluetooth enabled allowing you to connect your tablet or phones back to the speaker so that you can play from applications that you are using on those devices. Also available for both Android and iOS devices is a companion application that allows you to connect to the speaker as well.

It also connects to your WeMo compatible devices using voice commands. A list of these controllers are available on the Amazon Echo's website. The Echo's brain is not built into the unit itself but is actually operating from Amazons Web Services. Over time, the Echo will continue to learn your speech patterns, vocabulary and personal preferences. All updates are done in the cloud so you don't have to worry about doing them locally on the device.

Echo is always ready, connected, and fast. Just say the wake word, "Alexa," for:

• New - Connected Home: Control compatible WeMo and Philips Hue devices with your voice.
• New - Pandora: Listen to and discover music from Pandora's library of over 1 million tracks.
• New - Traffic: Hear commuting time and the fastest route to your destination.
• New - Sports: Ask for sports scores and schedules from the NFL, NBA, MLS, MLB, and more.
• Music: Listen to your Amazon Music Library, Prime Music, TuneIn, and iHeartRadio.
• News, weather, and information: Hear up-to-the-minute weather and news from a variety of sources, including local radio stations, NPR, and ESPN from TuneIn.
• Questions and answers: Get information from Wikipedia, definitions, answers to common questions, and more.
• Alarms, timers, and lists: Stay on time and organized with voice-controlled alarms, timers, shopping, and to-do lists.
• More coming soon: Echo automatically updates through the cloud with new services and features.

With all of these features, how can you help not wanting to own one for yourself?