Amazon Echo — the Coolest Christmas Gift of 2014

Amazon Echo — the Best Christmas Gift of 2014

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**Update Jan. 13, 2015: I registered to be “invited” to buy the Echo in early November and, for two months, when I checked my account on Amazon, it said this:

Thank you for your request.
If selected, you will receive an e-mail with an invitation to purchase in the coming weeks.

In January, I finally got an “invitation” to buy the device within seven days!  See that blog post about that.

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Have you heard about the new Amazon Echo? It’s an amazing household digital assistant — like having a magic genie inside your house to answer every question you can think of, make lists for you, play your favorite music, set alarms and more. And all you have to do is plug it in once, “name” your genie (which turns on the voice recognition feature) and ask away.

After watching the marketing video, I’m sold.

The price for Echo isn’t bad, either. It’s $199 — and $99 if you have Amazon Prime. (You can get a one-year Amazon Prime membership for $99 and order even more amazon.com products with free shipping and other perks — which, I assume, is the strategy behind the pricing.)

Right now, Echo is listed as “unavailable” on the Amazon site — and you must request to be “invited” to purchase it.   I took the bait — and can’t wait to see if I’m one of the “chosen” ones!

Check out the blog post where I first read about Echo — it’s funny and informative, too.

Echo is on my list for Santa — is it on yours? (See the update above: Maybe we’ll have to wait til our birthdays or next Christmas?!)