Amazon announces a new voice-command device called Echo

The announcement of Amazon Echo came as a surprise earlier this week and left some scratching their heads, wondering what in the world Amazon is thinking. While Amazon has been shy about disclosing product details, here’s what we know: similar to Siri, you’ll be able talk to the cylinder-shaped device and ask it to read the news out loud, set alarms, play music, reference Wikipedia, remember shopping lists and even tell jokes. It stands at 9 inches high and responds to the word “Alexa.”.