Possibilities for the Amazon Echo

The NYT talks about the Amazon Echo.   " ... This time it may be different. A bit more than a year after its release, the Echo has morphed from a gimmicky experiment into a device that brims with profound possibility. The longer I use it, the more regularly it inspires the same sense of promise I felt when I used the first iPhone — a sense this machine is opening up a vast new realm in personal computing, and gently expanding the role that computers will play in our future. .. ."  .  

You can critically compare the relative capabilities of other virtual assistants, but the Echo is the first example that creates an extensible environment for a particular context, the modern home.    Vocal interaction with music, information and environment are just a start.   See more on Echo in the link below.