Amazon Echo is ready to join you for your Super Bowl 50 party.
In case you’re not familiar, Amazon’s dedicated virtual assistant device is essentially a small cylindrical speaker/audio listener that allows you to ask queries, play music and get a heads-up view of your calendar or news. And it’s entirely voice-activated — you do this all by speaking to a voice named “Alexa” (similar to Siri on the Apple iPhone). You can also use the Echo/Alexa to tell you jokes and fun responses all day.
Now Amazon’s very vocal companion is getting its own advertisement during the big game on February 7.
Alec Baldwin will join and Dan Marino in a commercial for the $180 tower, but not before this teaser above.
In a shorter version of the upcoming advert, Dan, Alec and Alexa take the stage to showcase what Amazon’s virtual assistant can really do. Or at least answer Baldwin’s question regarding “snack stadiums.”
The Amazon Echo is often compared to voice services from other companies like Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana and Google’s voice services that tie in with Now.
Alexa’s biggest drawback stems from the fact that the voice is not attached to a smartphone, and therefore isn’t as mobile or as plugged into the rest of your daily lie. Apple and Google’s offerings, for example, let you send messages, set reminders and look up contacts. The Amazon Echo doesn’t offer the same, at least not yet.
The online retailer has continued to issue out regular updates to add features like browsing showtimes, receiving NFL scores and local Yelp searches–all using your voice. Interfacing with the popular service IFTTT (If This Then That) leads to even more cross-compatibility and we may soon see the ability to start one’s car simply by shouting it in the same room as Echo.
Amazon’s Echo offers more functionality than ever before, but it still has a long way to go before Alexa becomes the best virtual assistant. But with regular updates from Jeff Bezos and crew, and a cosign from Baldwin and Marino, that could soon change.
