Amazon Reveals $230 Touchscreen Echo Show…

Amazon today unveiled a touchscreen version of its Echo device, dubbed the Echo Show.

The Show, available in white or black, is available for pre-order now for $229.99, and is expected to arrive on June 28. If you buy two or more Echo Show devices, get $100 off with the “SHOW2PACK” code.

According to Amazon, the Echo Show “brings you everything you love about Alexa, and now she can show you things. Watch video flash briefings and YouTube, see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists and more. All hands-free — just ask.”

The Echo Show sports a 7-inch touch screen and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls. It weighs about 2.5 pounds and comes in at 7.4 by 7.4 by 3.5 inches. It runs an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor.

With Echo Show, tap into the services you would on your Echo speaker — from music (Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, iHeartRadio and TuneIn) to the day’s news. You can also link it up with smart home devices from companies such as Ring, WeMo, Philips Hue, SmartThings, ecobee and Wink and use Echo Show as a surveillance camera of sorts (“Alexa, show me the kids’ room.”)

Since Amazon unveiled its voice-controlled Echo speaker in 2014, it has introduced smaller, supplementary Echo devices with the Dot (video below) and Tap. Clones have popped up, mostly notably the Google Home, the Lenovo Smart Assistant and — just this week — the Cortana-backed Harman Kardon Invoke.

Apple has thus far stayed out the space; Phil Schiller recently said any Echo-like device probably needed a touch screen, so we’ll have to see if Cupertino decides to give the Echo Show a run for its money.

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