Amazon Echo (shortened to Echo) is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service Alexa, which will respond when you say "Alexa". Users may change this wake word to "Amazon", "Echo" or "Computer". The features of the device include: voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, and playing audiobooks, in addition to providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, acting as a home automation hub. The smart speaker needs to use Wi-Fi to connect to Internet, there is no Ethernet port.According to confirmed reports, Amazon started developing Echo devices inside its Lab126 offices in Silicon Valley and in Cambridge, Massachusetts as early as 2010. The device represented one of first attempts to expand its device portfolio beyond the Kindle e-reader. The Echo featured prominently in Amazon's first-ever Super Bowl broadcast television advertisement in 2016.SIEMENS download their free webinar on Building a sound, digital foundation for hardware startups today.Digital Ocean is a cloud provider that makes it easy for entrepreneurs and startups to deploy and scale web applications with no issues and unplanned costs. Get started for free at do.co/rocketship.Earth Class Mail scans and digitizes you physical mail and makes it available to you on mobile or desktop or even Google Drive or Dropbox. Rocketship listeners get 25% off their subscription for the first 3 months by going to earthclassmail.com/rocketship.Rocketship is brought to you by The Podglomerate.***This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy.  Since you're listening to Rocketship, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding entrepreneurship, business, and careers like Creative Elements and Freelance to Founder.