Amazon Echo and Echo Plus: Hands on with the new Alexa homes

With its new line of Echo devices, Amazon is simultaneously refashioning the device most responsible for bringing intelligent voice assistants into the home and cementing the device's iconic look for the foreseeable future.

When Amazon unveiled both the smaller and more customizable Echo (not officially called "Echo 2") and the Echo Plus on Wednesday, I was struck by how the more powerful device looks more like the original Echo than the smaller, cheaper model.

With its built-in smart hub and, by comparison, more powerful audio system, the Echo Plus is the more cutting-edge device and yet it looks and works, on the outside, at least, like the very first Echo introduced by Amazon 3 years ago. Read more...