Amazon finally releases the long-awaited Echo

Amazon announced the Echo a few months ago, but it's been a long time coming. The Bluetooth- and WiFi-enabled speaker sits in your home and answers your questions or commands. It does so simply upon voice activation, and it answers with its own vocal rendering.

Well, the device is finally coming to market, as Amazon announces the ability to order for all customers. It does a lot more than answer your questions, though. There's home automation, music and many other features it can control.

Don't get too fired up just yet -- "Today, Amazon is excited to announce that Echo is now available for all customers. Order now for $179.99 at www.amazon.com/echo. Echo will start shipping July 14", the online retailer states.

Amazon is claiming a great reception to the device, but that remains to be seen at this early juncture. "The customer response to Amazon Echo has been incredibly positive, and we’ve been working hard to build more as quickly as possible. We are grateful to our early customers for their incredible engagement and for providing us with invaluable feedback to help shape Echo as it evolves -- with their help, we’ve been able to add features like Audible, Pandora, home automation, sports scores, calendar, and more", says Greg Hart, Vice President of Amazon Echo. "We’re excited to get Echo into the hands of even more customers and continue to invent new features and experiences".

The Echo can be ordered now, you'll just be waiting a bit to get yours. It's an interesting concept, but at this point we really don't know much more than that. It is, at the least, an innovative idea.