A couple of months ago I was at a graduation party at a friend’s house. They had this black cylinder on the counter and they were telling it what music to play. I’d never seen such a thing so I looked it up when I got home. At that point, it had not been widely released. Now the Amazon Echo is available to everyone!

The usage I saw told the Echo to play a certain playlist and even to skip to the next song. But you can also ask it questions just as you would type a search query into Google. Even when music was playing, the voice recognition was pretty darned amazing.

It can also connect with a variety of home control devices which can allow you to turn lights on and off or even adjust the thermostat. For those of you who remember the Jetsons cartoon, just think of all the commands the family gave to their home and imagine that you can do many of those things today with the Amazon Echo. Check out the full feature list and I think you may want to get one as soon as possible.