Amazon unveiled "Echo," a smart, cylindrical-shaped speaker, on Thursday.

Echo allows users to stream music and order items from online retail stores. The speaker is controlled by the user's voice and also functions as an alarm clock and timer.

Echo can provide news and weather updates and help users create to-do lists. It can even tell hilarious jokes.

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The smart speaker is always switched on and connected to Wi-Fi. It will only hear the user if a certain "wake" word has been entered into its memory.

After choosing the "wake" word, Alexa, users can give tasks to the speaker like, "Alexa, play some pop music." It will automatically queue up music. You can tell it to stop if you don't want to listen.

Users can also ask questions like "What's the date today?" or "How tall is Mount Fuji?"

The smart speaker offers hands-free voice control for Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, Prime Music, and TuneIn.

Echo costs US$199 and members of the Amazon's Prime fast-shipping program can get it for just US$99 but for a limited time only.

The catch, however, is that consumers need to have an invitation to purchase the gadget.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been working on new devices that will bring people closer to Amazon.

Just recently, Amazon also released Fire TV that plugs into a TV set and allows people to browse video and music from Pandora, Netflix, and other content online services.

TagsAmazon, Echo, Interactive speaker, smart speaker, echo speaker