Amazon launches Echo Dot, a mini-speaker that can only be ordered by talking to your house

The small new product is meant to be another way of getting the company’s personal assistant, called Alexa, into your house

(Amazon)

Amazon’s newest product can only be ordered by shouting at your house.

The new Echo Dot — a little voice-controlled device that can connect to the internet — is another of Amazon’s attempts to bring its personal assistant into people’s homes. And it can only be bought by talking to an existing version of the digital assistant.

If people are interested in the little box, they have to talk to either an existing Amazon Echo — of which the Dot is a smaller version — or an Amazon Fire TV stick set-top box.

“Echo Dot is available in limited quantities and exclusively for Prime members through Alexa Voice Shipping,” the product’s website reads. “To order your Echo Dot, use your Amazon Echo or Amazon Fire TV and just ask: ‘Alexa, order an Echo Dot’.”

The main Echo unit features its own speaker, and looks like a long Bluetooth speaker facing upwards. The Dot removes the speaker unit from the bottom, so that it looks like a much smaller, round puck.

That unit can then be plugged into an existing speaker so that it can be heard, though it also has a built-in speaker. And it will play music through that connection from a range of sources, including Spotify.