Amazon announced two additions to the Echo family this morning – the portable Tap and the Chromecast-like Dot. Dan Moren has a breakdown of the announcement and details.

I’m relatively new to the Amazon Echo (I shared the story of how and why I bought one on Connected), but, like many others, I’m liking it a lot. In my three weeks with the Echo, the ability to play music, set timers, and turn my lights and espresso maker on and off from anywhere around the kitchen without having to wait for Siri is starting to become second nature.

(In theory, this is exactly what Siri on the Apple Watch should do. Realistically, though, the Watch is simply too slow and HomeKit commands fail too often.)

Amazon is doing good work with expanding the Echo’s list of supported third-party services (unlike Apple). I’m intrigued by the Dot.