Amazon is reportedly working on a smaller, more portable Echo wireless speaker

Today WSJ is reporting that Amazon is soon going to launch a smaller, more portable version of its Echo wireless speaker. The Echo became available last year, and it pairs a speaker with Alexa, Amazon's very own personal assistant. The Echo, described as a "surprise success", is priced at $179.99, but the smaller speaker will be cheaper.

It's codenamed Fox, and will be small enough to "fit comfortably in the palm of a user's hand". It's apparently slightly reminiscent of the Beats Pill speaker, though Amazon's product stands vertically when you place it onto something.

Aside from size and price, perhaps the biggest difference between the Echo and the Fox will be that the smaller speaker won't need to be plugged in to function. It will have a built-in battery and will be charged on a docking station. To ensure that battery will last for decent amounts of time on a charge, the always-on listening for voice commands of the Echo is gone here. Instead, you'll need to push a dedicated button on the Fox, and only then issue your command.

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