Think Amazon (AMZN) is just the world's largest online retailer? Think again.

As technology advances, so does Amazon's reach in the sector – to the point where it now competes with some of the largest companies in the world in a variety of fields. For example…

Embracing the fast-growing world of robotics, Echo wants to manage your household and make your life easier. Here's how…

Echo – the New-Age personal assistant

Echo is a “personal robot” that understands your voice and can control much of your household – if you let it.

The idea of personal robots, or home assistants, has existed for a while now, and several crowdfunding campaigns have attempted to make them a reality. But they haven't caught on yet for two main reasons.

First, we've never seen a personal robot with the capabilities of Echo and that has the backing of a giant like Amazon. And second, few people have “smart,” controllable devices in their homes just yet.

But Amazon has raised the stakes by making Echo tap into the company's other business lines – a development that allows it to do things that other personal robots can't do.

So what does Echo do?

It Hears You: There's an ongoing debate in the tech sector about whether voice or touch input will be the dominant means of instructing devices in the future. Smartphones have services like Siri and Google Now, but most of the apps are touch-driven, and texting has displaced a lot of communication that previously would've been by voice.