Amazon Echo Show review: Showing (often) better than telling

You can make video calls through Echo Show. NEW YORK--Alexa can show you stuff as well as tell. You and Amazon's cloud-based personal assistant have been on a first name basis ever since the debut of the company's popular voice-driven Echo speaker. Now that Amazon will begin shipping Echo Show this week, the first Echo with a built-in screen, I can not only envision how you and Alexa might spend more time together, but how Alexa might bring you closer to family and friends. Chief reason: merely by asking, Alexa can initiate video calls, including a special type of "drop in" call reserved for loved ones, of which I'll have more to say below. I've been testing Echo Show for just shy of a week and expect it to be a hit, as much for its potential as for where it will be on launch day.