The Latest Amazon Devices and the Connected Home

Amazon became the latest Big Tech player to release its list of pre-holiday shopping deals, with the new hardware doing double duty in building buzz. After all, not only is the holiday shopping season approaching, but so is Amazon’s delayed Prime Day, which the tech giant moved from July 13 to July 14 due to the pandemic.

What got the world’s attention when Amazon rolled out a great end-of-the-year lineup?

Surprise of the day: the Luna Gaming service

Amazon unveiled its new Luna cloud gaming platform, the latest entrant in a field that already includes Google’s Stadia service, Microsoft’s xCloud, and Apple’s Arcade.

Scheduled to go live in early October, Luna will have a subscription that starts at $ 5.99 a month. Amazon launched Luna and its controller hardware at Thursday’s event.

Luna will be available on Fire TV, PC, Mac, and iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads. It won’t be rolled out initially with the availability of Android, although Amazon executives said Android users will have access to the system within weeks of launch. And for iOS users, Luna will not be available through the Apple App Store, but only in the browser.

“We will continue to work with Apple,” Luna’s boss Marc Whitten told Engadget. “We would love to do a native experience. They are evaluating what their policies are … And when we can have a good experience there, we will send it too. “

Luna will launch with around 100 titles available to play. The service will also eventually include access to channels with curated content for an undisclosed price.

That approach – additional access to channel offerings – appears to be taking a page on how Amazon Prime offers streaming video. But Whitten said it’s still a work in progress.

“You can even watch other types of channels, such as a genre-based channel or other ways of thinking about specific pieces of content that could be very attractive to a certain group of customers,” he told Endgadget.

On the hardware side, Amazon also released a roughly $ 50 Luna controller that looks both physically and technologically similar to the Google Stadia controller. However, it connects directly to the cloud to interact with games instead of using Bluetooth as a weighing station.

Luna will also support standard Bluetooth drivers, but Amazon said the best performance will come from using its specially designed hardware.

All the new echoes

Many new Echos were unveiled: the fourth generation, the fourth generation Dot, the children’s edition Echo Dot, the Dot with a Clock and an Echo Show 10 with a sci-fi look. Rounded shapes were a theme on Echo devices this year. , included to make Echos more compatible with room acoustics.

Layered over the spherical design, the Echo for Kids starts at $ 60 and includes features like Sidekick, which allows Alexa to read youth stories. It also has a striking animal-themed design. (The panda was particularly popular with commentators.) It seems likely that the children’s editions will find themselves in a lot of stockings this Christmas.

As for the new Echo Show 10, it has a screen mounted so that it can rotate in the direction of the person speaking to it. The device also has expanded viewing capabilities, with Zoom calls and Netflix projections added to the list.

Alexa updates

Amazon also announced a number of enhancements to its voice-activated Alexa, including improved “hunches,” where Alexa suggests an activity to a user such as closing the front door.

Enhanced security features include a new $ 4.99-a-month subscription service called Alexa Home Guard Plus that includes more robust security monitoring, including a new sound sensor system. The system will also allow Alexa to take action, such as playing the sounds of dogs barking if it perceives a security threat. There is also a new hands-free emergency helpline run by an outside company that will connect users with police, fire department, or emergency contacts.

Alexa will also be able to interact with users in a more conversational way with a back-and-forth item, instead of users continually having to ask Alexa questions. Users can also instruct Alexa to delete everything they’ve said and facilitate group video or voice calls with up to eight participants. The device will also adjust responses when it senses that you are talking to a child.

Additionally, Alexa has added an “Events Near Me” feature, which allows the artificial intelligence (AI) assistant to guide users to a list of nearby events. The new feature is powered by demand intelligence company PredictHQ.

The ring always at home Flying Sentry

Amazon’s Ring home security system is receiving several updates, most of which are fairly incremental and in line with what came before.

But very new to the lineup is the Ring Always Home Cam, a tiny drone-mounted camera that patrols the hallways of the home to make sure thieves haven’t infiltrated when owners are away. The $ 250 Floating Sentry will fly a timed route, stay out of rooms where it’s unwanted, and even land on a charger when it knows it needs a battery boost.

What products will conquer the holiday shopping season?

Will a camera-equipped drone on a security mission become the hottest vendor of the holiday season? Probably not, but the new Alexa with Echo’s sleek new spherical design will certainly turn heads.

And as for Luna, we imagine her future will be one of “wait and see.” Everybody wants to dominate the gaming world these days, but nothing will be known until players choose a favorite device or system.