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Amazon has announced a full lineup of new spherical Echo devices, a new motorized smart display, a camera drone that flies around your home, a game streaming service and more.
In a live presentation, the firm showcased a smorgasbord of new devices from its various brands, including Ring, Eero Fire, and Echo.
The new standard Echo ditches its cylindrical shape for a fabric-covered ball design with Amazon’s signature ring of light at the base to indicate when it’s listening to you. It has a new 3-inch woofer and two tweeters with Dolby processing for stereo sound and automatic adjustment to the acoustics of your room.
It also features Amazon’s new AZ1 artificial intelligence chip for increased local processing of voice and other actions for increased privacy and speed. It will cost £ 89.99 in the UK or $ 99.99 in the US.
The £ 49.99 / $ 49.99 next generation Echo Dot also adopts a similar albeit smaller design, including a model with an LED clock on the front for £ 59.99 / $ 59.99 and a children’s edition, which has settings, responses and activities for children that include a reading coach.
The new Echo Dots have 1.6-inch front speakers and tap-to-snooze or mute functions.
Echo Show 10
A new motorized Echo Show 10 was also unveiled costing £ 239.99 in the UK or $ 249.99 in the US The device has a 10-inch display that is mounted on a swivel base. The screen turns towards the person interacting with it, tracking their body rather than their face as they move through an area using local AI.
The new smart display has a 13-megapixel camera and can pan, zoom, and rotate to keep it in the frame during video calls on Zoom or Amazon’s Chime service which will be available later this year. The camera can also be used as part of Amazon’s home security system called Guard, allowing it to pan around when it detects movement.
All new Echo devices will be made from 100% post-consumer recycled fabric, 100% recycled die-cast aluminum, and post-consumer recycled plastic, as well as new low-power modes and a new Alexa power usage dashboard.
Amazon also introduced new Alexa features, including a setting called “natural turn taking,” which allows people to invite Alexa into a conversation for ongoing follow-up requests, such as ordering from a takeout menu. Alexa will also be able to learn the meaning of things per customer, such as being able to teach her that “reading mode” means that the lights should be set to 40% brightness.
Users can also ask Alexa to delete all recordings of their interactions and set it to have Amazon delete each interaction immediately after it has been processed. Amazon will also actively ask users to review their privacy settings.
ring
Amazon also launched a number of new products from its security company Ring, which will initially only be available in the US, including a new Car Connect system for vehicle manufacturers, including Tesla.
The $ 59.99 Ring Car Alarm is a third-party alarm system that plugs into a car’s diagnostic port and actively monitors for thefts, hits, and other events, alerting users through the Ring app if something happens.
The $ 199.99 Ring Car Cam is a smart dash cam that monitors your car for theft, bumps, and other events when parked, acting as an alarm but with two HD cameras, one out and one back in the cab. .
It can also automatically call for emergency help in the event of an accident and has a feature called “traffic stop”, which is activated by the phrase “Alexa, I’m being stopped.” The camera then records footage of the event and notifies your loved ones.
But the most surprising device of the lot was a new home camera drone called the Ring Always Home Cam. The $ 249 Self-Contained Flying Indoor Camera can move to predetermined areas of your home when an event, such as a burglary, occurs while streaming the video to your phone.
It sits on a small dock when not in use and only records video when flying and makes a noise when in motion to alert those around it that it is recording.
Amazon also announced that Ring would implement end-to-end encryption for video for better privacy later this year.
Fire TV stick
Amazon also introduced a new 50% faster and 50% more energy efficient Fire TV Stick smart TV streaming device with HDR and Dolby Atmos support that costs £ 39.99 in the UK or $ 39.99 in the US, and a cheaper version called the Fire TV Stick Lite which costs £ 29.99 in the UK or $ 29.99 in the US Both devices will ship next week.
Also unveiled are the new Eero mesh Wi-Fi routers, the $ 129 Eero 6 and $ 229 Pro 6, which feature the latest Wi-Fi 6 standards as well as the Zigbee smart home standard and will be available in the US. Initially only.
Finally, Amazon also introduced a new cloud game streaming service called Luna that will rival Microsoft’s Xbox game streaming, Google’s Stadia, and Nvidia’s Geforce Now.
The $ 5.99-a-month service launching in early access in the US, will stream to Fire TV devices, PCs and Macs, with web apps for iPhone and iPad and an Android app coming soon. Luna also has a dedicated, low-latency, cloud-connected controller that costs $ 49.99, Twitch streaming integration, and a Ubisoft partnership with games that appear on the day and date of the service with the general launch.
