Amazon's Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen) has added support for Zoom and Amazon Chime, with the face-tracking smart display getting a lot more useful in the process. Launched earlier this year, the newest - and so far largest - Echo Show has a motorized base that can rotate its 10-inch display so that it's always facing you.
Amazon Fire TV users should get ready to see a new interface when they turn on their media streamer, with Amazon pushing out its all-new Fire TV experience this week. The roll-out began earlier in the week, though owners of the Fire TV Stick 3 and Fire TV Stick Lite had been able to enjoy it before 2020 was through.
A quick glance at the image below and anyone who uses an Amazon Fire TV device will recognize some significant changes that have been made to the remote control. The new Alexa Voice Remote for Fire TV devices is officially available for pre-order as a standalone upgrade. It's also the remote that comes with the third-generation Fire TV stick in many regions, including the US, Canada, Germany, and others.
Amazon's Echo Show 10 is big on eye-contact. Now in its third-generation, the rotating smart display has the same screen as its predecessor, but mounted on a swiveling base that uses person-tracking to make sure it's always facing you. At $250, it's also Amazon's most expensive Echo Show model so far.
Once the almost literal face of Microsoft's AI endeavors, Cortana has slowly faded into the background. It's still around, in one form or another, but even Microsoft has started to use its name less often. After a brief stint lasting almost three years, Microsoft removed Cortana from its Xbox consoles, and now, as if to add insult to injury, it is allowing Amazon Alexa to share its place as a virtual assistant you can use on the Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Ring has revealed a new, smarter doorbell camera, with the Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 borrowing sensors you might normally expect to find on cars and clever drones for a big upgrade to motion detection. The new model packs a radar sensor for 3D Motion Detection, for what Ring says is an improvement in detection along with a bird's eye view of the area around your front door.
Amazon today rolled out a new platform called Build It, which is part of its larger Day One Editions program. While Day One Editions focuses on limited-volume product runs to get new devices in the hands of consumers for the purposes of receiving feedback, Build It products will only be produced if enough Amazon customers register their interest through pre-orders. Amazon is kicking off its Build It program with three different products, and one of them is an Alexa cuckoo clock.
Amazon is reportedly building a new, wall-mounted Echo, a touchscreen smart display which would act as a hub for family organization, smart home tech, media, and more. Alexa has already found its way into several generations of smart display, though so far they've been designed to sit on kitchen counters, desks, and nightstands.
Ring has launched a new video doorbell, and rather than temperamental batteries the Ring Video Doorbell Wired focuses on two things: size, and price. The company's smallest doorbell so far, it also has the smallest price of a Ring model, coming in at $59.99.
The Genie Company delivers Aladdin Connect smart garage door openers and retrofit kits to the public. Samsung has a smart home system called Samsung SmartThings. Today, the two companies announced that Aladdin Connect smart garage door openers and retrofit kids are now "Works with SmartThings" certified. This means that your Samsung SmartThings app can open your garage door - or your connected SmartThings devices of all sorts could, potentially, make your garage door open when you flip the right set of switches.
In the earlier days of smart assistants, they seemed only smart because of how they seemed to know things or do things like magic. Of course, they still needed to scour the net or wirelessly flick a switch, and most of the time you still had to actually tell them to do those. These days, the likes of Amazon Alexa have definitely gotten smarter, able to predict your next move, and, in this latest update, even take action without having to ask your permission.
Although smartwatches are a dime a dozen these days, some still prefer smart bands not just for their simplicity but also for their discreetness. That's not to say that these fitness-centric devices are less featured than their smartwatch cousins, especially this upcoming product from Xiaomi. According to the latest leak, the company's next Mi Band will be chock-full of features that it would almost qualify as a smartwatch, one that even has Amazon's AI assistant on board.