Amazon Alexa

Amazon took a blunderbuss approach to their device event this morning, so we're going to attempt to nutshell the lot. Revealed today were a whole bunch of Amazon Echo devices, a DVR called Fire TV Recast, and a set of improvements for Alexa across all Alexa-friendly devices. "The Alexa service is always getting smarter, whether you’re using the Echo you bought three years ago or an Echo Show you buy tomorrow" said Tom Taylor, Senior Vice President, Amazon Alexa, "Soon customers will be able to manage their email, easily secure their home, watch the shows they love on Echo Show, and make their daily routines more productive—all just by asking Alexa."

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Never has the humble potato been so smart - or so readily cooked - as inside the Amazon Basics Microwave. Now blessed with Alexa support, what's probably the strangest product from Amazon's massive gush of connected gadgets today might seem, on the face of it, a gimmick. In reality, though, it's arguably the most important of them all.

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We figured that at least part of Amazon's presentation today would focus on home security, and we weren't disappointed. Today, Amazon announced a new Ring camera and new Alexa functionality that has some pretty interesting applications when it comes to keeping your house safe. The new Alexa features are collectively called Alexa Guard, and they'll use the microphones and internet capabilities of your Echo speakers to alert you when something goes wrong.

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Amazon has revealed its first Alexa product for the car, with the Echo Auto set to add the voice assistant to your dashboard. The new gadget may be tiny - smaller than a smartphone, in fact, or a radar detector - but it still manages to fit in the eight microphone array from the new second-generation Echo Show.

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Amazon is adding Alexa support to one of its most popular microwaves, with the new Amazon Basics Microwave with Alexa now capable of responding to voice commands. It's another sign of Alexa's spread into the kitchen, which Amazon says is one of the most common locations for the virtual assistant to be found.

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This week the folks at Amazon responsible for Alexa hardware dropped a massive number of devices on our heads, all at once. One of these was the 2018 edition of the Amazon Echo Plus. This device is an Echo with a smart home hub built in. Echo Plus 2018 has more powerful bass than before, according to Amazon, and there's a temperature sensor inside, too.

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Amazon has launched its first speaker-less Echo, the new Echo Input, offering a way to pipe music and the virtual assistant to third-party speakers. Smaller and cheaper than an Echo Dot, the new gadget looks more like a hockey puck than anything else.

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Amazon Alexa is getting more personable and more conversational, with 50,000 skills now available, and new features that will make the assistant more flexible and interactive being rolled out. Announced as part of Amazon's annual Echo event in Seattle, WA today, the assistant is getting a number of updates which should make using Alexa more natural.

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Amazon is holding a surprise event in Seattle today, with a host of Alexa-based devices expected to break cover in advance of Google's big Pixel event next month. It's the latest salvo in Amazon's smart assistant line-up, which leaks have suggested will expand into connected appliances as well as more capable multimedia devices.

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Alexa is hitching a ride in Audi's upcoming 2019 e-tron, with the electric SUV the first of the automaker's cars that will feature Amazon's assistant. The news makes Audi one of a number of high-profile automakers which have baked Alexa integration into the dashboard.

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Amazon plans to release a slew of devices with its personal assistant Alexa by the end of this year, at least according to a new report leaking the alleged plan. Amazon reportedly has a minimum of 8 Alexa-based hardware devices in the pipeline, all of them currently unannounced, that will potentially be available to purchase for the holidays.

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There's a new robot vacuum in town, and it's only the second Dyson's ever made. This is the Dyson 360 Heurist, and it can see in the dark. It's got LED-assisted vision and it's smarter than its predecessor by a significant margin. This robot can be monitored from its companion app - and it can be controlled by voice assistant, dependent on region.

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