Microsoft is bringing Skype to Amazon's Alexa products, the company has announced, enabling Echo product owners to make video and voice calls. As with other Alexa products, the new integration is entirely voice-based -- simply tell the personal assistant to call a specific person and it will take care of the rest.
Too much choice is the Amazon way. While the retail behemoth is known for its 24/7 shopfront and speedy shipping, the core of its success has always been the ridiculous depth of its catalog. Want to choose between hundreds, maybe thousands of novelty BBQ aprons? You got it.
Amazon revealed a flurry of new Echo, Fire TV, and and Alexa devices this week, now a bunch are up for sale. Below we've run down the list of devices that are either available right now or are up for pre-order right now. I'm going to warn you right now, before you go any further: You're probably either going to feel like this is all nonsense or that you want every item on the list - either way, here they are!
The Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL have an accessory coming out on release day - or so we're lead to believe by several leaks. This accessory goes by the name Pixel Stand, and it works together with a new Google Assistant interface. This new UI and new stand will likely be revealed on October 9th, 2018, alongside the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL.
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."
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.
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.
Today Amazon tapped into the DVR business with Amazon Fire TV Recast. This is a device that connects to an antenna on one end and broadcasts TV networks through Amazon Fire TV devices on the other. It's simple, and it's about to do some real damage to companies like TiVo and Dish, quite likely.
Joining its newly announced Echo audio products, third-generation Dot, and Smart Plug comes another major Amazon product: the new Echo Show. This updated Echo device, as with the original, features a display for video content, but builds upon it to offer improved features and a better experience. Buyers can expect an advanced microphone array, a compact design, and more.
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.
Apparently Amazon wasn't kidding when it said it had a lot of new products to show off today. Unquestionably one of the quirkiest reveals of the day is the Echo Wall Clock. While it may not function as a standalone Echo speaker, it'll interact with your IoT setup in ways that no traditional wall clock can, that's for sure.
Supposing you'd like to include your elderly lamp in your smart home setup, what would you do? As Amazon sees it, you should buy an Amazon Smart Plug, a device that plugs in to a wall outlet, then acts as a middleman between that power and the power it transfers to a 3rd-party device. This is all controlled by Alexa, albeit through wi-fi and a different device.