Amazon offers a line of its own products under the "AmazonBasics" brand. These items are usually presented as an inexpensive alternative to items from other known brands, and it covers a variety of products: cables, adapters, bags, and more. The Consumer Protection Safety Commission has announced a new recall involving half a dozen AmazonBasics products, all of them power banks.
Amazon dropped the price for its second-generation Kindle Oasis, and now it's adding a second color: the Kindle Oasis champagne gold. The first gold model to grace Amazon's line-up of ereaders, the new Oasis may be functionally identical to its graphite gray sibling, but it's definitely more eye-catching.
Amazon has released a software update for its Cloud Cam home security camera, adding multiple new features, particularly ones that play well with other existing Amazon products. Echo, Echo Spot, and Echo Show owners are getting new abilities thanks to today's update, which enables those Amazon products to work with the Cloud Cam's two-way audio functionality. Echo owners are also getting an optional alert feature.
Alexa video calling was added to a collection of tablets this week in an effort to ramp up Amazon's smart assistant omnipotence. Amazon announced the update for all tablets, all at once - that includes Amazon Fire tablets, Android tablets of all kinds, and the iPad from Apple. Users will be able to use their device to place video and audio calls with Alexa, or send messages to almost anyone, with the assistance of Alexa.
Alexa is easily the current leader of the growing virtual assistant market, and Amazon is keen to stay ahead of competition from Google and Apple. The company's newest feature for Alexa is dubbed "follow-up mode," and it makes it easier for users to ask multiple questions in succession by dropping the need to repeat the wake-up command.
![Alexa laughing bug has users creeped out, Amazon is working on a fix [UPDATE]](https://c.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/amazon-echo-2017-review-8-980x620.jpg)
If you own a smart speaker running Amazon's Alexa and you've recently heard a disturbing child-like giggle in your home, don't freak out. Amazon has acknowledged that its digital assistant is currently experiencing some sort of issue that causes it to randomly giggle and it is looking into a fix. The company's confirmation follows reports from some Alexa users claiming their speaker has let out a random laugh.
Amazon Prime is a great service for anyone who regularly does their shopping online, but at $11 a month or $99 per year (if you're willing to drop that much all at once), it can be an expensive extra. Amazon already offers a few discounts for Prime, such as ones to students and those receiving government assistance in the form of EBT benefits, but today it's adding a new one. If you receive Medicaid benefits, you can now get Prime at a discounted rate as well.
Amazon has wasted little time in putting its recent Whole Foods acquisition to use. Shortly after buying Whole Foods, Amazon slashed prices at all of its locations in an attempt to boost foot traffic and put more pressure on competitors. Just last month, Amazon rolled Whole Foods deliveries into Prime Now, giving Prime users in some cities around the US the option to have groceries delivered to their door through the service.
Bad news if you rely on Alexa to control your smart home, stream your music, or educate your kids, with a huge outage making Amazon's assistant temporarily mute. Amazon Web Services have been experiencing regional outages, which have left Alexa either sluggish to respond or failing to answer questions and commands altogether.
Amazon is planning to transform Alexa into a universal real-time language translator, according to sources with knowledge of the plans. Doing so would turn Alexa devices into multi-lingual assistants that aid users in communicating with different languages. Though Amazon hasn't confirmed the plans yet, the sources indicate Alexa's translation abilities would greatly exceed mere word and short phrase translations.
Amazon just made it easier for UFC fans to ditch cable: it is now offering pay-per-view event sales to everyone, including non-Prime customers. These sales are available directly through the Amazon Video site, where the UFC 222 event scheduled for this weekend is already listed for sale. Purchased PPV products can be viewed using any streaming device supported by Amazon including its own Fire TV devices.
Amazon has acquired Ring, adding the video doorbell company to its growing portfolio of IoT, connected home, and smart security businesses. Ring offers a number of connected cameras, video doorbells, smart lights, and other security products, which can beam video of people outside the home to both a smartphone and to the cloud.