Here’s everything Amazon announced at its fall hardware event

Amazon held its annual fall hardware event on Tuesday. As in years past, the company had a lot to share in a short amount of time. We saw it announce new Echo, Kindle and Ring devices. It also had a few surprises up its sleeve from Eero and some of its other subsidiaries. Here’s everything the company unveiled today.

Kindle Scribe

It only took the better part of 15 years, but Amazon is finally about to begin selling a Kindle with a stylus. Available later this year and starting at $339, the Kindle Scribe features a 10.2-inch, 300ppi front-lit display and magnetic pen. The nifty thing about Scribe is that you don’t need to sync or charge the stylus, and you can use it to jot down notes, annotate books and journal. You can preorder Kindle Scribe starting today.

Echo Studio and Echo Dot updates

Echo Dot
Amazon

It wouldn’t much of an Amazon hardware event if the company didn’t update its Echo line. This year it obliged by introducing a redesigned Echo Studio that features a new spatial audio processor that Amazon claims allows the speaker to deliver better stereo sound with “greater, width, clarity and presence.” According to the company, the new speaker also delivers better midrange clarity and deeper bass. Additionally, it now comes in a white colorway. The Echo Studio will cost $200 when it ships next month. 

Amazon also redesigned the Echo Dot to fit a larger driver into the diminutive speaker. The company claims the new model offers twice the bass of its predecessor and clearer vocals. Its equally adorable sibling, the Echo Dot with Clock, now features a more capable display that can show information like the current artist and song title. Both models also feature more responsible touch controls. The Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock are available to preorder today for $50 and $60 respectively. Amazon is also releasing two new Kids versions that go on sale next month for $60. 

Ring Spotlight Cam and Blink Floodlight Camera

After announcing a security drone in 2020 and apatrolling robot in 2021, Amazon’s home security-related announcements were a bit more subdued this time around. The company introduced two new cameras from Ring, the Spotlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Plus. Both devices include Ring’s advanced Bird’s Eye View motion detection technology, a feature that was previously only available on the company’s flagship cameras. Amazon will offer the Spotlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Plus in battery, plug-in, solar and wired variants, with the most affordable version of the Pro starting at $230. The Plus, meanwhile, will set you back at least $200.         

Blink, Amazon’s other home security company, is also releasing new products. Today it announced the $100 Wired Floodlight Camera. It offers a 2,600-lumen LED light, 1080p live view and two-way audio, as well as motion detection. If you own one of the company’s Mini security cameras, you can now buy a pan-and-tilt mount for it that expands the camera’s coverage. The $30 accessory is available to preorder today. 

Eero

Eero PoE 6 power over Ethernet WiFi router
Amazon

Amazon’s Eero didn’t have as many announcements as we’re used to seeing from it, but if you already own one of the company’s mesh WiFi devices, you’ll appreciate what it did have to share. To start, Amazon’s new Echo Dot speakers will now double as Eero WiFi extenders. Add one to your existing network, and you can add as much as 1,000 square feet of additional coverage to your home. The Eero team is also preparing an Internet Backup feature that will automatically switch your router to an alternate connection during internet outages. That functionality will be available in the “coming months” to Eero Plus customers and from supporting internet providers.

Eero did have new hardware to share, though it’s a device that’s more aimed at businesses. The Eero PoE 6 draws power from an Ethernet connection, making it easier to mount on a wall or ceiling. It offers speeds of up to 1.5Gbps and a maximum of 2,000 square feet of coverage. It will be available this October for $300. 

Halo Rise 

Halo Rise
Amazon

Unspursingly, Amazon is continuing its expansion into the health and wellness market, with a “no-contact” sleep tracker called the Halo Rise. According to the company, the device uses a “low-energy sensor” to detect the movement and respiratory patterns of the person sleeping closest to it. Each morning, you’ll see a summary of your data, with a few tips on how to get more restful sleep. It also doubles as an Alexa-compatible smart speaker and a sunrise clock, meaning you can configure Rise to gradually wake you up in the winter months when the sun might not be up before you need to get out of bed. Halo Rise will cost $140 when it goes on sale later this year.

Amazon Fire TV Cube and Fire TV Omni QLED Series

Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED
Amazon

Amazon began the Fire TV portion of its fall event with a refresh of the Fire TV Cube. The new model features a more mature design that should help the Fire TV Cube look less out of place in your living room. Amazon has also equipped it with a more powerful 2GHz octa-core processor, and an HDMI connection for TV passthrough. Taking advantage of the latter feature, you can switch to specific channels with voice commands. Alongside the Fire TV Cube, Amazon introduced the $35 Alexa Voice Remote Pro. It comes with a finder feature that can trigger a noise if you ever lose the remote.     

Amazon is also expanding its Fire TV Omni line to add two premium QLED models. Available in 65- and 75-inch models that will cost $800 and $1,100 respectively, they’re the first TVs from the company to include support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10 Plus Adaptive. Additionally, they feature full array local dimming, with the latter model making use of 96 zones. They also come with an Ambient Experience mode that will display art or Alexa widgets when you enter the room. The series will go on sale next month.      

Oh, and if you own an Echo Show 15, Amazon says you can expect a free update in the near future that will let you use the smart display as a Fire TV device. Handy that. 

Everything Else

echo auto
Amazon

Amazon had a few other announcements mostly centered around the car. First, there’s a new Echo Auto that’s slimmer than its predecessor and features a more secure adhesive grip. BMW also joined Amazon on stage to announce that it’s working with the retailer to build the next version of its in-vehicle voice assistant using Alexa as a base. The automaker didn’t share too many details about the project, but promised it would “enable an even more natural dialogue between driver and vehicle.”

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Amazon’s first QLED Fire TVs offer better picture quality and an ambient mode

When Amazon introduced its Fire TV Omni line last year, it mostly offered affordable sets oriented toward budget-conscious consumers. At its fall hardware event today, the company announced two new models with QLED panels. Priced at $800 and $1,100 for 65- and 75-inch 4K models, the Omni QLED TVs feature “up to” 96 local dimming zones, support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10 Plus Adaptive. Those are features that should significantly improve the picture quality the new sets can offer over their predecessors.

New presence and ambient light sensors also allow the Omni QLED TVs to offer a feature Amazon is calling “Ambient Experience.” Taking a page from Samsung’s Frame TVs, the Omni QLED TVs can display artwork when you’re not watching a TV show or movie. At any time, you can ask Alexa to tell you more about the piece or the artist who created it. The Ambient Experience automatically turns on when you enter the room and off again when you leave. 

If you want something more practical, the TVs can also display Alexa widgets with information on the news, weather and more. You can disable the built-in far-field microphones at any point if you don’t want Alexa listening, and it’s even possible to use the TV to play music without keeping the display on. Preorders for the Fire TV Omni QLED series open today, with orders shipping October 27th.   

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Google Lens image and text multisearch will soon be available in more languages

Multisearch, a Google Lens feature that can search images and text simultaneously, will soon be more broadly available after arriving in the US as a beta earlier this year. Google says multisearch will expand to more than 70 languages in the coming months. The company made the announcement at an event focused on Search.

In addition, the Near Me feature, which Google unveiled at I/O back in May, will land in the US in English sometime this fall. This ties into multisearch, with the idea of making it easier for folks to find out more details about local businesses. 

Multisearch is largely about enabling people to point their camera at something and ask about it while they’re using the Google app. You could aim your phone at a store and request details about it, for instance, or ask about a screenshot of any unfamiliar item, like an item of clothing. You could also look up what a certain food item is called, like soup dumplings or laksa, and see what restaurants around you offer it.

Also on the Lens front, there will be some changes when it comes to augmented reality translations. Google is now employing the same artificial intelligence tech it uses for the Pixel 6’s Magic Eraser feature to make it appear like it’s replacing the original text, instead of superimposing the translation on top. The idea is to make translations look more seamless and natural.

Google is also adding shortcuts to the bottom of the search bar in its iOS app, so you’ll more easily find features like translating text with your camera, hum to search and translating text in screenshots.

Here are the new features Amazon is adding to Alexa

While new gadgets tend to dominate Amazon’s annual Devices and Services Event, the company still has a few upgrades planned for its ubiquitous digital assistant. So here are all the fresh features and skills Amazon is planning to add to Alexa. 

For people trying to shop for a new outfit, the Echo Show is getting an AI-based skill that allows it to more easily search for clothes using a customer’s references or specific characteristics. For example, Amazon says you can ask things like “Alexa, show me the one-shoulder top.” Amazon explained the skill was created using the Alexa Teacher Model, which was trained using images and captions sourced from the company’s product database. 

In the car, Alexa is also getting a new Roadside Assistance feature that will connect you with an agent in case you need do something like calling a tow truck or get help changing a flat tire. On top of that, BMW is expanding its partnership with Amazon, with BMW announcing plans to build its next-generation voice assistant using the Alexa Custom Assistant solution. BMW’s goal is to support more natural language controls that are easy to use while driving. 

Alexa is also getting integration with the new Halo Rise, allowing it to do things like automatically turn off your lights when you get in bed or play your favorite song to help you wake up in the morning. Amazon will also be adding the Fire TV experience to the Echo Show 15, so users will be able to watch all their favorite shows or purchased content on a smaller screen. There’s also a new Alexa Voice Remote Pro for Fire TVs, that allows you to more easily switch between various inputs, control routines and use your voice to find the remote if you lose it thanks to the controller’s built-in speaker. 

Meanwhile for Disney fans, Amazon is adding a new “Hey Disney” command that gives anyone with a Kids+ subscription access to immersive entertainment experiences featuring big-name Disney characters. 

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube can control your cable box

Amazon’s Fire TV Cube has always been a bit of a curiosity. Clearly, the company wanted to combine an Echo Dot with a Fire TV streaming player, but it took a few tries before we genuinely liked it. Now with the third-generation Fire TV Cube, Amazon is giving it a more premium sheen with a cloth-covered design, a more powerful 2GHz octa-core processor, and an HDMI input connection for plugging in your cable box. Doing so will let you tune the Fire TV Cube to specific channels with voice commands—you know, for those of you who can’t let your local sports go.

Given that new hardware, Amazon says the Fire TV Cube will feel much faster than before. It’s also the first streamer on the market to include support for WiFi 6E, which should help when you’re dealing with huge 4K streams. When it comes to older content, Amazon has also included Super Resolution support for upscaling HD video into 4K. It’s unclear if that will actually help older content look better, but we’re looking forward to testing it out.

In addition to the $140 Fire TV Cube, Amazon also announced the $35 Alexa Voice Remote Pro, which is unfortunately sold separately. It features a backlight and programmable buttons for launching your favorite streaming apps. Perhaps most useful though? There’s a Remote Finder feature, which allows you to ask Alexa to trigger a noise in case the Remote Pro gets stuck in your couch. That’s one big advantage it has over Apple’s easy-to-lose Apple TV remote.

The new Fire TV Cube ships October 25th while the new remote will ship November 16th. Both are available for preorder now. 

Amazon Alexa Voice Remote Pro
Amazon

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Amazon is expanding the Astro’s abilities for both home and business

While Amazon is widely known for its Ring brand of doorbell camera home security systems, the company last year introduced a more mobile, and way more adorable, monitoring platform: Astro. The $1,500 automaton (which is currently on sale for $999) essentially serves as an Alexa on wheels, trundling about your home like an AIBO that also manages your calendar and doubles as a guard dog. On Wednesday, Amazon unveiled a slew of new features for Astro, including one that can now detect the presence of your real cat or dog. 

The new feature, which will be available later this year, will trigger while the Astro is “on patrol” around your home. When it encounters your pet, Astro will capture a short video clip of them and share it with you via Live View (part of the Alexa Together system). 

“You can use Live View to tell your dog to get off the couch, or you can take a picture of what they’re doing to add to your pet scrapbook,” Ken Washington, vice president of Consumer Robotics, said during the event. “We think this feature will be especially useful by providing a live connection to your pets so that you have peace of mind about them, no matter where you are.”

Astro is also gaining some added situational awareness. The robot can already map out its patrol routes through your home but, with a new multimodal AI capability, Astro will actively pay attention to “things in your home that you want it to learn about—and better notify you if something isn’t right,” Washington said. Basically, Astro will learn by looking at an object (say, a door) and listening to you speak about it (“that door should always be closed”), then incorporate that information into its monitoring duties. If it detects an issue, the Astro will snap a picture of it and send it to you with a request for further instructions.

For those of you itching to add bespoke features to your own Astro, Amazon is also releasing a new SDK. There’s no word yet on when it will be made publicly available. Washington noted that “to start, we’ll begin working with three of the world’s leading robotics schools later this year—the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Maryland, and the University of Michigan—to put an early form of the SDK into their students’ hands.” More official Astro features are in the pipe, Washington assured, and once they’re ready, they’ll be made available as OTA software updates.

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Amazon built Eero WiFi extenders into its latest Echo Dot speakers

Amazon isn’t done updating its Eero router lineup this year, if not quite in the way you’d expect. To start, the brand’s new Echo Dot speakers will now double as Eero WiFi extenders. Plug one in and you’ll get as much as 1,000 square feet of additional network coverage. That speaker on your nightstand could improve the internet connection in your office, in other words.

The base Echo Dot is available for pre-order today at $50, while the Echo Dot with Clock and colorful Echo Dot Kids will sell for $60. Given that an Eero 6 Extender costs $79, this is an easy choice if you use one of Amazon’s routers — you can pay less to bolster your WiFi network while adding speaker functionality.

There’s also a meaningful update to existing routers. The Eero team is prepping an Internet Backup feature that will automatically switch to an alternate connection if there’s an outage, and switch back when things return to normal. You can lean on your phone’s hotspot while your cable service is down, for instance. The technology will be available in the “coming months,” although you’ll need either a $99 per year Eero Plus subscription (formerly Eero Secure+) or service from a supporting internet provider.

Eero PoE 6 power over Ethernet WiFi router
Amazon

You can expect new dedicated Eero hardware as well, although this time it’s aimed at sophisticated home networks and businesses. As the name suggests, the Eero PoE 6 router (shown above) takes power over Ethernet and is thus easier to mount on the ceiling or wall. The dual-band device tops out at 1.5Gbps and a maximum 2,000 square feet of coverage. It will be available through installers in the US and Canada this October for $300, and will reach Amazon’s store in early 2023. An Eero PoE Gateway ($650) is also due early next year through Amazon’s website and ISPs. It can share up to a 10Gbps internet link through two 10Gbps Ethernet jacks and eight PoE-capable 2.5Gbps jacks.

There are services to match: Anyone who buys Eero PoE hardware will get five years of access to a Pro Installers software suite to help technicians optimize networks for customers. Companies, meanwhile, will have the option of a $299 yearly Eero for Business plan that offers hardware and software for outfits with little to no IT infrastructure of their own. It arrives in early 2023 in the US and UK.

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Amazon’s Halo Rise is a $140 bedside sleep tracker that works by sensing you breathe

Amazon wants to help you get better understanding of your sleep, but knows that many of us hate wearing something to bed just to track our rest. That’s why it made the Halo Rise — a bedside lamp and sleep tracker that works without a camera or microphone to track the person resting closest to it. It’ll also use machine learning to detect what sleep zones you’re in and will cost $140 when it’s available later this year.

It uses a “no-contact, low-energy sensor” to sense movement and respiratory patterns. Together with machine learning, Amazon can tell from the rising and falling or expanding and contracting of your body to determine your sleep stages throughout the night. Amazon says it “trained and validated the device’s sleep algorithm against the clinical gold standard for sleep analysis called… overnight polysomnography.”

If there’s another person or animal sharing your bed, Amazon said its algorithm can detect and exclude their activity and only include your data in your sleep summary, which you’ll see every day. The company will then offer you tips on how to sleep better, including suggestions on how to optimize your environment.

The Rise also has sensors to gauge the temperature, humidity and brightness of your room, and is also a lamp. It’ll glow in accordance with sunrise times so you can wake up to a gradually brightening grow instead of having your retinas scorched off when you open your curtains. You can also set a smart alarm that will monitor your sleep stages and wake you at an ideal time instead of disrupting you in the middle of deep sleep. 

The Rise will also work with Alexa and you can set a compatible Alexa device to start playing your favorite song as you’re waking up, based on the Rise’s insights. If you have personalized sleep routines, the Rise can also trigger them when you get in bed, turning off your lights and other devices for you. 

Those concerned about privacy can turn off the sleep-tracking sensor whenever they want, and Amazon said that all Halo health data is encrypted in transit and at rest in the cloud. You’ll also be able to download your health data, limit access to it or delete it altogether.

Though Amazon describes this as a “first of its kind bedside sleep tracker,” Google already introduced something similar last year with the second-generation Nest Hub. That device uses the company’s Soli radar sensor to monitor your breathing and is designed to be used by your bed, too. It doesn’t offer the alarm and lights that the Halo Rise does, but is based on the same principle. Google’s version didn’t work perfectly — it was tricky to set up and didn’t always know when I’d awoken. We’ll have to wait till we can test the Halo Rise for ourselves to see how well Amazon’s tracking works, but for now, it’s an intriguing device, especially for those of us keen on getting sleep insights without having to wear a gadget to bed.

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!

Amazon’s Kindle Scribe is a $339 e-reader you can write on

Nearly 15 years after introducing the first Kindle, Amazon is finally adding a stylus to one of its e-readers. At its fall hardware event, the company introduced the Kindle Scribe. The device features a 10.2-inch, 300ppi display with an adjustable front light and a stylus that magnetically attaches to it. According to Amazon, you don’t need to charge or sync the Scribe’s stylus, and you can use it for jotting down notes, journaling and making annotations in books you’re reading. Starting next year, it will also be possible to send Microsoft Word documents to Kindle Scribe.

Kindle Scribe will start at $339 when it arrives later this year. In addition to different storage options, Amazon will let you choose between a “basic” and “premium” pen. The latter includes a customizable shortcut button and a dedicated eraser on the top. In the US, the e-reader will come with a complimentary four-month trial to Kindle Unlimited. 

Follow all of the news from Amazon’s event right here!