Amazon unveiled five new Alexa devices today, including two new kinds of hardware: the Alexa Photo Frame, a smart picture frame, and the Echo Time, a smart alarm clock.
The Alexa Photo Frame is Amazon’s foray into the world of digital photo displays, a product category that has transcended from a clunky, last-minute holiday gift to a sleek, attractive way to look through your camera roll.
Aura is responsible for much of the growth in this category, so it’s no coincidence that the Alexa Photo Frame has a similar aesthetic feel: The screen is much easier on the eyes than the old, bright photo frames from years past. The device is said to be specifically calibrated for sharing photos, featuring a semi-matte, anti-glare display that makes it look more like a Samsung Frame TV than a laptop screen.
Also like Aura, the Photo Frame’s 10-inch screen looks like a matte photograph, helping it blend in with other artwork on your wall.
Amazon’s new device, though, adds the value of integration with users’ existing Amazon accounts. Prime members get unlimited storage on Amazon Photos, and Alexa+ is supposed to intelligently choose how and when to display photos.
“It knows to choose photos where you’re smiling and the lighting is right, and it matches the season you’re in, so you see last year’s family Halloween costumes in October instead of the middle of spring. It also knows what to skip, like screenshots and receipts,” Amazon said in a press release. You can also add voice notes to photos, and images sync automatically as you take them.
The Alexa Photo Frame is on sale now, and starts at $199.99 in Black, and $229 in Birch or Walnut wood.
Meanwhile, the Echo Time clock seems to be a response to the growing sentiment that people don’t want to rely on their phones for alarms, setting morning reminders, or checking the weather.
“Millions of customers start and end their days with Alexa — checking the weather and turning on the lights from bed in the morning or winding down with white noise at night,” Amazon wrote. “But the bedroom asks for something different from a device than the kitchen or living room does — so we designed an Echo specifically for it.”
Amazon says that the Echo Time, which costs $199.99, or $209.99 for a Kids version, has opt-in sleep sensing tools. You can choose to set a smart alarm feature that wakes you up within a 10 to 60 minute window of your alarm time, and can wake you when it detects you’re in a lighter phase of sleep, so that it’s less jarring to begin your day.
Like the popular Hatch alarm clocks, the clock can also mimic sunrise features to ease you awake.
Amazon also showed off updates to its existing lines of devices. We now get the Echo Show 16, a new Echo Dot, and Echo Studio with Home Camera.
The biggest upgrade to the Echo Dot is that it now includes a built-in smart home hub, which also includes an eero Wi-Fi extender that adds up to 1,000 square feet of coverage, helping it connect to lights, locks, and thermostats around your home. The new Echo Dot is also powered by Amazon’s custom AZ3 silicon chip, which is said to make it better at on-device processing to speed up conversations with its AI, Alexa+.
Amazon says its most advanced speaker, however, is the Echo Studio with Home Camera. This speaker doubles as a camera so you can check on your home while you’re out, and also has visual intelligence features.
“Alexa can also see and understand what’s in front of the camera and help you in real time,” Amazon explained. “Pull out a board game box and ask Alexa+ to explain the rules or hold up a cereal box and Alexa can recognize it and help you reorder more flavors.”
The Echo Dot is available at $99.99, and the Echo Studio with Home Camera costs $249.99.
Finally, Amazon unveiled the new Echo Show 16, which includes a 16-inch display. Amazon says the device has a 10% larger viewing area than its predecessor, but with a 40% smaller frame. It has Fire TV built in, plus Smart Home tools like Family Organizer. It can also function like a digital photo frame.
The Echo Show 16 is available for preorder for $499.99.
Source: techcrunch.com
