Amazon announced new Alexa devices and services, including a new Echo and Echo Dot. What is most apparent is the new spherical shape of the Echo smart speakers. Both Echo devices will be smarter, of course. Each year every artificial assistant becomes more conversational, which is a nice trend.
The Amazon Alexa event was presented from the Spheres location. However, it was an invitation-only event for media and not live-streamed. Amazon spoke about climate change and pledged all of its new Alexa products will feature a Climate Pledge Friendly badge on Amazon. According to Amazon, the new products are made with 100-percent recycled fabric, 100-percent recycled aluminum and pulp-free packaging. Amazon also noted that about half of a product's carbon-footprint comes from usage, so these new devices will all have low power modes to minimize energy use.
Amazon announced two new Echo smart speakers, the Echo and the Echo Dot. Both Echo devices have a pleasing spherical shape with a glowing ring of light near the base. This adds a futuristic look and provides another means of signaling the human that it is active. The shape is somewhat similar to the Echo Glow, Amazon's $30 night-light, but offers full Alexa capabilities. With an expanded ability to recognize voices and interact more naturally, Alexa is much more intelligent. The Echo smart speakers can identify more sounds, such as a baby crying, snoring and a barking dog, then take actions specified by the user. For example, 'turn on the light when the baby is crying.'
Prices, Models & More Features
The new Amazon Echo comes in three colors and is covered in fabric. The price of a new full size Echo is $99 while the Echo Dot is $49.99. The Echo Dot has two other variations. An Echo Dot with an LED clock that glows through the fabric will cost $59.99. Something new for families with children, the kids edition has cute animal faces, such as a tiger and panda for $59.99. Pricing remains the same as the third-generation Echo speakers, which is not surprising. Amazon is doing quite well against the competition and has its own ecosystem, so there is no need to have aggressive pricing.
Amazon has given Alexa the ability to recognize children and create voice profiles for them. That means Amazon's voice assistant will have kid-friendly interaction when it hears a child's voice. An example of this is that Alexa can listen to a child reading and read the same section of the story if asked. This means the smart speaker can help kids learn to read better. An impressive addition to its capabilities. The Echo speakers are Zigbee and Bluetooth LE enabled. The additional language skills are powered by Amazon's AZ1 'neural edge' processor, which allows up to two times faster speech recognition. Amazon Echo devices are quite capable and the new generation continues to expand its power and friendliness.
Source: Amazon