Amazon unveiled the all-new Echo Dot on Wednesday in Seattle for just $99. Source: JP Mangalindan/Yahoo Finance
Amazon (AMZN) announced a slew of new products and product updates at its posh Seattle headquarters on Wednesday aimed at expanding its reach into your home, from new speakers to a device that could replace your alarm clock.
Here’s what the tech giant unveiled:
An all-new Echo speaker
Amazon’s all-new Echo Dot will come in several colors, including black and this wood veneer. Source: JP Mangalindan/Yahoo Finance
Available for sale Wednesday for $99 — $80 less than its predecessor — think of this year’s all-new Echo as a smaller, move svelte version of the first Echo speaker, which Amazon initially released back in 2014.
This year’s version features several upgrades, including an all-new audio design with a mini built-in tweeter and subwoofer the company promises will pump out richer, deeper sound, as well as newer “far-field” technology with noise cancelling for better voice recognition so Alexa can understand your commands from farther away. The new Echo will also come in at least four colors based on the onstage demo, including black, silver, white, and a type of wooden veneer.
“A kitchen is a very tough acoustic environment; a living room is a very tough acoustic environment,” explained Dave Limp, Amazon SVP of Devices and Services, of the company’s reasoning for introducing the improved design.
Indeed, a brief demo of the all-new Echo onstage suggested the Echo will offer louder room-filling sound — a significant improvement upon the first Amazon Echo and Echo Dot speaker, which the company introduced in years past.
The Echo Plus
The Echo Plus offers much better audio than its predecessor. Source: JP Mangalindan/Yahoo Finance
Also announced? The Echo Plus, a speaker that largely resembles the same tall cylinder-shaped Echo speaker shoppers were already familiar with. That version will also sport improved audio and even come with one Philips Hue bulb, which users can control with voice commands. The Echo Plus will retail for $149 — about $30 less than its predecessor.
One of the Echo Plus’s new features is what Amazon is calling a built-in “smart home hub,” which lets you easily connect smart devices around your home — compatible lights, locks, and switches, for instance — just by saying, “Alexa, discover my devices.”
Given the rate of tech innovation today, Wednesday’s announcement isn’t all that surprising. Perhaps more somewhat surprising was Amazon’s drastic $80 price cut on the Echo product and $30 on the Echo Plus. In doing so, Amazon is sending a very clear message: it wants to put as many Echo speakers as possible in as many households as possible, and price should not be a barrier to entry.
An improved Fire TV
This year’s Fire TV plugs into an HDMI output and sort of just hangs — literally. Source: JP Mangalindan/Yahoo Finance
The all-new Fire TV, available for pre-order Wednesday and shipping on October 25, includes the ability to pump out video in 4K high-definition, HDR for more vibrant colors, 60 frames-per-second video, Dolby Atmos audio, and of course, integration with Alexa — all driven by a brisk 1.5 GHz quad-core processor.
Limp plugged it as Amazon’s cheapest 4K-friendly device ever. In addition to the new hardware, the Amazon exec also touted deeper Alexa voice recognition compatibility “coming soon” with a slew of Fire TV apps, including Netflix (NFLX), Hulu, SHOWTIME, Amazon Video, Bravo and CNBC, among many others. Translation: Very soon, you’ll likely be able to navigate through many Fire TV apps with voice commands.
The … Echo Spot?
The Echo Spot aims to replace your old-fashioned alarm clock. Source: JP Mangalindan/Yahoo Finance
Perhaps the one area of the house Amazon hasn’t explicitly gunned for yet is the bedroom — until today that is.
Available for pre-order Wednesday and shipping this December, the $129 Echo Spot is a nearly 4-inch globe-shaped device with a 2.5-inch color screen that shows a clock by default. It also sports a front-facing camera for video calls.
The Echo Spot essentially does everything the Echo Show and Echo speaker do, including recognizing voice commands to give you the news, play music, hail you an Uber, even play video, albeit in a much smaller and — dare I say it — more attractive package.
When it arrives later this year, the Echo Spot should do everything its larger Echo Show sibling does, like displaying calendar appointment reminders and video calls. Source: JP Mangalindan/Yahoo Finance
The Echo Spot also sports Bluetooth connectivity in case you want to sync up third-party devices like wireless headphones, as well as Amazon’s highly touted, new second-generation far-field technology with noise canceling ability so the device can better, more accurately recognize your voice from farther away.
For Amazon, the Echo Spot is another play for the tech giant to occupy yet another place in your home — this time in your bedroom. The company already has other hardware devices like the Fire TV, intended for your living room, and Dash Buttons — a small device you can program to reorder goods with just a button button press — which you can pepper throughout the house.
—
JP Mangalindan is a senior correspondent for Yahoo Finance covering the intersection of tech and business. Email story tips and musings to jpm@oath.com. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
