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Regular-article-logo Thursday, 25 April 2024

Alexa, are you everywhere?

Start playing an album at home, continue on the way to office and then pick up where you left off at work. Amazon’s revamped bouquet is scary

Mathures Paul Published 22.09.18, 06:04 PM
Amazon's devices

Amazon's devices Amazon

What’s the next big technology? We have asked this question to many tech players over the last few months and the response from some of them have been: “Keeping users connected, right from home to office to wherever you go.” So, you can start playing an album at home, continue on the way to office and then carry on in office. Amazon is getting there.

The new trillion-dollar company after Apple, Amazon announced in Seattle on Thursday the new Alexa-enabled devices and upgrades that highlight how seriously it’s taking the smart home concept and how slow other companies are moving.

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“We’ve always in our design group focused on products that sort of disappear into the background. We don’t think of them as showpieces or pieces of furniture, but as we’ve had more and more devices in the home, we’ve discovered that people do put them in lots of different rooms, lots of different decors, so we wanted to make them fit in more there and disappear,” Dave Limp, head of Amazon’s devices business, said on Thursday.

What about India?

Not all of the devices announced will be available in India. Here’s what you can buy at the moment — the all-new Echo Dot will retail for Rs 4,499, the new Echo Plus will retail for 14,999 and the Echo Sub is priced at

Rs 12,999. The Echo devices are available for pre-order on Amazon.in. The Dot and Plus will start shipping in October, while Echo Sub will be available later this year.

Echo Sub

Echo Sub

Echo Sub: It’s a speaker that can be paired with Echo or other compatible devices. The equaliser feature lets you adjust the bass, mid-range, and treble of the pairing simply by using your voice. Just say, “Alexa, turn up the bass.”

Second-gen Echo Plus

Second-gen Echo Plus

Ring Stick Up Cam

Ring Stick Up Cam

Ring Stick Up Cam: As the name suggests, it’s a security camera designed to keep your home safe. There are two versions of the device — a wired one and a battery-powered one. This news follows Amazon’s acquisition of Ring earlier this year for reportedly more than

$1 billion. In the future, Dave Limp said, Ring’s Stick Up Cams will also work with Alexa.

Second-gen Echo Plus: The device is meant to be the centrepiece of one’s smart home experience. Besides the voice-activated Alexa smarts of other Echo products, it acts as the hub to communicate with a number of home gears. The updated version adds a larger, three-inch neo-dymium woofer and increased back volume, giving a stronger bass and clearer mid and high tones. Now in fabric design, it also has a temperature sensor, which allows users to take action. If the temperature in your bedroom has gone up, Alexa can send a notification to turn on the fan or the air conditioner.

Amazon Echo Auto

Amazon Echo Auto

Alexa Smart plug

Alexa Smart plug

Second-gen Echo Show

Second-gen Echo Show

Amazon Echo Auto: The answer to Google’s Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay. This is a small device that attaches to the dashboard and responds to questions just like it would at home. In short, it’s an in-car accessory that allows you to integrate Alexa into your car. The device connects through your existing smartphone plan and the Alexa app.

Alexa Smart plug: Attach it to an electrical conduit, plug in an appliance (a light or coffee maker) and turn the device on or off with your voice. It does not require a smart home hub.

Second-gen Echo Show: The device got a redesign with a larger, 10inch (25cm) full-HD screen and better audio for which there are now two side-firing two-inch drivers, a passive bass radiator and Dolby processing. The device now has an eight-mic array. We want this in India!

Echo Wall Clock

Echo Wall Clock

AmazonBasics Microwave

AmazonBasics Microwave

Echo Wall Clock: Usually products are kept under wraps until the launch but at the event in Seattle, the Clock was out there but nobody noticed! It’s an analogue clock with Bluetooth to connect to an existing Echo device. You can use it to set timers, alarms and reminders. Since the Clock connects with Alexa, it sets its own time.

AmazonBasics Microwave: That’s right, a microwave that comes with a built-in Ask Alexa button. It doesn’t have Alexa built directly into the appliance but it wirelessly connects to another Alexa device in your kitchen to take commands. Give a command like “one minute” to get the timer going. Also, it has a Dash Replenishment service, which means you can automatically order certain kinds of food, like popcorn, if you’re running low on supply.

Echo Input

Echo Input

Echo Input: This is a speaker-less audio input which plugs (or pairs) into an existing speaker to turn it into an Echo. The pancake-looking device includes far-field microphones and it delivers Alexa to an audio set-up that’s already in your home. It’s basically a more powerful answer to Google’s Chromecast Audio.

Echo Link

Echo Link

Echo Link: It connects to your existing stereo equipment, turning your legacy sound system into an Alexa-powered music station. There is also the Link Amp which comes with a 60-watt stereo amplifier inside.

Third-gen Echo Dot

Third-gen Echo Dot

Third-gen Echo Dot: The popular budget Echo Dot device received an upgrade, making it 70-75 per cent louder than its predecessor and it comes with a fabric exterior, available in three colour options — charcoal, heather grey and sandstone. Dot is one of the most popular Echo devices — thanks to its easy set-up process — which fits into any part of the home.

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