Amazon has announced 13 new products during the launch event in 2020 including the New Echo, Show, Fire TV, and most interestingly, a Security Drone for the home. This annual product launch of Amazon has become a barrage of new product introductions.
This year’s annual launch event was light on Alexa, unlike in previous years, but a couple of exciting services and the hardware starred the show. Amazon introduced several Echo devices, including the Echo Dot, Echo show 10, a spherical redesign of the actual cylindrical Echo. Also, this year’s launch event took the wraps off of the much-awaited cloud gaming service, Luna.
Alexa chief scientist Rohit Prasad described how the new Echo is powered by Amazon’s first-generation AZ1 Neural Edge processor, “a brand new silicon module specifically designed to accelerate machine learning applications.” ” This allows the “powerful injection engine” to run smoothly with a pure neural speech recognition model that is faster than before. Prasad showed how Alexa can now be part of a larger conversation by understanding whether the conversation is for her or someone else. He said that this “natural twist” makes Alexa more natural.
Echo
Amazon announced a line of Echo devices in the launch event, 2020, that will redefine the entire range, even Alexa, which empowers them, becoming smarter and more natural.
The new Amazon Echo has a spherical shape and brings features of the Echo Studio at low prices. It has replaced the Echo Plus and includes a Zigbee hub for smart home device connectivity, supports Amazon’s Sidewalk service, gets a Dolby-powered stereo, and a 3-inch woofer.
It has a brand new Echo Dot and a Kids Edition with features like Reading Sidekick that children can use for reading. Alexa can now learn child profiles and switch to child mode when a child interacts with them.
The Echo Show 10 offers many exciting features. However, the unique selling point is the ability to follow users as they move around the room. Device SVP Dave Limp pointed out that it does this by tracking people’s size and that intelligent movement does not require facial recognition. The 10-inch screen comes with a pre-installed Netflix and ZigBee hub to control smart devices. It also has a wake and wake mode that allows users to monitor events in their homes when they are not there.
Fire TV Stick
The New Fire TV offers a personalized main menu and voice-first experience. The new update has added HDR and Dolby atoms support and includes Alexa Voice Remote.
Amazon has also announced a Fire TV Stick Lite. It is more powerful than the Fire TV Stick and is the budget version. It also supports HDR, Alexa Powered voice remote, and full HD streaming.
Eero 6
The updated model can support WiFi 6 and is dual band. It can connect to 75 devices simultaneously and has a Zigbee hub, which allows it to connect with compatible smart home devices. It can also support internet connections of up to 500 Mbps.
Eero Pro 6
This version has all the features of Eero 6 but is a triple band and can incorporate two 5 GHz WiFi bands in addition to a 2.4 GHz band. Besides, it is designed for houses with Gigabit connections.
Ring Devices
The Ring Car Alarm monitors your car for unexpected events like a break-in, tows, etc. In case something unusual is detected, it will send an alert to the owner.
The Ring Car Cam monitors your car by recording videos in and around your vehicle and can send real-time updates in case of some unusual activity. It gives you a choice if you want a live update of what is happening in and around your car with dual-facing HD cameras.
The show’s real star was the brand new in-home security drone, which shows you live updates of every corner of your room.
Luna Game Controller
Luna uses a video game controller that connects directly to the game stored on the Amazon Web Services server for streaming on the Fire TV stick and PC. It will also work on smartphones. A dedicated app works. Besides, it includes a mic and low-latency cloud connectivity.
The service is currently being rolled out to early access to a small group of US users with only two channels. The first is an Amazon channel, called Luna Plus, which offers “4K streaming” and “unlimited hours of play” plus more than a dozen games (about Rs 441) for $ 5.99 per month.
