Everything Amazon announced at its product event: Alexa Emergency Assist for $6/month, the Alexa Eye Gaze accessibility feature, the $50 Echo Pop Kids, and more

Amazon is kicking off its annual fall product announcements at its HQ2 campus in Arlington, Virginia.

The Verge 2023-09-21

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@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on threads
Every big tech company has an expensive and unprofitable hobby division. It's practically a rite of passage into big tech. For Amazon, it's been Alexa and hardware devices. Every year they ship weird devices like Alexa-powered microwaves & alarm clocks or the Astro home monito…
@amazon @amazon on x
Coming to you live from our 2023 Devices & Services Event at Amazon's HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, where AI takes center stage. There's so much new, cool stuff we have to share - we're so excited for how these updates will improve our customers' everyday lives. Let's get into it..…
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on x
Here's for Amazon's Devices and Services event at an interesting time. Long-time Alexa boss Dave Limp moving on, to be replaced (according to @dinabass and @mattmday's scoopage) by Microsoft's Panos Panay.
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on x
If Apple's Steve Jobs Theater has secret lair vibes, how about Amazon's HQ2 event space? I'm getting youth church [image]
@film_girl Christina Warren on x
I love Echo devices and bought one of the Tiger Echo kids for my nephew when he was like 3 or 4 days old (not a joke) but anyone who puts this monstrosity in their house deserves to be slapped. [image]
@amazon @amazon on x
@alexa99 ... New and improved tablets for children young and old? Yep. Say hello to the new Fire HD 10 Kids and Fire HD 10 Kids Pro. These come with top-notch parental controls and a 2-year worry-free guarantee - you've met your match, random juice spills and oopsie accidents. [i…
@amazon @amazon on x
@alexa99 Now, it's time to talk about Explore with Alexa, a new way for kiddos to have curiosity-driven convos with @alexa99. The Alexa Kids science and engineering team leveraged LLM technology to transform Alexa's trusted knowledge base into kid-friendly fun facts and trivia qu…
@amazon @amazon on x
@alexa99 What if we told you @alexa99 can help keep you and your family safe? With the Alexa Emergency Assist service, anyone in your home can get hands-free, fast access to emergency help, including 24/7 Urgent Response. Just say “Alexa, call for help.” 🆘🚨 [video]
@lanceulanoff Lance Ulanoff on x
Amazon unveils Echo Pop Kids. Coming next month for $49.99 [image]
@caro_milanesi Carolina Milanesi on x
Eye Gaze on Alexa is a great new #accessibility feature focused on empowering user with limited mobility. Some users see cameras as a limitation of a device vs the opportunity they represent to interact with the device differently. Love this! #amazonevent [image]
@danwroc Dan Wroclawski on x
A bunch of new devices now: Echo Pop Kids, Fire Kids and Kids Pro tablets, and new Echo Frames smart glasses!
@amazon @amazon on x
@alexa99 The new Echo Pop Kids comes in two designs — @Marvel Avengers and @Disney Princess featuring corresponding character themes—with 6 months of the Amazon Kids+ included! ✨💫 [image]
@raywongy Ray Wong on x
Echo Pop Kids... Echo Fire HD 10 Kids Pro... Amazon is the new Fisher Price [image]
@rogerwcheng Roger Cheng on x
Amazon introduces Eye Gaze on Alexa, allowing customers to use their eyes to navigate. It'll first show up on the Fire Max 11 tablet for free to users. #AmazonDevices
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
New Amazon Echo Frames — they look much more like regular glasses. They include better battery life (6 hours of continuous media playback) and speakers.
@amazon @amazon on x
.@alexa99 is there to offer personalized help, like any true friend would be.🧡Now, Alexa will adapt to your cues and be able to adjust its tone and response to express things like affirmation, excitement, laughter, or even surprise! [image]
@amazon @amazon on x
“Alexa, talk large language models to me.”😉Our latest LLM has been significantly optimized for voice and the things we know our customers love — like having access to real-time information, efficiently controlling your smart home, and getting the most out of home entertainment. […
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on x
Also notable that Dave Limp has stopped using the phrase “ambient computing” and now says “ambient intelligence”
@andrewmartonik Andrew Martonik on x
This is quite clearly a ChatGPT / Bing Chat / Google Bard attack. Limp talks about the difficulty of doing this sort of LLM-based conversational AI when Alexa has to get things “right” more often. You can't have an Echo hallucinating when you ask it to turn on a lamp.
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on x
Also fun — FireTV will let you generate AI images as wallpaper. Take a family pic and “make it watercolour” and so forth. That's a great real-world, family-oriented feature.
@amazon @amazon on x
@alexa99 ... Want your TV to better match your aesthetic when you're not streaming? With the new @amazonfiretv Stick 4K Max Ambient Experience, you can display your family calendar, local weather, or even gallery artwork. 👌 🖼️ Okay I like it, ✨Picasso.✨ [image]
@amazon @amazon on x
@alexa99 ... Drum roll please... 🥁 Introducing the Fire TV Soundbar, the device that instantly improves your home theater. Consider your movie night ELEVATED, with immersive sound, crisper dialog, and improved bass, all in a compact design. It's Bluetooth-enabled and simple to se…
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on x
Amazon has won me round in this presentation with its natural language Fire TV interactions. “What's that comedy starring that guy, the lawyer, from Breaking Bad” is a very impressive thing for an AI to parse correctly.
@lanceulanoff Lance Ulanoff on x
This is a pretty cool upcoming Amazon FireTV ambient screen AI feature that can turn your personal photos into artwork backgrounds [video]
@markgurman Mark Gurman on x
There are new Fire TV 4K sticks, including a new base model with WiFi 6 support and 1.7GHz chip (30% faster, they say). There's also a Fire TV 4K Max stick with a 2GHz chip, more storage, WiFi 6E support and Dolby vision + Atmos.
@davezatz@mastodon.social Dave Zatz on mastodon
And the other shoe has dropped, with at least one new subscription. If you want your Echo Show to be as good as a Google display for photos, you're gonna have to pay. — [image]
@amazon @amazon on x
First up, we have the all-new Echo Show 8 - one of our most ambient devices yet. Featuring a sleek new design and upgraded hardware, your video calls just got a HUGE upgrade. 😎✨ Even better, we've added a built-in smart home hub, so you can easily control all of your devices. [vi…
@daveleebbg Dave Lee on x
Ok, so we're seeing Amazon's attempt at giving Alexa more ChatGPT-like capabilities. I'm not sure this is something people want from Alexa — for it to be *more* chatty.

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Everything Amazon announced at its product event: Alexa Emergency Assist for $6/month, the Alexa Eye Gaze accessibility feature, the $50 Echo Pop Kids, and more

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