It’s that time of the year when all major tech companies launch their new products and upgrade their old ones. After Apple and before Google, Amazon took to the stage on Wednesday to announce some hot new gadgets and announced a few exciting upgrades to its existing line-up.
The world’s largest online retailer announced new Echo and Fire TV devices, but the star of the show was a superpowered Alexa with the generative AI upgrade.
All the lonely men, or women (we don’t judge), can now find a talking partner in Alexa as it will be able to have more natural conversations.
Here are all the major announcements Amazon made at the event on Wednesday:
Amazon also announced that its voice assistant Alexa is finally getting generative AI, about time! The upgraded AI-powered Alexa will be available across all Echo-enabled devices, including the first-generation Echo smart speakers.
Apart from offering a much deeper conversational experience, Alexa will now focus on offering real-time information as well as allow consumers take more control of their smart home products.
Amazon will also open up its API to allow third-party developers to add their own LLMs to Alexa.
With the upgrades, Alexa will be able to offer personal reminders based on user interactions. For instance, it will now be able to recommend recipes based on your grocery purchases.
A conversational Alexa will be able to respond to multiple requests from one command.
The company hasn’t announced when it will release the upgrade to the masses.
The event saw Amazon announcing the all-new Echo Show 8. The new smart display features spatial audio support and smart home hub functionality.
Echo Show 8 can adjust the sound output based on the acoustics of the room by simply “sensing” it. The device features a new proximity sensor, a front-facing camera at the top with a physical switch to turn off its microphone.
Echo Show 8 will cost $149 in the US, approximately Rs 12,300.
Amazon also announced the launch of its next-generation Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and a new Fire TV Soundbar.
Powered by uograded processors, the new Fire TV stick models will offer faster performance compared to their predecessors.
Fire TV Stick 4K comes with support for Dolby Vision, Wi-Fi 6, HDR10 and HDR 10 Plus and is only $10 more expensive than the standard 4K stick. It also offers twice the amount of storage (16GB) and Wi-Fi 6E support.
Amazon’s first streaming media player, Fire TV Stick 4K Max, will support the Fire TV Ambient Experience. It has been priced at $59.99.
The company also announced its new Fire TV Soundbar. The compact 24-inch soundbar now supports Bluetooth connectivity, allowing users to pair their devices.
It also announced generative AI support for Fire TV, as well as the all-new Echo Hub, the company’s first smart home controller that looks more like a simple touchscreen tablet than a smart display.
The 8-inch tablet-like device can be used to control your smart home experiences.