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At its annual hardware event, Amazon introduced a new lineup of Echo devices, built specifically for its AI assistant, Alexa+, which has already rolled out to millions of customers through its early access program.
To showcase the AI’s capabilities, Amazon is releasing four new Echo devices with improved processing power and memory: the Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11.
Key to the devices are the Alexa+ integrations, allowing the speakers to respond to more queries than earlier models, offering support for natural language conversations, more complex questions, and soon, more add-ons and capabilities.
This will later include an Alexa+ Store, where users can explore services from brands like Fandango, GrubHub, Lyft, Priceline, Taskrabbit, Thumbtack, and Yahoo Sports. The devices will also be able to manage new or existing subscriptions with Amazon’s own services like Amazon Music, Amazon Kids+, or Alexa Emergency Assist and customize their Alexa experience.
The new Echo devices launching today run on Amazon’s custom-designed silicon chips, the AZ3 and AZ3 Pro, which include an AI Accelerator designed to run AI edge models.
The AZ3 enables better conversation detection on the Echo Dot, letting people talk to the device from anywhere in the room, while still filtering out background noise. The chip also improves detection of the wake word by over 50%, Amazon claims.
The other three devices — the Studio, Show 8, and 11 — use the AZ3 Pro, which adds support for advanced language models and vision transformers.
Plus, the AZ3 Pro-enabled devices include Ominisense, a custom sensor platform for ambient AI that uses the 13-megapixel camera on new Echo Show devices, audio, ultrasound, Wi-Fi radar, accelerometer, and Wi-Fi channel state information (CSI). With this feature, the devices allow Alexa to act on events happening in the home, like delivering a reminder when a particular person walks in the room or alerting you to an open garage door before you go to bed at night.
The new Echo Dot Max, $99.99, adds nearly three times the bass for better sound. The two-way speaker includes a woofer for the deep bass and a custom tweeter for the high notes.
The $219.99 Echo Studio, meanwhile, features a new spherical design, allowing it to be 40% smaller than the original, says Amazon. The Echo Studio also includes a high-excursion woofer, spatial audio, and Dolby Atmos, and an upgraded light ring for better visual understanding of what Alexa is doing or processing.
The company notes consumers can connect up to five Echo Studio or Echo Dot Max devices with compatible Fire TV sticks for an immersive sound system in their home, and it plans to sell products in Alexa Home Theater bundles.
Also new are two smart displays, the Echo Show 8 ($179.99) and Echo Show 11 ($219.99), which both have a new design, improved picture quality, a 13-megapixel camera, a larger screen area, new front-facing stereo speakers, a custom woofer, and Alexa+ powered features.
The AI assistant will run a new smart home experience called Alexa+ Home, which combines things like event summaries from Ring camera feeds and a smart home hub that supports Matter, Thread, and Zigbee.
As Alexa devices with a screen, the displays also work well for accessing entertainment, like streaming audio and video, managing home organization and family activities, and managing household shopping needs. The latter integrates with Amazon, Whole Foods, and Amazon Fresh to make reordering favorites and delivery tracking easier.
Plus, Amazon is teaming up with smart ring maker Oura to bring personalized health and wellness suggestions to Alexa devices. This could help do things like add workout reminders or nudges to head to bed to get the best sleep.
Other devices from Withings and Wyze will be supported in the future.
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