Amazon today held a media event that saw the introduction of a slew of new products, ranging from an in-home Alexa robot to a new fitness service that mimics Apple Fitness+. We’ve rounded up all of Amazon’s most interesting announcements below.
Astro Household Robot
Astro is an Alexa-integrated home robot that can monitor the home, help users keep in touch with family, and more. Astro can move around the home, check on specific areas, and show a live view of rooms when the homeowner is away, plus it can be used to remotely care for elderly relatives.
Astro integrates with Ring and can autonomously patrol the home with the Ring Protect Pro service, and it has full Alexa functionality. Astro also has a personality that makes it “feel like part of the family.”
Amazon will be shipping out Astro later this year, and it will be priced at $1450. Amazon will have introductory pricing of $1,000 as part of the Day 1 Editions program.
Echo Show 15
The Echo Show 15, which is designed to serve as a central communications and entertainment hub for a family, features a 15.6-inch display and it can be mounted on a wall or set on a counter.
Amazon’s Echo Show is equipped with Amazon’s AZ2 Neural Edge processor, which Amazon says performs 22x more trillions of operations per second. It also runs ML-based speech models faster than the original AZ1.
The Echo Show has built-in Alexa widgets, visual ID so what’s shown on the screen can be customized for each person, and integration with smart home products. It also supports 1080p video streaming and integrates with Amazon services like Audible and Amazon Photos. The Echo Show is priced at $250.
Hey Disney
Amazon is partnering with Disney for a new “Hey Disney” voice assistant that will let kids and adults use an Echo device to interact with characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and more.
Hey Disney will offer interactive Disney entertainment and storytelling, in addition to jokes, fun facts, and more. Walt Disney World Resort hotel rooms will have integrated Echo devices with the Hey Disney functionality.
Amazon Glow
Designed for children, Amazon Glow is a projector-based interactive device that provides activities for children to do on video calls with relatives and friends. Through Amazon Glow, children and their families can remotely read stories, play games, create art, and more. Glow is priced at $250.
Ring Always Home Cam
Amazon last year debuted its $250 Always Home Cam, which is a drone-based security system that can fly to different places in the house from a home dock, and Amazon showed it off again at today’s event because there’s now an open invite list for those who want to buy an Always Home Cam.
Ring Alarm Pro
Ring Alarm Pro is designed to serve as a smart home hub with built-in Eero WiFi router functionality. It connects to Ring cameras that are in the home to store Ring video footage locally, and it integrates with third-party products like door locks, smoke alarms, and more. Ring Alarm Pro is priced at $250.
Amazon also announced the Ring Virtual Security Guard, a subscription service that allows customers to pay $99 a month to have a professional security company “visually monitor” their Ring cameras.
Halo View and Halo Fitness
The Halo View is an updated version of the Halo Band with an AMOLED display that offers up health metrics, live workout tracking, and more. Halo View is priced at $80.
The original Halo Band has been criticized for its invasiveness and lack of privacy features, and there have been no improvements on that front in the second iteration.
To go along with the Halo View, Amazon has announced a new Halo Fitness service, which is almost identical to Apple Fitness+. Halo Fitness offers hundreds of studio-quality workouts that are led by industry experts and that integrate with Halo hardware.
There’s also a Halo Nutrition program that includes a meal planner to allow users to plan out healthy meals, plus it connects with the Alexa Shopping list to add ingredients to one central spot.
Alexa Together
Alexa Together is a subscription service that’s designed to help aging family members feel more comfortable living alone while also giving their families access to check in on them. Alexa Together includes a 24/7 Urgent Response option that connects to emergency services, and Remote Assist lets family members manage caregiving from afar. Alexa Together is priced at $19.99 per month.Tags: Amazon, Disney, RingThis article, “Amazon Announces ‘Astro’ Home Robot, Echo Show 15, Apple Fitness+ Competitor and More” first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums
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Author: Juli Clover