Panos Panay, head of Amazon's Devices and Services team, introduces the new Kindle Scribe. Amazon has announced its next generation of Kindle, Ring, Blink, Fire TV, and Echo devices. Photo / Charly Triballeau, AFP
Panos Panay, head of Amazon's Devices and Services team, introduces the new Kindle Scribe. Amazon has announced its next generation of Kindle, Ring, Blink, Fire TV, and Echo devices. Photo / Charly Triballeau, AFP
Amazon has unveiled the latest generation of connected products, featuring enhanced artificial intelligence capabilities designed to make interactions with AI more frequent and natural.
Nearly 20 years after the launch of the Kindle e-reader, the Seattle-based giant now offers a family of connected devices, from the Echo smart speakerto the Ring doorbell and Fire TV (scroll down for NZ pricing).
Amazon now aims to multiply their capabilities through AI, but wants to use it “without getting in the way”, said Panos Panay, head of devices and services, during a New York presentation.
The company had already made a major move into AI enhancements with the February launch of Alexa+, an upgraded version of the Alexa voice assistant.
Amazon’s ambition, like that of competitors Google, LG and Samsung, is to become the connected home nerve centre.
But the sector has struggled to deliver on the promise of a fully connected home, with consumers forced to choose from competing ecosystems or left struggling with technology that fails to deliver on expectations.
“Alexa, what happened around the house today?” a user asks in a demonstration video. The smart assistant explains that the children walked the dog, a package was delivered and raccoons rummaged through the trash – using images captured by Ring or Blink cameras.
The Ring Floodlight Camera Pro (2nd Gen).
Has your dog run away? After the escape is reported on the Ring app, other Amazon doorbells in the neighbourhood can detect if the animal passes by and alert you.
With the Kindle Scribe, readers can ask generative AI for a book summary to refresh their memory or ask questions about a character.
The Ring Wired Video Doorbell Pro.
As for connected television, viewers can verbally request to see a scene from their favourite movie or receive a summary of a football game they missed.
Amazon believes in “ambient” AI, in Panay’s words, which “lives naturally in the products themselves”.
The generative AI revolution is playing out on both software and physical interfaces, with major tech players seeking to determine which product will prevail – smartphone, smart glasses, earbuds or speakers.
OpenAI is working on a new kind of device, while Meta is betting on glasses and Apple on earbuds.
Ring NZ pricing
Pre-orders open from today.
Wired Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): $329 (plug-in and wired)
Wired Video Doorbell Pro (3rd Gen): $429 (plug-in and wired), $549 (power over ethernet - PoE)
Indoor Camera Plus: $99
Outdoor Camera Pro: $349 (plug-in) and $519 (PoE)
Spotlight Camera Pro (2nd Gen): $429 (plug-in and wired) and NZ$589 (PoE)
Floodlight Camera Pro (2nd Gen): $479
Blink NZ pricing
Blink Video Doorbell (2nd Gen): $99
Blink Mini 2K+: NZ$69
Echo NZ pricing
All four new Echo devices are available for pre-order today. The new Echo Dot Max and Echo Studio will be available on October 29, and the new Echo Show 8 and Echo Show 11 will be available on November 12.
