With Amazon’s new devices, run your smart home with your voice
Inc. unveiled its vision for smart homes powered by the Alexa voice assistant, with a dizzying array of new gadgets and features for almost every room in the house—from a microwave oven to a security camera and wall clock.
The firm is pushing Alexa more deeply into customers’ lives, hoping to popularize technology that has yet to go mainstream and connecting people more to Amazon’s universe of things to buy. Chief executive officer Jeff Bezos sees voice as the next interface linking people and machines, like a mouse on personal computers and touchscreens on smartphones.
The $50 hockey puckshaped Dot is one of Amazon’s best-selling devices, and with 70% better sound it’s going after audiophiles on
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Sonos Inc.’s turf. Amazon also introduced a subwoofer to go along with existing Echo products as well as a pair of amplifiers that work like audio control centers for the home.
The Echo speaker, with the Alexa voice assistant, debuted in 2014 and has maintained a lead over tech competitors Google and Apple Inc., which have scrambled to catch up. About two-thirds of smart speaker users in the US will use an Amazon Echo this year, compared with less than 30% who will use a Google Home, according to EMarketer Inc.
Amazon also made improvements to the Echo Show speaker, adding a bigger screen and better sound, qualities that will help it stack up to Google’s high-end device. Also new is the Alexa Guard, a home security product that can detect breaking glass as well as smoke or carbon dioxide and send an alert to your phone, Limp said.