Amazon gets the Show on the road
looks like a picture frame. You can position this on a surface, too, and it works in both portrait and landscape mode.
It does have a camera for video calling, but with a display this size, it’s more about what Alexa can show you.
It’ll stream video from Amazon Prime and Netflix, but there’s a more practical side to it.
The home screen for this Show has been redesigned so you can display personalised widgets – a to-do list, a sticky note, your calendar for the day, for example – it’s the modern-day equivalent of the fridge door.
It’s also the hub for your smart home – it can display anything from your smart cameras around the home.
And if you get sick of all that info, you can switch it to frame mode where it’ll display photos from your collection or fine art.
The Echo Show 15 will cost £239.99.
The Astro
Despite the fact that you’ll likely never be able to buy one, all the headlines from Amazon’s autumn product launch were about the Astro robot – essentially an Echo Show on wheels that can trundle round your home and help out with various tasks.
This is probably one of those things that’ll never make it to the big time, but certainly shows the direction of travel for the Show devices – if it’s not this robot, there will be one over the next few years that Amazon does take to market properly.
The Astro will go on sale, but only in the US, and only to people who request access and are accepted by Amazon – and at launch it’ll cost $999.
Astro robot
Blink Doorbell
Blink is an Amazon sub-brand that up to now has brought low-cost battery-powered security cameras to the table.
Amazon has now taken the next logical step and added a camera doorbell to the mix.
The Blink Doorbell requires the same hub the cameras use, and features a long-lasting battery life, wired or wire-free install, HD day and night video, two-way audio, and chime app alerts to your smartphone. Most impressive is the price – the Blink Doorbell will cost just £49.99.
A couple of other additions were also revealed – an LED floodlight mount that is designed to work with any Blink outdoor cameras – you slot the camera into the mount and it turns into a floodlit camera, and there’s also a solar panel charger that can keep your outdoor battery-powered Blinks juiced up.
You can’t quite order the Show 15 or the Blink Doorbell yet – availability is listed as “coming soon”, but you can register interest on Amazon’s website and it’ll let you know when you can get your hands on them.
See amazon.co.uk for more.