Amazon has put a camera in its Echo Studio speaker so that Alexa can see what is in front of it. The Echo Studio with Home Camera is one of five new Alexa devices the company unveiled on Wednesday , alongside a new Echo Dot, an Echo Time alarm clock, an Alexa Photo Frame and the Echo Show 16.
The camera speaker ships today for $249.99. Hold up a board game box and Alexa can explain the rules, or show it a box of cereal and it can help you reorder it, according to Amazon . Owners can also check in on the room from the Alexa app while they are away. The Echo Studio without a camera stays on sale at $219.99.
“The standard Echo Studio remains available for those who prefer no camera.” Amazon
A dedicated button turns off the microphones and any camera, and a visual indicator shows when a camera streams images or video to the cloud, Amazon said. Certain features require Alexa+, which is included with a Prime membership.
The new Echo Dot costs $99.99 and ships today. For the first time, it has a built-in smart home hub that supports Zigbee, Matter and Thread. It also includes an eero Wi-Fi extender that adds up to 1,000 square feet of coverage.
The Dot runs on Amazon’s custom AZ3 chip, with an AI accelerator for on-device processing. Two Amazon Kids versions cost from $109.99 with a year of Kids+.
Echo Time, a $199.99 alarm clock, has a 3.2-inch round touchscreen and no camera. It uses ultrasound to sense breathing and can wake its owner within 10 to 60 minutes of the set alarm, with no wearable needed. Sleep sensing is opt-in, Amazon said .
The Alexa Photo Frame has a 10-inch touchscreen and costs from $199.99. Alexa+ picks photos from Amazon Photos “based on faces, time, and sentiment”, and skips screenshots and receipts, according to Amazon .
The Echo Show 16 is available to preorder from $499.99, or $569.99 with an anti-glare Nanomatte screen. It ships later this year. It has a 13-megapixel wide-angle camera and, for the first time on an Echo Show, night vision. Fire TV is built in.
Echo Show is Amazon’s fastest-growing Echo product line, growing more than 25% year over year, the company said.
Amazon also announced Alexa Home Map , an interactive 3D view of the home built by scanning rooms with an iPhone. It shows devices, Ring and Blink cameras and a 360-degree aerial view of the property. A timeline can rewind the last 24 hours across all cameras.
Home Map starts rolling out in preview later this year on iOS, the Alexa and Ring apps, larger Echo Show devices and the new Alexa Tablets . Some features need a Ring Protect Pro or Virtual Security Guard subscription.
Hundreds of millions of customers are using the new Alexa experiences, Amazon said. The launches follow Amazon’s relaunch of Bee earlier this month and the device price rises it made in August.
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