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During this morning's Amazon hardware event, the tech giant announced a slate of devices and software updates to the Fire TV line. Brand new to the lineage is the Fire TV Soundbar.

The Fire TV Soundbar is "Bluetooth enabled, simple to set up and compatible with all Fire TV streaming products and TVs," according to Daniel Rausch, Amazon's VP of Alexa and Fire TV. It's is available starting today for sale today at a $120 price point.

Rausch also announced a minor refresh of the ubiquitous Fire TV line of streaming sticks. The new 4K Max, which is now nearly two years old, received a 0.2GHz bump in processing power and an upgrade from WiFi 6 to WiFi 6E. There's some other niceties as well, including support for HDR, HDR10+, Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision. The new Fire TV 4K Max is up for preorder now for $60, and will begin shipping to customers on September 27th. The standard model Fire TV stick also gets a bump in processing power, 4K support and WiFi 6. Preorders for that also start today (though Amazon has not yet confirmed a ship date), and it'll run a slightly cheaper $50. Purchases of new Fire sticks and TVs will now also come with six free months of the MGM+ streaming service. 

Given the focus on AI and large language models (LLM) throughout Amazon's hardware presentation, it was a foregone conclusion some aspect of those buzzy product categories would be finagled into the Fire lineup. Forthcoming improvements to the Alexa voice search feature will draw from Amazon's LLM (as well as data on IMDB, which Amazon bought in 1998) to supposedly understand nuanced questions about what to watch, and supply relevant recommendations. These recommendations will also, according to Rausch's demo of the feature, be personalized to individual user profiles. The new voice search functionality will arrive via an over-the-air update later this year.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

Amazon announced Eero Max 7, the WiFi device that combines a router, a range extender and a repeater, at its devices event on Wednesday. The device promises 10 gigabit Ethernet connections, with speeds that let users download a 4K movie in just 10 seconds, according to Amazon. It'll cost $599.99.

"It’ll be great for large homes or high-demand networks, and businesses with densely packed devices where multiple applications are being run," Mimi Swain, vice president of Ring, said at the event. 

Eero devices can be connected to each other to create a mesh network, or a WiFi setup that spreads the system across multiple points for better range and performance. Amazon calls the Eero Max 7 its fastest yet.

Amazon acquired Eero in 2019 as a part of its connected devices strategy. Most notably, Amazon connected Eero to its Echo Dot speakers double as Eero WiFi extenders.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Amazon’s smart glasses are getting their first significant update in more than two years. The latest version of the Echo Frames will ship with a longer battery life and redesigned audio experience, along with several new colors and styles.

The new Echo Frames can squeeze up to six hours of media playback on one charge. They also come in several new styles for both glasses and sunglasses, including two new looks from eyewear maker Carrera (the Carrera styles will be sold as “Carrera Smart Glasses.”)

Amazon

The Alexa-enabled glasses will also come with better audio than their predecessors. Amazon says the new frames have “more balanced sound, better audio clarity, and less distortion.” The glasses also come with better onboard speech processing so the glasses can more reliably detect the wake word in varied conditions, like wind and noisy rooms.

All of the new Echo Frame will cost $269.99. The company didn’t say when they would go on sale, but people can sign up now for notifications about pre-orders.

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Amazon has used today’s hardware event to go all-in on Alexa’s new LLM-infused capabilities, touting how easy it’ll soon be to have a natural sounding conversation with the bot. This also extends to kids, as the company just announced Explore With Alexa. This is a pared-down and kid-friendly version of the updated chatbot that specializes in topics like animals and nature. It’ll even play trivia games with your tykes and disperse daily fun facts.

Of course, this is for kids, so the tech has been developed with guard rails to protect them from the more sinister parts of the Internet. Amazon says Explore With Alexa will launch at some point before the holidays and will eventually extend beyond the pre-approved topics of animal and nature.

To accompany this new Alexa technology, there are some forthcoming kid-friendly devices. The Echo Pop Kids is a smart speaker designed for the younger members of your family. It ships in two SKUs that fall along typically accepted notions of gender. There’s an Avengers one and a Disney princess one. The Avengers one specializes in conversational tidbits about Earth’s mightiest heroes and the Disney princess model specializes in Mulan, Cinderella and the like. The Echo Pop Kids releases next month for $50 and includes six free months of Amazon’s Kids+ subscription service. Preorders start today.

Amazon

There’s also a pair of forthcoming tablets. The new Fire Kids tablet is aimed at younger children and the Fire Kids Pro is being marketed to older kids. These are 10-inch tablets that are 25-percent faster than the previous generation, with 1080p FHD screens, 3GB of RAM and access to specialized kid-centric apps. Each tablet costs $190 and ships with a year of Amazon’s Kids+ subscription service. You also get a two-year warranty out of the box that covers the kind of accidental mishaps that parents deal with every single day. Preorders start today and shipments begin next month.

Both tablets boast access to the company’s new Play Together feature that gives kids access to online multiplayer titles, like checkers, and an app called Music Maker. This experience lets children become “composers, blending instruments and other sound effects together, to create a unique composition with the help of AI, all through touch.”

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

“Bird’s Eye View” is the romantic name Ring gives to its use of radar to track a person’s path across a camera’s field of vision. It’s available on the Video Doorbell 2, Floodlight Cam Pro and Spotlight Cam Pro, and now it’s coming to the new Stick Up Cam Pro. Like its peers, the new unit will be able to monitor where your visitors are going, and the route they took to get there. Plus, you’ll be able to set more discrete motion alerts, sparing you the pain of having an alert whenever a shadow is cast across your camera.

The new Stick Up Cam Pro is, like its less-powerful sibling, weather-resistant, small and sleek, so you can put it in any location you may need. It offers HDR video, color night vision and a pair of microphones for clearer audio, as well as two-way talk and a built-in siren. And users will have the usual choice of how to power the device; Solar, Battery or wired in, giving you another layer of flexibility. Plus, it’ll work seamlessly with the rest of Ring’s suite of products to give you a home security system tailored to your specific needs.

At the same time, Ring also wants to talk about Ring Routines, which will let you activate and deactivate Alexa routines that integrate with your cameras. These will, naturally, develop over time, letting you set routines like activating your home’s lights when someone rings the bell at night.

Ring Stick Up Cam Pro is available to pre-order today, for $180 for battery and plug-in, while the solar version will set you back $210. Shipping begins October 18.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

It’s been less than a month since Blink, Amazon’s other security camera company, released the Outdoor 4. Now, as part of Amazon’s annual fall showcase, we’re getting a trio of accessories to help the camera travel further and do more when it gets there.

First on the list is the Sync Module Pro, which lets you place your Outdoor 4 further from your home’s wireless network. The company says you can install a camera in “the furthest corner of your property” without worrying about range, but hasn’t yet shared real-world measurements. Maybe those figures haven’t been finalized yet, since the hardware isn’t expected to be available until the start of 2024, when it’ll cost you $50.

There’s a new floodlight mount for the Outdoor 4 that, much like its predecessor, will enable you to temporarily banish the darkness with some motion-activated LEDs. Blink says it’ll last for two years on a charge, based on “default settings” which you’ll probably want to change. That’s available for pre-order today, priced at $160, with shipping due to start on October 17.

Blink

And to round off the trio, there’s a new battery pack that, Blink says, will double the Outdoor 4’s life on a single charge. With more power, you can also be a bit less frugal about the notifications you can set up, letting you talk more, record more and generally have a better experience overall. The price for such freedom is $30, and will also begin shipping on October 17.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

Amazon announced a new personal safety feature on Wednesday for Alexa devices. Building on the existing Alexa Guard, Emergency Assist sounds a bit like Life Alert for Echo devices. It allows people in trouble to call for assistance by saying, “Alexa, call for help.”

Alexa Emergency Assist can connect you with a “dedicated, professionally trained agent” available 24/7. When you sign up, it will save information like your home address, medications and allergies to pass them to first responders.

Amazon says the feature is “coming soon” in the US, and it will support all Echo devices. It will cost $6 monthly or $59 annually when it launches.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

After spending a chunk of its event today talking about Alexa upgrades, Amazon announced two new accessibility features coming to its devices later this year. First is Eye Gaze on Alexa, which will let those with mobility or speech disabilities use their gaze to perform a set of preset actions on the Fire Max 11 tablet. 

This is the first time Amazon is working on gaze-based navigation of its devices, and it will use the camera on the Max 11 to keep track of where a user is looking. The preset actions include smart home controls, media playback and making calls. Eye Gaze will be available on the Max 11 later this year at no additional cost. The company said during its event that this is "still day one for this technology — we're very excited about its potential." More details on how Eye Gaze actually works are not available yet.

Amazon is also adding a new Call Translation feature that will transcribe Alexa calls on Echo Show devices and display onscreen captions. It can convert them into over 10 languages including English, French, Spanish and Portuguese and will launch later this year on Echo Show devices and the Alexa app for those in the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Call captioning is also being expanded to Europe. 

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

Amazon's Alexa is set to receive a major upgrade that will bring its conversational capabilities more in line with modern chatbots like Google Bard or OpenAI's ChatGPT, David Limp SVP of Amazon Devices & Services, announced during the company's 2023 Devices event on Wednesday. The long running digital assistant will soon be driven by a purpose-built large language model that will be available in nearly every new Echo device. 

Amazon is itself no stranger to genAI technology. The company recently released a generative model to help its e-commerce sellers write product listings as well as incorporated a slew of AI-based features into its Thursday Night Football broadcasts at the start of the NFL season. The online seller has also weathered criticism from the Writers Guild of America over the retailer's allowance of AI-generated book listings which infringe heavily upon copyrighted works (and occasionally recommend eating suspect mushrooms). 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

Amazon debuted an updated Echo Show 8 during its live event today, highlighting the device's new display, camera, microphones and spatial-audio capabilities. Generative AI helps the Echo Show 8 respond dynamically to the user's position in the physical world, offering different displays depending on how far away someone is from the screen. A new language model increases the device's on-board Alexa response time by 40 percent over the previous edition.

The Echo Show 8 costs $149.99 and is available for pre-order today. The device will hit the market and start shipping in October.

Amazon unveiled the original, 7-inch Echo Show in 2017 and has rolled out various versions over the years, with the latest notable refreshes landing in 2021. That year, Amazon announced the third-gen Echo Show 10, the second-gen Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8, and the brand-new Echo Show 15, which is designed to be wall-mounted. Amazon did release an updated Echo Show 5 in 2023, offering minimal improvements in processing speed and audio quality, but otherwise leaving the device's design unchanged.

Follow all of the news live from Amazon’s 2023 Devices event right here.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.