Amazon Announces 4 New Echos

[tubemonkey]

Amazon Introduces Four All-New Echo Devices

Sales of Alexa-Enabled Devices Surpass Half a Billion

All-new Echo Pop delivers full sound and the power of Alexa in an all-new form factor—and it’s just $39.99

Next generation Echo Show 5 delivers two-times the bass; Echo Show 5 Kids comes in a new space-themed design—starting at $89.99

All-new Echo Buds deliver high-quality audio, premium features and hands-free access to Alexa in a lightweight and compact design—all for $49.99

Echo Auto launches for even more customers around the world

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- NASDAQ: AMZN—Amazon today introduced a new lineup of Echo products—the all-new Echo Pop, Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 5 Kids, and all-new Echo Buds—offering customers even more choice in how they access Alexa. In addition, Echo Auto is now available to customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

“Customers around the world love Alexa as their trusted, personal AI—they’ve now purchased well over half a billion Alexa-enabled devices, and use of Alexa increased 35 percent last year,” said Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa. “These new devices give customers more options and more utility at incredible value. And as with every Echo device we’ve shipped, they will only continue to get better as we add even more generative AI powered experiences for Alexa throughout the year.”

Pricing and Availability

Echo Pop is available in Charcoal, Glacier White, Lavender Bloom, and Midnight Teal for $39.99. Echo Show 5 is available in Charcoal, Glacier White, and Cloud Blue for $89.99. Echo Show 5 Kids is available in Galaxy for $99.99. An adjustable Echo Show 5 stand with USB-C charging port is available for $26.99. Echo Buds are available in Black for $49.99. To learn more, visit www.amazon.com/echodevices.

[Quoth]

And they are cutting back on Alexa support by 1000s of people because it doesn't make money?

News (27 Viewing)
Latest on e-books, e-paper, DRM and related technologies

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Quoth

And they are cutting back on Alexa support by 1000s of people because it doesn't make money?

Amazon are cutting back on trees too, so...

[Gormagon]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sales of Alexa-Enabled Devices Surpass Half a Billion

500 million bugging devices sold, which can listen to every word you utter? Humanity really is lost.

[tomsem]

It's ironic, given the connotations Echo and Narcissus myth, that they'd choose this name:

Echo (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Echo (/ˈɛkoʊ/; Greek: Ἠχώ, Ēkhō, "echo",[3] from ἦχος (ēchos), "sound"[4]) was an Oread who resided on Mount Cithaeron.[5] Zeus loved consorting with beautiful nymphs and often visited them on Earth. Eventually, Zeus's wife, Hera, became suspicious, and came from Mount Olympus in an attempt to catch Zeus with the nymphs. Echo, by trying to protect Zeus (as he had ordered her to do), endured Hera's wrath, and Hera made her only able to speak the last words spoken to her. So when Echo met Narcissus and fell in love with him, she was unable to tell him how she felt and was forced to watch him as he fell in love with himself.

I still have a couple of old Echo Dots in a storage box but they are destined for a yard sale or thrift shop donation.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

500 million bugging devices sold, which can listen to every word you utter? Humanity really is lost.

A bit of weasel wording there. It did not say 500 million Echo devices. It said 500 million Alexa enabled devices. I have a friend who has about 20 Philips LED light bulbs (Hue White and Color Ambience??), five smart plugs, a smart lock on 3 doors (which may not say much about their intelligence) and a smart thermostat. This would give them ~30 Alexa enabled devices though they are all being used with Google Home Assistant as no Echos in the house.

The complaints do sound rather similar to the ones in the Amazon Echo Club thread. Hmmm... do I want to update the firmware to improve security while breaking functionality? Did I really enjoy the last firmware updates giving me a lightshow at 3 bleeping AM?

[DiapDealer]

The "Humanity is lost" thing really IS getting quite tiresome. Confused? Distracted? Apathetic? Quite possibly. But "Lost" would imply that humanity ever had a direction/destination to begin with (ignoring any life after death mythos). I see no evidence of that. Let alone that there was ever a time that humanity had a goal squarely in its sights, or was pulling together for a common goal. More like "Humanity is still Human afterall."

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Gormagon

500 million bugging devices sold, which can listen to every word you utter? Humanity really is lost.

That's the way I look at it as well.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That's the way I look at it as well.

Ditto.

[haertig]

I find it amusing that people will chastise others for using an Alexa device, then sit down to an evening with their Kindle. A device that monitors and transmits what they read, when they read it, how long they read, the page count that they read, how fast they read, if they skip to the end and don't read the entire thing, and who knows what else. Probably a list of everything they have stored on their Kindle. And this entity on the other end can delete things off their Kindle as well. Expired library books for one, but also purchased eBooks - although Amazon says they won't do this again after the backlash from last time. But they could if they wanted to though. The hypocrisy of chastising Alexa users is quite humorous.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by haertig

I find it amusing that people will chastise others for using an Alexa device, then sit down to an evening with their Kindle. A device that monitors and transmits what they read, when they read it, how long they read, the page count that they read, how fast they read, if they skip to the end and don't read the entire thing, and who knows what else. Probably a list of everything they have stored on their Kindle. And this entity on the other end can delete things off their Kindle as well. Expired library books for one, but also purchased eBooks - although Amazon says they won't do this again after the backlash from last time. But they could if they wanted to though. The hypocrisy of chastising Alexa users is quite humorous.

I wasn't aware I was chastising anyone. Just agreeing with Gormagon on calling an Echo a "bugging device." Anyone who wants to be bugged, that's their choice.

As for comparing a Kindle to an Echo, that's kind of a stretch. I personally don't care what Amazon knows about what I'm reading — but most of the time I don't turn WiFi on on my Kindles anyhow. So, most of the time, they know nothing. The Echo, on the other hand, can give Amazon 24/7 audio access to my home, if and when I ever bought one (read never).

Choice is good.

[DiapDealer]

I'm betting you guys put tape over your laptop cameras, right?

And for the record: it's not really that much of a stretch to think you might be chastising Echo owners when the quote you agreed with in your post included "humanity is lost" (unless, of course you're totally ambivalent about those who are choosing to lead our race down the path of ruin). There's also your choice of loaded language like "Anyone who wants to be bugged" that clearly shows your disapproval of (or at the very least condescension toward) those who make the choice to own one.

[haertig]

Originally Posted by rcentros

... most of the time I don't turn WiFi on on my Kindles anyhow ... The Echo, on the other hand, can give Amazon 24/7 audio access to my home ...

Not owning an Echo, I guess you don't realize that there is a button to turn off all listening if you want. That button is easier and quicker to press than turning off WiFi on a Kindle. Also, the Echo lights up when it's listening - you can't hardly miss it. And if you want even more notification, you can also tell it to make a noise whenever it starts listening too. The only thing it listens for locally (without lighting up) is its "wake up word". Once it hears that word, it lights up and listens more. At this point, the words you say are indeed sent up over the internet for interpretation - the Echo devices themselves don't have that kind of processing power. They have the processing power to recognize their wake up word locally, but that's about it.

I used to be like you - strongly against any "spyware listening device" in my home. But then I realized that my computers have one of those built in too. So do my TV sets. So do the remote controls for my DVR's. And I also realized that our house if pretty silent. We don't walk around blabbering out our social security numbers, account numbers and passwords, and stuff like that. I am probably more at risk of that kind of stuff being divulged straight off of my internet connected computer (although I do take pains to prevent that, having working in computer security and networking as part of my job before I retired).

So, I now have Alexa devices in my house. And they are extremely helpful and convenient. They're not for everybody of course, but I'm happy with my choice to install them, even with my computer security/networking background making me intrinsically suspicious of such devices. If you walk around your house singing a song that contains the word "Alexa" and also your social security number in the lyrics, then I would not recommend an Echo device for you. Or keep the mute button activated - that mutes the microphones, not the speaker. This will turn the thing into a "push-to-talk" device rather than one listening for its wake up word.

[JSWolf]

Humanity is not lost because some of us own Alexa devices. Humanity is lost if we do nothing to fix global warming.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I'm betting you guys put tape over your laptop cameras, right?

No, I'm the "kind of guy" who doesn't buy Amazon Echos.