Amazon held its annual hardware event on Tuesday and introduced several new products ranging from security cameras to updated Alexa home devices to … uh, a personal robot.
Some of it looked good! And some had us worried. And one item seems destined to fail (or fall down a flight of stairs).
A few standouts, for better or worse:
Best for Large Households: Echo Show 15
The Alexa-assisted bedside display gets boosted up to a 15.6″ screen that can be mounted on a wall. Ideally suited for your kitchen, the Show becomes a small secondary TV, a digital art display, video call center, permanent digital cookbook (or whatever widgets you want to use) and even a place you can send a note directly to a specific family member (which will only show up when Alexa recognizes them in front of the device).
Making Fitness Affordable: Halo
Not the first-person shooter, Amazon’s Halo is a series of inexpensive (starting at $80) and colorful health trackers that definitely want to compete with Fitbit. The waterproof Halo View features AMOLED touchscreen color display and haptic feedback; you can grab important health metrics and also pair your device with new services like Halo Fitness (workout classes) and Halo Nutrition (a recipe/healthy eating service). A full year of membership is bundled with the health tracker.
Making Security Stupidly Expensive: Ring Virtual Security Guard
We’ve had privacy issues with Amazon and their Ring home security systems in the past. With their new subscription service, a customer can “choose to have a professional security company visually monitor their Ring cameras.” For a company built on affordability, the service has an oddly high price ($99 per month after a limited free trial period). Amazon also opened up the invite list for the Always Home Cam, a really odd T-shaped home security drone.
Keeping Your Heat Bills Low: Amazon Smart Thermostat
Amazon’s rather straightforwardly named Smart Thermostat, built by the same brand that makes Honeywell Home thermostats, will be $60. But Amazon suggests that after applying utility-provider rebates, eligible customers could get the Alexa-compatible device for $10 “and sometimes, for nothing at all.”
And, for No Reason at All, This “Smart” Robot: Astro
Sure, it’s cute, and reminds us a bit of WALL-E. But Amazon’s new home robot, Astro, which will mainly serve as a security device (that they want you to utilize with Ring) or to check on people or things in your home when you’re not around, is also supposed to show a “personality.” It better, for $1,000 now (and up to $1,500 later). But an investigation by Vice, which featured some disturbing revelations on how the robot will track user behavior, suggests this 1.0 model of Astro “will almost certainly throw itself down a flight of stairs if presented the opportunity.”
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