Amazon Refreshes Echo Smart Speakers and Brings Echo Show to Canada

Amazon revealed a flurry of new Echo, Fire TV, and and Alexa devices this week, now a bunch are up for sale. Amazon says you can ask Alexa to defrost and cook food, heat coffee, or just turn the microwave on for a set time. The study also found that many users felt embarrassed about talking to their devices in public, preferring to use them when alone. If you forget to do something in your routine, Alexa will remind you, either through an Echo speaker or an Android phone.

If you’re a bit more of an audiophile, you’ll want to check out the Echo Link or Echo Link Amp. Amazon has already been working with manufacturers to add Alexa into cars. They come with various inputs and outputs, including traditional speaker wire, RCA cables (for Line in / Line Out, Subwoofers, and Coaxial connections), an Ethernet port, and optical in and out connections. You can use it with a single Echo if that’s what you’ve got. The Echo Wall Clock is an analog clock with LED hashes along the edge to help visually track Alexa timers, while the AmazonBasics Microwave is more of an oddball device – it’s an Alexa-enabled microwave that can be controlled with your voice, which is arguably more time-consuming than manually using the keypad, since you’ll have to go to the microwave to load it anyways. A new feature called Alexa Hunches will analyze patterns and alert you when things change.

You can also get the new Echo Sub for even better sound. It seems like the strategy behind the company’s latest announcement could be described as “have Alexa everywhere”, though.

The $60 United States dollars microwave also includes Dash Replenishment Services, which means the cooking box can also automatically reorder food from Amazon. Hey, you can’t fault Amazon for trying. This microwave can be found sold by Amazon for approximately $60 Dollars.

The third product known as Echo Show comes with a significant upgrade over the previous model bearing the same moniker. Among things like being able to display recipe instructions from Amazon’s Meal Kit, it also can connect you to YouTube videos on the run too as it is no longer supported natively by Google on Amazon devices.

If I were a true cable-cutter, this device would interest me the most of anything I’ve seen today. With new premium speakers and Dolby processing, you will not only get a better image but better sound.

It doesn’t matter what the recipient’s hardware is, of course, so you obviously aren’t restricted to just calling people with Amazon’s devices.

Now that we have an Alexa enabled device for our living room, bedroom, and kitchen, Amazon decided it’s time to bring one in the auto too. The Echo Auto comes with as many as eight microphones that the company says can make out your voice even over road noise and music. Also, since it’s an Echo device, you can link up the Auto to your home system so when you pull in the driveway, you can open and close the garage when you need to. Turn-based directions now work with Waze and Apple Maps. There is also a new companion device for the Amazon Fire TV called the Fire TV Recast.

The Echo Sub is an optional subwoofer for use with Echo speakers.