It’s hard to imagine your day-to-day life not being assisted–if not depending–on the constant use of technology, and Amazon’s Smart Home Tech has your covered at home.
“Walking inside an Alexa-enabled smart home feels like the future – but one you can live in today.”
Amazon is once again letting us in on all the new tech goodies we’re ultimately going to buy for our loved ones and friends this holiday season. Previously Amazon has unveiled new Echo smart speakers and displays, as well as a variety of wearables, drones, and even robots. We also got a slew of new gadgets this year, including smart sound enhancers, echo devices, fancy alarm clocks, and Amazon’s first QLED smart TV.
For people who enjoy taking notes when reading right before bed they may want to consider the Kindle Scribe ($340)—the first Kindle that works with a Scribe Pen you can actually write with. It includes a 10.2-inch e-ink display and instantly saves your notes to the page of the book you’re reading. Now that you’re going to ultimately spend hours reading with ease, you’ll need a fancy and effective way to shake that drowsiness off in the morning; thankfully, Amazon provides a solution.
The Halo Rise ($140) is a morning alarm clock that also functions as a sleep tracker at night. You may monitor your sleep stages and patterns in the Alexa app after it utilizes low-energy sensors to detect micro-movements caused by breathing. The Halo Rise includes a built-in clock and light that gradually warms up, mimicking the sunrise and gradually waking you up instead of the normal panicked scramble out of bed.
If that clock didn’t make you want to splurge, this one will. The $50–$60 Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock both feature better speakers, but they’ve also got new gesture controls built in. For example, you can now pause music or set snooze alarms by tapping the top of each speaker and see the title of the song you’re playing. Concerned that your children may feel excluded? Let the kids enjoy themselves with the kid-safe Echo Dot Kids ($80), which has more parental restrictions but many of the same functions as the original.
With its attempt to make your entire house run by a network of connected smart gadgets, it’s no surprise that Amazon has just launched some new methods to improve your living room. It might be said that the living room is the most connected aspect of a home, so it only makes sense that it receives the utmost attention in creating a comfortable setting for the entire family.
Although Amazon currently sells a range of Omni Fire TVs, the new Fire TV Omni QLED series goes above and beyond with higher picture quality and sensors that recognize when you enter the room and display widgets, artwork, or other material in response. Sensors are used for this, and they track “ambient” experiences like natural lighting. The 65-inch model will be $800 and the 75-inch model will be $1,100.
Additionally released was the Fire TV remote you can’t lose: The $35 clicker works with most Amazon-branded video devices and has a backlight. It has a built-in speaker so you can find it just by calling for it.
Of course, you might want to think about getting an Echo Studio (2nd gen) to give your living room atmosphere a little extra kick. It now comes in a new white colouring and now has better bass and sound. The price is still $200, the same as the first Echo Studio. Conveniently, Amazon also offers the Fire TV Cube (3rd generation) ($190) an updated version of the Fire TV Cube that combines an Amazon Echo Speaker and a Fire TV Streaming dongle into a single feature.
Notably, the Fire TV Cube adds an HDMI connector that you can connect to your cable box and then use Alexa to choose the channels. The brand-new eero PoE 6 routers, which get their power from Ethernet, are also bundled with this living room package ($300 for a three-piece set up).
As part of a collaboration with Amazon’s two home security firms, Blink and Ring, the new goods from Amazon go beyond the walls of your home and include a really cool display of smart security systems that guard your property. Both the Ring Spotlight Cam Plus and Pro models have motion-activated lights and even a siren powerful enough to strongly discourage a would-be burglar from sneaking into your home. They can be powered by a battery, solar panel, or hardwired power source. The interesting line-up offered by Blink also includes the Blink Mini Pan Tilt, which allows for adjustable viewing, and the Wired Floodlight Camera, which could give that robber another reason to maybe move on.
No Amazon device lineup would be complete without a useful function for your car. The Echo auto (2nd gen) is a smaller version of the original Echo speaker that connects to your car’s audio system through Bluetooth or cable connector and lets you call for roadside help if your vehicle breaks down.
Amazon’s 2022 lineup certainly isn’t disappointing in the least, and while the quality of the products has yet to be completely verified, it’s safe to say that innovation is at the forefront of Amazon’s future.
“At Amazon we continue to innovate and iterate on what customers can do in their own homes simply by using their voice. In a smart home, everything from lights, to cameras, speakers, thermostats, vacuums and more can all be connected, adjusted and automated with voice or the Alexa app. Customers can control these lights and devices, turn them on and off automatically, or even manage them remotely when they are away. We are thrilled to continue providing Canadians with innovations that make their lives easier and their homes smarter, so they can focus on what matters most.”
Country Manager at Alexa Canada, Celine Lee,
