At a showcase event at their Seattle headquarters, Amazon has just announced their next generation and range of smart tech, all integrating and centring around their now-famous Alexa smart assistant. Products ranged from security cameras and updated speakers, to even glasses, and will be coming to store shelves in the coming months.
Here is a look at some of the next generation of Amazon’s smart technology, and also a look into how it is being used in homes already across different markets.
A simple device that plugs into any outlet in the home, the Echo Flex device simply adds Alexa functionality to absolutely any spot in the house. This is perfect for if you want to be able to control the devices in your home from anywhere, purely using your voice.
Got an old alarm system attached via wiring to the doorframes in your home, and while you want to replace, it’ll be too much of a hassle? This new addition from Ring will allow you to install a modern and safer alarm system that builds over the top of the groundwork you already have by connecting sensors.
The Alexa AI and service itself is also growing and learning, allowing even simpler and more personalised control over your devices. The upcoming Alexa Guest Connect feature will allow you to use your different preferences at a friend’s house when visiting them, and the Certified for Humans feature will soon make it easier than ever to get set up on the home Wi-Fi. Soon, Alexa will be able to respond in multiple languages at a time, and even answer the doorbell on your behalf if you can’t be bothered. Has science gone too far? Those getting fearful that the robot overlords are going to take over will also be able to delete logs recorded by Alexa in the future, something that has long been a point of contention in the press.
With the vast array of different available forms of Amazon’s Alexa available on the market, consumers will be able to enjoy the benefits of an interconnected smart home in a variety of different ways, and the technology will increasingly become a staple in the ‘smart home’ of the future. Efficient tech such as this can save us time, and even energy, self-regulating and only turning on when required.
Property investors and landlords will increasingly look to integrate this style of technology into their homes and buildings as they surge in popularity, not only helping to increase security functionality, but also enticing young tenants that look for luxury amenities and features in their homes. In modern, minimalist, student city-centre properties, Liverpool company RW Invest already offer some level of smart integration with adaptive lighting and smart security, allowing students to get on with their day to day more efficiently. Again, these sorts of features will become a normalcy in the years to come.
The ‘Alexa’ range of products has already been hugely successful, and these new announcements will look to assimilate into a growing number of smart pieces of kit around the world. The Amazon Echo range of smart speakers are already found in a number of homes across the country, and it has been estimated that they take up more than two thirds of the market in the UK. No doubt these new additions to the range (with their added bells and whistles) will be flying off the shelves come Black Friday and Christmas.