Amazon unveiled an updated slate of Echo, Kindle, Ring, Fire TV and Blink devices at an event Tuesday morning in New York City — reviving its past tradition of unleashing a dizzying array of new hardware and services in advance of the holiday shopping season.
If there was a common thread, beyond Amazon devices chief Panos Panay’s well-known obsession with hardware design, it was artificial intelligence.
The company showed AI upgrades across the lineup, many of them integrating its Alexa+ voice assistant — its latest bid to close the gap with ChatGPT and other AI chatbots.
Echo and Alexa+: Amazon introduced four new and upgraded Echo models — Echo Dot Max, Echo Studio, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 11 — designed to work with Alexa+, the revamped voice assistant, which has been rolling out through an early access program this year.
The company said the new devices use custom AI silicon and a new sensor platform called Omnisense to enable more natural conversations, proactive reminders, personalized wellness suggestions, and responses that are more aware of the user’s context.
Amazon also announced a new Alexa+ Store — a marketplace for third-party services and add-ons designed to expand its capabilities.
Kindle: A new “Story So Far” feature will give readers spoiler-free recaps, while “Ask this Book” lets them highlight passages and get AI-generated context about characters or scenes.
Amazon’s redesigned Kindle Scribe e-ink tablet can search handwritten notes and generate summaries. Amazon previewed a feature to send documents to Alexa+ for follow-up conversations. It also comes in a new color version, the Kindle Scribe Colorsoft.
Amazon said the next generation of Kindle Scribe will roll out later this year in the U.S., starting at $499.99, with the new color version, Kindle Scribe Colorsoft, starting at $629.99. A lower-priced black-and-white model without a front light is slated for early next year at $429.99.
Ring: An AI-powered “Search Party” feature is designed to help reunite lost dogs with their families. When a neighbor reports a missing pet in the Ring app, people with nearby outdoor Ring cameras can participate in the search, with AI flagging possible matches and notifying them if the dog appears.
Amazon says Ring users will remain in control of their privacy, with the choice to ignore alerts or share information with neighbors.
Separately, a new “Familiar Faces” feature reduces unnecessary alerts by recognizing people you know. According to Amazon, it’s designed to cut down on routine notifications while adding context to events captured in the Ring app
A new “Alexa+ Greetings” feature on Ring cameras turns Alexa into a virtual doorman, handling deliveries, greeting visitors, or turning away solicitors.
Fire TV: Amazon also introduced new and updated Fire TV Sticks and televisions. The company says the devices are faster and more efficient, with slimmer designs and improved picture quality, and run on a new operating system called Vega.
Alexa+ is built into the new models, enabling more conversational searches, personalized recommendations, and features such as finding specific scenes or surfacing live sports stats
Blink: New 2K+ cameras add AI-powered person and vehicle detection, along with stitched panoramic views through a new “Blink Arc” system.
