Category: Amazon

HomePod orders are now open.

I picked up a white model, set for in-store pickup two weeks from today. We have a couple of Amazon Echos around the house, despite being subscribers to Apple Music. We pay for Amazon’s Echo-only music streaming and use the speaker to control a bunch of smart lights, listen to news, set timers while cooking and more.

On paper, the HomePod should do everything we ask of our Echo, but I’m a little worried that Siri won’t be able to keep up as well as Alexa does. I guess I’ll find out in two weeks.

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Mark Gurman is reporting that Apple is working to overhaul its iBooks (soon to just be named “Books”) app and store, with the help of at least one ex-Amazon employee:

The new app, due to be released in coming months, will include a simpler interface that better highlights books currently being read and a redesigned digital book store that looks more like the new App Store launched last year, according to people familiar with its development. The revamped app in testing includes a new section called Reading Now and a dedicated tab for audio books, the people said.

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Months after it was initially announced, the Amazon Prime Video is now available for the Apple TV.

The app comes with many of the features of the iOS version, including X-Ray, which provides additional information on actors and trivia based on scenes. Watch lists created on other versions of the app sync to the Apple TV one, and content within Amazon’s ecosystem is exposed to tvOS’ universal search.

There’s no word if this means Amazon will be selling the Apple TV on its store again, but this news comes as the rift between Google and Amazon grows. Amazon seems to love getting into fights with competitors.

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Do not want.

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I’m a big fan of my Kindle Oasis. It’s my third or fourth Kindle, and I love how small and lightweight it is.

I have two main complaints: having a battery pack and cover makes it a little too fiddly, and the thing really should be waterproof.

Amazon has answered both of these with the new Kindle Oasis.

The new e-ink reader boasts a larger, 7-inch, 300-ppi display in a waterproof housing. Now, all of the battery is in the device itself, which is now aluminum, not soft-touch plastic.

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We’ve had an Amazon Echo in our kitchen for over a year now. We use it for the things people use an Echo for, including check the weather, get caught up on the news, turn on light, set timers and listen to music.

That last use is an important one. Most evenings, we have something playing. I pay for a Spotify account that I have hooked up to the Echo, as Amazon’s Prime Music offering only includes around 2 million songs, and in our testing last year, often lacked what we (or the kids) wanted to listen to in the kitchen.

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The new, second-generation Echo is smaller, with better speakers and a design I find far nicer than the first-generation model that currently sits in my kitchen. At $99, it’s cheaper, too. Seems like a win.

The $35 Echo Connect is far stranger. Pitched as a phone replacement, it plugs in to your old analog phone line and lets you make phone calls, including to 911.

Both devices go on sale later this year. I’m excited about the former, but as we stopped paying AT&T for a landline years ago, I’ll pass on the latter.

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Amazon and Whole Foods have announced that the former’s acquisition of the latter will close on Monday, August 28. The companies say one of the immediate goals is to make Whole Food’s prices more affordable, starting next week.¹

Then there’s this:

In addition, Amazon and Whole Foods Market technology teams will begin to integrate Amazon Prime into the Whole Foods Market point-of-sale system, and when this work is complete, Prime members will receive special savings and in-store benefits. The two companies will invent in additional areas over time, including in merchandising and logistics, to enable lower prices for Whole Foods Market customers.

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Amazon has a new Echo for preorder starting today. The $229 device does all the same voice-driven stuff as the traditional Echo, but includes a 7-inch touchscreen. With that, Amazon is adding things like video conferencing, feeds from supported IP cameras, YouTube playback and video updates from news sources.

I — like most people with an Echo — use Amazon’s product in the kitchen, often when I have my hands full. While adding a screen to the experience is certainly interesting, I’m curious how often I would take advantage of it.

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Amazon has a new Echo out today, as Dan Moren explains:

In addition to all the usual Alexa features, you can tell the Echo Look to take a photo or a video, and the result will pop up in the Echo Look companion app on your phone, letting you tell whether the outfit you’ve got on works. A depth of field effect—à la the iPhone 7 Plus’s Portrait Mode—blurs the background and brings you and your outfit into the foreground. Short videos let you spin around to see yourself from all angles.

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Henry Bodkin at The Telegraph:

The British Red Cross has launched a voice-activated app which tells people how to deal with household medical emergencies such as seizures or burns.

From today, hesitant first-aiders confronted with a crisis will simply have to say “Alexa, first aid”, before explaining the nature of the problem, and a female voice will calmly talk them through the steps they need to take.

I can see potential liability issues here, but making basic first aid accessible via voice¹ seems like a good idea to me.

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HomeKit has quietly been getting better over the last year or so, and this new page on Apple’s website shows it off well.

However, this came to mind immediately:

Nice website, but the film just showcases to me how much easier it is to tell Alexa to do all the same things. https://t.co/bR994S5Rer

— Scott McNulty (@blankbaby) March 2, 2017

For me, I’m not installing any smart home devices that don’t work with both Alexa and HomeKit.

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