all right so Ben Fox Ruben my friend my
buddy my Amazon covering cohort we just
saw a baker's dozen of new devices from
Amazon whoo electric gadgets new fire TV
stuff a new ring camera what's your
overall takeaway from this very busy and
jam-packed day so generally speaking I
like the idea that they broadly made
these devices look a little bit nicer I
mean Alexa has always been the primary
element of this whole thing and they're
constantly improving that but from a
design perspective this stuff didn't
really actually look this nice it was
pretty plastic it was kind of bulky so
they did a much better job I thought to
soften the look and to add a lot of
fabric to some of the designs to get a
little bit closer to the competition I
think that's right I think we're seeing
the Alexa platform mature we're seeing
these devices kind of come into their
own as things you'd want to put your
home and kind of show off kind of
borrowing a page from Apple like I think
the new sub woofer looks a lot like the
home pod in some ways it's kind of that
same aesthetic that it's going for and
it's just interesting to see on the
software side all of these devices
really work towards working with
everything they possibly can
yeah electing a wall clock including a
wall clock right and you know the Alexa
connection this new Alexa Kinect kit
that developers can put into their
appliances and devices to very easily
and cheaply connect it with the Amazon
Cloud Bluetooth Wi-Fi encryption all
that stuff and make anything into an
Alexa gadget really the microwave that
they show kind of shows the possibility
for that do you see a lot of potential
there in terms of yeah yeah at CES they
said that Alexa was integrated with
4,000 devices now at Aoife they said
20,000 devices that's a five-fold
increase in just a couple months I think
is about eight months so with that
additional kit and all the other things
that they're adding in you would expect
that number to continue going up because
obviously 20,000 devices from Amazon's
perspective that's just a start here the
thing that I'm curious about is how
quickly is Google gonna try to catch up
with Google assistant Apple has been
really slow with this with Siri and the
home pod but we'll see if they try to do
the same thing with with home kid and
the home pod as well I think the message
from Amazon to amaz
a message from Amazon to Apple and
Google is really clear right now it's
catch us if you can
yeah they're right it's a good win and
they're just trying to get Alexa
everywhere and everything connected to
her to make it there's really
all-encompassing home assistant they can
do whatever you want it to and that's it
took a big step towards that today I
gotta give him a lot of credit yeah one
of the fun things that I kind of like
about writing about Amazon is is that
they're not afraid to experiment I mean
like Apple would never ever come out
with an experimental basics microwave
for $60 like a $60 microwave or the wall
clock which I personally think it's kind
of silly it's a little stupid and it
doesn't really do that much but if you
look at it from the perspective of we're
experimenting we're trying different
things this is a new platform and we're
gonna try to do stuff then I'm kind of
all for it and I look forward to you
know more alexa connected toilets god
forbid and we'll see how that goes and
from a design perspective that microwave
they kept saying this is the most
popular size and why did john amazon of
all the ones we sell i mean it's a 700
watt microwave it's a pretty small it's
a dorm-room microwave baby and it's not
even that nice of a design it's a very
basic amazonbasics microwave so they're
not really trying to go high-end you're
trying to go to tenant make the point
that anything I think can be an Alexa
device that's a pretty interesting pitch
yeah yeah we'll see how that plays out
once that starts selling and if more
device makers jump on board with that
chip yeah and the big selling point for
Amazon has always been like we're gonna
give you slightly better features than
you expect at a cheaper price and I'm
glad they stuck with that obviously they
improve the aesthetic but they did not
raise the prices on any of this stuff
I'm looking at you Apple
you guys keep raising your prices so now
the base metal model iPhone the iPhone
10 R is now seven hundred and fifty
dollars you know so you can you can at
least look at it from the perspective
that Amazon is sticking to what it knows
best which is like look that is not the
nicest microwave that you would ever
have but it works it's simple and dang
it it's $60 so yeah I think that's an
interesting contrast we'll see how that
plays out one last thing you got talking
about we got talking about Amazon's
efforts is entertainment because they've
got the fire TV recast it's sort of like
a DVR box for all of your fire TV
content and antenna based content that
can be mall throughout the house works
with the echo show you can pull up Food
Network
kitchen really easily with it and I'm a
music front they've got more music
partners the title in the mix now I mean
they they're really pushing towards
Alexa being an entertainment club as
well and I think that the fired the fire
TV cube is another example of that which
granted was it was one of the few things
I wasn't announced today but that was
also an effort to make Alexa more of an
entertainment hub for sure so yeah it's
it's they're trying to look at it from
the perspective of how do we make Alexa
the best possible thing the best
possible platform for your home
entertainment in your living room for
your kitchen for your bedroom for like
literally every different area in your
house so yeah they need those types of
partners that actually provide the right
content to do that kind of stuff if
you're really going to take over living
room entertainment and you know they're
on their way to doing that alright oh
and got to talking about one more thing
oh yeah I mean you keep forgetting
things is there so much the Echo Auto
it's $25 if you get if I invite or if it
I think it's $50 a full price yes right
yeah that's gonna be a little kind of
tape looking thing you set on your dash
and plug into power and just bring Alexa
into your car and you know we've already
seen devices that do that the Garmin
speak as a a navigating tool with Alexa
there's the anchor row ad vive yeah that
plugs into yours well you know the
cigarette charging exactly or the
cigarette lighting port and I actually
had that in my car it always drops
connection and does weird things with
bluetooth I think if this is better than
that it'll be pretty appealing $25 is
half the price of that I think so that's
that's gonna get a lot of people to buy
in I'm gonna be very curious to see how
that does and the idea of Alexa and
everybody's cars is an interesting one
it's a smart move obviously it's
something that I guess we should have
seen coming in that you know there are
so many cars on the road and they don't
get updated every single year was a
Amazon's hardware chief mentioned on
stage he said that they sell 70 million
cars every year but that's still
hundreds of millions of cars that we
don't get into Alexa and if anything
they've presented today it's that if you
have a house if you have a car we want
to put Alexa into it and we want to get
there before the other guys do so to
that extent that makes a lot of sense
that they would provide their own
concept and try to get Alexa into more
vehicles all right well we've got a lot
to think about in the coming weeks and
we've got a you know test a lot of stuff
so we'll get right on that but
what's up we got to talk about the
subwoofer - so that sub woofer 130
dollars what I think is really clever
here is it 130 yeah that's not bad first
I would even consider buying a subwoofer
at those prices
I would like ask for that as a gift I
don't know if I'd buy that for myself
but that's right in the comfortable
ballpark range of you know nice birthday
gift or something but what I think is
clever is that the hundred and thirty
dollar subwoofer they say it'll pair it
with two echoes and you get that two
point one audio sound system if you got
left and right channel those are hundred
dollars they each echo so you add that
all up that's three hundred and thirty
bucks that's less than the cost by
twenty dollars of a single Apple home
pod oh yeah I see that pricing is a shot
right and Caputi knows direction and I
think people might be more drawn to that
but the home pod which has been slow to
catch on yeah and the subwoofer is a
brand new product and right out of the
gate they made it look nicer it's got
the fabric design around it it's not
some clunky mess and you would actually
feel okay having it right next to your
home entertainment system so I think
they did a good job as far as the
aesthetics were concerned with that one
as well they also had what was it the
link and the link amp which is the
continuation of them trying to do more
home entertainment and trying to really
you know push themselves into that area
I don't feel like they're just throwing
that at the audio files to complain
about the sound quality of the echo and
the echo Plus and the existing speakers
and just say look use your own speakers
use whatever you want here's all the
hardware you need to bring Alexa to
whatever audio said if you want I will
see it that quiet so that that people
buy into that or if they just want an
all-in-one solution
I mean you compare that to the home pod
or something when the home pod says it
can do room-filling audio it's really
high quality and audio files like it and
with the echo amp link in the new amp
you've gotta have your own stuff and
connect it that might appeal to people
that have those types of setups already
but people want to buy in on a fresh
system might just want that single
approach I'm at the home pod it's an
interesting thing that you're touching
upon to in that one of the few things
that they didn't show off today was like
a Google home max competitor you know
like our top top shelf eco speaker and a
hardware Chief David limp onstage
specifically referenced he was like we
already provide a lot of choice when it
comes to these kind of things we just
want to create the connectivity for that
so they were adding to the connectivity
with a link in the link
and also the echo input which just
connects the speakers another buddy
forgot to mention right now so so that's
not a speaker it's you connected two
speakers and it makes it into an echo
device this is really smart because
that's how a lot of people use the echo
dot already that's just basically saying
we'll make the pass a little lower and
you can use it like you've been using it
before just plug it to your own speakers
Bluetooth auxin whatever you want yeah
we tried to end this video like four
times and keep forgetting things and
we've forgotten anything else
yeah probably I mean like I'm about to
fall over I don't think I will
yeah I will probably never be to another
event where the guy gets on stage and
says we're gonna have 70 different
announcements today and gets a laugh
from the audience and then confirms that
yes in fact there were 70 different
announcements so this was like a real
bing-bang-boom like we're gonna get
through a ton of stuff really really
quickly it goes back to what you said
which is catch me if you can like you
know it was basically like we're just
gonna keep pushing forward as quickly as
possible and you know we'll see if the
competition can keep up yeah absolutely
so we've got a lot of work to do and
probably a lot of sleep tonight and the
cards for us we're brain dead hopes I'm
gonna make it yeah anyway that was fun
it was fun
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