Gadgetory

welcome to the 359 I'm Roger Chang I'm Alfred Eng surprise Amazon is holding a product launch event today our own Ben Fox Rubin is in Seattle for all the latest news it'll happen in about two hours or so 90 minutes but we've got a lot of rumors to work with right now we're likely to see a new echo dot and a new echo show but some of the other more recent leaks have suggest that we may get a lot more things like microwaves subwoofers in cars so I'm sort of in car gadget a power plug Alberta anything in here in this list you are particularly excited about seeing other things just sound like really random things they just I mean maybe the power plot like the smart plug like kind of makes sense for for their end because you know you have to plug stuff in anyway you know it might as well make it Wi-Fi enabled there's something like that but everything else just seems like they had like a like dart board with like different products on it they just threw stuff out of it oh microwave yeah I'm surprised they didn't make like a smart dart board that like I feel like me would have actually been interested in an Alexa power dart board it gives you the score runs games for you that's actually brilliant probably coming next year but yeah this is a it's a weird one because they've got subwoofers amplifiers receivers the microwave I still can't wrap my head around because why are you buying a microwave from Amazon just because it has a lexan it I mean I think you know eventually you know a smart assistant is gonna get into every appliance that we own that being said I don't really think that a microwave is the best you know suited device for that just because I get it like you're thinking oh I can like put my stuff in and just say you know said defrost this or set it to like two minutes but you're already there here's the rug though is there are microwaves that can do this they're already they're compatible with Alexa you don't know the beauty of the echo and Alexa is a lot of devices other devices were already powered by it so it just seemed weird that they were going in going their own way and just building their own specific products to run Alexa I'm very excited to tell my microwave to play the 359 podcast I don't think that works that's awful then I know there's no reason to buy that microwave it's weird though right like we look at Apple events and we say oh they're not really like changing anything up or like doing anything that crazy that's you and then we look at an Amazon event where they have all these different let's change everything side come on we don't need that all right so it's just like I don't really know what the middle ground here is that's the thing this is kind of an extreme right I think you're right the smart plug does make sense the the amplifiers receivers Joan and cats were here yesterday talking about Amazon's kind of pushing audio that kind of makes sense but some of these other things were I guess it's just really cool our update also doesn't really make that much I guess it's like a way to get a Lex into your car but no if I really want to look I mean there are new cars that are being sold now that have you know like Wi-Fi connectivity or electric connectivity to it but you know that's not a lot of cars so it's just you know the thing if you're getting this for your car it's kind of useless unless you have that feature maybe it has a built in though maybe that's that it maybe it plugs in gives you a car Wi-Fi feature and Alexa maybe that would be a much more interesting you know these are probably all rumors were you know we weren't pre briefed on anything so we don't have any you know intel on animals of that it's happening in about 90 minutes so for more of those events in our live blog checkers I don't see that in Russia I'm Alfred ankhs listening that felt really long and that concludes a recording of the audio podcast this time with audio sorry again folks technical difficulties you know how it gets flame Brian we came and played Benny we blame Ben this time you anyways across the country it's hard to blame them send you questions and comments and we'll dig them out of the chat and try to figure out what the hell Amazon is doing today first let's start off with a question from a peck did Amazon actually announce this event is this like to the public nope and then well so I'm keen is asking why aren't they streaming it yeah so this is really weird Amazon did this last year they did they did pre pre pre briefed us on the existence of the event a little while ago they but we weren't actually able to talk about it I don't know if they officially announced themselves we announced this morning the embargo had lifted at 6:00 a.m. Pacific 9 a.m. eastern amazon might have announced I don't even know if they did on their official channels and they did this last year no live stream which I guess they kind of want control the the announcements and control the story of the product launches to really the folks who are on the ground like I said if you are really intensely interested in what's going on with Amazon Ben Fox Rubin and Rui Chris from our Louisville smart home team will be doing the full live blog so you'll be able to get all the details we've got photos or we will have photos as well as all the latest on the various products I thought it was more yeah I think it's more like a control thing of you know being able to hey look we know this microwave sounds really stupid but look look look here here's a story you're here yeah check out look it actually is not as dumb as the Internet's making out to be a kind of a devil's advocate they originally started saying like it'd be really stupid to have a computer in the pocket and look where we all are now that's true people say that oh yeah why come back well because for why they think it was feasible they didn't think that there would be a lot of logical reasons I remember a lot of emails in your pocket I love the apps that you love to use I mean they weren't even in existence back then I mean yeah I guess I don't know like I I was a kid when all that stuff came out and I was just basically which what computer are you talking about here but I just remember thinking like this is like really useful and well then I can go on AIM like anytime now I don't have to stay at home on my desk to do that I don't know yeah so maybe maybe I'm also a lot of I think there was all skepticism one day at first echo arrived mm-hmm you know I was like what the speaker why is Amazon making a speaker Alexa was kind of thing but I mean it was a talk let's put a kibosh on that right now don't say oh like you know what anymore all right how much do we really activate during this show when we when we do that there's enough complaints in the comments that I wanted to address it so sorry it's just force of habit there's there's that that in itself that the that the name has become so commonplace yeah and so household that we all just kind of refer to it but it can't fix itself and tell when it shouldn't be triggered Alexei so the a word back then I mean no one really knew what the award was gonna do what the capabilities were so I think there was a fair amount of skepticism about Amazon getting into a smart speaker so the to be fair we will I mean we will keep an open mind about the microwave I am actually looking forward to the smart plug if it's you know voice controlled I had this thought the other day of you know there would be a lot more smart assistants out there if they were in mugs yeah but like specifically in like a power strip because like people love getting power strips well the problem with a power strip though is if you've got five different devices how do you house the power strip you know which device you're referring to known are like the power strip itself is the is the smart assistant oh like yeah I don't know that this is the lamp and this is the TV and this is the narrow like just imagine your echo dot but it you can yeah but you can plug like five other devices into it just to like charge a phone or like yeah like I'm saying you're saying shove the voice assistant in the very common place yes items in your home like I mean weren't they talking about maybe light bulbs at one point or another I know there are like well yeah there are that speakers now they're not smart to say that doesn't really that's not what the main point of a smart plug is those more plug is to basically control other devices yeah no no it's not the control other devices you plug in one device that smart plug and that device becomes smart yeah because extension yeah I wasn't talking about that I was talking about like as like as a like power strip yeah I say that would buy that I don't think there's a Star Trek Borg joke in there somewhere I'm not sure exactly where but it's it's there somewhere let's talk about do we have a head count of how many things are supposed to be unveiling today or we have a lot of speculations the speculation we have no head count our official head count the the speculation that CNBC reported couple days ago is a products in total by the end of the year 8 ok yeah so maybe we'll see 8 this time I mean there's something I'm the more I think about it alfrid the more your theory kind of makes sense that they would just start trying to shove it into everything well everyday things not just everything I mean putting it in the microwave into your kitchen I know James fever was saying something about maybe putting in the oven Ricky B said a toothbrush I think that's stretching it a little bit but if it was just kind of omnipresent instead of having to like scream across the living room to find the I think the the issue I had with the microwave was a lot for a lot of folks at least one of their echo dots is in the kitchen so you don't really need that extra alexa spot right location cuz you've got the dot there you've got your echo every time you say her name you got to put a quarter in the dish sorry I did it again sorry we don't have a swear jar we have a smart assistant chart we're just venmo it what we need then is like a neural net processor link so that they all don't jump on top of each other because like if you have more than one in your home and you scream out at it aren't they all just gonna activate the same time and like cause no I guess they're smart enough to kind of recognize where you are they recognize like the closest one yeah that was really frustrating for me a few nights ago when I told my google home to like sent an alarm okay but I was in my bedroom and for some reason the one in my living room picked it up oh so the alarm rang there no no I it responded there so like okay great side so go to my tell you like cancel the alarm then go back into the bedroom and like yet very close to my life beds and again like the microwave in your kitchen Canon are probably pretty close to each other so it's kind of weird - have you ever done dn't that's what I mean that's what I'd be worrying about it I'm stepping on each other's toes right yeah yeah I mean I don't mind the idea of smart devices it sounds silly but like I don't know about you guys but my commute can be really nasty some days and there are literally days where it takes me almost two hours to get home from here and one I've got cats at home so I'd love to be able to feed them remotely if I'm on my mobile device yeah so the connectivity there is valuable I have a smart air-conditioner now that I can turn on from a distance and I always wanted one of the smart crock pots so I could have dinner ready when I walk in the door but I mean the idea of putting this kind of connectivity and intelligence into kitchen devices sounds silly on paper don't hate it truly in the long run how do you feel about it I just love that it's going in a microwave just you can just go and ask like what are some recipes for a dinner for one mmm that's kind of sad all right let's take a couple more questions Mike Shaw well the Amazon microwave work better at heating up foods bought at Whole Foods that's pretty good that would be really smart of a product not energy from nothing rog synergy really come on that was good right life improvements what if there's an amazon show inside the microwave and you don't even have to set a time it just already knows so like what you put a show is inside the microwave to blow up so I'm thinking this I think he's asking maybe about the camera the camera can like recognize what you're trying to heat up that'd be bizarre Oh Oh interesting we may it's like a hot dog or not a hot dog yeah I only have the two settings - well they've got that scanner thing already right or is that still in beta then they have that wand the the wand or was that oh yeah yeah scan like a barcode and it could reorder something what if your microwave and your barcode so many things that Amazon announces and I'm like I have no idea what happened to this thing like the buttons thing that they tried making for the echo games that like nobody played I don't know we're probably gonna expect a bunch of these random one-off gadgets today as well so yeah didn't they announce the buttons at last year's that like no one use it all yep I mean you got I gotta give some props to Amazon here though we're so like you know we're just gonna try out a bunch of it sure we are trillion dollar company you can afford that throw money around and random projects for a while and like some of them actually do pay off like they're like $50 like Kindle tablet that's yeah yeah that's doing pretty well for them look the echo started off as an experiment now this it's you know and it also needed like the echo dot is also like that's like their best-selling like a selling product on Amazon yeah although apparently the Google home has eclipsed it over the last quarter or the Google home mini okay which you know simply start selling the mini again Google mini I'm saying Google home mini sales in total yeah but my point with the dot though and like the fifty dollar tablet and things like that it seems like all of the experiments for Amazon that pay off are basically they're really cheap product so it's just like I would really hope that today's event is more so gearing towards that but I also know that's not gonna happen because how what's the average price of a microwave and then how much more are you really gonna pay for it to be like a smart a smart microwave maybe they needed a 200 bucks maybe maybe they keep it yeah maybe they keep a little cheaper that's the Amazon way that's your right that's every time they've done that they've been fairly successful although you're you're right I don't think I think there will be some stuff for the more budget-conscious folks that I think there should be a wide range of products today though just give me cheap stuff Amazon it's all I want well that's definitely what they've accelerated or Excel dad that was the wrong word is being able to make it Summa bull you know we've got lots and lots of fancy-schmancy tech out there but not everybody can really attain that the fact that they got the echo into homes is kind of a testament to it yeah and I'm only gonna Pat their back so hard because it's still kind of creepy but that's that's something to be revered let's go ahead and take a question from Jonathan while we're on this topic now that the echo can control Xbox and Cortana and works with Sonos do we expect more announcements like those we expect more synergy more partnerships I think so yeah I think there's gonna be more like soft whatnot software but just like feature announcements for it yeah just so we're compatibility with other smart home products or compatibility with other consumer electronics devices yeah I mean the the Cortana thing I think when it first was announced for like oh that's kind of cool but then Cortana really is kind of faded into relevancy at this point so it's less cool yeah we can say Cortana all we want we're not gonna activate anything I know Cortana so is that the call word I'm just tempting fate here's a question from Anthony do you think a Amazons lady in the car will connect through your cell phone similar to Android auto and carplay it would be a feature that would make ordinary cars more smart and connected to one's home that is well that's a little difficult because you need to have the auto manufacturers support for putting carplay and android auto in to like the dashboard the interface I was envisioning more a plug into the ODB or ODM OD I think ODB connection in your car from the wu-tang clan yeah that exactly it's very bastard alternate bass the connection underneath the steering wheel you can plug that in it could have a cellular radio and then it'll have Alexa and I'll have a microphone and speaker for for a lots of access if you're trying to do something but I would imagine most likely at work with like the Alexa app on your phone the Alexa app desert dollars in swear jar sorry but the app on your phone doesn't it doesn't respond to them right I mean it's like track said I don't like what you've done and stuff but you can't use your phone yeah at today's event do you think we're gonna actually see prices or just unveilings stupid if they dig right price yes I mean it said the the only reason like Apple doesn't well they used to not or most companies don't broadcaster prices cuz there's usually like a phone carrier relationship thing and was on just selling these things on their own stores so they would I'm almost certain they'll release pricing immediately oh by the way and the for the car thing it's obd not ODB offer on-board diagnostics those are very very different things right I know I know I'm sorry not car guy let's take a question from APEC does or will Amazon support devices like Apple does if they discontinued the item oh good question well I mean it's it's hard to say haven't discontinued anything yeah it's like we don't really have a track right sure these continue older fire tablets phone I still use the phone I still use the 2015 fire that's the original part yeah it is is it well not not like like the original 7-inch one not like you yeah you know with those speakers they don't have an OS I'm aware of that they get updated for so I honestly don't know sorry alright sorry I was in the middle of uh sipping my breakfast and you've caught me off guard before we change gears we're almost out of time let's put a dollar amount speculative dollar amount on what we think is going to come out today start with the microwave what do we think we're gonna see I'm gonna get we're going to $250 smart microwave with Wi-Fi integration and smart one recognizing technology I don't know yeah I mean I 250 would have been my guess we're doing like prices right style yeah yeah 251 yeah alright I'll be 252 yeah I actually don't know what the average price of a microwave is so I've never you know they they really varies it's hard to say average price of microwave you can get really nice expensive ones but you can get dirt cheap ones for like forty fifty bucks so that's my guess than forty fifty dollars right it's gonna be completely wrong because what that's how much they have is gonna change the world that $50 microwave yep come on man look if they want this microwave to sell put put it at like 50 bucks that's all I'm saying if they want they want a home run here there you go I mean they can stand to lose some money okay they could actually they have they've definitely demonstrated the willingness to lose money on products in the short term probably an echo dot 3.0 probably roughly the same price point right fifty bucks yeah I mean you know look my guess is it'll look nicer because of Google home mini is you know it's it's a nicer looking fresher looking product and the the dot is kind of showing its age a little bit well we saw this thing that was a leaked photo from Fran droid yeah yeah I don't know if that necessarily could argue that it looks nicer it uses fabric I think that's the key that Rick you from Google yeah exactly so this is you know the plastic does kind of look and feel a little cheap after a while I like the Kirby on top I think it's a good I think that's a great accessory it should be they should be included in all it should it should work with Nintendo where you can put amiibos on it Oh like talks and way that characters voice is only brilliant no that's not don't give them ideas cuz then they launch their own amiibo thing that you need to collect yeah give anything work giving it like a little toy microwave to turn on your microwave maybe the wall Luigi voice on on my smart assistant yeah there is cool it's not used in any games because he's not in that many no not confirmed for smash yet okay do we think we're gonna see a phone do we know if there is any word on the return of the echo look any word on fire TV or echo being integrated into TVs for the holiday season oh ok it's a lot I've already forgotten all the dairy I don't think we're gonna see an echo look I don't think we're gonna see a phone the phone would be a real stretch at this point but what about ramping up echo presence in television and entertainment centers well they already announced the TV cube right I think that's the closest that they will get I don't think they're like in the business of making their own TVs no yeah weren't in the business of making their own microwaves either says using Alexa now or they using Google there are a number of TV makers that are starting to integrate assistance into their products but I'm not entirely sure which assistant they're using it might have been Google actually but yeah I do see that down line I don't necessarily see it for this today's event got it all right just to take a couple of quickies on the way out the door before we go and put our ears to the ground on the amazon announcements any word on this alleged MetroPCS rebranding Roger you know anything about this I'm not aware of anything okay sorry now it's metrop t-mobile light I don't I don't know I don't know what I don't know what the rebranding would be I would that caught my attention cuz I hadn't heard anything about it so I thought I'd bring it up but sorry guys thanks for the question anyways and one more for the road what if you could have the echo dot and Google home minis positioned to surround sound speakers for your TV and it still worked as smart assistants now I think that would be a great idea if you could just buy for $50 speakers and then get a echo speakers and then just put a wireless subwoofer in there how would work I think the the knock is always then if you're gonna I don't think the speakers are good enough like you if you're gonna do that you might as well just buy like really nice speakers or decent set of speakers and and then connect those two yeah I would I would agree with you that like it's probably not good enough but at the same time I think that if you're the type of person to use like your smarts B or even consider using your smart speak like a surround sound system you're not really that much of an audiophile to begin with you kind of just want that ability to do that good I pretty much have a jenk setup of that in my home where but it's like not for TV or movies it's like specifically for music only where like I'll have them in every room and I'll have them all playing at the same time so okay I can walk maybe music is always playing the quality is not that great but like I don't really care I just feel like that ability versus the price that I think you probably get better quality at a lower price if you just go yes oh noes yeah or so those are pretty expensive oh yeah but I mean if you're if you are going for quality like getting a 5.1 is not a cheap investment in general even the cheapest sure is still kind of up there but I don't know doesn't my two cents I think we are out of time if we are out of week make sure to stick around follow along with CNET we'll have more and more from the amazon roger you want to plug that yeah the 359 is available on iTunes tune in stitcher feedburner and Google Play Music Google podcast the Amazon echo of course Unicom we will have our big live blog of the Amazon event starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern 10:00 a.m. Pacific stay tuned to see net sale next week link in the description don't forget to like that smash button you