Tag: amazon echo show

Amazon Launches Echo Show Smart Display In India

In a bid to expand its lineup of smart home products for the Indian market, e-commerce giant Amazon has launched a new product in the country. Called the Echo Show, the device is a smart display with Alexa, the company’s virtual voice assistant built in. The product was originally launched back in the month of October last year in the United States.

Amazon Echo Show: Price & Availability

The Amazon Echo Show smart display has been priced at Rs. 22,999 and will be available in a Black and a White colour variant. It is available to purchase from the online retailer and a few third-party sellers and will ship immediately. Initial buyers will also get a complimentary Phillips Hue smart bulb with the product.

Amazon Echo Show

The Amazon Echo Show features a minimalistic fabric design which is dominated by a 10.1-inch display on the front. It has an HD resolution and is capable of displaying necessary information on the screen. There are speakers on the rear of the device which are tuned by Dolby, a reputed name in Audio technology. As mentioned earlier, they have the Alexa voice assistant built in which would allow users to ask for information such as the weather, news or controlling other smart home products.

Also read: Samsung Will Launch Galaxy Tab 10.1, Tab S5e Galaxy A20 and Galaxy A20e In India This Month

The display on the Echo Show also enables video calling via the 5MP camera housed on top of the display. For easier voice recognition, there are eight microphones which support far-field recognition. This allegedly helps in hearing commands from far away in a room. For users who have multiple Echo smart devices, the Echo Show also supports a feature called multi-room music. This allows for music playback across all the devices at once in near perfect synchronization. There is also an option to visit websites using the pre-installed web browser.

April 2, 2019
Facebook Is Working On An Amazon Echo Show Competitor

Facebook is more than just a social networking service and has been constantly expanding its business. From buying Instagram to acquiring WhatsApp, the most popular instant messaging service, the company is widening its reach every acquisition. One thing that Facebook has so far failed impress in, is its hardware capabilities. Back in 2013, Facebook launched an HTC-made smartphone that revolved around its social networking services. The smartphone failed to impress the consumers and disappeared in a few months.

For a few months, there have been rumours of Facebook working on a smart speaker with a display, much like the Amazon Echo Show, which will have Facebook and its other social networking services at its heart. The device will reportedly be called Portal and is expected to be priced at US $499, which is more than double of what an Alexa-powered Amazon Echo Show costs.

Facebook is planning to unveil the device in May 2018 at its developer’s conference and start shipping it by the end of the year. It will be interesting to see how Facebook Portal will compete with other smart speakers with a display as Google also announced a slew of companies that will be manufacturing Assistant-powered speakers with a display.

JBL Link View Powered By Google Assistant

A previous report claims that it would have a display of between 13 to 15 inches, almost double of what is found on the Echo Show. The tablet-like device will respond to voice commands and use facial recognition technology, something Facebook has been taking very seriously off-late will provide a personalised experience to different people in the house.

The Facebook Portal could also be a part of Facebook’s plan to become the largest video streaming service in the world. With a huge display and the ease of voice commands, the Portal could become a primary source of video consumption for people active on social media and the company could launch its streaming service with the new smart speaker. You could read everything about Facebook’s new streaming service, Watch here.

January 10, 2018
Lenovo Unveils New Smart Display Powered By Google Assistant

It is hard to gauge which trend will catch on in a certain industry. Over the years, we’ve seen smartphones move in a similar direction for a period of time until a new aspect catches people’s attention. After the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus dropped the headphone jack, we saw more smartphone makers following suite so much so that Samsung, LG and OnePlus appear to be the only flag bearers of the beloved 3.5mm headphone jack. 2018 is expected to be the year of AI and machine learning, and not just in smartphones.

Amazon and Google have been dominating the smart home, especially smart speakers industry for a while now. Thanks to the affordable Google Home Mini and Amazon Acho Dot, it has become easier to enter the smart home ecosystem. Lenovo and Google unveiled a new smart home product, a smart display with built-in Google Assistant. Similar to the Amazon Echo Show, this new smart display from Lenovo does everything a smart speaker can do, with a display.

Also, unlike the Echo Show, it can playback YouTube videos. This smart display doesn’t run on Android or ChromeOS instead, it is running Android Things, a variant of Android that’s custom-designed for IoT. Apart from Lenovo, JBL, LG, and Sony will also be making smart displays with built-in Google Assistant running the same software.

JBL Link View With Google Assitant

Google showcased a small video revealing the capabilities of these smart displays. Google Assistant on smart displays can do a lot of tasks that the Echo Show does as well, like show you photos and calendar, give directions, recipes, and do video conferencing. This will all be handy if you are a Google Services user and part of the whole Google/Android ecosystem.

While third-party app support is on the way, the Lenovo smart displays won’t be available right away. The 10-inch Lenovo Smart Display starts at US $249.99 and the 8-inch model starts at US $199.99, and both are expected to be available early this summer.

January 9, 2018
Google Home With Touchscreen Display Spotted In The Official Google App

Google has been battling with Amazon in the smart speaker space since launching the Google Home. Google Home was the only smart speaker made by Google until 4th of October when it launched a new variant of the smart speaker, the Google Home Mini. It is speculated that the Google Home Mini was launched to compete with the inexpensive Amazon Echo Dot and had the same price as well (US $49). Amazon recently launched the Echo Show, which is a smart speaker with a touchscreen display and it appears that Google is working on a touchscreen smart speaker as well, as found by Android Police.

Amazon Echo Show

This seems to corroborate with a report from TechCrunch in September which suggested that Google was working on a table top smart screen device codenamed ‘Manhattan’ which would compete with the Amazon Echo Show. A deep study into the the APK of 7.14.15 beta version of the Google app found references to multiple on-display features such as notifications, YouTube video playback, photo galleries, Google Maps with business listings and more. The code throughout the app references “Quartz” that operates using voice commands.

The reference to Quartz can be found in many strings

<activity android:name=”com.google.android.apps.gsa.monet.quartz.QuartzMonetActivity” android:exported=”false” android:process=”:search” android:taskAffinity=”” android:theme=”@style/Quartz.TransparentNavBar” />

The reference of Quartz suggests that Google intends it for kitchen use as the study of the app points to a screen that can be used to display recipes and timers. The weather function referenced in Quartz offers 32 different dedicated icons showing everything from a sunny day to blizzards and hurricanes.

The new smart speaker will display cooking recipes

Google has an array of smart home devices ranging from smart speakers to wireless streaming devices like the ChromeCast. Coming up with a touchscreen smart speaker to compete with the Echo Show makes sense for Google and make full use of its AI and software integration. Also, the “Quartz” will play YouTube videos, unlike the Echo Show.

The Google smart speaker will play YouTube videos unlike the Echo Show

October 24, 2017