Amazon is currently announcing a series of interesting novel services and products. For your convenience, we have condensed the highlights and prepared this overview article to know what’s what in the world of one of the world’s most prominent ecommerce players.
New Echo units are about to hit
Several products that are part of the Echo family are upgraded to a new fourth generation of the solution that is mostly known to run the Alexa voice-assistant and smart home service. The Echo, Echo Dot (with and without clock), as well as the Echo Dot for kids has been announced to be arriving in a new spherical design as well as improved audio capabilities. The Echo Show 10 will introduce an Alexa feature, which allows you to interact with the content more naturally by letting the display react to your movements.
Also good to hear was that the new Echo units are “Climate Pledge Friendly,” which means the manufacturing has been done by leveraging recycled materials as well as running an improved low-power mode for more energy savings.
New service for cloud gaming
A few days ago, Amazon started their new Luna gaming service, which is currently in invite-only test phase for early access users to trial. With that, Amazon cements its presence in the cloud gaming industry, placing its service next to Google Stadia and Microsoft Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. It is likely that Amazon will also leverage their Twitch service and their Prime service to combine new gaming options to its existing user base or to integrate more functionality for the Twitch streamers and the audiences.
The Luna Controller works together with their Cloud Direct technology to help gamers avoid latency issues when streaming content, without having the processing power on-site. Amazon works together with Ubisoft to make titles available on Luna as soon as they release it. In an Amazon press release they state, “At launch, Luna will be available on Fire TV, PC, and Mac as well as on web apps for iPhone and iPad, with Android coming soon.” Including Apple products in cloud gaming services is something other companies thus far have struggled with.
Fire TV gets an upgrade as well
The Fire TV Stick gets new features and will offer support for HDR as well as Dolby Atmos. Amazon worked on the user experience and designed the user interface to be easier to use and bring better personalized content recommendations as well as improved Alexa voice integration for user commands and search queries. The new Fire TV Stick will be available for $39.99 and the Fire TV Stick Lite for $29.99.
We are passionate about inventing on behalf of our customers to make it even easier to enjoy the best in entertainment,” said Marc Whitten, Vice President, Amazon Entertainment Devices and Services. “With a redesigned Fire TV experience tailored to each user, it’s even simpler to stream your favorite shows with our more powerful, next-generation Fire TV Stick and our even more affordable Fire TV Stick Lite.”
Prime Day dates are announced
Of course, Amazon timed these updates to get a good turn-around as well, and this is why they also announced the Prime Day dates now, so people can buy all the new products (among many other things) during one of the biggest sales events that happen every year. So, what else is there to say but mark your calendar on the 13th and 14th October this year, if you’re a Prime member looking to hunt for sales.
As much as regional availability goes, Amazon confirms the following countries to participate: “U.S., U.K, U.A.E, Spain, Singapore, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Australia, and – participating for the first time this year – Turkey and Brazil”.
YouTube: Prime Day 2020 – Prime Neighborhood
Photo credit: All visuals are owned by Amazon and were provided for press usage.
Source: Amazon press releases 1, 2, 3, 4
Editorial notice: Some of the links in this article are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy via these links, we might receive a small percentage of the purchasing price from Amazon. The price for you doesn’t change because of that.
