Last week, Amazon announced the next generation of voice-enabled devices (and tools for devs!). Here’s what we could learn from the official announcement and subsequent media coverage.
Echo Plus: Same form factor as the original Echo device, but enhanced in many ways. It will act as the control center for the home. It can manage over 100 IoT home devices “out of the box” and without the Bluetooth fuss. A simple “Alexa, find my devices” will get them all hooked up. The big question is, when will we start to hear about cheeky neighbours going all Poltergeist on your living room lights, or worse?
Echo new generation: Same functionality of the original Echo device, but smaller, and covered in cloth (different colors). It will sell for $99, according to The Verge.
Echo Spot: Finally! Some years ago I fell in love with a device/idea called Chumby. It was some sort of potato shaped, Internet-enabled alarm clock. Sadly (or not!) I never got one. Echo Spot will fill that gap in my life. A device slightly bigger than a baseball with a nice screen that you can talk to, that can wake you up.
I foresee the Echo Spot being the bestseller of the 3. So for us devs, this means we must enhance our Skills with visual functionality (a.k.a. cards).