By Tanya Banon
Seattle, Sep 26 (IANS) Refreshing its Echo smart home speakers line-up, Amazon on Wednesday announced to bring three new Echo devices to India -- in an effort to add a little more Alexa to your daily life -- whether at home or on the go.
The Echo range focuses on "consumer needs, working backwards process and, most importantly, privacy".
The all-new Echo, featuring an updated fabric design and premium sound, will be available for Rs 9,999 -- in colours like Charcoal, Heather Gray, Sandstone and Twilight Blue.
Echo Dot with clock includes a bright LED display that shows the time, outdoor temperature, timers or alarms, and will cost Rs 5,499.
Echo Studio, which features five directional speakers for immersive studio-quality sound, room adaptation technology, and a built-in smart home hub, will be available for Rs 22,999.
The devices are available for pre-order on Amazon.in and in select offline stores starting today and will start shipping later this year.
Customers, who pre-order, can avail of a smart bulb at no extra cost and a smart plug at Rs 199 only.
"We are introducing new Echo devices and features to give customers even more ways to access Alexa" whether that's through our best-sounding Echo device yet Echo Studio, or the reimagined Echo and Echo Dot," said Parag Gupta, Head of Amazon Devices India.
Amazon also launched an array of other devices, which are currently available for the US customers.
Echo Flex, which is a plug-in, wireless smart speaker to add Alexa to any space in your home, comes for $24.99.
Echo Show 8, with an 8-inch display and a built-in camera shutter for added peace of mind, will be available for $129.99.
Echo Studio houses five directional speakers for immersive sound, room adaptation technology and a built-in smart home hub for $199.99.
Echo Buds are wireless earbuds with Bose Active Noise Reduction Technology and hands-free access to Alexa for $129.99.
Amazon also unveiled "Day 1 Editions" products at the event.
Echo Frames are glasses with hands-free access to Alexa, available by invitation for $179.99.
Echo Loop is a smart ring that provides quick access to Alexa on-the-go, also available by invitation for $129.99.
Across the range of devices there is a focus on comfort and convenience along with monitoring, security, and communication for families and kids.
"We hope these new Echo devices will give customers even more ways to access Alexa. Whether that's through the best-sounding Echo device yet Echo Studio, a reimagined Echo and Echo Dot, new designs like Echo Show 8 and Echo Flex, or new experiences for Alexa on-the-go with earbuds, glasses, and a ring," informed Tom Taylor, Senior Vice President, Amazon Alexa.
The Echo dot also comes with enhanced Alexa to features to add simple things to make your daily life easier, like giving you 10 minutes of extra snooze time, or "Recommending Routines", which is basically creating a routine around yours giving you the information you need to have a regular good morning.
Alexa updates include two new voice-based features that give users higher levels of communication with her.
There is now more transparency over the responses one gets from Alexa and you can even ask her, "Alexa, tell me what you heard" if you want to understand what Alexa heard when you made your most recent voice request. You can also adjust how fast or slow she speaks.
The Alexa Hunch comes with 'Frustration Detection' updates to instinctively detect your frustration levels with her and can change her intonation to deal with the same.
In a bid to make deeper inroads among the Hindi-speaking population of India, Amazon on September 18 introduced Hindi and Hinglish capabilities in Alexa on the Echo range of voice-controlled smart speakers.
Additional features like 'Alexa Whispers' to auto delete immediate voice recordings such as "Alexa delete everything I said today" or "Alexa delete everything I just said" and those older than three or 18 months regularly will be available later this year.
(Tanya Banon can be reached at tanya.b@ians.in)
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