Amazon’s fall hardware event 2021: rumors, news, and announcements – The Verge

How different is Amazon’s Halo View from the Fitbit Charge 5?

2021-10-13T08:00:00-04:00

Amazon’s Halo View fitness tracker looks strikingly similar to the Fitbit Charge 5. | Amazon

If recent headlines were any indication, Amazon's fall hardware event was all about Amazon's forthcoming home robot, Astro, and its new home surveillance drone. Buried in the deluge of announcements, however, was the Halo View, an $80 fitness tracker that bears a striking resemblance to the recently released Fitbit Charge 5. The similarities become even more pronounced when you consider the View's new display and its ability to track your heart rate and sleep quality. In many respects, it seems as if Amazon created a Fitbit Charge 5-like wearable at a price point that makes it far more accessible. Or did it?

We analyzed the two to find out. …

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Amazon is hijacking our emotions to put robots in our homes

2021-10-02T09:30:00-04:00

The Anki Vector. | Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

There's something in our complicated human brains that immediately develops a connection to anything with eyes. Don't believe me? Ask the Anki Vector that lived on my desk for several months. This pocket-sized robot got my attention with its bulbous, non-threatening body. But the second it looked up at me with a quizzical look in its eyes and uttered my name, I knew I would die for this tiny forklift. It's worth noting that the Anki Vector can be programmed to do a variety of things if you have the time to mess around with an SDK, but I brought this robot home because it was cute, not because I needed a project.

I'd watch with amusement as …

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Why does Blink still exist?

2021-10-01T13:12:13-04:00

Ring’s founder Jamie Siminoff announced a new video doorbell this week, from another company. | Image: Blink

In December 2017, Amazon spent $90 million to acquire Blink, a Kickstarter-funded startup that developed a super energy-efficient chip to power its battery-operated smart home security cameras. In January 2018, Blink announced its first video doorbell. The next month, Amazon dropped a cool billion on Ring, a smart home security camera company known for essentially inventing the video doorbell. The writing was on the wall for Blink. It seemed apparent to industry analysts that it had been snapped up for its innovative tech, which surely would be pumped into the bigger, badder Ring.

Fast forward three years, and Ring's founder, Jamie Siminof …

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Amazon is now accepting your applications for its home surveillance drone

2021-09-29T17:09:00-04:00

Ring’s Always Home Cam security drone is ready for takeoff. | Image: Ring

First announced at last year's Amazon hardware event, the Ring Always Home Cam is now ready for take-off. Starting today, September 28th, you can request an invitation to be a crash-test dummy for Ring's newest innovation. The Always Home Cam is a Ring camera attached to a drone that can fly predetermined paths in your home when triggered via a Ring Alarm sensor or from the Ring app. The camera costs $249.99; if you live in the US, you can apply for an invitation to buy it today, and the devices will ship later this year.

Designed to solve the problem of wanting to be able to see inside your home when you're not there but not wanting to hav …

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Remember when beta testing was free?

2021-09-29T15:08:05-04:00

When I watched Amazon's press event yesterday alongside my Verge colleagues, I was impressed with some of the new tech the company was introducing - but less than impressed with the way it introduced them. The deal is that, if you qualify for an "invitation," you get the chance to buy - at a slight discount - a product that is still essentially in its beta phase. Oh, and please let Amazon know if anything goes wrong!

Before I continue, a brief history: Back in 2010, I applied for a Google pilot program for a new type of computer that eventually became the Chromebook. I was delighted when I actually made it into the program - according to Wi …

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Don’t be fooled — Amazon’s Astro isn’t a home robot, it’s a camera on wheels

2021-09-29T09:44:50-04:00

Yesterday, Amazon announced its "home robot" - a wheeled device named Astro that has a display, an array of sensors, and a camera that periscopes out the top of its body like a mast. In advertisements for Astro, Amazon presents the device as an engineering breakthrough and the realization of a long-held sci-fi dream: to build a robot that can help around the house.

This is rubbish, of course. What Astro is - for better or worse - is a camera on wheels.

Astro definitely can't get a beer for you

The physical limitations of Astro are obvious. It has no arms or manipulators; no way to interact with the world other than bumping into objects at s …

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Amazon’s automotive efforts appear to be taking a pit stop

2021-09-29T04:12:53-04:00

Amazon laid out its plans to make ambient computing an even bigger part of its customers' lives at its hardware and services event on Tuesday. But while that vision includes surveillance drones and being followed around your home by a rolling Alexa-on-wheels called Astro, it was missing products for the other place people spend a lot of their time - their cars.

That left an automotive-sized hole in Amazon's presentation, and there are some good reasons to find it odd. Rumors in the lead-up to Amazon's event pointed to the launch of a second generation Echo Auto, alongside several other predictions that ended up being true, like the wall-mou …

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Amazon’s Astro cannot fetch your beer

2021-09-28T19:38:00-04:00

Astro did not put that beer there! | Image: Amazon

Amazon introduced a new robot today with the face of an Echo Show, the sensor-laden body of Panera Bread delivery bot, and a pair of cupholders for a trunk. The instant it was announced, people clamored for a reason for its existence beyond "mobile camera with a cute face" and "potentially invasive surveillance drone." Most seemed to settle on "beer fetcher."

But friend, a pair of cupholders does not a robowaiter make.

While the $1,000 Astro could very well have a wide variety of capabilities beyond home surveillance, it's not gonna be fetching you anything. For one, it reportedly sucks. "Astro is terrible and will almost certainly throw i …

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Amazon’s new Ring Alarm Pro combines a security system with an Eero router

2021-09-28T14:20:00-04:00

The Ring Alarm Pro is the latest generation of Ring’s home security system and features a built-in Eero mesh Wi-Fi router. | Image: Ring

Smart home company Ring has announced the third generation of its popular budget Ring Alarm home security product. The Ring Alarm Pro is a single device combining Ring's security system with an Eero Wi-Fi router, 24/7 internet backup, and local processing and storage for Ring cameras.

This all-in-one device is designed to offer physical home security as the base station for Ring Alarm's Z-wave sensors and digital security through the cybersecurity features Eero offers in its Wi-Fi system. It also acts as a smart home hub for compatible third-party gadgets, such as door locks, thermostats, and smoke alarms. And, with a new processor on board …

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Ring Video Doorbells are finally getting package alerts

2021-09-28T14:20:00-04:00

The Ring Pro 2 video doorbell (pictured) and the Ring Video Doorbell (2020) will now be able to tell you when a package is on your doorstep. | Photo by Dan Seifert / The Verge

Ring is bringing package alerts to its Ring video doorbells, and it's about time, too. This is a much-requested feature that's already found on most of its competitors' camera doorbell offerings. When the main selling point for a product is that it will deter porch pirates, it's kind of important to be able to keep a virtual eye on those packages.

The pings that will tell you when a package is on your porch will start rolling out to the Ring Pro 2 and Ring Video Doorbell (2020) in the US and internationally today and should arrive on other buzzers next year. But this still doesn't address a big issue with most of Ring's doorbells; the came …

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