Amazon had plenty of new gadgets to share at its Echo hardware event this year, along with updates to the AI-powered Alexa Plus after it became available to everyone in the US in February. But the big news this year is screens: devices with big, beautiful ones, and those that lack them entirely.
There’s the Alexa Photo Frame, which Amazon devices chief Panos Panay describes as “the world’s smartest photo frame” and that doubles as a full Alexa speaker. There’s also the new Echo Time smart alarm clock, the screenless Echo Studio with Home Camera, a fully redesigned Echo Dot, and Amazon’s latest flagship smart display, the Echo Show 16, which comes with a whopping eight woofers and can run the full Fire TV experience by touch.
You can catch up on all our coverage below, including the six biggest announcements and our hands-on with the Echo Show 16 and Echo Time.
Inside Amazon’s Echo hardware event


Amazon’s head of devices and Alexa, Panos Panay, sitting next to the newest generation of Echo Dot smart speaker. Photo: Owen Grove / The VergeAmazon swapped its usual big fall hardware showcase this year for a series of smaller launches throughout October. So far this month, it has announced new Fire TV devices, new Kindles, the Alexa Tablet Pro 12, Ring’s first smart lock, new hardware from AI-wearable startup Bee, and new Blink 4K cameras.
Then this week, it hosted journalists at a small event in New York City’s financial district to showcase its new Echo hardware.
Read Article >Almost all of Amazon’s new Echo gear is available now

Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The VergeAmazon used to blast out dozens of products onstage at annual hardware events. If this October is any indication, the company has wisely changed its strategy to put more focus on each new product with its own launch. The latest round of launches focuses on Echo products, including speakers, smart displays, as well as a smart photo frame.
All products, save for the new Echo Show 16 (which might be the most interesting of the bunch), are available to buy today. This includes the Echo Dot, the Echo Studio with Home Camera, the Echo Time, and the Alexa Photo Frame. The Show 16 isn’t launching until December 16th, though you can preorder it now to save $100 off the cost.
Read Article >Amazon’s new Echo line is here: the 6 biggest updates


The Echo Studio with Home Camera, the new Echo Dot, and the Echo Time. Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The VergeAmazon has just taken the wraps off a bunch of new devices as part of a string of fall announcements. Today’s news focuses largely on new Echo speakers, with a few new smart home gadgets sprinkled in.
Here’s a roundup of all of the updates Amazon revealed on Wednesday.
Read Article >Amazon’s Alexa Home Map is getting a smarter 3D redesign


It’ll use compatible Ring cameras to show you animations of people and cars moving outside your home. Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The VergeAmazon’s smart home map interface that shows you where all your connected devices are has been overhauled with new graphics, features, and dynamic effects. The new Alexa Home Map is now an interactive 3D view of not just everything that’s inside your property, but outside of it too — using compatible Ring cameras to provide a 360-degree view that animates cars and people moving nearby.
Even just visually speaking, it’s a considerable upgrade from the 2D map that was introduced to the Alexa app in 2023. This new version looks similar to Samsung’s SmartThings Map View, and makes it easier to see exactly where all of your Echo devices, Ring and Blink cameras, Fire TV, lights, locks, thermostats, and other connected devices are located around your home.
Read Article >Spending time with the Echo Time

Photo: Owen Grove / The VergeAmazon just announced its newest smart alarm clock — the Echo Time. The baseball-sized smart speaker with a screen, the Time looks like an Echo Dot with Clock and an Echo Spot had a much bigger baby. It features a 3.2-inch touchscreen that prominently displays your choice of a huge selection of clockfaces and includes a sleep-sensing feature that promises to rouse you at just the right time in your sleep cycle to help you feel more rested. It costs $199.99 and is available to order now.
I spent some time with the Time at Amazon’s event in New York City and was impressed by several upgrades over the Spot, one of my favorite smart alarm clocks. The biggest is that you can set an alarm using the touchscreen, so you won’t wake your partner when you try to set one with your voice late at night.
Read Article >Our first look at Amazon’s big new Echo Show 16


The Echo Show 16 is a ground-up rebuild of Amazon’s storied smart display line. Photo: Owen Grove / The VergeAmazon’s latest Echo Show smart display is big, gorgeous, and eye-wateringly expensive. Announced today, the Echo Show 16 costs $499.99 (wall mount included) and is available to preorder now. There’s a Nanomatte display option for $569.99, plus a $100 preorder discount ahead of its release later this year.
After spending time with the device at a small media event in New York City this week, I think the Echo Show 16 could be the versatile family hub Alexa users have been asking for. The sleek hardware brings with it a completely new software experience, including better smart home controls, a much-improved calendar interface, and a real photo frame option — all fully customizable.
Read Article >Amazon’s new Echo Studio speaker has a camera

Photo: Owen Grove / The VergeAmazon is giving its premium smart speaker a camera. The new Echo Studio with Home Camera, announced today as part of Amazon’s big blast of announcements, has a built-in camera for monitoring a room while you’re away, showing things to Alexa, and, soon, to use with video calls on Fire TV devices. It’s an iteration on the revised Echo Studio announced last year, which had a brand-new design.
The Echo Studio with Home Camera also offers some audio updates. Amazon says a new feature called “Advanced Room Adaptation” will continuously tune sound to the space that the speaker is in. There’s also an “Adaptive Volume” feature that raises or lowers volume depending on where you are in a room so that “your music or audiobook maintains the same volume as you move about.”
Read Article >Amazon’s first digital picture frame lets you add voice notes to photos

Photo: Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The VergeAmazon’s screen-equipped smart speakers have long been able to display your family’s photos, but its new Alexa Photo Frame is purpose-built for that task. It’s designed to compete with other digital picture frames from companies like Aura, and Amazon’s incorporates a smart speaker with access to Alexa Plus’ capabilities through voice commands. However, unlike the Echo Show and Amazon’s other smart home hubs, the Alexa Photo Frame only ever displays your photos, and you’ll never be served an ad.
The Alexa Photo Frame is available starting today; it’s $199.99 for a black frame or $229 if you want to upgrade to a frame made from birch or walnut wood. It pulls images from Amazon Photos, which offers unlimited storage for Prime members, but otherwise the frame doesn’t require a subscription. The Amazon Photos app can back up photos from your Android or Apple devices and pull images from iCloud Photo, but importing from Google Photos isn’t supported yet.
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