Amazon is going to have a focus on smart home at their fall event
Amazon Fire TV Cube: All-In-One Smart Home Automation for the Ambient Future of the Internet and the Next Generation of Smartphones and Tablets
This smart home hub vision is already achieved by the Amazon Fire TV cube. The only TV streaming box with hands-free voice control allows you to turn on lights in your living room without having to press a button. Add a Thread radio and Zigbee support on top of its powerful processor and connectivity options (Wi-Fi 6, Sidewalk, Bluetooth LE, and ethernet), and the Cube becomes an all-in-one smart home hub that runs your TV.
Yes, you can navigate three menus down on a Fire TV-enabled television and turn a smart light off, and your Apple TV or Google Chromecast will let you view a security camera livestream if you know the exact incantation to summon it. The relationship between the TV and home has been more than just a couple of coincidences.
That could be about to change. Tomorrow is a big fall devices event for Amazon. There will probably be new and upgraded Fire TV Sticks, but I think we’ll see a new smart speaker and the flagship Echo fourth-gen. But instead of giving us a bunch of new random things, I hope this event will be used to reset the hardware division at Amazon.
Of course, all of this could be largely moot if Amazon is ever able to achieve its much-touted goal of the “ambient home” — one that responds intuitively and proactively to the needs and wants of its occupants with little to no input or direction from us humans.
With rumors that Limp’s successor will be none other than Microsoft’s hardware whisperer Panos Panay, we can hope for some shiny new surfaces for Alexa in the coming years. But the current hardware play needs to shift away from the “throw everything at the wall and see what sticks” approach to find a tighter focus. The obvious place to do this is by bringing its Alexa and Fire TV division and its devices and services division into closer alignment.
The key is the last part. People are prepared to spend money on a streaming device. It is hard to convince a non-techie family member that it is worth shelling out more than a few dollars for a Echo Show 8 that can show you your video doorbell. I have tried.
The Fire TV Soundbar and Generative Backgrounds for Smart Home Automation & Artificial Intelligence: The Case for Fire TV Stick 4K Max
The smart home is complex andrative artificial intelligence has the potential to help solve it. Context is king in the smart home — a home that turns on your lights at 3AM because it’s dark outside isn’t smart.
There have been signs for a few weeks that a refresh of the Fire TV 4K Stick is imminent, but the stock of the other Fire TV Stick 4K Max didn’t go up very much.
The new Fire TV soundbar will be compatible with existing streamers and Fire TV- branded televisions. It sounds like this is being positioned as a solution for anyone who wants to step up from their built-in speakers, as he didn’t make a lot of claims about sound quality. The Fire TV Soundbar is coming to you today.
The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max will have theambient experience first seen on the Fire TV televisions,which displays artwork and widget and basically converts the tv screen into a smart display whenever you are not actively using it. Later this year, customers will be able to create generative backgrounds with the help of AI:
Customers are able to create artwork using their voice. This free feature, which will begin rolling out to customers in the US at the end of this year, will allow customers to easily create a personalized background by providing an imagination-driven prompt like, “Alexa, create an image of cherry blossoms in the snow.”
