Amazon Unveiled 5 new Alexa devices today. 9to5mac.com reports that included in the array of smart gadgets was a new 16-inch Echo Show. The big Echo comes with a so-called ‘nano-matte’ screen as an option…it’s an anti-reflective screen. You can preorder today…the unit is $569.99 with the ‘nano-matte’ or $499.99 with the regular screen. There’s a smart home dashboard, family organizer, calendars, meal plans, and a digital photo frame. The Echo Dot can act as a smart home hub for the first time. It also has a built-in WiFi extender. The Dot is $99.99, and there is a special kids edition that is $109.99..that one comes with a subscription to Amazon Kids Plus. The Echo Studio now does room mapping like Apple’s HomePod for better sound, and it also can be had with a camera. The Studio sans camera is $219.99, and the cam version is $249.99. There is an upgraded Alexa Photo Frame that sells for $199.99 or $229 in real birch or walnut. A really neat addition to the family is the Echo Time. The Time is a bedside clock that has a display which gradually brightens to imitate a sunrise. It also has a pretty cool feature…it allegedly senses your sleep phase, and will awaken you during a light sleep phase. You can pick from hundreds of clock face designs. It’s $199.99, and there is a kid version for $10 more with the Amazon Kids Plus subscription.
Meanwhile, over at Apple, Cupertino has rolled out the new OLED touch screen MacBook Pro. Steve Jobs, who famously thought touchscreens were superfluous on laptops, may be spinning, but here we are. The high-end MacBook supports touch gestures…and one small but welcome detail makes a return…the lighted apple on the back of the case that has been gone for several years. Yay to that! The top-line MacBook Pro starts at $2899 for the 14-inch model and $3399 for the 16-inch model. If you lard the bigger one up with every single possible extra…you can ruin $14,000…but honestly, only super programmers or people working with fast, high end video work will ever order one like that! The laptops are thinner than the present versions, and lighter with the 14-inch model weighing only 3 lbs. The new Pros use the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips announced earlier this year.
Xreal, Google’s smart glasses partner, has launched the Aura wired smart glasses. Techcrunch.com notes that they run Android XR and are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. They are much lighter than the larger, heavier Apple Vision Pro headset. That said, they are heavy…weighing in at 95 grams compared to Meta’s 69 gram model. The glasses support a number of popular Google Play apps and games. They are available for order today in the US, Canada, Japan, and South Korea…starting at $1279…with a limited launch price of $1099 through December. There is a 16 gig+ 512 gig model that will launch in December for $1499.
In a huge shot over the bow to Elon Musk and co., Starlink’s Chinese rival SpaceSail plans to put 10,000 satellites into orbit….and have them up and running by 2030. Bgr.com says that would put them on par with Starlink in number of satellites in orbit. The firm is shooting for business customers as well as consumers. Right now, they just have a few hundred of their first generation satellites in orbit, but are planning to launch the 2nd and 3rd generation ones in a few months. If they are able to provide equipment and service at a significantly lower cost than Starlink, it could really cut into Musk’s business. There is also a European firm with a smaller number of satellites up right now….and Apple uses another rival service for its Emergency SOS and texting features…with the option to do more…such as voice calls in areas that lack cell service. Could they get into video as well? With Apple TV, that might be in their plans.
I’m Clark Reid and you’re ‘Technified’ for now.
