Amazon-backed Rivian will integrate Alexa into its electric pickup and SUV

Rivian will integrate Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa into the R1T pickup and R1S SUV, the company’s first electric vehicles that are set to debut at the end of the year.

Rivian said Monday it plans to also extend the Alexa integration to 100,000 electric delivery trucks that Amazon has ordered from the automaker. The electric vans are expected to start delivering packages to customers in 2021.

The integration into the R1T and R1S will give owners access to standard Alexa features such as playing music, placing calls and navigations as well as the ability to control the climate, open and closing the trunk and other vehicle features using their voice.

Rivian said it plans to give Alexa other capabilities designed for its vehicles. For instance, owners will be able to remotely tap into the camera embedded in Rivian pickup truck from Amazon screen-based services like Echo Show and Fire TV to check on whatever gear is stashed there.  The integration will also allow access to certain Alexa features when the vehicle is offline, a decision meant to match up with how these vehicles might be used.

Rivian’s vision is to enable exploration without compromises and provide our owners the best digital experience, no matter where their adventure takes them,” said Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe. “We want this to be the most comprehensive, most seamless Alexa integration in the market.”

The Rivian announcement made ahead of CES 2020 is the latest to illustrate Amazon’s continued push into the automotive world. Lamborghini also announced Monday plans to bring Alexa to its Huracán EVO sports car.

Amazon has been moving into the car for a few years now through the integration of Alexa and car-focused delivery services, as well as its direct investment  Rivian. The e-commerce company also launched its Amazon Key service to let customers give delivery drivers access to their house with the help of a compatible keypad on their door and a smart security camera. But in 2018, that service expanded to the car with its Key by Amazon In-Car delivery service.

GM and Volvo were the first participants in the Key by Amazon In-Car delivery service. Ford joined the in-car delivery service in April 2019.

Food Network Kitchen brings live, interactive cooking classes to Echo Show, Fire TV & more

Someone is finally putting the Echo Show to good use. Today, Discovery announced the U.S. launch of its Food Network Kitchen subscription service which will bring daily live and on-demand cooking classes as well as on-demand classes, step-by-step instructional cooking videos, and more to Amazon Echo devices, including the smart screen Echo Show, as well as Fire TV, Fire tablets, and smartphones.

The service was initially unveiled in September at Amazon’s hardware event in Seattle, as a demonstration of how Alexa devices can be useful in the kitchen.

At the event, Bobby Flay spoke (via video) about his involvement, saying he was excited to be able to enter “basically any kitchen in the world, anywhere in the world,” to teach people how to cook.

tablet giadaFlay isn’t the only celeb chef or on-air personality involved with the new service.

The first month of live cooking classes will also feature Valerie Bertinelli, Anne Burrell, Giada De Laurentiis, Ree Drummond, Amanda Freitag, Katie Lee, Michael Symon, Buddy Valastro, Molly Yeh, Zac Young, Geoffrey Zakarian, and others.

In addition, the app will provide access to talent including Rachael Ray, Guy Fieri, Martha Stewart, Alton Brown, Ina Garten, Andrew Zimmern, Daniel Boulud, Sunny Anderson, Jonathan Waxman, Nancy Silverton, JJ Johnson, and more.

The Food Network Kitchen app itself is something of a mashup of live programming, on-demand video and a more traditional recipe app.

The live class schedules will be posted a week in advance, so you can make plans to tune in. But if you can’t make the daily classes, there are also hundreds of on-demand classes including 500 beginner courses, 395 international cuisine classes, and 75 family-friendly classes.

There are also hundreds of step-by-step videos as well as a curated selection of Food Network TV shows available.

Helpfully, the new app will integrate home delivery for all the ingredients used in the classes, recipes, and other instructional videos and shows so you can be ready to cook.

But what’s most interesting is how the live classes will work. The classes aren’t just being live-streamed to devices, like a live TV show. They’ll actually allow for two-way interaction between the users and the chefs, in real-time. This is, by far, one of the more original use cases for the Echo Show, in particular, to date.

Often, using devices while cooking can be difficult because fingers get messy or your screen shuts off.

Plus, today’s recipes sites are overrun with extra stories for SEO purposes and bogged down with ads and other clutter. And while there are plenty of great recipe apps, not as many have integrated with grocery delivery. They generally just provide a “shopping list” in the app, expecting users to go to the store to buy the ingredients.

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In addition to modernizing the cooking experience, Discovery is also tying together Food Network’s TV channel and the Food Network Kitchen app, at times. For example, Rachael Ray’s 30 Minute Meals will return to Food Network with new episodes on November 9, 2019. The app users will be able to view all 10 episodes and tune in to take live classes with Rachael Ray every day during the week of Nov. 11th.

At other times, the app will offer seasonal series, like Christmas Cookie Challenge, Holiday Baking Championship, and Ultimate Hanukkah Challenge.

food network kitchen devices

The service will offer a free 90-day trial and promotional pricing of $47.99 per year ($4/mo) at launch. This seems reasonable for anyone who regularly turns to cooking apps and videos, and wants more hands-on instruction. The price includes the hundreds of on-demand classes, 25 weekly classes, plus all the other recipes and shows.

Food Network Kitchen isn’t exclusive to Amazon devices at launch, because it’s also available on smartphones. But Amazon does have the exclusive in being the first “smart-speaker-with-screen” platform to support the app.

At launch, Food Network Kitchen will be available across Amazon Alexa and Echo Show, Fire Tablets, Fire TV streaming media devices and Fire TV Edition smart TVs, as well as iOS (iPhone and iPad) and Android mobile devices.

 

Amazon’s new Alexa Food Network service aims to make Echo the Peloton of cooking

Amazon is partnering up with Food Network on a new recipe service for its Echo Show line of devices, borne out of the interest it saw in users for recipes and cooking videos on the smart video speaker. The new Food Network Kitchen service, which is launching in October, will be available on phones and tablets, too, and will offer recipe saving and cooking directions – as well as exclusive live and on-demand cooking classes for Echo Show users.

On stage at their Amazon Devices Event in Seattle, Amazon showed off the upcoming service on stage, including a demo featuring an on-demand cooking class with celebrity chef Bobby Flay. It looks likely that you’ll at least get access to on-demand cooking lessons from a range of Food Network talent, since Amazon SVP of Devices Dave Limp also referenced Alton Brown on stage.

You can also ask Alexa for specific guidance at any step of the process, and she’ll provide answers to your clarifying questions.

Limp said that “you’re going to be able to have live classes as well,” which makes it sound like this will be a pretty full-featured competitor to something like what Peloton offers for fitness. Limp added that the live class instructors are still developing and “practising these in the studio,” so we didn’t get a chance to see yet how an actual live class will work on the Echo Show.

He did however have Bobby Flay speak directly about how he feels about the service, and the chef said that he’s excited about it because he “get(s) to be in basically any kitchen in the world, anywhere in the world, and I can teach people anywhere in the world how to cook.” Plus, he noted that it’ll have something like 80,000 recipes on board at launch.

This could be huge for Amazon, especially as it seeks to distinguish itself among the growing number of smart screen devices for use in the home. As it ramps up other efforts around health and fitness, too, this could be a key component.

Amazon adds an 8-inch Echo Show, priced at $129

Starting today, there really is an Echo Show for every need. In amongst this morning’s deluge of Alexa hardware, Amazon announced yet another version of the smart screen. As the name implies, the Echo Show 8 is an eight inch version of the device — one that looks an awful lot like an upscaled version of the recently introduced Echo Show 5.

The new model borrows the better audio from the 10 inch flagship and also sports a built-in privacy shutter — something lacking in the Google Nest Hub Max that honestly ought to be standard in any smart home device with a built-in camera.

Image from iOS 9

Aside from real estate, we didn’t get much information on the distinctions between the 10 and 8, but undercutting the competition is the name of the game this morning, and as such, the Echo Show 8 will be priced at an extremely reasonable $129.

Preorders for the device open today and Amazon expects that it will start shipping ahead of the holidays.

Amazon’s Echo Show can now identify household pantry items held in front of its camera

Amazon is introducing a new feature to its Alexa Show device designed to help blind and other low-vision customers identify common household pantry items by holding them up in front of Alexa’s camera and asking what it is. The feature uses a combination of computer vision and machine learning techniques in order to recognize the objects the Echo Show sees.

The Echo Show is the version of the Alexa-powered smart speaker that tends to sit in customers’ kitchens because it helps them with other kitchen tasks, like setting timers, watching recipe videos, or enjoying a little music or TV while you cook.

But for blind users, the Show will now have a new duty: helping them better identify those household pantry items that are hard to distinguish by touch — like cans, boxed foods, or spices, for example. 

To use the feature, customers can just say things like “Alexa, what am I holding?” or “Alexa, what’s in my hand?” Alexa will also give verbal and audio cues to help the customers place the item in front of the device’s camera.

Amazon says the feature was developed in collaboration with blind Amazon employees, including its principal accessibility engineer Josh Miele, who gathered feedback from both blind and low-vision customers as part of the development process. The company also worked with the Vista Center for the Blind in Santa Cruz on early research, product development, and testing.

“We heard that product identification can be a challenge and something customers wanted Alexa’s help with,” explained Sarah Caplener, head of Amazon’s Alexa for Everyone team. “Whether a customer is sorting through a bag of groceries, or trying to determine what item was left out on the counter, we want to make those moments simpler by helping identify these items and giving customers the information they need in that moment,” she said.

Smart home devices and intelligent voice assistants like Alexa have made life easier for disabled individuals, as it allows them to do things like adjust the thermostats and lights, lock the doors, raise the blinds, and more. With “Show and Tell,” Amazon hopes to reach the wide market of blind and low-vision customers, as well. According to the World Health Organization, there are an estimated 1.3 billion with some sort of vision impairment, Amazon says.

That being said, Echo devices aren’t globally available — and even when they are offered in a particular country, the device may not support the local language. Plus, the feature itself is U.S.-only at launch.

Amazon isn’t alone in making accessibility a selling point for its smart speakers and screens. At Google’s I/O developer conference this year, it introduced a range of accessibility projects, including Live Caption which transcribes real-time audio; Live Relay for helping the deaf make phone calls; Project Diva, for helping those who don’t speak use smart assistants; and Project Euphonia that helps make voice recognition work for those with speech impairments.

Show and Tell is available now to Alexa users in the U.S. on first and second-generation Echo Show devices.

 

Amazon Prime Day’s top device deals include discounted Echo speakers and Fire TV’s

Amazon’s list of Prime Day deals has finally dropped. The retailer’s Black Friday-style sale for its Prime members is one of the biggest online shopping days of the year, as other retailers now take part with their own competitive sales. But some of the best deals to be found on Prime Day are those on Amazon’s own devices. This year, Amazon is pushing its Echo speaker and Fire TV Stick devices in particular, with sale prices that are 50% off or higher from the regular list prices.

According to an analysis of this year’s deals by Offers.com, the three biggest device deals this year are the $49.99 Echo Smart Speaker 2nd Generation (50% off its regular price of $99.99); the $14.99 Fire TV Stick (63% off its regular price); and the $24.99 Fire TV Stick 4K (50% off its regular price).

These prices don’t officially go live until Prime Day’s now two-day sale begins on Monday, July 15 at 12 AM PT.

However, the devices may not be selling for their “list” price today — Amazon has discounted some items ahead of Prime Day to encourage early shopping. And some will go on sale ahead of Prime Day on Saturday, July 13 — but only if you ask Alexa “what are my deals?” to gain early access.

Compared with Prime Day 2018, 70% of this year’s deals are better and three are tied, with an average price decrease of 14.5%, according to Offers.com’s report. And compared with Black Friday 2018, 72% of the deals are better, and three are tied, with an average price decrease of 17%.

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Above: Prime Day deals comparison via Offers.com

What’s interesting is that last year’s Prime Day and Black Friday/Cyber Monday bestseller, the standard Echo Dot, isn’t included on the Prime Day 2019 device deals list. Instead, Amazon is listing discounts for its Echo, Echo Show, Echo Plus, Echo Input, Echo Dot Kids Edition, and even Facebook’s Portal (which has Alexa built-in), along with its Alexa-powered Fire TV devices.

That being said, the Echo Dot was marked down ahead of Prime Day to its lowest-ever price of $24.99 — half off its list price of $49.99.

Other Amazon’s device deals span Kindle tablets and e-readers, Ring and Blink home security products, as well as smart home products from ecobee, eero, and Amazon itself.

More broadly, Amazon says it will offer over a million deals during the sales event, with a special focus this year on “celeb deals” from Jaden Smith, Marshmello, Zac Brown, and others, including the exclusive launch of Lady Gaga’s HAUS Laboratories beauty collection.

The full list of Amazon’s device deals is below.

Fire TV

  • Save $25 on Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote, $14.99
  • Save $25 on Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote, $24.99
  • Save $50 on Fire TV Cube, $69.99
  • Save $100 on Fire TV Recast, now starting at $129.99
  • Get a $45 Sling TV Credit, which can be applied to $15 off your first three months when you buy a Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Cube, or Fire TV Recast
  • Get 50% off for three months when you subscribe to SHOWTIME or STARZ on Prime Video channels or in-app
  • Get 50% off for three months when you subscribe to CBS All Access on Prime Video channels
  • Get SEGA Classics for $4.99

Echo & Alexa

  • Save $50 on Echo, $49.99
  • Save $70 on Echo Show $159.99
  • Save $40 on Echo Plus, $109.99
  • Save $20 on Echo Input, $14.99
  • Save $120 on Portal from Facebook with Alexa Built-in, $79

Fire tablets

  • Save $20 on the all-new Fire 7 tablet, $29.99, or get two for $49.98—a $50 savings
  • Save $30 on the Fire HD 8 tablet, $49.99, or get two for $79.98—an $80 savings
  • Save $50 on the Fire HD 10 tablet, $99.99, or get two for $179.98—a $120 savings

Kids Devices

  • Save $40 on the all-new Fire 7 Kids Edition tablet, $59.99, or get two for $99.98—a $100 savings
  • Save $50 on the Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablet, $79.99, or get two for $139.98—a $120 savings
  • Save $50 on the Fire HD 10 Kids Edition tablet, $149.99, or get two for $279.98—a $120 savings
  • Save $25 on Echo Dot Kids Edition, $44.99

Kindle

  • Save up to $80 on Kindle Oasis (9th generation), plus get a $5 eBook credit and three months free Kindle Unlimited, starting at $174.99
  • Save up to $50 on Kindle Paperwhite, plus get a $5 eBook credit and three months free Kindle Unlimited, starting at $84.99
  • Save $30 on the all-new Kindle, plus get a $5 eBook credit and three months free Kindle Unlimited, $59.99

Home Security

  • Save $30 on Ring Video Doorbell, $69.99
  • Save $80 on Ring Video Doorbell Pro, $169
  • Save $130 on a Ring Alarm 14-Piece Kit, $199
  • Save $60 on Ring Spotlight Cam, $139
  • Save $55 Ring Stick Up Cam, $124.99
  • Save $60 on a Blink Indoor Cam 2-Cam System, $79.99
  • Save $80 on the all-new Blink XT2 2-Cam System, $99.99

Smart Home

  • Save up to $200 on eero WiFi systems
  • Save $100 on an eero Router, just $99
  • Get an Amazon Smart Plug and Echo for $54.98
  • Save $50 on the all-new ecobee Smart Thermostat with Alexa Built-in, $199

Amazon’s Prime Day 2019 non-device deals, meanwhile, can be found here.

 

Echo Show 5 review

The Echo team must have started sweating when the Lenovo Smart Clock was announced during CES. Deep inside Seattle’s Day One building, Amazon was reading the release of the Echo Show 5, a pint-sized version of the company’s smart screen that bore more than a passing resemblance to Lenovo’s Google Assistant device.

Amazon, of course, beat Google to the category by years with the first Echo Show and innovated the bedside model with the Echo Spot. But Google and its cohort have a way of catching up to and eventually passing the competition.

The Echo Show 5 isn’t designed solely for the nightstand. In fact, the product packs in a few features that Lenovo’s device lacks, including video playback and an on-board camera — both elements that could ultimately make it something of a mixed bag for the bedroom. It’s hard to know precisely where the Show 5 lives, especially with Amazon keeping the Spot around for the time being.

The Spot’s round form factor makes it the most delightful member of the Echo family, but like the Smart Clock, the new Show does a better job blending in, courtesy of a square design and cloth-covered backing. At 5.5 inches, its display is considerably larger than the Spot’s 2.5-inch screen, and a bit above Lenovo’s four inches. It will take up a bit more space on a nightstand — but just a bit. The Spot’s round design gives it a fairly sizable footprint in spite of a small screen.

In most ways, in fact, the Show 5 makes the current generation Spot redundant. In fact, I was a bit surprised to hear that the company would not only be keeping the original Spot around, it would be maintaining the same $130 price point — a $40 premium over the mini Show. Amazon could well be refreshing the Spot toward the end of the year, but it’s not going to burn through back stock at that price.

I do think Lenovo’s device loses something without the ability to play back video. A four-inch smart display isn’t the ideal way to watch video and it’s probably an unnecessary feature for the bedside, but YouTube integration is one of the biggest strengths of Google’s smart screens. That’s kind of squandered here.

On the Show, you’re stuck with Amazon’s video offerings. There are other instances, however, where video’s a great idea. The ability to watch live streams from smart security cameras and baby monitors comes to mind. I can certainly see the appeal in being able to see what’s going on out in front of the house without having to leave my warm bed.

The inclusion of a camera, on the other hand, continues to feel like a misstep. I understand that Amazon’s continuing to push video chat with all of the products, but introducing a camera on a product that will likely primarily be used in the bedroom is probably more trouble than it’s worth. Amazon clearly got the memo on this and other privacy issues, including a physical lens cap. By flipping a switch up top, you slide a barrier in front of the camera.

The lens cap is bright white to contrast with the large surrounding black bezel. There’s also a red marking up top that appears when the camera is obstructed. I kept the cap on for a majority of my testing — you know, just in case.

Where the Smart Clock really shone was its features designed specifically for a night table. The new Show has some, including routines like “Alexa, start my day.” That will trigger a succession of different features, including weather, traffic and customized news selections — it’s a nice blend for tempting you to get out of bed (though the news might have the knock-on effect of making you pull the sheets over your head). Lacking here are the gradual wake alarm, tap to snooze and the inclusion of a USB port for charging your phone while you sleep.


As for the inevitable showdown between the Show 5 and Smart Clock, that’s almost entirely down to which smart assistant you prefer. For my money, Google’s got the edge with Assistant, but both perform most tasks at roughly the same level. That includes the standard array of multimedia offerings played through middling speakers, along with smart home features — though it will be interesting to see how Google continues to refine the latter on its own Nest Hubs.

At $90, the Show 5 is considerably cheaper than its 10-inch namesake and $10 more than Lenovo’s offering. The latter at least will likely be negligible for most. Simply put, if you’re looking for a smart home hub to double as an alarm clock, Lenovo’s your best bet. If video playback and chat are important, Amazon’s got you covered.

Amazon just launched a $90, 5.5-inch Echo Show

Amazon just announced a 5.5-inch Echo Show model with a $90 price tag, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention right out of the gate how much the thing looks like that new Google Assistant-sporting Smart Clock. These things happen, of course. Call it convergent evolution if you will — as a matter of fact, something similar occurred with Lenovo Smart Clock and standard Facebook Portal. Everyone wants to be like Lenovo, I suppose.

The Echo Show 5 (that’s “five” for inches, not generation or fighting) doesn’t replace any existing Amazon smart screen, even through the price point will no doubt make many think twice about the $130 Spot.

Unlike, say the Google Home Hub, there’s a camera built-in here, though Amazon’s clearly heeded customer feedback by adding a shutter for extra privacy. Also new on that front are the “Alexa delete everything I said today” and “Alexa delete what I just said” features, which are coming soon — again, no doubt by popular request.

The company doesn’t seem to be positioning this as a bedside alarm clock as it did with the Spot, but it should scratch that itch for more users (especially with the new camera shutter), along with your standard array of smart home controls and the ability to view on the small screen feeds from security (Ring) and baby (Arlo) cameras.

Like other Amazon displays, it’s got basic touchscreen functions, which are now coupled with a bunch of different customizable faces. The Show 5 is up for pre-order today and starts shipping in July. There’s also an optional $20 magnetic stand for adjusting viewing/camera angles.

Amazon is turning Fire tablets into Echo Shows

Slowly but surely, Amazon’s been turning its Fire tablets into Echos. It started with push to talk Alexa function. Last year, the company added a hands-free mode for the voice assistant. Now, it’s adding Show Mode, which brings the same title card UI you get on the company’s screen-enabled smart speaker.

Better still, Amazon’s introducing a Show Mode Charging Dock, a stand that effectively transforms the Fire into a makeshift Show. Place the tablet into a dock and it starts charging and automatically flips into Show mode, so you can do all of the standard Echo activities from across the room.

The dock works with both the most recent Fire HD 8 and 10 (if I had to venture a guess, I’d say the 7 will probably be getting the functionality, as well). If you already have one of the devices, the feature will be coming through an over-the-air update starting July 2. Once it’s in place, it will play nicely with other Echos in your home, using Amazon’s ESP (“Echo Spatial Perception”) feature.

I’d have to imagine a new, less bulky version of the Show is in the works. In the meantime, this is a pretty compelling alternative — and a chance for Amazon to be a bit more competitive with the numerous third-party devices Google unveiled back at CES. The tablet+dock package is ultimately a cheaper option than the Show’s $230 price tag (though that device is discounted to $160 at the moment).

The docks themselves run $40 for the eight-inch and $55 for the 10 (both are discounted $5 for the time being). If you don’t already have the tablets on-hand, you can pick up a bundle for $110 and $190, respectively. Picking up this configuration also gives you a lot more flexibility versus just going in on the Show.

As for what the Show brings to the table? Better built-in mics and speakers are the primary answer. Ultimately, however, I suspect Amazon isn’t really concerned about some of its devices cannibalizing others, so long as it gets more Amazon products out in the world.

Amazon is turning Fire tablets into Echo Shows

Slowly but surely, Amazon’s been turning its Fire tablets into Echos. It started with push to talk Alexa function. Last year, the company added a hands-free mode for the voice assistant. Now, it’s adding Show Mode, which brings the same title card UI you get on the company’s screen-enabled smart speaker.

Better still, Amazon’s introducing a Show Mode Charging Dock, a stand that effectively transforms the Fire into a makeshift Show. Place the tablet into a dock and it starts charging and automatically flips into Show mode, so you can do all of the standard Echo activities from across the room.

The dock works with both the most recent Fire HD 8 and 10 (if I had to venture a guess, I’d say the 7 will probably be getting the functionality, as well). If you already have one of the devices, the feature will be coming through an over-the-air update starting July 2. Once it’s in place, it will play nicely with other Echos in your home, using Amazon’s ESP (“Echo Spatial Perception”) feature.

I’d have to imagine a new, less bulky version of the Show is in the works. In the meantime, this is a pretty compelling alternative — and a chance for Amazon to be a bit more competitive with the numerous third-party devices Google unveiled back at CES. The tablet+dock package is ultimately a cheaper option than the Show’s $230 price tag (though that device is discounted to $160 at the moment).

The docks themselves run $40 for the eight-inch and $55 for the 10 (both are discounted $5 for the time being). If you don’t already have the tablets on-hand, you can pick up a bundle for $110 and $190, respectively. Picking up this configuration also gives you a lot more flexibility versus just going in on the Show.

As for what the Show brings to the table? Better built-in mics and speakers are the primary answer. Ultimately, however, I suspect Amazon isn’t really concerned about some of its devices cannibalizing others, so long as it gets more Amazon products out in the world.