Amazon’s Echo Present 15 good points help for Fireplace TV together with different Alexa updates • TechCrunch

Along with a brand new lineup of Alexa-enabled units, Amazon at its fall occasion right this moment additionally launched a collection of Alexa updates geared toward customers of its Echo Present units with a display screen. The options embrace these targeted on leisure — like bringing Fireplace TV to Echo Present 15 — in addition to others for personalizing the Alexa expertise, staying in contact with household, and extra.

The corporate has been working to push Alexa machine house owners to make use of the digital assistant for extra than simply the fundamental duties — like setting alarms or timers, asking for the climate or information, or managing their good dwelling. A few of right this moment’s updates push into new areas that haven’t gained as a lot traction, like purchasing and communication, whereas others increase extra commonplace options in new methods.

However one of many greatest updates is the addition of Fireplace TV on the present Echo Present 15 within the U.S., permitting customers to stream not solely Amazon’s personal video content material, but in addition from third-party suppliers like Paramount+ and Showtime for the primary time. It should additionally now be capable to entry the content material you need to see through Alexa, as you’ll be able to merely ask the assistant to play a present by its title, moderately than worrying about which service it’s on. As an illustration, when you say “Alexa, play ‘The Rings of Energy,’” it’ll launch this system or decide up the place you left off.

Whereas hundreds of streaming apps will be managed through Alexa, Amazon says there are over 70 companions who’ve made an effort to extra deeply combine voice into their streaming apps to permit clients to do issues like play, pause, cease, rewind, search and extra.

Amazon prioritized bringing Fireplace TV to Echo Present 15 as a result of it discovered that the machine is already being utilized in clients’ houses in some type of central location, just like the kitchen or household room, and over 70% of machine house owners had used it to observe movies within the final month.

The corporate couldn’t but say if it will make Fireplace TV out there to different Echo Present units in a later replace.

A brand new Fireplace TV widget might be out there, too, permitting customers to view shortcuts to lately streamed apps, lately watched content material, and their private watchlist.

And to browse Fireplace TV, you’ll be able to both use your voice, contact the display screen, and even pair the machine with the Fireplace TV Alexa Voice Distant (third Gen.), Amazon notes. This distant — the identical that ships with Fireplace TV right this moment — might be supplied as an add-on and later, in a bundle.

Outdoors of streaming Fireplace TV on the Echo Present 15, the Echo Present lineup extra broadly can even acquire different enhancements.

One is a brand new characteristic geared toward entertaining kids, dubbed Artistic AI. By following prompts on the display screen, children will be capable to both select or customise an animated character like a pirate, monster or astronaut, and Alexa will then create a narrative for them to observe with visuals and music. Children can use included templates and different A.I options to customise the story so it’s personalised to them.

One other new characteristic will permit Echo Present machine house owners to make use of the machine to share video messages with others of their dwelling. This might function a substitute for leaving a Submit-it observe on a fridge, as an illustration. To make use of the characteristic, you’ll be able to say one thing like “Alexa, make a video observe” or “Alexa, document a sticky observe.” The message might be displayed on the Echo Present display screen or considered within the Alexa cellular app.

The corporate will attempt to encourage Echo Present customers to buy by the machine with a “Store the Look” characteristic that can permit them to explain the style merchandise they need to see, like “Alexa, present me inexperienced yoga pants,” or “Alexa, present me related pants with pockets.”

Two different options purpose to raised personalize the machine and its content material to finish customers — and usually are not restricted to Echo Present, in truth.

One will permit multi-person households will be capable to kick off Alexa Routines — a strategy to mix duties right into a single voice command — utilizing the identical begin phrase as another person of their family. For instance, companions might each have a routine that begins by saying “Alexa, good morning.” This characteristic will leverage Alexa Profiles to return personalised outcomes inside Routines for issues like calendar updates, music, and visitors experiences.

Alexa can even now embrace climate insights into customers’ calendar views and might ship notifications about rain or snow as much as 10 days out.

The corporate moreover ported the Echo Present’s name captioning characteristic to the Alexa app within the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Brazil, supported in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, it mentioned.