This article was 1st published on our sister Site, Digital World Native.
Amazon today launched a series of devices, networks, software & what may have you at its fall 2019 hardware event. As many as 15 products were announced.
In the past one year, Amazon has worked on so many products, services & solutions that their unveiling today was a bit overwhelming.
So here goes…in no particular order.
Alexa gets a celebrity voice
Amazon’s work on neural test to speech has led to its rolling out the ‘Multilingual Mode’ for its smart devices. This will be available in 3 pairs to start with: in the United States – English & Spanish, in India – Indian English & Hindi, while in Canada – Canadian English & French.
All this also comes with Alexa getting a celebrity voice as well as understanding inflection in human talk. Based on the same neural text to speech technology, Alexa is becoming more emotive & expressive. She can sound more excited, like when your favorite team wins the game. Or, she can mimic other types of expressions. So, if she’s reading the news, she has a newscaster voice that sounds like the cadence of how you read the news.
Using Neural TTS, the 1st celebrity voice introduced is of actor-producer Samuel L. Jackson. He will tell you jokes, let you know if it’s raining, set timers & alarms, play music, plus more – all with a bit of his own personality. Two versions of his voice are available – explicit and non-explicit. You’ll be able to interact with Samuel L. Jackson later this year.
New Echo
Amazon also launched an all-new Echo, which inherits the same audio architecture as Echo Plus, including neodymium drivers, 3-inch woofer & increased back volume so the bass feels stronger, & the mids & highs are clearer.
It also comes with a fabric design that customers love. In addition to Charcoal, Sandstone & Heather Gray, Amazon has introduced another color for customers, Twilight Blue.
Echo Studio
Then, there is the new Echo Studio – the 1st smart speaker that brings 3D audio from Dolby Atmos right into your living room. Amazon announced that Echo Studio was the “most innovative speaker we’ve ever built.”
All you have to do is plug it in & the built-in Alexa microphones will automatically calibrate & model the room around you; then you are ready to go. Video is already encoded in Dolby Atmos. So Amazon has built the ability to connect to 4k Fire TV devices with Echo Studio, so when you’re playing Atmos-endcoded Content on your Fire TV, it fills the room with sound without the complexity. And it’s even better when you have two, with pairing capability.
Echo Show 8
This announcement was followed by the Echo Show 8. The new device has an HD 8-inch display, & borrows the crisp, powerful audio from Echo Show. It also has the camera shutter & sleek form factor that customers love about Echo Show 5.
With the addition of the Echo Show 8, customers can now choose from 3 screen sizes – from 5.5-inches all the way up to 10-inches.
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