Amazon's Astro - a robot on wheels - can automatically folllow you around the house as you make a voice or video call. Photo / Supplied
Amazon's Astro - a robot on wheels - can automatically folllow you around the house as you make a voice or video call. Photo / Supplied
Amazon's latest devices event saw it open registrations for a home surveillance drone, and introduce a home robot called Astro, with an extendable camera arm and the ability to follow you around the house during and video call, or check on kids or whether you left the stove on, or be set on auto-pilot to automatically patrol your home.
And the tech giant also introduced Glow, a video calling device that projects games kids can play with other people.
More on those goodies below, which will only be available to Americans initially.
But NZ does get a new model in Amazon's Show series of smart home touch screens, and the first Amazon wearable released in our part of the world - the noise-cancelling Echo Buds.
Over the next few weeks, all Alexa devices here will also get longer-form news content to supplement the existing headline service. Partners will include Newstalk ZB (owned by Herald publisher NZME) and RNZ.
And like all countries, we've got more finely-grained privacy controls via Amazon's privacy hub, including a physical button on the new Show for turning off the camera and microphone, and options to control what is stored - or not stored - including "Alexa, delete what I just said" or "Alexa, delete everything I said today" commands.
The Echo Show 15, which will be available shortly for around $410 (Aussie pre-orders have just opened at A$399), is the newest addition to the Echo Show family that is designed to be an information hub for your family.
The wall-mountable Echo Show 15 can recognise each family member as they step in front of its camera, then show them a personalised schedule and reminders. Photo / Supplied
It can also be used to control smart home devices like lighting, heating or security systems around your home - as long as they're compatible with the Zigby standard (which is also being supported by Apple and Google as some sort of order starts to emerge for the smart home gadgets market).
The 15.6-inch, 1080p full HD display Echo Show 15 can be mounted on a wall or placed on a counter - either in portrait or landscape orientation - and features a redesigned home screen with more customisation options, new personalisation features with visual ID, and new Alexa features.
The new features include a shared family calendar - or the option for your Echo to show your personalised schedule after it recognises you as you step in front of its camera.
There are also new virtual "sticky notes" if you want to slap a reminder on the Echo's screen for the whole family to see.
The Echo Buds support Apple's Siri and Google Assistant as well as Amazon's own Alexa. Photo / Supplied
Amazon's second-generation Echo Buds add support Apple's Siri and Google Assistant. Its own voice assistant, Alex, is of course already part of the mix. The active-noise cancelling Buds come with four ear tip sizes and two wing tip sizes, and an Ear Tip Fit Test to find best seal for your ears.
The NZ release will be some time next year. Aussies can buy them from October 27 for A$169 ($173) or A$199 ($205( with a charging case.
Amazon's Echo Buds in their optional wireless charging case. Photo / Amazon
At a press briefing, an Amazon rep praised Kiwis as early adopters of new technology, aided by our Ultrafast Broadband.
But with even some of the more bread-and-butter products featured at the companies devices event not making to NZ - like its latest Halo fitness band or Eero wi-fi extender - Amazon's appreciation for our tech-friendly attitude is somewhat abstract (at least for its devices unit; its AWS unit recently doubled staff here and revealed plans for a massive data centre build).
Keen readers will know I've previously used NZ Post's YouShop service, which gives you an address in Oregon (actually a freight-forwarding warehouse) that you can use to beat Amazon and others' geographic restrictions (cheers, NZ Government!). It's how I got my Amazon Fire TV. But YouShop's charges have been hiked amid pandemic shipping delays and general international freight chaos, so it's not really a viable option for now.
Amazon's Ring Always Home Cam is a security drone that flies through your home to record a break-in. Photo / Supplied
The devices event also saw Amazon open an invite-only trial for the Always Home Cam made by its fully-owned subsidiary Rng.
The Aways is a surveillance drone that sits in a dock inside your home. It will automatically fly through your house if a separate Ring Alarm system detects an intruder inside or outside, the better to capture the offender on-camera, or just freak them out.
The Always features a camera, but only records when it's in flight. Video is recorded to an app on your smartphone.
The US$250 drone - which is designed for indoors operation only - can also be flown to various "view points" around your home on demand.
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff said while a fan blowing at full-speed could cause the drone difficulties, "But if it feels like it's not doing the right thing, it'll just land in a safe area and sit there."
And while battery life is only five minutes, Siminoff said, "The idea is it's very like tactical; you don't need to go see that a door's ajar for two hours.'
Astro's camera is on an arm that can extend by 106m. The robot on wheels can be used for video chats, or set on auto for security patrols around your home. Photo / Supplied
Amazon said its new Astro robot (US$1000) is four years in the making.
Some dubbed it an "Echo 10 on wheels" but the company's devices head Dave Limp said it was much more than that:
Limp said customers could send the robot to check on people and different pets — for example, raising a camera on a telescopic arm to see if the flame on a stove is still on.
"Or if you are doing a video call, Astro will move around with you in the house, so you can continue the conversation," he said.
Amazon's Astro - a robot on wheels - can automatically folllow you around the house as you make a voice or video call. Photo / Supplied
In a demonstration video, a child crawled around on the floor at the height of the main camera as the robot followed it. The extendable arm can reach as high as 107cm, meaning its camera would follow an adult roughly around the person's midsection.
Limp said Amazon had built "an entirely new technology construct" for the device to navigate a home, with several technologists discussing the difficulty of locating and mapping the varied spaces in a house at the same time.
Astro did not appear to be able to navigate stairs, according to a New York Times report, although it stops before tumbling down them, like a Roomba.
And if you're after a security buddy for Amazon's home security drone, Astro can also be set to autonomously patrol your home.
A final note: whether you get a camera mounted on a drone, a robot or just a common-or-garden security camera system, remember that advertently or inadvertently filming your neighbour's property without their permission is a no-no. See the Privacy Commissioner's guidelines here.
