Amazon Launches Smaller Echo Show 5 Device for $90
Today, Amazon announced the newest addition to the Echo Show family—Echo Show 5.
Priced at $90, the new device features a 5.5-inch screen, a camera and a speaker and is much cheaper than its earlier version, which is priced at about $230.
The latest device also comes with an optional magnetic stand for an additional $20, the company said.
The e-commerce giant had originally launched the Echo Show, a touchscreen device that allows video calling, in 2017.
The new Echo Show device also comes with additional privacy protections, having a built-in camera shutter, while still being able to talk to Alexa.
The device is available for pre-order starting Wednesday and will begin shipping in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia next month and to India in July, Amazon said.
Echo Show 5 can be used for watching music videos from Vevo or listening to songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and more. Simply say, “Alexa, play my dinner playlist” to play music for your dinner party and follow along with on-screen lyrics from Amazon Music.
Echo Show 5 also makes it easy to watch shows from NBC and Prime Video, or short news clips from Reuters, CNN, and more. Coming soon, a new integration with wikiHow allows you to access hundreds of how-to videos by voice—just ask Alexa to show you how to open a tight jar, clean a cast iron skillet, make a paper crane, or solve a Rubik’s Cube.
A new smart home dashboard available on all Echo Show devices gives you even more control over compatible smart home devices and groups. Simply say, “Alexa, turn on the lights” or use the on-screen controls to adjust the light’s brightness or turn it off. You can also view your smart home camera feed and thermostats, access recently used devices, and manage smart devices by group.
With the Arlo baby camera, just say, “Alexa, show me the nursery camera” to check on your baby when your hands are full of laundry or you’re working in your home office. Echo Show 5 also has two-way talk functionality with Ring doorbell cameras. Simply say, “Alexa, answer the front door,” when the doorbell rings or the camera detects motion and you’ll be able to see and talk to whoever is at the front door.
Now, there are more ways to customize your morning and evening routines with Alexa. Set a nighttime routine that turns off your bedroom lamp and starts playing nature or sleep sounds for relaxation. When your alarm goes off in the morning, wake up to an Alexa Sunrise—the screen on Echo Show devices will naturally brighten and display a sunrise animation before your alarm goes off. You can also create a routine that starts the coffee pot 10 minutes after your alarm goes off, or one that gives you the weather forecast, morning news, and an email update when you say, “Alexa, start my day.”
Choose from all-new clock faces or add a personal photo from your latest vacation to make the home screen unique to you and your family. You can also connect to your Facebook account and play a slideshow of your photos, view a specific album, or set your photos to rotate in the background. Plus, the new ambient lighting mode auto-adjusts the screen brightness based on the lighting in the room—so it’s never too bright or too dark. To get even more from your Alexa experience, swipe left from the far-right side of the screen to access shortcuts and discover all Alexa can do—from smart home controls to recipes, reminders, skills, and more.
As with all Echo Show devices, the new Echo Show 5 includes a microphone/camera off button that electronically disconnects both the microphone and camera, and a clear visual indicator that shows when audio or video is streaming to the cloud. Plus, Echo Show 5 has a built-in camera shutter so you can cover the camera, while still being able to talk to Alexa.
Amazon is also introducing new, even easier ways to delete your voice recordings on all Alexa-enabled devices—simply say, “Alexa, delete everything I said today” and the respective recordings will be deleted. Coming soon, Amazon's customers will also be able to delete their last request by saying, “Alexa, delete what I just said.” The new Alexa Privacy Hub also offers a single source of information on how Echo devices are designed and the controls you have over your Alexa experience.
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Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 Released
Bose introduces the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700.
Smarter and more capable than anything than te company has done before, the new headphones are coming this year for $400.
Bose says you can think the new headphones as smart headphones that let you keep your head up to the world with easy access to voice assistants. Or take a call with the most powerful microphone system for voice pickup. And then there’s Bose AR, an audio augmented reality platform that makes "new audio experiences" possible. Bose AR is an audio augmented reality platform that helps you stay connected to your digital world and stay engaged in the physical world at the same time. Bose AR-enabled products have motion sensors embedded inside that can detect your head orientation and body movement while you wear them. Bose AR-enhanced apps can then use this information along with location data from your mobile device to offer you audio content tailored to where you are and what you’re doing.
Bose Headphones 700 feature a four-microphone system that picks up and isolates your voice while cancelling the noise around you. They are optimized for the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, so you can choose the right service for you in the Bose Music app. To activate your voice assistant, you press a button on the right earcup.
With Bose Headphones 700, you can personalize your environment with 11 levels of noise cancellation. As you increase the noise cancellation, you incrementally minimize the distractions you hear in loud places. Or, decrease it to the point where you hear the world as if you weren’t wearing active noise cancelling headphones at all.
For quick interruptions, press a button for Conversation Mode to pause the music and let surrounding noise in.
Dimensions/weight
Headphones:8" x 6.5" W x 2" D (0.56 lbs)
Carrying case:8.6" x 7" W x 2.4" D (6.25 oz)
Audio cable:42 in
USB cable:20 in
Additional details
Bluetooth range: Up to 33 ft (10 m)
Battery charging time: Up to 2.5 hours
Quick charge time: 15 min for 3.5 hours
Battery life: Up to 20 hours
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is introducing a specially designed PlayStation 4 (PS4) “PlayStation 4 Days of Play Limited Edition” (HDD 1TB) at a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of 29,980 yen in Japan, $299 USD in North America, and €299 in Europe.
The limited edition PS4 is available as part of the 11 days global Days of Play sale from June 7, 2019 to June 17, 2019, offering savings across PlayStation hardware, peripherals, software and network services.
This limited edition PS4 features a smooth Steel Black color on the top layer of the console and a dark grey on the bottom, creating a stylish color contrast. It also features the iconic PlayStation Shapes embossed in silver on the top surface with an elegant hairline touch. The DUALSHOCK® wireless controller comes in a matching bicolor, featuring Steel Black on the front and dark grey on the back, as well as the silver PlayStation Shapes on the buttons.
This year’s Days of Play marks the 3rd year of the annual global promotion, and special offers include the PS4 exclusive title Days Gone (SIE Worldwide Studios) released on April 26, 2019, alongside various other deals on PlayStation hardware, peripherals, software titles and network services.
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NXP to Buy Marvell’s WiFi and Bluetooth Connectivity Assets For $1.76 Billion
NXP Semiconductors N.V. has entered into a definitive agreement with Marvell under which NXP will acquire Marvell’s Wireless Connectivity portfolio in an all-cash, asset transaction valued at $1.76 billion.
The acquisition encompasses Marvell’s WiFi Connectivity Business Unit, Bluetooth technology portfolio and related assets.
The acquisition will enable NXP to deliver scalable processing and connectivity solutions to its customers across its focus end markets. The acquisition includes approximately 550 people worldwide. With approximately $300 million in revenue in Marvell’s fiscal 2019, NXP anticipates revenue associated with the acquired assets to double by 2022. The acquisition is expected to be accretive to NXPs non-GAAP operating profit in the first full quarter after the transaction closes.
The transaction is expected to close by the first quarter of 2020, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
Marvell’s connectivity team has been a pioneer in providing secure and reliable Wi-Fi and Bluetooth combo solutions for nearly two decades. The acquisition enables NXP to offer its customers a full range of wireless connectivity solutions including WiFi 4, 5, 6 and Bluetooth/ BLE combo along with its flagship edge computing platforms including I.MX, Layerscape, Kinetis, LPC and the newly introduced RT Crossover Processors to provide turn-key solutions for the Industrial & IoT, Automotive and Communication Infrastructure markets that simplifies customers’ supply chain logistics and improves time-to-market.
Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc agreed to buy NXP in 2016 but walked away from the $44 billion deal last year after failing to secure Chinese regulatory approval amid a bitter Sino-U.S. trade spat.
For Marvell, a sale of its connectivity business made strategic sense as it is focusing more on the network equipment market following its $6 billion acquisition of Cavium in 2017.
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Qualcomm Introduces the Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design
Qualcomm announced at Augmented World Expo (AWE) the new Qualcomm Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 Platform.
The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design is a VR form factor, built in collaboration with Goertek, designed to help decrease product development time of both AR and VR Smart Viewers.
"The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design takes advantage of the XR1 processing power and allows both consumers and the enterprise to access an enhanced content offering,” said Hugo Swart, head of XR, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “By distributing the workload and tapping into the compute power of host devices via tethering to users’ smartphone or PC, the reference designs’ additional features like eye tracking and 6DoF controllers unlock a deeper level of XR immersion.”
Key offerings of the Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design include the following features:
- Movement Tracking: The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design features six-degrees of freedom (6DoF) movement for room scale XR experiences. With two dedicated 6DoF cameras for body tracking, users can walk around without the need for external motion sensors.
- Hand Tracking: The Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design supports full hand tracking and gesture tracking - tap, zoom, pinch, scroll - which could be used for interactions with virtual objects.
- Eye Tracking: To reduce power consumption using foveated rendering, Qualcomm Technologies worked with Tobii to have integrated eye tracking.
6DoF Controllers: Controllers are fundamental for interaction especially in VR gaming. Snapdragon Smart Viewer VR Reference Design provides 6DoF controllers with the ability to support vision-based controllers for VR gaming and productivity applications. - Display: The display panel - built with JDI - enables consumers to be immersed in their favorite content by supporting smooth experiences with 72Hz refresh rate and 2K resolution per eye.
- Standalone Mode: In addition to tethering the headset via USB-C to a host device, the Snapdragon Smart Viewer Reference Design also delivers high-quality experiences in ‘standalone mode’, where all the computing is done directly on the device. It taps into the XR1 heterogeneous compute architecture, including the
- Qualcomm Kryo CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, Qualcomm Hexagon DSP and Qualcomm AI Engine for high performance VR applications like simple games, video streaming and productivity applications all running at low power consumption.
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PCI-SIG Achieves 32GT/s with New PCI Express 5.0 Specification
PCI-SIG today released the PCI Express (PCIe) 5.0 specification, reaching 32GT/s transfer rates, while maintaining low power and backwards compatibility with previous technology generations.
“New data-intensive applications are driving demand for unprecedented levels of performance,” said Al Yanes, PCI-SIG Chairman and President. “Completing the PCIe 5.0 specification in 18 months is a major achievement, and it is due to the commitment of our members who worked diligently to evolve PCIe technology to meet the performance needs of the industry. The PCIe architecture will continue to stand as the defacto standard for high performance I/O for the foreseeable future.”
PCIe 5.0 Specification Highlights
- Delivers 32 GT/s raw bit rate and up to 128 GB/s via x16 configuration
- Leverages and adds to the PCIe 4.0 specification and its support for higher speeds via extended tags and credits
- Implements electrical changes to improve signal integrity and mechanical performance of connectors
- Includes new backwards compatible CEM connector targeted for add-in cards
- Maintains backwards compatibility with PCIe 4.0, 3.x, 2.x and 1.x
The new specification increases performance in the high-performance markets including artificial intelligence, machine learning, gaming, visual computing, storage and networking.
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Amazon Launches Smaller Echo Show 5 Device for $90
Today, Amazon announced the newest addition to the Echo Show family—Echo Show 5.
Priced at $90, the new device features a 5.5-inch screen, a camera and a speaker and is much cheaper than its earlier version, which is priced at about $230.
The latest device also comes with an optional magnetic stand for an additional $20, the company said.
The e-commerce giant had originally launched the Echo Show, a touchscreen device that allows video calling, in 2017.
The new Echo Show device also comes with additional privacy protections, having a built-in camera shutter, while still being able to talk to Alexa.
The device is available for pre-order starting Wednesday and will begin shipping in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and Australia next month and to India in July, Amazon said.
Echo Show 5 can be used for watching music videos from Vevo or listening to songs from Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, Pandora, and more. Simply say, “Alexa, play my dinner playlist” to play music for your dinner party and follow along with on-screen lyrics from Amazon Music.
Echo Show 5 also makes it easy to watch shows from NBC and Prime Video, or short news clips from Reuters, CNN, and more. Coming soon, a new integration with wikiHow allows you to access hundreds of how-to videos by voice—just ask Alexa to show you how to open a tight jar, clean a cast iron skillet, make a paper crane, or solve a Rubik’s Cube.
A new smart home dashboard available on all Echo Show devices gives you even more control over compatible smart home devices and groups. Simply say, “Alexa, turn on the lights” or use the on-screen controls to adjust the light’s brightness or turn it off. You can also view your smart home camera feed and thermostats, access recently used devices, and manage smart devices by group.
With the Arlo baby camera, just say, “Alexa, show me the nursery camera” to check on your baby when your hands are full of laundry or you’re working in your home office. Echo Show 5 also has two-way talk functionality with Ring doorbell cameras. Simply say, “Alexa, answer the front door,” when the doorbell rings or the camera detects motion and you’ll be able to see and talk to whoever is at the front door.
Now, there are more ways to customize your morning and evening routines with Alexa. Set a nighttime routine that turns off your bedroom lamp and starts playing nature or sleep sounds for relaxation. When your alarm goes off in the morning, wake up to an Alexa Sunrise—the screen on Echo Show devices will naturally brighten and display a sunrise animation before your alarm goes off. You can also create a routine that starts the coffee pot 10 minutes after your alarm goes off, or one that gives you the weather forecast, morning news, and an email update when you say, “Alexa, start my day.”
Choose from all-new clock faces or add a personal photo from your latest vacation to make the home screen unique to you and your family. You can also connect to your Facebook account and play a slideshow of your photos, view a specific album, or set your photos to rotate in the background. Plus, the new ambient lighting mode auto-adjusts the screen brightness based on the lighting in the room—so it’s never too bright or too dark. To get even more from your Alexa experience, swipe left from the far-right side of the screen to access shortcuts and discover all Alexa can do—from smart home controls to recipes, reminders, skills, and more.
As with all Echo Show devices, the new Echo Show 5 includes a microphone/camera off button that electronically disconnects both the microphone and camera, and a clear visual indicator that shows when audio or video is streaming to the cloud. Plus, Echo Show 5 has a built-in camera shutter so you can cover the camera, while still being able to talk to Alexa.
Amazon is also introducing new, even easier ways to delete your voice recordings on all Alexa-enabled devices—simply say, “Alexa, delete everything I said today” and the respective recordings will be deleted. Coming soon, Amazon's customers will also be able to delete their last request by saying, “Alexa, delete what I just said.” The new Alexa Privacy Hub also offers a single source of information on how Echo devices are designed and the controls you have over your Alexa experience.
