Amazon goes spherical with new Echo speakers

The new Amazon Echo (Source: Amazon)

The new Amazon Echo speakers don't look anything like they've looked before. Amazon revamps the Echo speaker line and introduces a look that makes it feel like they've been taken out of a sci-fi film. The new spherical Echo speaker gets all of the Echo Plus' smart hub features at $129.99. The Echo Dot receives a new spherical look, too, and comes in at $69.99 for the standard version or $79.99 for the Clock model. 

It's not showing up on Amazon Canada's site, but the company also introduced a new Echo Dot Kids model that looks like the Echo Dot, but with cute animals faces on them. These will come with a year's worth of Amazon Kids+, which gives users access to child-friendly audiobooks, games, and more.

The new Amazon Echo Dot Kids (Source: Amazon)

All of the new Echo devices can help awaken the bookworms in their child with a new Reading Sidekick feature, which will follow along as they read, take turns, and give feedback. Alexa will even get support for voice profiles for kids, which might not please privacy-concerned parents.

The standard Echo gets the Echo Studio's capability to automatically tune itself so it can deliver the best sound quality for your space. It'll also be the first Echo to gain machine learning smarts with its AZ1 Neural Edge processor, which can help it understand speech faster than ever. And it means you can teach Alexa directly when she doesn't understand you. 

All of the new Echo devices are also getting a new low power mode this year. Amazon Canada is already offering the new Echos for pre-order, with the speakers' release on October 22.

Source: Engadget