If you find the new Amazon Echo Show 21 to be too large, the update to the 15-inch Amazon Echo Show might be more for you. The Echo Show 15 gets the new camera, audio, and smart home upgrades as its bigger sibling. It comes with an auto-framing camera with better video call quality thanks to double its field of view and 65% more zoom over its predecessor. Amazon adds noise reduction to make calls clearer as well.
Amazon's wall-mounted smart display gets a big screen update. The Amazon Echo Show 21 sports a 21-inch screen with a 1080p resolution. According to the company, it features better audio and doubles the viewing area of the original Echo Show 15. It can supposedly deliver "immersive sound, double the bass and room adaptation technology."
The Echo Show 21 also has a better camera and a built-in smart home hub that supports Matter and Thread protocols alongside Zigbee. The auto-framing camera now has over double the field of view and provides 65% more zoom than its predecessor. It also adds noise reduction to make the audio for your video calls clearer.
Zoom is bringing its video conferencing app to smart displays this year. The company will start rolling it out to Facebook Portal first in September, with Amazon Echo Show and Google Nest Hub Max getting support before the year ends.
Accessibility is one of the areas technology companies have been focusing on and improving in the past few years. The new feature available on the Amazon Echo Show helps the blind or low-vision customers to identify everyday household pantry items that are difficult to distinguish by touch. The feature makes use of computer vision and machine learning to recognize what item is placed before it. It'll be available on the first- and second-generation versions of this device. This Alexa-powered smart speaker is geared towards kitchens as it helps out with kitchen-related tasks, such as setting timers and watching recipe videos.
Users simply need to say things like "Alexa, what am I holding?" or "Alexa, what's in my hand?" And then the Echo Show will give verbal cues to inform the users what the product is. Amazon worked with blind Amazon employees, including its principal accessibility engineer, Josh Miele. They got feedback from both blind and low-vision customers and collaborated with the Vista Center for the Blind in Santa Cruz. It's currently only available in the US, but we're hoping it gets a broader rollout in the future.
Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 8:09AM 
Photo: Amazon