Correction and clarification: A previous version of this column incorrectly stated that the source of Alexa's generated AI language was based on a custom language model created by Amazon.
Let's be honest. The concept of a truly “smart” home has always been a great idea. After all, who wouldn't want to automate lighting, appliances, surveillance cameras, and more all in an intelligent, organized, and futuristic way to save effort, time, and money?
The problem is that the reality of smart homes never comes close to the vision. Instead, the individual products are extremely difficult to set up and a nightmare to make work together as a system.
But thanks to some new products Amazon just announced, the actual reality of a truly connected smart home is starting to become much more affordable and more mainstream.
At its annual fall product launch event, Amazon showed off several new hardware products, as well as enhanced Alexa digital assistants and smart home controls that make setting up and controlling multiple smart home devices much easier. Software updates were also announced.
One of these updates is a new mapping feature that automatically maps the layout of your home using the LIDAR feature in the camera on certain iPhones starting with the 12 Pro.
Simply open the Alexa mobile app and point your iPhone's camera at different rooms in your home (all rooms, or just the room where your smart home device is or will be installed) and the LIDAR feature will automatically scan and A map of all objects in the room.
Simply open the Alexa mobile app and point your iPhone's camera at different rooms in your home (all rooms, or just the room where your smart home device is or will be installed) and the LIDAR feature will automatically scan and A map of all objects in the room.
Next, associate your various smart home devices with the physical location of your home. The result is a map of your home (which, by the way, is never sent to the cloud). This makes it very easy and intuitive to know which devices you are controlling and to see the basic status of all devices at once. . Once the map is created, it can be used on any Android smartphone or his iPhone that does not have a LIDAR-enabled camera.
Amazon has also enhanced its Alexa digital assistant with some of the same kinds of generative AI features we've seen in tools like ChatGPT. The technology is based on a custom large-scale language model (LLM) created by Amazon and runs on Amazon's AWS cloud service, at least for now. What's interesting about this deal is that it means Amazon can and will bring the new and enhanced Alexa to all of its Alexa-enabled products, all the way back to the early Amazon Echos.
The new Alexa is more intelligent, more responsive, more creative, and has much better sound quality, so you can enjoy the experience of setting up smart home devices or using any of the other types of Alexa-based voice requests. has become much easier. For example, just say “Alexa, I'm cold” or “Alexa, it's a mess in here” to automatically increase the temperature on your connected thermostat or turn on your robot vacuum. (If you have a robot vacuum, of course!).
There's always room for improvement, but improvements like the ability to no longer always say the “Alexa” wake word while interacting with Alexa bring the experience of using this new version of Alexa closer to a natural conversation.
On the hardware side, Amazon also announced a new device called Echo Hub that acts as a master control hub for all your smart devices. A new map view will also be accessible through a software upgrade early next year. Echo Hub offers many of the features of other Echo Show devices, including the upgraded Echo Show 8 version introduced at this event, but also new software features designed specifically for working with smart home devices. It contains.
Essentially, it provides easy visual access and control from a single point, similar to the way very expensive smart home controllers used to be for the most sophisticated smart home systems. But importantly, it comes at a very affordable price of $179.
Currently, you must first set up every individual smart device on your smartphone. This is a shame, as I think many people will find the setup process in the main controller hub more intuitive. An Amazon spokesperson suggested that this may be possible in the future, but is not available yet.
On the other hand, when you set up your smart devices through the Phone app, those devices' settings and features are essentially transferred to your Echo Hub, where you can view, control, and automate them. Echo Hub includes support for all the important wireless smart home standards, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, the new Matter industry standard, and Amazon's own Sidewalk technology, making it easy to integrate into your existing or existing wireless smart home standards. It can be connected to almost any smart home device. Will buy in the future.
The end result of all these advances is that it has become much easier and more practical for the average person to assemble and run a powerful smart home system. Finally, the Jetsons are here!
USA TODAY columnist Bob O'Donnell is president and principal analyst at TECHnaracy Research, a market research and consulting firm. You can follow him on Twitter @bobodtech.