Amazon Event Live Blog: Kindle Scribe, Halo Rise, Astro, Echo Dot and More

Amazon's home networking brand Eero introduced the Eero PoE 6, a new dual-band Wi-Fi 6 mesh network device with top wireless speeds of up to 1.5Gbps and support for 160MHz channel width. It looks just like existing Eero devices save for the fact that it ditches the traditional power cord and uses a power-over-Ethernet system instead. Read more about the Eero PoE 6.

Amazon also announced that on Oct. 20, a free update is coming to fourth-gen Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock models that will allow them to work as mesh Wi-Fi extenders when used with an Eero mesh router. The smart speakers will be able to rebroadcast the Wi-Fi signal from any of Eero's mesh routers with speeds of up to 100Mbps. Read more about the Eero and Echo Dot networking update. 

Amazon's two home security brands, Ring and Blink, introduced new smart home hardware at the company's hardware and services event. For Ring, there are two new outdoor cameras, the Spotlight Cam Plus and Pro. Both models can be powered by a battery, solar or hard-wired and have motion-activated lights and a siren. The Pro adds 3D Motion Detection that gives you an aerial view of your property with a trail for motion events picked up by the camera. It also has improved on-board microphones. Read more about Amazon's Ring announcements. 

Blink will also to its lineup of smart home security cameras a Wired Floodlight Camera that costs $100, and a new $30 Pan-Tilt mount for the Blink Mini that'll let you adjust the viewing frame up and down or left and right. Read more about Amazon's Blink camera announcements. 

Amazon already has a line of Omni Fire TVs, but the new Fire TV Omni QLED series takes things further with better picture quality and sensors that detect you're in the room, and respond by displaying artwork, widgets or other content. The Fire TV Omni QLED series comes in two sizes -- a 65-inch model for $800 and a 75-inch one for $1,100 -- and is available for preorder now.

Amazon also debuted a $35 Fire TV remote you can locate by asking Alexa to locate it for you and it'll send out an audible alert. You can use it to control the new third-gen Amazon Fire TV Cube a 4K-upscaling HDMI input and enhanced networking.

While we expected -- and got -- updates to Amazon's little Echo Dot smart speaker, it was joined by a couple of other Echo product updates and an all-new alarm clock that'll really light up your room. 

The tiny Dot speaker is now in its fifth generation and has a redesigned audio architecture to deliver twice the bass. It'll be available in October for $50 or $60 for the Echo Dot with Clock. The latter can also now show upcoming calendar events, artists and song titles during music playback or weather info with icons. Amazon also announced new Echo Dot Kids models with owl and dragon designs. 

The Echo Studio, Amazon's premium $200 smart speaker, was updated with new spatial audio processing and frequency range extension. The good news is current Echo Studio owners will get the same audio technology via a firmware update. 

Amazon announced the second-gen Echo Auto device, too,  with a slimmed-down, space-saving design and an adhesive base for flexible yet stable positioning in your car. The $55 device is equipped with five microphones designed to hear you and your passengers over other sounds in your car such as music, air conditioning or traffic. Amazon will also have roadside assistance that'll be pay-as-you-go instead of a monthly fee like other services. 

Lastly, Amazon revealed the $140 Halo Rise, a sunrise alarm clock that is also a bedside sleep tracker. it uses low-energy sensors to detect micro-movements that occur while breathing. Amazon then uses machine learning to translate those movements into sleep stages and surfaces these insights in the Halo app. 

Amazon kicked off its big product event for the year by announcing its latest Kindle e-reader, the Kindle Scribe. As the name implies, the 10.2-inch E Ink touchscreen e-reader comes equipped with a stylus so it doubles as a digital notepad. Read more about the Kindle Scribe.

Trying to keep track of everything that was announced, what it costs and when it's coming? CNET's Lori Grunin breaks it down here: Kindle Scribe, Halo Rise, Astro, Echo Dot and More Announced at Amazon's Fall Device Event 2022.

Whew, as always, a cavalcade of announcements. Check out our upcoming pieces on everything Amazon announced, and watch for our follow-up stories on all these devices and new features.

Amazon announced a new Fire TV, and it uses sensors to detect your presence in the room, showing you art curated from museums; widgets with your schedule and the news; or your own photos. The TV also has local dimming to improve contrast and HDR. Use Alexa to ask for specific photos on the screen and interact with widgets. Other widgets help you decide what to watch from streaming and live TV. Ambient features that sense your presence can be turned off. It starts at $800.

This new remote control comes with a feature that's designed to help you pinpoint the device's location with a voice command. It also has a motion-activated backlight that's meant to make it easier to use in low light, and programmable buttons to interact with apps or Alexa. It'll be $35.

The latest Fire TV Cube has a new 20GHz processor, super resolution upgrading and supports 4K Ultra HD. It also has a wider array of ports to connect storage or even USB drives. It has expanded Alexa features that allow for hands-free commands while you watch.

Eero is introducing new hardware that's powered by Ethernet. The Wi-Fi router has no power cord and doesn't have to be placed near an outlet to work, which could let you put it in new places that might offer better connectivity to your devices.

Amazon's other smart-security-camera company, Blink, has some new offerings. The Wired Floodlight Camera offers 2,600 lumens of light when it detects movement and a 1,080p video feed. It also has two-way talking features and Alexa integrations. A second announcement is a motorized mount for the Blink Mini camera, which lets you turn it up, down, left and right. $100 and $30, respectively.

Astro is going to the workplace by bringing Ring Virtual Security Guard to small businesses in a pilot program. It can investigate sounds and alarms, sending notifications to business owners and bringing video closer to events.

Amazon's vice president of consumer robotics, Ken Washington, describes updates to Astro. It's the rolling home robot -- a Ring and Alexa mashup with a cute face and a mast-mounted camera. Today we're hearing about Astro's new talents as an automated pet monitor, as well as its ability to check for doors and windows you've left open. Amazon hopes to get more of these automated skills built for Astro through a partnership with robotics programs at three US universities.

BMW has a 32-inch, 8K folding display that folds down. The next generation of the display is built on Alexa technology, meaning it's not just interfacing with Alexa. The idea is to let drivers have access to expanded Alexa features without being distracted from the road. The technology could be the basis for a range of in-car assistants in the future.

Alexa Teacher Model is an AI feature that lets you talk to Alexa about images on the screen. The voice assistant can understand your commands about photos even if there's no data about your requests in the image's metadata. Echo Auto will have an adhesive mount for your car, and has features for podcasts, navigation and coordinating across devices. It'll be $55.

Hey Disney will unlock features with Disney's Magic Band Plus. This will let you play game-show style trivia games on the band that currently unlocks interactive experiences at Disney parks.

Amazon's mesh-networking brand Eero is releasing a feature that turns Echo Dots into mesh Wi-Fi extenders. The feature will come to 4th-gen Amazon Echo as a free software update, and it'll also come inside the 5th-gen Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock smart speakers, both announced today.

Echo Dot is the same size with sound upgrades, and Echo Dot with Clock will have a clearer display, with more light-up dots giving info in text. An accelerometer lets you interact with Echo by tapping the top.

The Halo Rise is a sleep tracker that sits on your bedside table and also functions as a sunrise alarm clock. It doesn't use cameras or microphones and instead uses sensors to track breathing patterns. It can sort out data about your movements and sleep patterns from your partner's. The alarm clock is a slowly brightening light that gradually wakes you up. Halo Rise also interfaces with Alexa, letting you set a routine to play a favorite song in the morning. Data is stored encrypted in the cloud, and it can be downloaded as well as deleted. The gadget will cost $140.

Amazon is detailing its technology for helping your devices work in the background, without you needing to touch it, look at a screen or sometimes even talk to it. It's based on automated routines that can respond to your presence and patterns. Alexa routines are an example of this, with Alexa initiating actions before you say anything.

Amazon begins its event with David Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices and Services. He starts by announcing the new Kindle Scribe, "the first Kindle you can write on."

Amazon has introduced Kindle Scribe, a bigger e-reader with a stylus and note-taking and drawing capabilities. It has a 10.2 inch screen -- satisfying a niche market for a large format -- as well as a months-long battery life. It'll cost $339 with a standard stylus.

Amazon execs are taking the stage to start the company's annual cavalcade of Echo, Ring and Fire announcements. Here's a reminder that many devices announced today will be replacements for older models, which could lead to deep discounts on the earlier versions. Definitely consider holding off on buying from Amazon's current line of devices until you see what prices look like after today's event. Analysts also expect the older versions to be discounted during the fall sales event for Prime members starting on Oct. 11.

Last year, Amazon debuted a new home robot at its device event. Amazon Astro is still available only by invitation. As one of Amazon's Day 1 Edition devices, it's still in its early days of development. The year before, Amazon hinted at a home drone camera, which became available by invitation only as the Ring Always Home Cam in 2021. I'll be watching to see if Amazon adds yet another experimental device today. And if it does, will the device fly, roll or maybe... swim?

If Amazon does make any Halo-related announcements, they'd come right as Apple, Google and Fitbit (which Google owns) have announced new wearables. Apple just launched the Apple Watch Series 8, Ultra and SE, and Google is expected to reveal more details about the Pixel Watch on Oct. 6. Fitbit also recently announced the Sense 2 and Versa 4 smartwatches and Inspire 3 fitness band.

Although Echo and Ring devices are usually the biggest focus during Amazon's events, I'm curious about whether we'll see any Halo updates as well. Halo is Amazon's fitness band and subscription service of the same name. Last year the company announced the Halo View, which introduced an AMOLED screen to Amazon's simple fitness band. I'm wondering if we'll see another new version, or perhaps some updates to the Halo app, like new fitness or wellness programs. 

Apple has ruled the tablet market for years now, representing about a third of all tablets sold around the world, according to data compiled by Statista. For years, Amazon has notched a distant third or fourth place, by comparison, beat out at times by companies like Samsung and Lenovo. But now there's increasing data that Amazon is taking Apple head-on.

One survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index found that Amazon's tablets had the third-highest customer satisfaction behind devices from Apple and Samsung. And when you consider that when they're on sale, Amazon's Fire tablets go for less than a quarter of the price of their Apple equivalents, it makes sense they're so popular.

You may be thinking, "Wasn't Amazon's Christmas in July Prime Day enough?" Well, consider that after the COVID-19 pandemic began two years ago, Amazon opted to hold Prime Day in the fall of 2020 and 2021. It didn't have the same summer-sales-event feel Prime Day did. Instead, people began shifting their holiday shopping earlier, particularly after competitors like Best Buy, Target, Walmart and others began offering their holiday deals earlier too.

Fall Prime Day ended up a success for Amazon, by the way. The company said each event marked a new record for its Prime Day sales.

To convince people to buy now, and not wait for the holidays, some retailers even offered price guarantees, effectively promising to refund the difference if customers saw the same products on sale during Black Friday, Cyber Monday and beyond.

With consumer confidence at historic lows and economists warning the next year will be rough, retailers are understandably anxious about how much people will spend. The question is whether Amazon can recapture the success of its last two fall Prime Day events.

Amazon's product event has become an annual tradition now, including expected updates for the company's Fire Tablets, among other things. But this won't be the last we hear from the company this year.

Amazon is going to put on a second Prime Day-like sales event ahead of Black Friday. This time, it'll land on Oct. 11 and 12, and it'll be focused only on deals for Prime subscribers. This is the first time Amazon has held two such events in one year.

Amazon was early to pledge support for Matter, and its latest Eero routers include Thread radios that will eventually allow them to serve as Matter hubs. But what will all of that look like in practice, and how deep will those universal controls go? What new possibilities will Matter open up for home automation, and will it open the door to new Alexa capabilities? 

I'm not sure we'll hear very many specifics like that on Wednesday, but it's still something to watch for. If Amazon sees Matter as a potential selling point for its smart home ecosystem, now would be the time to start making the sales pitch.

One of the big questions as we gear up for Amazon's fall event is whether we'll hear any new details about Matter, the universal smart home standard that's set to launch sometime by the end of this year. Sources I've spoken with suggest that Matter's true coming-out party won't be until early 2023, when we're sure to see plenty of new Matter-ready devices at CES -- but you can be sure there's a lot going on behind the scenes at Amazon, Apple, Google and the multitude of other brands throwing their weight behind the standard.

Apart from its doorbells and drone cameras, Ring has put a lot of effort into repositioning itself as a home security provider in recent years, with multiple versions of the Ring Alarm security system up for sale and plenty of synergistic integrations with Echo speakers and other Alexa-friendly devices. It's a competitive category where Amazon might still see plenty of potential for growth, so it'll be interesting to hear Ring's latest pitch.

What's next for the Amazon-owned video doorbell brand? We'll find out Wednesday at Amazon's fall hardware and services event, where it's a very safe bet that we'll be hearing about new devices for the Ring lineup. Two years ago, the brand unveiled its flying, autonomous Always Home Cam, and last year, Amazon opened the device up for preorder invitations. It's still an invitation-only gadget to this day, so I'll be curious to see if that changes, or if Ring has any new plans for it moving forward.

Amazon invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Lord of the Rings. The NFL rights cost it billions. Since both kicked off this fall, Amazon has indicated that they've been a boon for Prime subscriptions, especially Thursday Night Football. Amazon may want to try leveraging these mega-properties to have more presence on the devices it's sure to show off Wednesday, even if it's just cameos.

Elves versus orcs, anyone? Dolphins versus Bengals? Devices usually get the main spotlight at Amazon's fall event, but right now Amazon is in the thick of its two most ambitious video projects ever, so I'll be keeping my eye out for nuggets about the Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power and NFL Thursday Night Football. 

Amazon sells a ton of budget Fire TVs in the Omni and 4-Series it launched last year. For 2022, I think the company should expand its in-house Fire TV options to include midrange models as well, and add image quality extras such as full-array local dimming -- which improves brightness and contrast -- or improved gaming features like variable refresh rate or 4K/120Hz, to cater to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X owners. It could even go all-in and launch a Fire TV with an OLED display, like the Grundig it launched in Germany a couple of years ago. A TV reviewer can dream, right?

It's been a couple of years since Amazon updated its Fire TV Cube, a $120 device that's sort of a mash-up of Echo speaker, 4K HDR streaming video player and universal remote. I liked it when I reviewed the original back in 2018, when the ability to turn on your TV via voice seemed like magic. I'd like to see an update that costs less and adds easier, faster control of devices, perhaps aided by an on-screen display, similar to something like Caavo.

Amazon's Fire TV streaming system could certainly get some updated hardware, perhaps starting with the cheapest and most popular product, the Fire TV Stick. Currently (and confusingly) the company sells two non-4K versions, one for $30 called the Fire TV Stick Lite and one for $40 called the Fire TV Stick. The only difference is that the more expensive one has buttons on the remote to control TV volume and power, a very useful feature. I'd like to see a single $30 stick that offered that feature, much like the new Chromecast with Google TV HD.

Unlike Apple and Samsung, Amazon won't be making its event available for public viewing, so if you want the most up-to-date information, this live blog is going to be your main source. Stick around for the analysis, reviews and in-depth coverage of all things Amazon. 

Hello, everyone! Our live blog of Amazon's 2022 product event is kicking off. What's that you say? "It's not Wednesday yet"? Well, not to worry. 

For the next day, we're going to be continually updating this live blog with everything you need to know about what Amazon has been doing with its tablets, robots, drones, wireless routers, home cameras, video doorbells, Alexa gadgets and everything else.

When the event officially kicks off at 9 a.m. PT Wednesday, we'll continue updating with up-to-the-minute announcements, product images and everything else you could need.

Thanks for following along!