During the Amazon event in Seattle, the company announced two household items that you would never have thought needed the Alexa or Echo treatment – a microwave oven and a wall clock. That’s right, Amazon now has an Alexa Microwave and Echo Wall Clock.
Starting with the microwave, it’s announced under the AmazonBasics line of low-cost products, as reported by TechCrunch. And since it’s supposedly low cost, it is a very basic microwave as a result. It does feature a Dash button, which supposedly lets it order some popcorn off of Amazon for you, but nothing else. While we can’t imagine a use for this, but this does give a peek through the window into the American lifestyle.
Strange feature aside, it does have an ability that, with any other microwave, could be dangerous – it works with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. This is especially important because despite it having a button labelled ‘Ask Alexa’, it needs to be connected to an Echo or other outside hardware to actually get that button working.
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Which leads nicely to the other strange item Amazon announced, the Echo Wall Clock. It also doesn’t have Alexa built-in, and needs a nearby Echo connected via Bluetooth to track timers, reminders and alarms. At the very least, it’s a fancy clock with LED rings that tracks and displays timers as well as countdowns.
The Amazon Microwave will be priced at US$59.99 (~RM248) and ships starting 14 November 2018. The Echo Wall Clock, on the other hand, will cost US$29.99 (~RM124), and will ship later this year, with no specific date given. That said, it’s unlikely that these appliances will ever make it here in any official capacity.
(Source: TechCrunch, The Verge)
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