Technology - Google News

Amazon TVs are coming in October, with prices starting at $370 - CNBC
Google Pixel 6 teaser gives first real-world look at the upcoming phone - The Verge
The newest Roomba gets smarter as it vacuums - TechCrunch

Amazon TVs are coming in October, with prices starting at $370 - CNBC

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 06:00 AM PDT

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Amazon Fire TV Omni Series

Amazon

Amazon announced Thursday its first branded TV sets.

There will be two versions — the high-end Amazon Fire TV Omni Series and the more affordable Amazon Fire TV 4-Series — each available in different sizes. They go on sale in October at prices ranging from $369.99 to $1,099.99.

Until now, Amazon has sold streaming sticks that plug into TVs, and has worked with other manufacturers, like Toshiba and Insignia in the U.S., to build TV sets with its own Amazon Fire interface, which offers voice control and easy access to Amazon Prime video and other streaming services.

Competitors like Roku and Google have followed a similar path with plug-in sticks and third-party manufacturers.

But Amazon is the first of those to launch its own TV.

The company told CNBC in a briefing it wanted to build its own set to better integrate its Fire TV software with Alexa voice controls. The move also gives Amazon the power to set its own prices, which means it could undercut competitors the way it does with its Fire tablets, which sell for a fraction of the price of Apple's iPads.

Plus, it can control the experience to give users its "frustration-free" set-up. Open the box, turn the TV on, and as long as you've connected any Amazon device to your Wi-Fi before, it will automatically connect to your home network.

Amazon said it will offer an update later this year that lets customers control smart devices around their home, like lights, cameras and thermostats, using a software dashboard that appears on the TV.

The TVs will be sold on Amazon's website and through Best Buy. All of them support 4K video.

Here's what you need to know about the two versions.

Amazon Fire TV Omni Series

Amazon

The higher-end Amazon Fire TV Omni Series will ship in five sizes: 43 inches ($409.99), 50 inches ($509.99), 55 inches ($559.99), 65 inches ($829.99) and 75 inches ($1,099.99).

Like the $120 Fire TV Cube, you can speak to the TV without using a remote and ask it to play any TV show or movie, begin playing music, check the weather, control your smart home, view smart home cameras on your screen while watching TV, and more. You can talk to the TV from across the room, just as you can for Amazon's Echo smart speakers. There's a microphone switch under the bottom of the screen that lets you turn off the microphone. And you can add a webcam for video calls, including with new support for Zoom calls.

The Fire TV Omni Series also supports Dolby Digital Plus audio for higher-end surround sound speakers you may already have at home. The Omni Series and 4-Series TVs can automatically detect Echo speakers in your home and let you use them as stereo or surround-sound TV speakers.

The 65- and 75-inch versions have the best picture quality of Amazon's new TVs, with support for brighter and more colorful Dolby Vision HDR.

Amazon Fire TV 4-Series

Amazon

Amazon's Fire TV 4-Series TVs will be available in 43 inches ($369.99), 50 inches ($469.99) and 55 inches ($519.99).

They have bigger bezels around the edges than the Omni TVs, so they might not look as modern as the more expensive models, and you can't add a webcam for video calls.

The 4-Series TVs integrate with Alexa, but only if you tap the Alexa button on the voice remote -- you can't just call across the room to speak to your TV as you might with the Omni series, but you can still ask Alexa to play certain movies, TV shows and more, or ask it things like sports scores and the weather, as you would with any Fire TV device.

While the 4-Series TVs support high dynamic range standards like HLG and HDR10 for improved clarity in darker and brighter scenes, none offers Dolby Vision support like the highest-end Omni Series TVs.

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Google Pixel 6 teaser gives first real-world look at the upcoming phone - The Verge

Posted: 09 Sep 2021 04:57 AM PDT

Google has released a new teaser trailer for its upcoming Pixel 6 that includes several shots of the smartphone being used in the real world. The footage comes a little over a month after Google released its first official images of the upcoming device, which were limited to renders rather than actual photographs.

Over on its Instagram page, Google has also teased the phone in a new post which may give some hints about when its official launch might take place beyond "this fall." As Android Police points out, the clock widgets in these images show the date as "Tue 19th." And yes, the 19th of October falls on a Tuesday. That's a little later than when Google announced the Pixel 5 last year (September 30th), but it's definitely the right ballpark.

My colleague Dieter had the chance to try out (but not photograph) the Pixel 6 last month, when Google announced that it'll be powered by a new Google-designed system on a chip (SoC) called Tensor, which features a Tensor Processing Unit to speed up AI operations. The Pixel 6 is coming in two versions. There's a Pixel 6 Pro which will have a 6.7-inch 120Hz QHD+ curved display, and three rear cameras including an ultrawide and a 4X optical-zoom folded telephoto lens. Meanwhile the regular Pixel 6 will have a slightly smaller 6.4-inch 90Hz FHD+ flat display, and no telephoto camera.

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The newest Roomba gets smarter as it vacuums - TechCrunch

Posted: 08 Sep 2021 09:01 PM PDT

The Roomba is easily among the most ubiquitous robots in the world — but it has never been one of the smartest. On the whole, that's not a major issue. The top-selling vacuum is good at what it does: cleaning floors. But a roboticist's work is never done; iRobot has turned the vast majority of its attention and resources on the line for good reason, and the company has spent virtually every generation improving the robot's ability to perform its very specific task.

This time out, that means using on-board sensors to remember areas of the home and layout, along with areas that need a little extra cleaning time.

"We've turned on continuous learning, so that if you've changed things in your home, Roomba will figure it out," CEO Colin Angle tells TechCrunch. "If you open a door that you've never opened before, the Roomba will go explore it. If you moved a couch, it will understand that the home is a bit different than it used to be, and that's okay. The information that we're gathering grows in richness."

Image Credits: iRobot

The other big piece of that puzzle is identifying and avoiding specific objects. The company says it has worked on identifying hundreds of potential objects, but is starting with two specific problem areas: cords and poop. Both are big potential problem areas for a robotic vacuum system, albeit for dramatically different reasons. In either case, you don't want to have to get down on your hands and knees and deal with the fallout.

In the case of the former, iRobot made an acronym — and a guarantee. With Pet Owner Official Promise (P.O.O.P.), the company says it will replace any j7+ that runs over animal dookie. (Fine print: Offer valid for 1 year from purchase and covers replacement product only. Available in limited jurisdictions, additional terms and conditions apply.)

"You can Google this and see some not so pleasant examples of robots running over poop," says iRobot's director of Product Management, Hooman Shahidi. "We've solved this problem with consumers. If we see animal poop, we avoid it and inform the consumers that we saw it."

Image Credits: iRobot

Angle adds, "The glorious career of roboticists may not have been fully realized when we were sending people home and creating hundreds of models of poo. Sending people around to photograph and create synthetic models of poo. I don't know how many tens of thousands of images of all different shapes and sizes of synthetic images were required, but this is not demo code, clearly. We can't do pee. It has to have some 3D aspects to it, but it is something we believe you can count on for the robot to identify and avoid."

The third piece is scheduling, with the system adapting to a user's activities. That could mean cleaning while you're away (using your phone as a trigger for proximity) or making sure it avoids rooms you're in. If the robot has to traverse the house, it will drive quietly and not start up until it actually begins its job. The system also now offers a clean-time estimate to let the user know how long the job will take.

The j7 is available now in the U.S. and Canada for $649. The j7+, which includes a more compact cleaning base, will run $849. They're also available in Europe and will be rolling out to additional markets next year. Genius 3.0, meanwhile, will be available as an OTA update for the rest of the company's connected robots.

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