Amazon Plans Wall-Mounted Echo as Smart Home Command Center

Amazon is developing a new Echo device with a large touchscreen that attaches to the wall and serves as a smart home control panel, video chat device and media player, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the plans. From a report: The company's Lab126 hardware division is designing the device to be a digital command center, showing users upcoming calendar events, controlling accessories like lights and locks, and playing music and video. It would include Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and microphones and a camera for video conferencing, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. The product would compete with professionally installed smart home control screens from the likes of Control4 as well as Apple's iPads framed into walls and even Amazon's own Echo Show used with a third-party wall mount. Amazon is considering multiple variations, with screens of either 10 or 13 inches in size. A 10-inch display would be on par with the current Echo Show, while a 13-inch model would be Amazon's largest device with a display. The company plans to launch it either at the end of this year or the end of 2022, the people said. Prices ranging from $200 to $250 have been discussed internally, though the plans are still early and could change or be scrapped altogether.

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[backslashdot]

Fast Uniform Central Keyboard ..ok, I tried. Give me an A.

discount price

[algaeman]

Do I get $50 off the price if it runs customized advertisements on my wall 24/7?

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[fermion]

I have been playing with IPads and Amazon Fire devices as home control centers. The ads on the Fire are not a huge issue. The develops menu can set kiosk mode. The Fire, though, only seems to have a small subset of Apps. And I find voice control only unreliable.

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[slaker]

There's an application called Fire Toolbox that automates the process of importing and installing all the things to restore a FireOS device to full Android functionality. It can one-button install Nova Launcher or the like and set it as the default shell, put the full Play Services Framework on your device etc. It's very handy.

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[fibonacci8]

If I'm footing the electric bill, I'd expect to be paid to use such a device, not just offered discounts on purchases.

Control4 is brutally expensive

[mveloso]

I got a quote for like $30k for Control4-enabling a new house, and that's before the monthly subscription. Plus I'd have to pay them to install something new, which is ridiculous.

Amazon moving into the space would be great.

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[LynnwoodRooster]

SmartThings is also really handy and easy to use. Works with just about all end devices, integrates with Alexa, OK Google, even Siri. Quite handy and affordable - and no monthly charge! AND - you do NOT need to have it tethered to the cloud or any other service - you can get the hub up and running, and then it'll run itself locally (you do need Internet connectivity if you want to change/monitor when out and about).

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[mveloso]

Exactly. Though my ST install has been flaky as of late.

For those who want to take the DIY route, Home Assistant works relatively well.

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[slaker]

I feel like Home Assistant running on a Pi is a solution in search of a problem. Yes, you can buy the $20 USB adapters for your control network(s) for the sensors and manually enable things, but you can also just buy a Hubitat in the first place. There's really no monetary savings to speak of and the setup will probably be an ugly mess of wires.

If you're stupid enough to buy that, put up a sign

[TheNameOfNick]

Warn people that you don't care about anyone's privacy.

Haha, "Command Center"?

[K. S. Kyosuke]

It's a basement!

Tell Amazon your WHOLE LIFE

[Rick Schumann]

So it's not enough that they encourage you to fill your house with internet-connected microphones that listen to every voice and little sound 24/7, now they want to trick you into sharing every little detail of your life, too?
Have people really become so dumb as to fall for shit like this?

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[RotateLeftByte]

All the better to [cough][cough] suggest that you buy more Sh1t that you can't afford from Amazon

Avoid Amazon until they pay their taxes and treat their employees properly (i.e. not like shit)

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[Rick Schumann]

If you haven't figured it out from the above I do not have and will never allow any such devices in my house. I do not have a smartphone either because those are just as easily compromised (if they aren't by default) to be turned into tracking/surveillance devices (aside from the fact I don't have a use for one anyway).
The whole 'get people to buy more shit they don't need' schtick is just the tip of the iceberg, I shudder to think how much control a megacorp like Amazon could have over people's everyday l

It's not a TERRIBLE idea

[slaker]

I use a Hubitat Elevation for Z-wave and Zigbee device control. My Amazon hardware is all older than the new, expensive ones with built in automation controls (The Show 10 and Echo Plus) . I have motion sensors, outlets and smart lights and a bunch of routines set up, but if I'd had the option to just run it all through Amazon two or three years ago, I probably would have.

My folks use a lot of Samsung SmartThings, but apparently Samsung discontinued the app last fall and my old man hasn't bothered to re-cre

1984

[thomn8r]

The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely.

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[backslashdot]

People have been claiming it will soon be 1984 since 1985.

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[rthille]

Since late 1983 actually.

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[bb_matt]

And that vision could come to fruition, albeit in a different yet still alarming way.
If it comes to pass that in order to function in society - to purchase goods, to have an account with 'credits' in it, to "belong" in a world of comfort, that device/connection is required ... then ... too late.

But the frog boils slowly and is looking in the wrong direction.

Bet it looks like

[xanthos]

a giant ear. just sayin

Home automation makes homes look dated

[Seven Spirals]

Quixotically, home automation is a great way to make your house seem very old and dated (and lacking in a lot of class). The reason is that about 15 minutes after you install it: A. The company which made it will stop making it. Witness Colorado vNet and many others. B. It will look older and more clunky than the thing that comes out 15 minutes after you install it. C. It will break. Probably at the central controller. D. You will decide you want to add something else to the system that it cannot do. Standalone automation (things like PIR sensors in lights for "human occupancy detection" and such) tend to last a lot longer, but don't let you do things like pre-heat your pool in the Galapagos as you fly there in your private jet. I guess people who do that can just afford to upgrade the system at will.

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[Voyager529]

I guess people who do that can just afford to upgrade the system at will.

There are three kinds of home automation people. The first is exactly how you describe - stuck with a half-working Crestron system that makes the house feel more dated than if they just used normal things. The second is also how you describe - they've got Jeff Bezos money and have their $10,000 home automation system gutted and reimplemented every two years. Then, there is the third...the ones who keep their system working with more shims and adapters and it's sheer elegance in its absurdity.

I'm on the simp

Will it work better than Echo Show?

[Cyrano de Maniac]

OK, so privacy implications blah blah blah. There's a reason that I mostly only plug these types of things in when I'm using them, and the few I can't unplug (thermostats) I disable as much as I can unless I'm using it (and I'm still not convinced it's not listening).

Anyway, my big question is whether this will work any better than the miserable Echo Show? I bought one for "reasons" on the most recent Prime Day. After getting it running it was slow, laggy to touch input, you couldn't turn off the display

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[slaker]

You turn off the screen by saying "Alexa, turn off the screen." Works great. I almost never touch mine, but I do use them for the passive display of my calendar data and weather conditions. A couple of times, my Show has presented legitimate breaking news on its idle screen as well.

I use the ones I have as video phones. My best friend and I live 1000 miles apart but we leave the video calls open quite often just to keep each other company, and it's nice to be able to see video of my technologically inept mo

Why aren't they getting smarter?

[crow]

I got an Echo when they were new, and then got some Google Home Minis (free with Nest thermostats). After several years, I'm really disappointed that they aren't getting smarter. They have massive resources dedicated to these products, but they still can't parse more complicated sentences then when they were launched. When you add apps, you can't talk to them directly without using coding-like language. I can't tell them things like "When I say 'where is my car,' I mean 'Ask My Car location'" (The app "

Nope!

[kryliss]

Not gonna happen.

Thank god...

[nospam007]

...my home is stupid as fuck.

I have an idea

[slashmydots]

Someone should sue to force them to name it a spying device and require them to call it that in all publications.

Command Center

[groobly]

Command Center: it facilitates Amazon's ability to command what you buy and do, and eventually whether you are cancelled because you said the wrong thing 18 years ago.

from 10 to 13 inches in size

[poundmaster]

hi, all display is showed in inches, but you figure out how many cm it will be? if you don't know, it should be useful: https://amazingconverter.com/m... [amazingconverter.com]