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Hardware

Amazon Announces New Echo Dot With Digital Clock (cnet.com) 86

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Amazon is holding its annual product announcement event today in Seattle, where it just unveiled a new Echo Dot with a digital clock display. From a report: The white, LED display works with several Alexa functions. The display is primarily a clock, but you can also use it to show countdowns for timers and see the outside temperature when you ask Alexa about the weather. As an alarm clock, it includes an automatic snooze option. When your alarm goes off, you'll be able to tap the top and start a nine-minute snooze. The new Echo Dot is available for pre-order starting today for $59. Current Echo Dot will still be available.
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Amazon Announces New Echo Dot With Digital Clock More

Amazon Announces New Echo Dot With Digital Clock

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  • Sure, go ahead and spy on me more. I like digital clocks.

    • Sure, go ahead and spy on me more. I like digital clocks.

      Just think of the convenience!

      Alexa: Hi! Sounds like it's time to re-order some *insert aid here*. Would you like to subscribe and save 5%?

    • “Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.”

        Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

  • The future is amazing! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Xenolith0 ( 808358 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @12:43PM (#59235096)

    A clock and a speaker combined into ONE DEVICE! Never before has such technical innovation been dreamt of, it truly is amazing living in the year 2019.

    • Oh hey I got one better than that, how about:
      o Also has settable alarms
      o Has an AM/FM radio built into it
      o You can have the alarm turn on the radio! Who'da thunk it!?
      We are truly living in amazing times! xD

      • The clock also counts down the seconds until the Pre-Crime police arrive.

      • o You can have the alarm turn on the radio! Who'da thunk it!?

        This one out-of-the-box, forward-thinking idea is worthy of a patent. Maybe even 2 patents. But what if you could even preset the volume? Okay, maybe 4 patents!

    • I'm guessing all the commenters here don't actually own an Echo Dot. I sure wouldn't, except my wife adores the thrice-damned thing. I've made it clear if she puts one within 10 meters of my office she'll find pieces of it in a trail leading to the Dumpster [tm] brand trash receptacle outside.

      Be that as it may, because I do have to live with one in my house, I know that it already has an analog clock. Stupidest thing you've ever seen - the hour hand is longer than the minute hand, except for a barely-visibl

  • Why White LED? (Score:3)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @12:47PM (#59235122)

    Yes I know Red LEDs are old and cheap, while White and Blue LED's are so cool that the inventors won a Nobel prize for them. However our eyes in low light vision isn't affected by Red light, one of the big things about digital clocks that I think we like, is when we are asleep, and wake up in the middle of the night, we can quickly get the time and go back to sleep.
    Blue and White LED's blind us in the middle of the night, as when you open your eyes and look at it, your eyes will adjust to the brightness, and the rest of your night vision is gone.

    I have a Samsung Wireless charger, that I have at work, and needed a new one for home from a different company because the Samsung has this blue LED that keeps me up all night, while the new one I have, has a Red LED which isn't nearly as bad.

    • Get yourself a roll of this [mpja.com] and all your problems will be solved.

    • Electrical tape. Problem solved.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Chromal ( 56550 )
      Cover the LEDs with electrical tape and de-solder the microphone. There, you fixed it. It's a box that does nothing. Why do people buy it, again?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Did that with a kindle fire after discovering that Alexa could not be removed. _Then_ I found out it is actually crap for reading books.

    • Blue and White LED's blind us in the middle of the night, as when you open your eyes and look at it, your eyes will adjust to the brightness, and the rest of your night vision is gone.

      This is true, and it's why a lot of instrument panels for aircraft are red-lit.

      Red is far easier on the eyes at night because red light doesn't cause the pupils to contract. It also takes longer for your pupil to dilate than it does to contract, so your night vision is wrecked for much longer than you'd expect.

      For a long time I used to replace the standard white bulbs in my car dashboards with red bulbs* because it was so much better for driving at night. Looking at the road your pupils are dilated, glance

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Are you arguing for actual understanding how things work before adding them to a lifestyle-gadget? As in understand first, decide second? Or as in actual "engineering"? That is sooo shocking! You are soooo behind the times! These days, style is _everything_, functionality is nothing!

      • Style is subjective. Your home fireplace still is considered a stylish addition to homes, which when the lights are off gives your home a classic reddish hue, which for a home device red can create a feeling of Warm and inviting. And being that "Dark Mode" is so popular now, Warm hues go well with dark modes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SeaFox ( 739806 )

      I use an older red LED display alarm clock for a bedside device for this reason. My alarm is actually done via my smartphone since I can program is to repeat on days to match my work schedule and I can customize the snooze length (I'm using 15 minutes).

      What's funny is Amazon could have covered all these in its product. Why are the LEDs white when they could have embedded multiple color LEDs to let the consumer set the desired color. Why is the sleep function a set time when it's a smart device? And we shoul

      • What's funny is Amazon could have covered all these in its product. Why are the LEDs white when they could have embedded multiple color LEDs to let the consumer set the desired color. Why is the sleep function a set time when it's a smart device? And we should be able to set any number of alarm permutations we want for the same reason.

        Because those features will be in next years model.

    • Those Blue LEDs probably damage your eyesight [forbes.com]. We're raising a generation that will have dimming vision as their photo-receptors are unable to regenerate themselves. If someone figures out how to cure the future plague of blue LED blindness we'll give them a Nobel price too.

    • Blue and White LED's blind us in the middle of the night, as when you open your eyes and look at it, your eyes will adjust to the brightness, and the rest of your night vision is gone

      The blue is worse than blinding, as our eyes have difficulty focusing those wavelengths.

    • Not just that - blue light in your room definitely wrecks your sleep. I mean, how didn't Amazon put an adjustable-color LED in these? If you care about sleep (and ergo health), do listen to everything Matthew Walker [foundmyfitness.com] has to say on the subject. It seems like either Amazon doesn't care about sleep enough to even ask anybody about it, or they are willing to hurt people's sleep knowingly. SMDH.

      Anyway, I got one of these [amzn.to] about a year ago. I put it on the wall across the room - and it's just about perfect. N

  • Great for law enforcement. (Score:3)

    by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @12:47PM (#59235124)
    This is great for the police. Amazon will store the recordings from everyone's bedrooms and the police can freely access the audio files at will.

    It amazes me that people actually buy this stuff.

    • Thats a pretty amazing trick. How does it record from everyone's bedrooms?

    • This is great for the police. Amazon will store the recordings from everyone's bedrooms and the police can freely access the audio files at will.

      It amazes me that people actually buy this stuff.

      To be fair, I think most people these days post video live feed of their bedrooms on their facebook home pages.

      • "To be fair, I think most people these days post video live feed of their bedrooms on their facebook home pages."

        No, that's just you.

  • ..until you set it?

    ..assuming you remember how?

    Can I hold out hope that this 'digital assistant' surveillance device fad will die out when people realize they're being taken for fools? Please?

    • In their defense, I assume it will sync up with a time server--it is connected to the Internet. So it might flash 12:00 until that happens.

      Also, since it has Alexa, I could see something like, "Alexa, set the time to 11:17 AM" would be how you set it. Which isn't a bad thing...

  • Whoa (Score:3)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @12:50PM (#59235138) Homepage Journal

    A clock? And it is only $59? I'm getting two.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Knowing Amazon, these will be discounted to $29 before Black Friday rolls around. By mid next year, you'll be getting one for "free" when you sign up for a new bank account.

      Honestly, I'm surprised that they don't just give them out for free to Prime members now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      A clock? And it is only $59? I'm getting two.

      I refuse to get one until it also makes julienne fries.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sims 2 ( 994794 )

      Why not get the echo wall clock instead? It's $25.
      I'll wait till they get a digital one tho.
      I'm looking for one that both supports wifi and has a digital display as WWVB wont reach inside our metal building but the wifi works.

  • Does it all ... (Score:3)

    by Retired ICS ( 6159680 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @12:55PM (#59235160)

    My $19 alarm clock does all this and more! It even has an AM/FM radio built in, works on mains power and has battery backup, plus it does not take pictures of the booty call to post on the Internet without permission.

  • Eavesdropping bugs hidden in household objects? That sounds like something the Stazi would have been into. Prove to me Amazon hasn't been served with a National Security Letter that gags them and allows Trump appointees to Hoover up all conversations within earshot of an Echo. Prove it.

    • The Stazi would have really liked everyone to carry one in their pocket too when they are outside of their house, especially if it constantly was tracking the location. Can you imagine if that happened?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by leonbev ( 111395 )

      Well, people have already independently proved with packet sniffers that these Echo and Google Home devices only transmit data when their wake word is triggered. But, hey... if you really believe that Big Brother Is Watching You, I doubt that you'll believe those studies either. Just make sure to take off those tinfoil hats and wash your hair once in awhile, please!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Chromal ( 56550 )
        Oh, you're telling us that it's been proven for all time and circumstance that there's no risk of private data being exfiltrated without a warrant? I'm so glad you cleared that up forevermore.

        • The Echo's wake-word functionality is baked into its firmware, and can't be altered remotely. That's by design, of course. This is why some of those "attacks" on the Echo to turn them into spy devices required physical access to the machines. So, yeah, I'm pretty confident Amazon or anyone else can't just flip on the "record everything" switch remotely.

          But by all means, feel free to set the goalpost so absurdly high that you dare not trust anything more complex than two rocks to bang together.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Chromal ( 56550 )
            So, for you, it's corporate cloud under the legal theory that private individual data can be subpoenaed without a warrant en masse or it's banging rocks together. That certainly isn't excluding any middle ground for you, huh?

            • No, I'm saying that almost nothing in this world is "proven for all time and circumstances", so you'll forgive me if I think you've delved into hyperbole before I (also admittedly) did. Can you make that claim about whatever machine you're typing on right now? If you're being honest, I sincerely doubt it, as you're running a lot of code that we can't personally examine (hardware code, binary blobs), or haven't bothered to review, trusting others to do that (Linux code, etc).

              I think there are very good rea

      • Yeah, it buffers everything locally and transmits when the wake word is triggered. So as long as you don't wake it up, you are fine.

        • Yeah, it buffers everything locally and transmits when the wake word is triggered. So as long as you don't wake it up, you are fine.

          Yes, but once you wake it up, what guarantees it will go back to sleep? Perhaps Amazon could have it behave as if it went to sleep but in actuality still be awake. And not all the time, but only under some circumstances controlled by Amazon, so that packet sniffing wouldn't usually see it.

      • "Just make sure to take off those tinfoil hats and wash your hair once in awhile, please!" But then the Illuminati Satanic Lizard People thought rays will get in!
  • Really, the subject line says it all. However there are a lot who will trade themselves to big brother to be cool with the latest gadget.

  • This ground-breaking innovation from Apple, when will it ever end? I mean, a gadget with a CLOCK in it, has science gone TOO FAR? Does it actually tell the correct time, or do you need Courage(tm) to figure it out?

    I'm telling you, Apple needs to stop inventing so much stuff and leave some things uninvented so future engineers will have something left to invent!!

  • I read em all (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ryzilynt ( 3492885 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @01:21PM (#59235352)

    OK, I read all the comments.

    The general consensus is " Wow a fucking clock, how innovative"

    A lot of people already use these as an alarm clock. You can set a routine that sets the volume, turns your lights on, designates a wake time, and plays your favorite station or song.

    It's actually pretty handy.

    I'm guessing they knew this (either the listening, or device ID labeling) , and this is why they put a clock on it. So it can be the only device sitting on your bedside table.

  • See, I get to do this at 4:23 am when my eyes are shut with no risk of starting to wake up. I also don't need to roll onto my side to see the clock. I prefer my lazy process that is currently in place and superior.

    • I've never understood why people need to know what time it is in the middle of the night. Your only job at that point is sleeping. Just do your job until the end-of-shift signal.

    • A quick glance at a dim red LED display takes literally the blink of an eye. No chance to wake you up more.

      Don't try to justify ass (Amazon Speaking Speaker) cancer.

  • Nobody ever has thought before of adding a _clock_ to a digital appliance!

    In other news, designers of digital home appliances were recently found to be at the very bottom of creativity and basically are not capable of even the slightest original idea.

  • No, you are not getting your stupid state surveillance tool into my house, or my bedroom.

  • you know why dont ya?? (Score:3)

    by FudRucker ( 866063 ) on Wednesday September 25, 2019 @02:05PM (#59235652)
    because amazon needs to timestamp all that spying they are doing
  • I've already got a VOBOT for this (https://getvobot.com/clock) which provides an implementation of Alexa (so omits some stuff that they don't specify/allow), only listens on button press. It contains a battery which is good for a few hours away from a usb charger it seems, will power down and still wake for Alarms if you don't reconnect, provides a wifi hot spot - so useful when travelling. Alarms can execute submit voice commands to Alexa directly, so can do most things. It's not perfect but I'm pretty ha
  • i do, so much, that's another gadget i won't buy

  • You know, those clocks that call themselves "atomic" clocks, that try to receive time signals from WWV-B, that only connect once in a blue moon, if they are positioned just right, in the right spot in your house.

    I've been looking for a wall or alarm clock that synchronizes its time from an internet-based source, similar to how your cell phone gets the time from the nearest cell tower. So far, the cheapest clock I've found that synchronizes via wifi, is $90, and that is way down from just a year ago. Maybe t

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