Technology

As is now typical just ahead of the holidays, Amazon just inundated us with a whole new lineup of hardware devices, including new Echo smart speakers and screens, at its Alexa event today, plus other smart home and connected devices from its brands Ring and Eero. There were also a slew of surprises, like Alexa earbuds, glasses, and a smart ring. And oh yeah, a new Alexa-powered oven, too.

New Echos

Headlining the event are Amazonlatest updates to its Echo line of devices.

Echo Dot with Clock

Not one for overly creative names, Amazon has given its entry-level Echo, the Echo Dot, a nifty upgrade. The new Echo Dot with Clock now features a digital alarm clock on the front, which can be dimmed if you prefer, at times. This LED display also allows the Dot to show the weather, when asked, or a countdown timer.

The new Dot doesn&t replace the original, however. Itjust a $10 upgrade to $59 if you want the extra feature.

Echo Studio

The Echo the audiophiles have been waiting for. The new Echo Studio is Amazonresponse to GoogleNest Max and AppleHomePod. The $199.99 device supports 3D audio and Dolby Atmos. It has five drivers, including one downward-facing 5.25-inch woofer, a 1-inch, front-firing tweeter and three, 2-inch, mid-range speakers aimed at different directions.

And it has a 24-bit DAC and a power amplifier with 100 kHz of bandwidth for high-res, lossless music playback — you know, like whatavailable through the Amazon Music HD service.

Echo Buds

Surprise, Alexa comes to your ear through Amazonown $129 wireless earbuds. The Echo Buds include BoseActive Noise Reduction Technology and provide hands-free access to Alexa, so you can do things like play music, get directions, order an Uber and more. Later, you&ll also be able to check Whole Foods inventory as you shop, too. (For those who still shop…in an actual store).

The Echo Buds offer 5 hours of music or 4 hours of call time and come with a case that holds up to 3 charges. And with a tap, the Echo Buds can access your phoneother assistant, like Siri or Google Assistant.

Echo Show 8

The $129 Echo Show 8 is a smaller, 8-inch version of the 10-inch flagship model of the Echo device with a screen. Ita little bigger than the Echo 5, which is more of an alarm clock alternative, so makes sense for watching videos and placing voice calls…or dropping in on the kids. The device features an HD display and built-in camera shutter.

Echo

The company refreshed its existing Echo speaker with better sound and new colorful fabric covers (Twilight Blue, Charcoal, Heather Grey, and Sandstone), but remains the same price as before at $99. In other words, thereno need to run out and buy this Echo to replace your old one, but if you were in the market already, the Echo you&ll get is slightly better.

Echo Glow

This fun Alexa accessory is basically a nightlight for the kids that can change color and flash to the music. But at $30, ita lot of cash for a little bit of fun. Letwait for the inevitable Kids Edition Dot + Glow bundle, shall we?

Echo Flex

You can now bring Echo to the bathroom with the new $25 Echo Flex device. (No really, this is how Amazon had it set up in its demo area.) The Flex plugs into any available outlet and functions as a small smart speaker. Thereno camera (whew) but it can respond to voice commands, like to give you the news and weather while you get ready for work, for example. It can also be upgraded with $14 accessories, including a Smart Night Light or Motion Sensor. The Flex is $25.

Echo Frames - Loop

Amazon introduced its beta, invite-only hardware devices. One is a pair of $179.99 Alexa-enabled glasses that stick 4 micro speakers in the frame for hands-free Alexa.

The other is a $129.99 Alexa-enabled smart ring with 2 microphones that puts Alexa on your finger for quick questions or brief calls.

Other Hardware

New Eero mesh Wi-Fi router

Amazon launched the next generation of its Eero router, which now works better with Alexa. The router lets you do things like shut off or pause the Wi-Fi with voice commands — features that will later come to other routers from TP-Link, Asus, Linsky, and Arris by way of an API.The router is $99, or available in a three-pack for $249, and is available in the U.S. today and in Europe later this year.

Amazon Smart Oven

Whatan Amazon event without a new Alexa-powered oven, right? This time around, Amazon takes on the June Oven with a $250 combination convection oven, microwave, air fryer, and food warmer. Once paired with Echo, you can ask Alexa to do things like preheat the oven, start or stop the cooking, and more.

New Ring Cams

The Ring Stick Up Cam got a price drop to $99 as the Ring Stick Up Cam Elite, $199, launches. Unlike the Stick Up Cam, the new camera will be powered over Ethernet. The Ring Indoor Cam is a wired-only cheaper version of the camera at $60.

More Stuff

Alexa gets Smarter and Weirder

Amazon also took the time to mention a few upgrades to Alexacapabilities today.

• This includes a multilingual mode where Alexa will be able to now speak both English and Spanish in the U.S.; French and English in Canada; and Hindi and English in India.
• A new Neural Text to Speech model which will use machine learning to help Alexa be more &expressive.&
• Celebrity voices! Because who doesn&t want Alexa to sound like Samuel L. Jackson? No really. The Jackson voice will be a 99-cent add-on to Echo devices and more celeb additions are in the works.
• Alexa is coming to GM, including 2018 and newer Cadillac, Chevy, Buic and GMC vehicles
• Scan-to-Cook is an upgrade for Echo Show which lets you scan a barcode to have the new Amazon Smart Oven prepare the item correct. The feature works with hundreds of Whole Foods brands, like 365 Everyday Value, plus Gardein, Marie Callenderand more.
• Certified for Humans is a new program that will highlight easy-to-use smart home products to consumers searching Amazon. Easy is just one requirement, though. The other is &works with Alexa.&
• Alexa Guard gets updated to listen for more than just breaking glass, smoke or carbon monoxide alarms. Now it will listen for human activity too — like if footsteps, talking, coughing, or a door closing, is detected while Guard is in Away mode.
• Alexa replenishment service, launching later this year, will alert you when supplies from smart home devices are low — like batteries that need changing in a smart lock, or an air filter thatready for a swap.
• New utterances: You&ll be able to ask Alexa, &tell me what you heard& and &why did you do that?&

Alexa-powered Food Network Kitchen Service

Customers love Alexa in the kitchen for watching recipe videos. So Amazon doubled down on this with its partner, Food Network, to offer both live and on-demand cooking classes for Echo Show users. The service launches in October, and while Alexa is the exclusive voice partner, it will also be offered on phones and tablets. Oh, and Bobby Flay is involved.

Amazon Sidewalk

One of the more interesting introductions today was Amazon Sidewalk, Amazonlow-bandwidth, long-distance wireless protocol designed to connect all of the IoT devices around your home and beyond — including places where Bluetooth or Wi-Fi can&t reach. The network uses the free, over-the-air 900 megahertz spectrum, and could allow for things like an Alexa-connected mailbox or lights for the yard, for example.

Ring Fetch

The first product to take advantage of Amazon Sidewalk was a connected dog tag that will alert you when your pooch exits a geofence you&ve established — like the yard. The Ring Fetch launches next year.

An Indian SaaS startup, which is increasingly courting clients from outside of the country, just raised a significant amount of capital to expand its business.

Hyderabad-based Darwinbox, which operates a cloud-based human resource management platform, said on Thursday it has raised $15 million in a new financing round. The Series B round — which moves the firmtotal raise to $19.7 million — was led by Sequoia India and saw participation from existing investors Lightspeed India Partners, Endiya Partners, and 3one4 Capital.

More than 200 firms including giants such as adtech firm InMobi, fintech startup Paytm, drink conglomerate Bisleri, automobile maker Mahindra, Kotak group, and delivery firms Swiggy and Milkbasket use DarwinboxHR platform to serve half a million of their employees in 50 nations, Rohit Chennamaneni, cofounder of Darwinbox, told TechCrunch in an interview.

The startup, which competes with giants such as SAP and Oracle, said its platform enables high level of configurability, ease of use, and understands the needs of modern employees. &The employees today who have grown accustomed to using consumer-focused services such as Uber and Amazon are left disappointed in their experience with their own firmHR offerings,& said Gowthami Kanumuru, VP Marketing at Darwinbox, in an interview.

DarwinboxHR platform offers a range of features including the ability for firms to offer their employees insurance and early salary as loans. Its platform also features social networks for employees within a company to connect and talk, as well as an AI assistant that allows them to apply for a leave or set up meetings with quick voice commands from their phone.

&The AI system is not just looking for certain keywords. If an employee tells the system he or she is not feeling well today, it automatically applies a leave for them,& she said.

Darwinboxplatform is built to handle onboarding new employees, keeping a tab on their performance, monitor attrition rate, and maintain an ongoing feedback loop. Or as Kanumuru puts it, the entire &hiring to retiring& cycle.

One of Darwinboxclients is L-T, which is tasked with setting up subways in many Indian cities. L-T is using Darwingeo-fencing feature to log the attendance of employees. &They are not using biometric punch machine that is typically used by other firms. Instead, they just require their 1,200 employees to check-in from the workplace using their phones,& said Kanumuru.

Additionally, Darwinbox is largely focusing on serving companies based in Asia as it believes Western companies& solutions are not a great fit for people here, said Kanumuru. The startup began courting clients in Southeast Asian markets last year.

&Our growth is a huge validation for our vision,& she said. &Within six months of operations, we had the delivery giant Delhivery with over 23,000 employees use our platform.&

In a statement to TechCrunch, Dev Khare, a partner at Lightspeed Venture, said, &there is a new trend of SaaS companies targeting the India/SE Asia markets. This trend is gathering steam and is disproving the conventional wisdom that Asia-focused SaaS companies cannot get to be big companies. We firmly believe that Asia-focused SaaS companies can get to large impact value and become large and profitable. Darwinbox is one of these companies.&

DarwinboxChennamaneni said the startup will use the fresh capital to expand its footprints in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian markets. Darwinbox will also expand its product offerings to address more of employees& needs. The startup is also looking to make its platform enable tasks such as booking of flights and hotels.

Chennamaneni, an alum of Google and McKinsey, said Darwinbox aims to double the number of clients it has in the next six to nine months.

Exercise bike and treadmill company Peloton priced its initial public offering this evening at $29 per share. As part of the IPO, Peloton is offering 40 million Class A common stock to the public.

Peloton was expected to price its IPO between $26 to $29 per share, so this falls on the higher end. With Peloton selling 40 million Class A shares, it is looking to raise $1.16 billion with a valuation of more than $8 billion.

Peloton filed to go public back in August, reporting $915 million in total revenue for the year ending June 30, 2019. That was an increase of 110% from the fiscal year prior. Prior to this upcoming IPO, Peloton had raised $994 million at a private market valuation of $4.15 billion.

Shares of &PTON& will start trading tomorrow on the Nasdaq.