Doesnt surprise me at all.
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Some parts of Guard will apparently continue to be free:
From the email:
We recently announced plans to discontinue Alexa Guard and launch Alexa Emergency Assist, a new service that helps you keep your family safe. Some Guard features, including Smoke and CO alarm detection, will be available as part of Emergency Assist for $5.99/month or $59/year (visit amazon.com/alexaemergencyassist for up to date pricing details). Other Guard features, including Away Lighting, will now be available as part of your general Alexa experience.
We don't even get guard here in Australia, always frustrating when a new feature gets released and it is US only. I'm still waiting on Alexa family as Geolocation is useless for just me and nobody else in the house.
Yep, but to @dJOS point, slowly moving free features behind paywall... It doesn't really move the needle for me, but it was just an example of this happening. I understand from a business perspective. Since it's cloud based, there's a lot of overhead to all these devices. And with how they sell the hardware either with no profit or a loss based on the sales they always have, they need to do something to not lose money. I don't think it leading to more purchasing (via voice for example) happened quite the way they expected...
The primary purpose behind the Echo system is to drive people to the Amazon website to make purchases, That is why Alexa reminds you that you are running out of dishwasher detergent, laundry powder, and dryer sheets based on your usage of those devices. It also reminds you when it might be time to reorder consumables you have purchased in the past.
I doubt that Amazon make much money on the Echo devices they sell. For them, it is all about collecting data on the habits of those using those devices so they can sell more on their web site.
I am an Amazon Prime member and used to watch Amazon Prime video frequently. However, it seems that most of the content now is just trial content to get you to subscribe to a partner streaming channel.
I get no such reminders at all. Then again, I buy things like laundry detergent in such small quantity (solitary bachelor here), it's not a big thing to buy it at the local shops.
I have bought some things like candies I cannot get here, but the only reminders I get are the occasional email, and I don't mind those at all. Amazon is in business to make money, but no arm twisting, and Alexo (I say AlexO because mine is set to male voicing) never harangues me about this or that product.
I thought I would give the apple mini pod a go, but its volume is so low even at the top settings that it was next to useless. $100 for something a $39 Echo Dot does better and - it seems - far more versatility. For the record, I have quite a bit of Apple stuff, but some of it is so overrated it is painful. Their HomePod mini, and Apple TV boxes are two examples.
I've just got one of these to try in the UK. It's a big step up from the Echo Show, although that's not saying much. First impressions are that it will be great for visitors who don't know anything about our smart home.
I use a lot of virtual devices to trigger Alexa routines for devices that I can't add to HE and having the ability to run routines from the screen is going to be useful for me.
The downside is that the Widget library is very, very small. In addition, the Favourite's Widget doesn't display my favourites from the Alexa App. Amazon are investigating and have logged this as a software issue....
Does it have screen saver with your library pictures?
That is an option, although I have mine setup for the screen to go dark after use and automatically wake when approached. I haven't tested it as a permanent photo frame.
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