All the news from Amazon’s September 2022 product launch event

Blink’s giving its blocky Mini security camera a new robot body. The new Mini Pan Tilt is a very literally named mounting accessory that converts your existing Blink Mini camera from a stationary device into a controllable camera that lets you look around the room.

Setup sounds like it’ll be easy for the Pan Tilt: you connect the Mini camera to the mount, plug in the Micro USB cord, and the camera now has 360-degree movement from the Blink app. You can even install it on a tripod or wall mount (not included), or you can just place it on a table.

Amazon just held its fall hardware launch event, where it revealed a ton of new tech, including a new Kindle Scribe, an updated Fire TV cube, and a second-generation Echo Auto device. Here’s a roundup of some of the most exciting announcements that came out of Amazon’s event.

Kindles aren’t just for reading anymore — the newest Kindle is an E-Ink tablet that you can use for reading and writing. It comes with a 10.2-inch screen with 300ppi, along with a Basic Pen or Premium Pen option for the stylus.

Amidst a slew of new hardware announcements today, Amazon is also announcing a host of new capabilities for Alexa, including a handful of new smart home features. The company hasn’t announced exact release dates for the updates, but its press release says it hopes to roll them out “over the coming months.”

It might sound like a small change, but one of the more significant upgrades is the ability to quickly and easily schedule smart home device actions for moments in the future. Although it’s previously been possible to schedule actions via the Alexa app, now the process is a lot simpler, thanks to voice commands like “Alexa, turn off the lights in 10 minutes,” or “Alexa, turn on the fan at 6pm.”

Amazon just announced its latest and most powerful Fire TV Cube to date. Like past models, the $139.99 streaming player has built-in microphones for voice controls and a speaker for playing back Alexa’s responses. It’s the most capable of the company’s streaming players and retains the 360-degree IR blaster found in the previous Fire TV Cube that can power on and control other devices in your home theater system, like a TV, soundbar, or receiver.

Preorders for the new Fire TV Cube start today, and it will ship on October 29th. Amazon has refreshed the Cube hardware by adding fabric to its sides, though the standard Alexa LED status bar and physical buttons for volume (and muting the microphones) remain present on top. The processor has been upgraded to a new octa-core chip that Amazon says is 20 percent more powerful than the last Fire TV Cube. Perhaps more importantly, the 2022 Fire TV Cube will also support Wi-Fi 6E, which promises cleaner bandwidth for streaming and less overall wireless network congestion.

Amazon’s first self-branded TV sets were aimed squarely at budget shoppers and prioritized value and good software over sheer picture quality. The Fire TV Omni lineup runs the same software as the company’s popular streaming device — offering access to endless entertainment apps — and the built-in microphones allow for hands-free Alexa voice commands. Today, Amazon is announcing the latest edition to its TV series, the Fire TV Omni QLED, and this time, it’s stepping up the display specs with the inclusion of full-array local dimming.

Starting at $799.99 and coming in 65- and 75-inch ($1,099.99) sizes, the Fire TV Omni QLED includes “up to” 96 individual dimming zones behind the panel, which should result in noticeably better contrast and black levels when compared to the original Omni sets. The new TVs have presence and ambient light sensors, letting them save power and automatically turn off the screen when no one is nearby. The light sensor has also led Amazon to add support for Dolby Vision IQ and HDR10 Plus Adaptive, picture modes that will automatically adjust the brightness of your content based on ambient conditions.

When it comes to networking, Wi-Fi is great for convenience, but it can’t hold a candle to wires when it comes to performance and plain old reliability. Amazon seems to have taken this idea to heart because it’s introducing an ethernet jack-laden gateway, which supports power over ethernet, or PoE, to its Eero lineup. It’s also releasing a PoE access point alongside it.

The tech, which is popular among businesses and home networking enthusiasts alike, lets you run a single cable to your networking equipment instead of having to connect power and ethernet separately. For those willing to pay for the equipment, it should provide more flexibility for where Eero access points can be mounted or even just let people achieve cleaner cable runs.

If you’ve been eyeing your Echo smart speaker for a while now and wondering if it could do something more than just play music or set a timer for your toast, I have good news. Amazon is turning it into an extender for your Eero mesh Wi-Fi network.

The capability to push your Wi-Fi a few hundred feet further around your home and make it easier to connect smart home devices like outdoor cameras and that streaming media stick in the spare bedroom is a feature of Amazon’s new Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock speakers, announced today.

Ring’s got a new top-of-the-line “Pro” security camera that packs all of the company’s advanced features into a more versatile design, complete with wire-free options for the first time. The Spotlight Cam Pro adds radar-powered 3D motion detection, color pre-roll, and Bird’s Eye View in a new design that can be powered by battery, a solar panel, and, of course, the good ol’ plug-in option. You can preorder the new Spotlight Cam Pro today: the battery and plug-in power options are $229.99, and the solar panel-powered model is $249.99.

Like last year’s Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 and Floodlight Cam Wired Pro, the new Cam Pro has a radar-powered 3D motion detection feature that can more accurately pinpoint when people actually enter your property and feed you more relevant alerts quicker. Then, it can create a mapped trail called the Bird’s Eye View, showing you where the person or animal moved on your property. You can then review recordings of the event that was mapped in the Ring app (though you will still need a Ring Protect subscription to do that).

Amazon has announced the Halo Rise, a bedside device meant to track your sleep and wake you up in the morning using lights and a “small alarm speaker,” as a press release describes it. The company says the Rise uses “contactless” technology, meaning you don’t have to put on something like a fitness tracker or smartwatch for it to work.

The company says that “it doesn’t have any cameras or microphones” but that it tracks movement and your breathing patterns using “built-in sensor technology.” (The company hasn’t described exactly how this works yet, but it seems plausible that it’s using something similar to the ultrasound tech found in some Echo devices.) If you sleep with a partner, Amazon says it should be able to pick out your breathing from theirs, as long as you’re the one closest to the Rise.

At its annual fall event, Amazon showed off its brand-new Echo Dot and Echo Dot with Clock. The fifth generation of the smaller spherical speakers has been seriously souped-up. While they sport the same look, they have a completely redesigned audio architecture under the hood that delivers two times the bass of the prior model.

Plus, the Alexa-powered smart speakers now use Amazon’s AZ2 neural edge processor that allows them to do more actions locally. There’s also a new temperature sensor, new tap gesture controls, and the Dots can double as Wi-Fi extenders for an Eero Mesh system.

Amazon has announced an update to the Echo Auto that it originally launched back in 2018. The new Echo Auto is a wholly new design, with a smaller footprint, fabric covering, and easier mounting options. It will sell for $54.99.

The idea behind the Echo Auto is to put Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant in your car if your vehicle doesn’t have it integrated natively like some modern cars. Effectively a microphone with some smarts, the Echo Auto pairs to your phone over Bluetooth and can then connect to your car’s audio system over Bluetooth or through a 3.5mm audio cable. Power is supplied by your car’s USB port.

BMW owners have been able to use Amazon’s Alexa as their in-car voice assistant since 2018. But the automaker announced that it will be taking things a step further, using Amazon’s Alexa core technology to build its own custom voice assistant.

The voice assistant will be built using Amazon’s Alexa Custom Assistant, a service that lets automakers and device manufacturers build their own digital assistants using the company’s Alexa technology.

Amazon has used its past September events to announce a flying camera drone, a home robot, and an Alexa-enabled microwave. Needless to say, it’s hard to predict what the company has in store at its annual event, but we can be certain there’ll be a lot of products on tap. Chances are high we’ll see updated devices in the Echo lineup, plenty of new things that work with Alexa, and likely some announcements involving other big Amazon brands too, from Fire TV to Ring and Eero.

The event is being held virtually via livestream, but it’s available to watch on an invite-only basis. If you want to keep up on the event as it happens, we’ve got you covered: The Verge staff will be tuned in and reporting from the event live, so you can stick around to be filled in as details are announced.

The newest Kindle is the first truly new Kindle in years. It’s called the Kindle Scribe, and it’s both a reading device and a writing one. With a 10.2-inch E Ink screen, a stylus that attaches to the side of the device, and a bunch of new software, the $339.99 Scribe is trying to be as much a tablet as an ebook reader. It’s available for preorder today, and Amazon promises it’ll be out before the holidays. It’s also the kind of device people have been waiting for Amazon to make for years.

Kevin Keith, a vice president of product and marketing at Amazon, says the display is the reason the Scribe took so long. “This is the first 300ppi, front-lit display that has an adjustable warm light,” he says over Amazon’s Chime conferencing system, holding the Scribe up to the camera. “And that makes sure it doesn’t have any compromise between the reading and writing experience.” Historically, bigger E Ink displays have meant lower resolution. The Scribe has the Kindle’s typical contrast and clarity, he says, while still adding all the tech necessary to make the whole surface possible to write on. 

Amazon’s hardware launch event is less than an hour away, and we’re already seeing images of some upcoming products make their way around the web ahead of time. Leakers posted images of the purported devices on Twitter, which include an alleged Amazon Fire TV, a new Kindle that comes with a stylus, and a potential look at the Echo Auto 2.

One leaker, SnoopyTech, claims Amazon will release a new Kindle called the “Scribe” that allows users to take notes directly on the screen using a supported stylus, making the device handy for more than just reading. The images shared by SnoopyTech indicate users can access a note-taking interface that lets them erase text, as well as undo or redo anything they’ve just written.

Amazon has some new products on the way. The company is holding an invite-only, virtual event today, where it’s expected to introduce products from across its lineup of brands.

Chances are, there’s going to be a lot to see. Amazon is unusually good at keeping its upcoming releases under wraps, and it usually uses its annual September event to announce a lot of new products. Those could come from Amazon’s own product lineup — which includes the Kindle, Fire TV, and Echo — and from some of its acquired brands, like Eero, Ring, and Blink.

Amazon is holding an event next week to announce new devices, features, and services. The fully virtual event will kick off at 9AM PT / 12PM ET on September 28th and is expected to include the usual deluge of Amazon devices announcements just in time for fall. Amazon confirmed the event in an email invitation to The Verge today.

It’s reasonable to assume there will be new Echo devices, new Ring products or services, and perhaps some surprises, too. Last year’s Amazon fall devices event was chock-full of news, including its new Astro home robot, the Echo Show 15, a Fibit-like fitness tracker, and even a new smart thermostat.