Amazon showed me its new Alexa Home Theater surround sound system, which synchronizes and automatically configures multiple Echo Dot Max or Echo Studio speakers to work with your TV.

Nvidia's graphics cards are still the best for AI work. Amazon produces its own hardware, but AWS still uses Nvidia-powered instances, such as new P6e clusters. Nvidia's software ecosystem, training tools, and hardware advantage are hard to beat.

The company’s improved voice assistant can search for specific scenes, help you find out game scores, and more.

Amazon unveiled a new lineup of Echo, Kindle, Ring, Fire TV and Blink devices, with artificial intelligence as the common thread. Highlights include Kindle recaps, Ring’s lost-dog “Search Party,” and Alexa+ features that turn the voice assistant into a virtual doorman and entertainment guide.

Among the new displays is the $180 Echo Show 8. It's 20 percent more than its predecessor from 2021 ($150). Additionally, Amazon is releasing a new 11-inch smart display, the Echo Show 11. At $220, it’s cheaper than the 10-inch Echo Show 10 that Amazon released in 2021 ($250), marking an exception to the Alexa+ price bumps.

Amazon’s smart assistant takes another step toward broader availability.

Amazon’s fresh slate of hardware is here, but the real bonus is the assistant powering them. Alexa+ promises an evolution, and these four core areas show why should finally pay attention to the hype around it.

Alexa has evolved far beyond its origins as a simple voice assistant for setting reminders and playing music. After 11 years, it finally got a significant upgrade with the introduction of Alexa Plus. This new iteration is powered by advanced AI, making the assistant smarter, more conversational, and, for the first time, proactive.

Amazon has infused its famed assistant Alexa with the power of AI — an upgrade that's apparently come with drawbacks and headaches.

Alexa Plus hasn’t changed anything for me; it’s just made my smart home (mostly) easier to manage. It still feels like pieces and parts, not a cohesive whole being run by an intelligent machine. Many of my frustrations with Alexa Plus are connected to the hardware, and changes here could make a big difference.