Amazon has just released an entirely new lineup of Kindle devices.

A reimagined Kindle Scribe, the fastest Kindle Paperwhite ever, a new entry Kindle in a fun, new Matcha colour, and the first-ever colour Kindle, coming in 2025.

“With summer just around the corner we know reading will be at all-time high, and our new Kindle lineup has something for everyone, no matter your reading style,” said Patrick Walker, Amazon Devices Country Manager, Australia and New Zealand. “We obsessed over every detail to deliver the best possible experience, and we know Kiwis will be excited by new features such as 25% faster page turns on the Kindle Paperwhite, a more dynamic and intuitive writing experience on the Kindle Scribe, and fun new colours across the range.”

Since its debut in 2012, customers have made Kindle Paperwhite their best-selling Kindle and the all-new Kindle Paperwhite is the fastest yet. Scrolling through your Kindle Library or Store is snappy and responsive, with 25% faster page turns. The display uses an oxide thin film transistor which gives it the highest contrast ratio of any Kindle Paperwhite, so text and images pop off the screen. A larger, seven-inch display is a first for Kindle Paperwhite, and yet it is also the thinnest Paperwhite ever with up to three months of battery life.

Kindle Paperwhite is waterproof with 16GB of storage for thousands of books, and comes in Black. Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, which comes with 32GB of storage, optional wireless charging, and auto-adjusting front light, is available in Metallic Jade and Metallic Black. Metallic Jade is only available online at Amazon.

Weighing in at just 158g, the new entry-level Kindle is small enough to fit in your hand or carry in your back pocket, and it’s packed with premium Kindle features. It has a 300ppi, glare-free display, now with faster page turns, higher contrast ratio, and a front light that is 25% brighter at max setting, as bright as Kindle Paperwhite.

It comes in black and a fun and fresh new Matcha colour, offers weeks of battery life from a single charge, and has 16GB of storage for holding thousands of books, all of which make it the ideal device for reading anywhere the day takes you.

The all-new Kindle Scribe combines all the benefits of Kindle with an innovative notetaking device. The 10.2 inch display has new uniform white borders and the screen has a smooth, paper-like texture that makes it look and feel like you’re writing on a sheet of paper. Plus, at 300ppi text looks crisp and clear when you’re writing or reading. The Premium Pen is finely crafted to deliver just the right heft and balance, so it feels like holding an actual pen, and the new soft-tipped eraser feels like a pencil.

The new Kindle Scribe offers a first-of-its-kind in-book writing experience. With Active Canvas, you can write your thoughts directly in the book when inspiration strikes. Your note becomes part of the page and the book text dynamically flows around it, if you increase the font size, change the font style, or the book layout changes, the note remains visible exactly where you want it so you never lose any meaning or context.

Pre-orders for the all-new Kindle Scribe start today, which comes in Tungsten and Metallic Jade colours. Devices will begin shipping from December 5th 2024, and Metallic Jade is only available online at Amazon.

The all-new Kindle Colorsoft brings colour to Kindle without compromise. It has everything customers love about Kindle today , with high contrast, fast page turns, an auto-adjusting front-light, and weeks of battery life. It adds colour that is vibrant yet easy on the eyes. Now you can browse covers in colour in your Kindle Library or Store; see book photos and images in colour; or add colour highlights that you can easily search later.

Everything about Kindle Colorsoft was meticulously designed to deliver rich, paper-like colour. It uses an oxide backplane with custom waveforms for fast performance and a higher contrast on both colour and black-and-white content. Its custom Colorsoft display includes a new light-guide with nitride LEDs that, when combined with our custom algorithms, enhances colour and increases brightness, all without washing details. You can zoom in on images without worrying about pixelating and you can choose between standard or vibrant colour styles. Kindle Colorsoft comes with wireless charging, up to 8 weeks of battery life, and is waterproof so you can bring it with you in the bath or take it to the beach without having to worry.

Kindle Colorsoft releases in 2025.

A number of new accessories are launching to accompany the new Kindle line-up, including a new Matcha fabric cover for the Kindle, and new fabric, plant-based leather and premium leather covers in a variety of colours for the new Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition and all-new Kindle Scribe.

The new Kindle devices and accessories are available now.

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Blink smart home security, who is owned by Amazon, has just announced its launch into New Zealand and Australia, offering its range of popular smart security cameras locally.

This launch comes as new local research shows the desire for home security products, with 29% stating that they don’t already own a home security device and are wanting to purchase an indoor or outdoor camera for their home. However, at a time when many are feeling the pinch from cost-of-living pressures, almost half (44%) of say cost is a barrier.

The new Blink range offers an affordable solution, making these WiFi connected cameras make home security simple – set up is easy and customers can monitor their home from anywhere by seeing, hearing, and speaking to visitors directly through the free Blink app on their smartphone. Blink’s cameras are designed for every home and offer up to two years of battery life with just two AA batteries, as well as local storage options.

Blink’s custom-built proprietary chip is at the core of its products. The chip is expertly designed to save power, extending battery life up to an impressive two years for Blink’s wireless camera, Outdoor 4, while also enabling smart notifications with powerful features like person detection through on-device computer vision. With person detection, a Blink Subscription Plus Plan feature, you’ll get notified whenever a person is detected (versus an object or an animal).

“We know that Kiwis want to invest in home security products but that cost-of-living pressures are impacting us all. We’re thrilled to launch Blink in New Zealand and Australia, bringing our customers more feature-packed options at incredible value,” said Mark Fletcher, Blink Managing Director, APAC. “For those considering the installation of a smart home security system, the Outdoor 4 and Mini 2 cameras from Blink are an ideal, and

Blink customers can make the most of their smart security with a Blink Subscription Plan. Customers can save and share clips and view live recordings from their Blink devices conveniently in the cloud with unlimited cloud storage for up to 60 days. A Blink Subscription Plan also provides access to advanced features like person detection, Blink Moments (Plus Plan only), and more – all through the Blink app on your smartphone.

Customers who purchase a Blink camera will receive a 30-day free trial of Blink’s Subscription Plan, and there are two tiers available – Basic and Plus – starting from $5 per month for Basic and $15 per month for Plus.

Blink customers can control all privacy settings through the Blink app. This includes the set-up of Activity Zones, capturing only what they want and exclude areas like a busy street that may surround their property. All image processing takes place locally, on-device. 

All devices, accessories and subscription plans announced are now available.

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Amazon introduced their all-new Echo Spot, the latest addition to its lineup of Alexa-enabled devices.

Echo Spot is a sleek new customisable smart alarm clock, featuring a variety of custom-designed clock faces and fun colours. It’s built for the nightstand, with a display that makes it easy to set and view alarms, see the time, weather, or song titles at a glance, and a directional speaker that delivers vibrant sound.

“Customers care about the way they wake up in the morning and go to bed at night and the all-new Echo Spot will transform the way they start and end their day,” said Patrick Walker, country manager, Amazon Devices Australia and New Zealand. “Thanks to customisable clock faces, personalised designs, new alarm sounds and colourful visual animations, Echo Spot is the best smart alarm clock designed for any bedside table.”

People love asking Alexa for information—in fact, Alexa answers multiple requests every millisecond, with users asking Alexa for the weather, to set a reminder or to set an alarm tens of millions of times every day. Echo Spot comes with a variety of custom-designed clock faces, new visual animations, and fun colours that makes it easy to see the responses to these requests at a glance.

Simply ask Alexa to set alarms on Echo Spot, by saying things like “Alexa, set a weekday alarm for 7am with soft jazz.” Or, wake up to one of four new alarm sounds exclusive to Echo Spot—Aurora, Daybreak, Endeavor, and Flutter. And, if you want a bit more sleep when your alarm goes off, just tap Echo Spot to snooze.  You can also ask Alexa for the weather to see the temperature, along with an illustration—like a sun, rain cloud, or snowflake—appear on the screen.

Echo Spot’s display can be customised to fit the aesthetic of your bedroom. Choose from six different colour-ways—orange, violet, magenta, lime, teal, and blue—or mix and match colours with a variety of clock faces.

The new, colourful visual display also shows song titles when music plays. To skip songs, simply ask Alexa, or quickly tap the display. There are also buttons on the top of the all-new Echo Spot to quickly change the volume—or you can ask Alexa to adjust the sound up or down.

Enjoy vibrant sound with the all-new Echo Spot, which includes a 1.73″ front-firing directional speaker delivering clear vocals and deep bass. Just ask Alexa to play music, podcasts and audiobooks from your favourite providers like Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Audible, and more.

Connect Echo Spot to compatible smart home products and set up Alexa Routines to help automate daily tasks. For example, set up a routine that gently wakes you with music and gradual light from compatible smart lights. Or, set an evening routine that dims your smart lights, lowers the thermostat and plays music.

Ask Alexa to place audio calls to loved ones on other Alexa-enabled devices, make household announcements, audibly Drop In on other Alexa-enabled devices in your household, or get alerts and audio from your compatible smart doorbell.

As with all of our devices, Echo Spot is built with multiple layers of privacy controls, including a microphone on / off button and the ability to view and delete voice recordings.

Echo Spot is available now in Black, Glacier White, and Ocean Blue.

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Amazon has announced the newest iteration of the Echo Show 5 will soon be available for customers. Echo Show 5 is the smallest Alexa-powered Echo smart display with a five-inch screen – perfect for the bedroom or kitchen.

Echo Show 5 combines the utility of Alexa, with the convenience of a compact screen so customers can watch news clips, check their Ring doorbell camera, view shopping lists, follow along with recipes or easily make video calls to friends and family.

The 3rd generation of Echo Show 5 comes with a completely reengineered microphone array and is faster than its predecessors due to its AZ2 Neutral Edge processor. The product also boasts an improved speaker system that delivers clearer sound when listening to music, videos, podcasts or Audible books.

Echo Show 5 also comes with support for Matter, making it easy to connect and control compatible smart home products across various brands, seamlessly integrating into any smart home set up.

As always, Amazon Echo devices are designed with multiple layers of privacy protection. Customers have complete transparency and control over their Alexa experience, from the manual mic/camera off button and built-in camera shutter, to the ability to delete your voice recordings.

Echo Show 5 is designed with sustainability in mind, with its fabric made from 100% post-consumer recycled polyester yarn and aluminium made from 100% recycled aluminium. This device’s packaging is made of 99% wood fibre-based materials from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources.

The all-new Echo Show 5 will be available from July 10th, 2024 in black, white and cloud blue colours.

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Amazon has just introduced Echo Hub, an all-new Echo device that combines the simplicity of Alexa with an eight-inch display to create a personalised, proactive, and intuitive smart home experience.

“The new Echo Hub allows customers to seamlessly and simply manage everything from daily tasks, to thousands of compatible smart home devices – all with Alexa,” said Kate Gooden, Head of Product, Amazon Alexa in Australia and New Zealand. “Customers around the world interact with Alexa tens of millions of times every hour. From triggering your favourite Routine to updating your shopping list, the Echo Hub gives Aussies more ways to experience what I think is the world’s best personal AI.”

The all-new Echo Hub is an Alexa-enabled smart home control panel, designed to give customers a simple and intuitive way to manage disparate smart home devices. It’s easy to install and features a thin, eight-inch, touch-enabled display with a customisable dashboard that makes it simple for customers to group and manage smart home devices, view multiple compatible smart home camera feeds at once, start a Routine, organise widgets, and manage volume and media streaming on your devices from one handy hub.

When not actively in use, Echo Hub seamlessly blends into the home by transitioning to an idle screen that can be personalised with a rotating collection of photos and glanceable information such as the weather and time. When a customer approaches the device, Echo Hub uses infrared technology to detect their proximity and naturally transitions the content back to the home screen.

Echo Hub can be mounted on a wall or placed on a counter with a stand accessory, includes a built-in smart home hub with support for Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth and Matter—and it’s compatible with thousands of connected cameras, lights, locks, plugs, thermostats, speakers, and more. Echo Hub supports wireless or wired internet connectivity, with a compatible power-over-ethernet (PoE) adaptor.

Introducing Adaptive Content – a fresh home screen experience for the Echo Show range that uses on-device computer vision technology to adjust on-screen content based on a customer’s proximity to the device. With the new Adaptive Content experience, a customer positioned across the room will see content that is easily viewed from a distance—such as a large clock display—with the screen automatically transitioning to a more detailed view as they approach the device. If the customer is enrolled in visual ID, the content will also be personalised, highlighting things like a recent playlist. The new adaptive home screen also includes shortcut icons that make it easy to access most used widgets, which can be opened with just a tap.

In Australia and New Zealand, Adaptive Content will be available on the Echo Show 8 (2nd generation) next month and will roll out to other Echo Show devices next year.

Calling friends and dropping in on household members is a well-loved Alexa feature for staying in touch and helping coordinate your day to day at home. From today, it is even easier for you to connect with those that matter most. Now, you can add the Top Connections widget to your Echo Show 15 devices to easily see your favourite contacts and most frequently used devices within the household. You can quickly initiate a call or drop-in with a single-tap. This will extend to Echo Show 5, 8, and 10 in Australia and New Zealand in the coming months.

Echo devices are designed with customer privacy in mind and include multiple layers of privacy controls. The Echo Hub includes a microphone on/off button, and customers have full control over their voice recordings and can view, hear, or delete them at any time.

The Amazon Echo Hub is available now.

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Amazon has just announced an additional way to access Alexa with the launch of the all-new Echo Pop; a compact smart speaker available in three colour options to suit any home aesthetic, including two brand new colours.

Echo Pop is a new addition to the Echo family with a compact semi-sphere form factor offering a quality audio experience in all-new Lavender Bloom and Midnight Teal colour options, as well as in Charcoal, at an affordable NZ$89. It features a front-facing directional speaker to deliver full sound that’s great for bedrooms, apartments, or any small space in the home. Simply ask Alexa to play your favourite music or radio station, read audiobooks, remind you of your daily calendar, control compatible smart lights and plugs, or add items to your shopping list. Echo Pop comes in three colours so customers can find a colour that fits their style, find a spot that fits their small space, and play a track that hits just right, totally hands-free with Alexa.

“We are thrilled to be launching the Echo Pop in New Zealand today, making it easier for Kiwis to build a smart home that fits their space and needs,” says Patrick Walker, country manager of Amazon Devices, Australia and New Zealand.

“The Echo Pop’s colour options mean you can find a device to match your home and style, or give as the perfect gift this festive season, while the Alexa integration allows you to take advantage of a number of amazing features. From cooking timers to recipe inspiration, you can create shopping lists, set reminders and check calendar notifications to keep up to date with holiday events, listen to your favourite music, podcast or audiobook from any room in your home, and so much more! It’s why customers around the world interact with Alexa tens of millions of times every hour,” Walker concluded.

Echo devices are designed with customer privacy in mind and include multiple layers of privacy controls. All Echo devices include a microphone on/off button and the ability to view and delete voice recordings via the Alexa app. With Amazon Kids on Alexa, parents can view their child’s activity and manage parental controls in the Parent Dashboard.

The new Echo Pop is available in Charcoal, Midnight Teal and Lavender Bloom from now.

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Amazon announced a range of updates to its popular Fire TV family, introducing the most powerful Fire TV Stick yet the all- new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, now with the Fire TV Ambient Experience.

“Our mission for Fire TV is to reinvent what customers can expect from a smart TV experience. The Fire TV Ambient Experience transforms the TV into a beautiful, always-smart display, not only making smart TVs smarter and more useful, but transforming the home into something more beautiful,” said Patrick Walker, Country Manager of Amazon Devices, Australia and New Zealand. “We’re thrilled to bring the Ambient Experience, featuring work from local Australian artists, to customers in New Zealand with the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max.”

The new Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the first streaming media player to come with the Fire TV Ambient Experience, and features an upgraded 2.0 GHz quad-core processor, making it Amazon’s smartest and most powerful streaming stick yet. The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is the industry’s first streaming stick to include support for Wi-Fi 6E, meaning customers with a compatible router can enjoy the smoothest streaming experience with lower latency, faster speeds, and less interference from other Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the home. With ultra- cinematic, vibrant 4K Ultra HD, and support for Dolby Vision, HDR, HDR10+, and immersive Dolby Atmos audio, the new Fire TV Stick 4K Max delivers Fire TV Stick’s best visual and audio experience yet.

Fire TV Stick 4K Max features 16GB of storage, doubling the previous generation’s capacity – enabling customers to store even more apps and games directly on the device, including ThreeNow, TVNZ+, Sky Sport Now, Neon and more. It is also the first Fire TV Stick to come with the Alexa Voice Remote Enhanced, giving customers a “Recents” button for one-touch, instant access to their most recently used app or channel.

Fire TV Ambient Experience—Now available on the all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max, and upgraded with hundreds of new pieces of free artwork, including from renowned Indigenous Australian artist Biddee Baadjo, and Australian contemporary artist Nicole Blake

The Fire TV Ambient Experience transforms the TV into a beautiful, always-smart display, and is now available with the launch of the all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max.

The Ambient Experience can turn the TV into an in-home art gallery, with no monthly subscription required.

Today, Amazon added hundreds of new images to a collection of more than 2,000 free, gallery-quality pieces of artwork, and expanded its collection to include artists from Australia, France, Spain, Italy, and Japan with art from notable institutions including Musée d’Orsay in Paris, Museo del Prado in Madrid, and Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Florence.

Customers can also choose from motion graphics, landscape art, and personal photos. As part of the new Ambient Experience, there is artwork available to showcase in homes across the world from renowned Indigenous Australian artist Biddee Baadjo, and Australian contemporary artist Nicole Blake. “Having the opportunity to have my work reach Fire TV customers and be displayed on screens across the globe is something special,” said Nicole. “I create art with the goal of infusing beauty into the world, and through this collaboration I hope to continue this mission and bring the wonder of Australia’s natural landscape, as well as more joy, directly to the home.”

Customers can activate the Ambient Experience when not streaming by holding down the “Home” or “Alexa” buttons on the remote—or simply by asking Alexa—to replace blank TV screens with helpful information and beautiful artwork. With the Ambient Experience, customers can also see glance-able information like their schedule with Calendars and

Reminders, leave Sticky Notes for family members, control smart devices like a thermostat or Ring doorbell, and play audio from services like Amazon Music and Spotify.

The all-new Fire TV Stick 4K Max uses more-sustainable materials and implements a design that reduces its overall lifetime energy consumption. The wood-fiber based materials in the devices’ packaging is made from responsibly managed forests or recycled sources, and the device includes Low Power Mode, which conserves energy when a device goes to sleep due to inactivity.

The Fire TV Stick 4K Max is available for pre-order from today and will begin shipping to customers from September 27th 2023.

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Amazon now has additional ways for us to access Alexa with the launch of two new Echo products for the home and car.

The line-up includes the all-new Echo Pop, a compact smart speaker available in four colour options to suit any home aesthetic, including two brand new colours, and the Echo Auto, a flexible mounted device, offering Alexa smart features to any car.

“Around the world, customers continue to trust and depend on Alexa, they’ve now purchased well over half a billion Alexa-enabled devices globally, with use of Alexa around the world increasing 35 percent last year,” said Patrick Walker, country manager of Amazon Devices, Australia and New Zealand. “These new devices will give local customers more of what they want—more options, for more environments and at an affordable price, making it easier for customers to build a smart home that fits their space and needs. And as with every Echo we’ve shipped, these devices will only continue to get better as we add even more generative AI powered experiences for Alexa.”

Echo Pop is a new addition to the Echo family with a compact semi-sphere form factor offering a quality audio experience in all-new Lavender Bloom and Midnight Teal colour options, as well as in Charcoal and Glacier White.

It features a front-facing directional speaker to deliver full sound that’s great for bedrooms, apartments, or any small space in the home. Simply ask Alexa to play your favourite music or radio station, read audiobooks, remind you of your daily calendar, control compatible smart lights and plugs, or reorder household essentials. Echo Pop comes in four colours so customers can find a colour that fits their style, find a spot that fits their small space, and play a track that hits just right, totally hands-free with Alexa.

To match your space and style, the Echo Pop also launches with a range of new accessory options including silicone sleeves in seven colour options to suit any aesthetic, including a glow-in-the-dark option to brighten any room, and a shelf wall mount to ensure the Echo Pop finds its perfect position. A selection of bases are also available, including a USB charging base to provide additional device charging ports, and a battery base, enabling the Echo Pop to be used in any location without the need for a power outlet.

Echo Auto (2nd Gen) is designed to enable Alexa hands-free features for cars that don’t have AI support built in.

It comes in a new, slimmer design and includes a new adhesive mount for more placement flexibility in your car. The device is built with five microphones, designed to hear your requests over music, the air conditioner, and road noise. With Echo Auto (2nd Gen), add Alexa to your car to listen to music, make calls, Drop In on compatible Echo devices, binge new podcasts, catch up on the news, and add items to calendars or to-do lists – all while keeping your eyes fixed on the road. You can also control compatible smart home devices from the road; ask Alexa to turn off the lights or turn on the coffee machine, and more, while you’re away from home.

Echo devices are designed with customer privacy in mind and include multiple layers of privacy controls. All Echo devices include a microphone on/off button and the ability to view and delete voice recordings. With Amazon Kids on Alexa, parents can view their child’s activity and manage parental controls in the Parent Dashboard.

Both the Alexa Pop and new Echo Auto are available now.

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Amazon has today announced Kindle Scribe, the next generation of Kindle that unites reading with writing, and is now available in New Zealand.

Kindle Scribe features the world’s first 10.2-inch, 300 pixels per inch (ppi), Paperwhite display, and an included pen that never needs charging. The premium, front-lit, and glare-free display feels like reading and writing on paper, with crisp text and ample space for larger fonts, images, charts, and documents.

Designed for reading and notetaking in millions of books, adding notes to documents, journaling, and more.

“Kindle Scribe is the best Kindle we’ve ever built, creating a reading and writing experience that feels like real paper, and we’re thrilled to be launching it in New Zealand” said Patrick Walker, country manager of Amazon Devices, Australia and New Zealand. “It’s inspired by the Kindle customers who have added billions of notes and highlights to books over the years. It’s also ideal for reviewing and marking up documents, managing your to-do list, or doodling over a big idea. Plus, it offers all the benefits Kiwi customers know and love about Kindle – access to millions of books in the Kindle Store, adjustable fonts, premium reading features, and weeks and weeks of battery life, with the benefit of a beautiful, large display.”

Just 5.8 mm thin, Kindle Scribe features the world’s first 10.2-inch, 300-ppi, glare-free display; an auto-adjusting front light; months of battery life; and a pen that never needs to be charged, making it an ideal, take-anywhere companion. The glare-free display has been engineered to replicate the feel and flow of pen on paper, creating a natural and comfortable experience. The large, high-resolution, Paperwhite display also provides ample room for reading and taking notes; enhances the beauty of images, illustrations, and graphics; and provides easy-to-adjust margins.

Kindle Scribe comes with a Basic or Premium pen option, with a number of different brush types. Both pens deliver incredible precision, feel natural in your hand, and magnetically attach to the side of the device. They also support a variety of line widths, a highlighter tool, eraser tools, and an undo tool, all easily accessible in the on-display writing menu. The Premium Pen also includes a dedicated eraser on top and a customisable shortcut button, enabling the pen to function as an eraser or highlighter, or to open a new sticky note when the button is pressed.

Digital sticky notes on Kindle Scribe allow you to easily add handwritten notes to millions of books in the Kindle Store, with notes and highlights automatically organised in one place to keep pages clutter-free. You can also journal or take notes using a variety of templates, including to-do lists for tracking tasks and lined paper for meeting notes, all organised within folders of your choice.

For ease of navigation, brand new features allow users to view nine notebook pages at once, with the ability to rearrange as you wish. For PDFs, customers can also now increase and decrease the contrast of their documents when reading and annotating. All notebooks are automatically saved and backed up to the cloud for free, and are accessible through the Kindle app.

With the Send-to-Kindle feature, you can import personal documents from your computer or phone to Kindle Scribe and write directly on PDF documents. You can also import and create handwritten sticky notes in Microsoft Word documents, web articles, and other document formats with adjustable font sizes and layout.

As with all Kindle e-readers, the new Kindle Scribe comes with instant access to the Kindle Store.

Perfect for working on-the-go, as part of a new update, Microsoft365 customers with a subscription will now be able to send documents directly to their Kindle library from the Microsoft Word desktop or browser app to read and review. With these new updates, this experience is the best yet, with customers able to add handwritten notes and highlights to their imported documents too.

Like every Kindle available today, the new Kindle Scribe lets you personalise your experience by adjusting the font size, brush types, line spacing, or switching to dark mode, and more recently, the ability for landscape reading with a two-column layout. In addition, with the large display of Kindle Scribe, customers reading with larger font sizes will see more text per page, and they can increase the size of items like the text on the home screen as well as book icons with the “large” mode setting.

Customers who read with assistive technology can use Amazon’s VoiceView screen reader to read English-language books on Kindle devices, including Kindle Scribe. Customers can also use operating system (OS)-level screen readers, such as TalkBack on Android or VoiceOver on iOS, to read with Kindle mobile apps. Kindle offers more than 12 million screen reader-supported books on Kindle devices and apps.

Designed with 100% recycled aluminum and 48% post-consumer recycled plastics in the device, Kindle Scribe was built with sustainability in mind.

Kindle Scribe is available in Tungsten with options for 16 GB, 32 GB, or 64 GB of storage, Kindle Scribe comes with a battery-free Basic Pen or Premium Pen, which includes an eraser and customisable shortcut button. New leather, brush print leather, and fabric folio covers, which can be folded to support Kindle Scribe at different reading angles, will be available in a variety of colours.

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In September 2022 Amazon announced an all-new Alexa experience for families in New Zealand and Australia.

Amazon Kids on Alexa is available on Echo smart speakers and Echo Show devices and has been designed to help kids learn, play and grow, while being entertained at home.

The experience will allow kids 12 years and under to discover fun, child-directed content with Alexa, from sing-alongs with Amazon Music, to playing games, and telling jokes, while ensuring parents can fully manage and control the experience.

We have a virtual chat with Kate Gooden, Head of Alexa Products at Amazon about Amazon Kids.

Shane: Amazon Alexa has always offered up entertainment, by way or cheesy ‘Dad’ jokes, Alexa original songs and more. How does Alexa for Kids expand on that?

Kate: Since launching in 2018, we’ve worked really hard to create a personality for Alexa that is fun, friendly and fits seamlessly into Kiwi homes. That experience remains consistent across both the “grown up” and Kids versions of Alexa, but the key difference is parental controls and freshly-created kid-friendly content to give parents more comfort and control around how kids engage with Alexa. With the new Parental Dashboard, you can now manage your kids interactions with Alexa to ensure The Wiggles music isn’t being played at 6am, games are disabled for a period if your child needs some time out, and kids aren’t listening to music with lyrics you’d rather they weren’t singing along to.

We have great, kid-friendly content available including plenty of jokes, stories and silly songs. Another great feature is ABC Kids listen – a 24/7 radio station with music, stories and dedicated kids programming. Kinda like What Now? but for radio.

Shane: Alexa has previously and currently had suggestions for kids games, are we now seeing a virtual ‘zone’ just for the younger people in the household with Alexa for Kids?

Kate: As Alexa and voice have become part of our daily lives, kids have naturally seen those interactions and been curious to see what else Alexa can do. Fart jokes are one of our most popular pieces of content and we’re pretty sure it’s not all adults asking for them! With Alexa often in a shared room in the home, customers have been telling us they wanted a kid-friendly Alexa option and we’re excited to have Amazon Kids on Alexa now available to fill that need. You can set up a dedicated device in “Kids Mode”; or set up a Child Profile, which means the Amazon Kids experience is automatically served when your child speaks to Alexa on your shared family devices.

Shane: Parental control is super important – had this always been in the works for Amazon smart devices?

Kate: Privacy and trust are foundational to the design of all our devices and services. Customers tell us they have Alexa in common areas of the home, so it’s crucial that we’re able to provide an experience that all members of the household are able to use in an appropriate way.

Our highest priorities with Alexa are protecting your privacy, keeping your information safe and providing you with transparency and control over your experience. Looking at how this comes to life in the Kids experience, Echo devices include multiple layers of privacy protection, from requiring verifiable parental consent to enable the Kids experience, to giving parents to view and delete their child’s voice recordings.

Shane: If a parent uses the same Alexa device as their children, can it be switched from Kid mode to adult mode easily?

Kate: Sure can! And the switch as simple as speaking to your device. Dynamic profile switching allows an (adult) Alexa account owner to set up profiles for each member of the family. When you set up a Child profile, Alexa will switch to Kids Mode when it recognises a child’s voice, then switch back to the regular Alexa experience when it recognises an adult.

Shane: With the Amazon Echo Show 15, Amazon introduced facial recognition – will this work and recognise if there is a kid present instead of an adult when commands are voiced?

Kate: Visual ID was designed to deliver a personalised screen-based experience for different members of the family when devices sit in shared areas like the kitchen or living room. It’s up to parents whether they choose to have a Visual ID profile for their kids, or just stick with the voice option.

If parents do choose to set up a Visual ID, on an Echo Show device (5, 8, 10, or 15), it will switch to Kids Mode when the camera cover is open and the child comes into view.

Shane: What else can we come to expect with Alexa for Kids in the future?

Kate: Kids love voice – it’s natural and for many of the younger ones – like my 7 and 10 year olds – voice and touch are their default options when it comes to interacting with technology.

Ultimately we want Alexa to be a fun way for kids to learn, play and grow. We have a great lineup of content with Kinderling, The Stolen Stars of Matariki, Nickelodeon and more, and our local editorial team will continue to create fresh jokes, stories, riddles, songs and fun Alexa responses for the Kids experience.

You can read more about Amazon Kids here and our review of the Amazon Echo Show 15 here.

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