Amazon unveils new Halo Rise sleep tracker that relies on breathing
The idea of smartwatches or fitness bands tracking your sleep is definitely a helpful one. But not everybody likes to wear something on their wrist 24/7. The Amazon Halo Rise bedside smart device wants to solve that problem. It's a new no-contact sleep tracker and smart alarm at the same time.
TL;DR
- Amazon announces the Halo Rise bedside sleep tracker.
- The $140 Halo Rise uses your breathing and respiration patterns to monitor your sleep.
- Amazon also introduced the 3rd gen Fire TV Cube and a big software update for Echo Show 15.
Amazon's Halo Rise does more than just showing the current time or waking you up. Its primary purpose is to monitor your sleep and provide insights on improving your sleeping routines. The data gathered is then presented every morning and can be accessed from connected smartphones or compatible Echo Show devices through Alexa voice commands.
The bedside device does not rely on cameras and microphones. Instead, a low-energy and contactless sensor is used in tracking your body's movements and respiration, which is a similar method to Google's ultrasonic tech found on the Nest Hub 2. Amusingly, the Halo Rise can even detect your sleep even if you're sharing the bed with another person or pet. You just need to be the closest one to the tracker.
The Halo Rise comes with a "wake-up light" feature that simulates different intensities of light to simulate a sunrise. For example, it will start to produce a faint glow when the smart alarm kicks in and gets brighter as you adjust to the light. Other ambient measurements are also displayed such as temperature and humidity.
Amazon is selling the Halo Rise for $140 and will launch later this year. It also ships with a free Halo membership for 6 months and automatically renews for $4/monthly after.
3rd gen Fire TV Cube and update for Echo Show 15
Another smart home device announced by the e-commerce giant is the third-gen Fire TV Cube. The smart speaker/streamer gets a new finish along with a more powerful 2GHz octa-core processor, WiFi 6E, and HDMI input. It now fully supports 4K upscaling of HD content on top of the hands-free Alexa compatibility.
In a surprise move, Amazon says that the upcoming software update for Echo Show 15 will turn the display into a Fire TV. Which means users can now play content like movies and series on the display giving a Fire TV-like experience.
