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Amazon’s Astro robot gets pet detection, home security updates and an SDK



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There’s been a standing question surrounding how seriously we should ultimately take Astro. The product was launched exactly one year ago, in limited quantities as a Day One offering for $1,500 a pop. My interaction with the robot was (at the time) limited to a few pre-launch demos. I came away from the experience thinking the home robot was cute and largely said what it did on the tin.
Haje took a unit home and left the experience wondering, broadly, what Astro is for. The question of “why” is an important part of the review process, of course, and that import only increases as the price goes up. That is to say that a $1,500 product has a much larger burden of “why” to answer than a $150 or $15 one.
Ken Washington, …

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