Amazon Glow is the $299 video calling device for kids that get distracted easily

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UPDATE 10/5/2022 9:12 AM ET: Amazon is officially discontinuing its Glow video-calling device for kids, as the product never caught on with consumers.

“At Amazon we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to KnowTechie.

“We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments. We will be sharing updates and guidance with Glow customers soon.” The original story follows below.

Original Story: Amazon released a bunch of new devices today, with one being kinda different from all of the rest. It’s called Amazon Glow, and it’s a video calling device with a twist, aimed at families with kids who have to be apart.

The device has an ordinary, portrait orientation screen so your kids can see who they’re talking to, but that’s the only ordinary thing about the device. It uses a projector, a special mat, and sensing technologies to turn the surface it’s on into an interactive screen, for things like playing games, doing puzzles, and reading books together.

That means all of the things you’d usually do while you’re at Grandma’s house can be done while still being socially distanced. It’s to make video calls feel more natural for the younger generation, and I’m interested to see how well it works in practice.

It’s also got a bunch of AR content, aimed at bridging the physical-digital play divide. For example, you can scan your kids’ favorite toy, then they can ‘smash’ that digital scan to turn it into a puzzle to solve. It’s also got what Amazon calls ‘Glow Bits’ which are physical items that can be used with digital games. It ships with one such set, called ‘Tangram Bits’ and Amazon is going to bring out more kits as time goes on.

If you want one, you’ll have to join the invitation-only queue. If selected during this phase, you’ll only pay $249.99, instead of the $299.99 final retail price of the Amazon Glow.

You’ll get the mat, a mat case, the Tangram Bits puzzle game, and a one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+, which is normally $2.99 a month.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

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• Amazon’s new $999 Astro robot will follow you around, carry your drink, and more
• Amazon has a new $60 smart thermostat to compete with Nest and Wyze
• A new lawsuit is calling out voice assistants like Siri and Alexa for always listening

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.