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Hero shot of the third-generation Eero router. There doesn't seem to be a Beacon in this generation. [credit: Amazon / the Verge ]
Today at Amazon's Fall 2019 Devices Event, the company announced a third generation of Eero Wi-Fi mesh. Our sources at Eero have been pretty quiet since Amazon acquired the company early this February—unlike Google, who somehow manages to "leak" the new Pixel every year before its actual debut, Eero and Amazon have kept their secrets close. We weren't completely sure there even would be a new version of Eero announced today, and details are still thin, but here's what we know.
Amazon's presentation of the new generation of Eero focused largely on ease of setup and use, as it fits into the new "Certified for Humans" program. This program forces devices to pass muster with a review board of "typical consumers," with IT professionals and hardware enthusiasts specifically prohibited. There was also some discussion of Eero's integration into the Alexa smart home ecosystem, with Alexa skills allowing you to direct Eero to enable or disable Wi-Fi access for specific devices at will—think "Alexa, pause the Playstation Wi-Fi" or similar. This is currently only supported for Eero, but there's an API that will allow other devices to support the skill as well, with functionality expected in Asus and TP-Link routers later this year and Linksys to come on board in 2020.
There does not appear to be an equivalent to the Beacon in Eero's third generation—Amazon is only showing us one device, which most closely resembles the Eero Pro from last generation. If you liked the nightlight function in the second-generation Beacons, it looks like you're out of luck—but this should also mean faster 3x3 radios and hardwired Ethernet jacks in every Eero device this time around.
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