— uses a theatrical device from South Asian dance: a curtain conceals dancers as they enter and leave the stage.
A new device from Dartmouth College lets users select and dial a contact's phone number just by thinking about it.
These things — a constellation of services that Amazon has pieced together over the years — make the Kindle Fire HDX seem like the first real device from Amazon.
So I tried the Eye Slack Haruka ($44.99), a new device from Japan that works like a vibrator for the cheekbones.
What it does not have is a screen, because this pocket-size device from LevelStar was designed for visually impaired users.
And Sarah Larson tries out the new voice-recognition device from Amazon — living with Alexa, she says, is like "2001: A Space Odyssey" crossed with "The Golden Girls".
Some providers — compelled to support a diverse range of devices on their networks, like the Kindle device from Amazon for electronic books — are getting ready to open their networks to gadgets they do not sell.
Brian Slack, co-founder of Widget Post Production in Culver City, Calif., uses a $40,000 cleaning device from Cedar in combination with stacks of third-party software to restore about 250 movie soundtracks a year, like "West Side Story" and the Pink Panther series.
And one of our writers tries out the new voice-recognition device from Amazon — living with Alexa, she says, is like "2001: A Space Odyssey" crossed with "The Golden Girls".
It now includes an anti-onanism device from Paris in the 1890s, a life-size sex doll and a large cache of magazines, videos and stiletto pumps signed by strippers.
Mr. Hesse was also optimistic about the addition of a touch-screen device from Palm, called the Pre, which he said was still scheduled for release during the first half of the year.
