Oral-B bricking Alexa toothbrush is cautionary tale against buzzy tech
As weβre currently seeing with AI, when a new technology becomes buzzy, companies will do almost anything to cram that tech into their products. Trends fade, however, and corporate priorities shiftβresulting in bricked gadgets and buyer's remorse.
Thatβs what's happening to some who bought into Oral-B toothbrushes with Amazon Alexa built in. Oral-B released the Guide for $230 in August 2020 but bricked the ability to set up or reconfigure Alexa on the product this February. As of this writing, the Guide is still available through a third-party Amazon seller.
The Guide toothbrush's charging base was able to connect to the Internet and work like an Alexa speaker that you could speak to and from which Alexa could respond. Owners could βask to play music, hear the news, check weather, control smart home devices, and even order more brush heads by saying, βAlexa, order Oral-B brush head replacements,'β per Procter & Gamble's 2020 announcement.