When the world was introduced to smart speakers with built-in digital assistants, there were some concerns about the technology, such as how much of what we say to it is recorded, and whether or not these devices are spying on us. However, it turns out that there might be another problem we didn’t quite anticipate.

Do you like buying products that come with Alexa built-in? Here’s another one for you. SGW Global, the company that makes Motorola-branded home phones for the global market, has today announced the first home telephone with Alexa built-in. It’s as easy to use Alexa on the new Motorola AX as it is on any other compatible smart home device.

There’s always something about devices that are always listening that doesn’t quite sit right with people who worry a lot about their data privacy. However, that has not prevented smart assistant-enabled devices from becoming very popular over the past couple of years. In a step that will be appreciated by many, Amazon is now allowing users to command Alexa to delete all of their voice recordings from that particular day.

Smart speaker devices like the Amazon Echo, Google Home, and Apple’s HomePod are always listening for their wake word. This prevents them from being used all the time and it also affords customers some semblance of privacy, where it is presumed that these devices are not listening to them until their wake words are spoken.

Amazon released the announcements feature for Alexa last year initially for Echo devices only. The feature allowed users to broadcast their voice to every Echo device in the house, basically turning them into an intercom system. Amazon has now announced that this feature is being rolled out to every Alexa-enabled device, it’s no longer limited to just the ones that are made by the company itself.

Purchased a latest LG smart TV this year? You will soon be able to access another smart assistant on it. The company has confirmed that its 2019 lineup of TVs will be updated with support for Amazon Alexa later this month. LG will be rolling out this update in North America first. Customers in Asia and Europe will have to wait a bit longer to get it.

Amazon is rolling out its Alexa Guard feature for Echo devices in the United States. This follows an invite-only preview of the feature which was launched a few months back. What Alexa Guard essentially does is listen for signs of potential danger in your home when you’re away. It can be enabled by simply telling the Echo device that you’re out and it will then start listening for signs of […]

At the moment, most of the major tech companies have their own digital voice assistants. Amazon has Alexa, Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, Microsoft has Cortana, and Samsung has Bixby. Unsurprisingly, Facebook now wants in on the action and according to a report from CNBC, they have heard from their sources that the company is indeed developing its own voice assistant software.

The concept of a smart speaker is good, but in reality, there are some legitimate concerns that some have, such as whether or not companies are listening to you and recording what you tell your device. If you are one of those people with such concerns, then you might want to rethink whether or not it might be a good idea to keep a smart speaker in your home.

One of the simplest things that you can ask Alexa to do for you is to read the news. However, voice assistants like Alexa normally only provide a summary of the news that’s only good when you’re in a hurry. What about the times when you want to just kick back and catch up on all of the news in detail? Alexa will now be able to help you out […]

Despite being made fun of in terms of its design, price, and features, Apple’s AirPods have been flying off the shelves, so much so that companies such as Google decided to get in on the action with the Pixel Buds, and Samsung with the Galaxy Buds. Now in a report from Bloomberg, Amazon wants a slice of that lucrative pie.

Roku has added support for yet another voice assistant to its streaming hardware. The company announced support for the Google Assistant just last fall and it has now done the same for Amazon’s Alexa. It will now be possible for Roku users to control their devices using voice commands given to Alexa.

The Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles has started a new pilot program which puts an Alexa-powered platform called Aiva in more than 100 patient rooms. The platform enables patients to interact with the nurses hands-free and also control their entertainment. The hospital says that Aiva is the “world’s first patient-centered voice assistant platform for hospitals.”

Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant has been around for much longer than Amazon’s Alexa has, but yet Alexa has quickly dominated the scene, so much so that it seems that Microsoft has decided that if they can’t beat them, maybe they should join them. This is what Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella had hinted at in a report from Business Insider.