Setting reminders on your phone is a pretty standard feature, although setting location-based reminders does help make things a lot easier and more intuitive. For example setting a reminder to turn in homework when you’re at school, or sending an email to your colleagues/boss when you’ve arrived at work, and so on.
If you ask someone a question, that person needs to know the answer before they can give it to you. This is the same concept applied to digital assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa, where it can only answer questions that it already knows the answer to, which for the most part is built-in thanks to Amazon’s efforts.
One of the things that Amazon did early on with Alexa was open it up to third-party developers. This is versus other companies such as Apple, who kept Siri closed off to developers for the longest time. This openness also meant that developers could integrate Alexa into all kinds of devices, like the Big Mouth Billy Bass.
Amazon continues to make Alexa more capable. The improvements go beyond adding new features, it also improves the overall performance of the assistant. One such improvement will drastically change how Alexa reads the news out loud. Amazon has said that the upcoming “newscaster style” speaking voice will allow Alexa to read the news like a professional newscaster would.
It was announced in September this year that Amazon Echo Show devices will be able to make voice and video calls with Skype. This would finally allow Echo Show owners to use one of the world’s most popular voice and video calling services to connect with their loved ones. This feature is now available starting today.
Amazon’s Alexa can already do certain tasks by itself, but at the same time it acts as a medium between other smart/connected devices as well where users can use Alexa to turn said devices on/off. However what if a device is in low-power mode and you want to wake it up using Alexa? The good news is that Amazon has a solution for that.
Late last year Amazon launched the Echo Button. This is a button that would work with Alexa-based games, where users could use it as a trigger to respond to games. It seemed very much like a novelty and didn’t really have much use beyond gaming, but now it looks like Amazon has decided to make it a bit more powerful.
While smart devices like the Amazon Echo are great for controlling your smart home objects, finding information online using your voice, and so on, there are some who might also be concerned regarding their privacy, where such smart speakers are typically always-listening which has led some to be worried about having their conversations recorded.
Alexa is now available for all Windows 10 PCs. Amazon’s Alexa app has already been available on select Windows 10 notebooks but the app has now been released on the Microsoft Store. This means that anyone with a Windows 10 computer can use Amazon’s digital personal assistant through the app. It’s available as a free download from the Microsoft Store.
Amazon has revealed that Alexa was asked millions of questions during the 2016 presidential election and it has taken learnings from that to improve the assistant’s capability to answer such questions in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections. The company says that Alexa is now well prepared to answer questions about the upcoming midterm elections.
The idea and concept behind smart glasses makes so much sense. Instead of having to glance as your phone for notifications or to take a photo, a pair of smart glasses can do all of that. It can also display information like a map to tell you where to go, but yet the concept of smart glasses has yet to take off, despite efforts from the likes of Google.
Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo rely on voice commands to get it to work. Given that natural language hasn’t fully evolved to the point where we can talk to our devices like a human being, usually such commands need to be made loudly and clearly. However for those who’d prefer not having to shout their commands all the time, Amazon’s Alexa now has a Whisper Mode that you might […]