While digital voice assistants are great at helping us control our smart homes and answering questions, they still aren’t very “smart” in the sense that it only does what we tell it to do. However, with Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant, the company has announced some changes that will make it smarter where it will be able to better anticipate your needs.
In addition to announcing the new Amazon Echo and Echo Dot, Amazon has also taken the wraps off their brand new Echo Show. For those unfamiliar, the Echo Show is an Alexa-enabled smart display where it will come with all the features you might expect from an Alexa-enabled device, with the added bonus of having a display so that you can use it to watch videos.
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If you thought that the design for Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot speakers were a little dated, then you might be interested to learn that the company has since taken the wraps off a brand new design for its Alexa-enabled speakers. As you can see in the photo above, Amazon has decided to give it a makeover, resulting in a spherical design.
One of the more fun features of Amazon’s Alexa is that the company allows you to switch out the voices of Alexa to those of your favorite celebrity (where available). If you love the idea, you might be interested to learn that Amazon has since updated its Samuel L. Jackson voice feature where it will now have a new wake phrase.
Our smart speakers are listening to us all the time. This isn’t really spying, but rather they are listening out for commands so that they can respond whenever we ask a question. However, we totally get it if you feel a bit uncomfortable knowing that a company could possibly be listening to your every word and you don’t know for sure if they aren’t.
Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android devices come with their own digital assistants in the form of Siri and Google Assistant. One of the advantages of having a native digital assistant is that it is deeply integrated into the operating system, allowing them to do things that third-party digital assistants can’t.
Over the years, Amazon has come up with all kinds of creative ways to help its customers quickly shop for products. This has come in the form of Dash Buttons where these buttons lets users quickly order a product at the press of a button. They also launched the Dash Wand which combines Alexa and a barcode reader.
Back in 2017, Amazon expanded on its Echo series of smart devices with something called the Echo Look. This was basically a smart camera of sorts, where users could rely on AI and also crowdsourced information and feedback to determine if what they’re wearing looks good and to seek out advice on what to wear.
Bang & Olufsen’s speakers are pretty well-known, and if you are in the market for a new set of Bluetooth speakers, then you might want to check out the company’s Beosound A1. If this sounds familiar, it is because the A1 was originally launched back in 2016, but this particular model is the second-gen model that comes with some changes and improvements over its predecessor.
Have you ever showered midway and realized that you needed to do something but are worried you might forget when you’re done? Not to worry because Kohler has unveiled the Kohler Moxie Showerhead which comes with a built-in speaker that also comes with Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa integrated into it.
When it comes to virtual assistants, depending on the phone and platform you use, you could be using any number of virtual assistants ranging from Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, and so on. But if there was a “world’s biggest” title when it comes to digital assistants, would Siri necessarily be a name that comes to mind?
Amazon, Apple, Google, and Zigbee Alliance are teaming up to form a new working group that aims to develop an open standard for smart home devices.The new working group is also referred to as “Project Connected Home over IP“. You can also find a dedicated website for that.Basically, with this new working group, these tech giants are trying to develop a common connectivity standard which can be used for all […]
For those unfamiliar, back in 2018, Amazon acquired Ring. In case you did not know, Ring is a company that makes smart video doorbells, but the company has also since branched into creating security cameras. However, could the company be planning on expanding their portfolio with more smart home devices?
Amazon’s smallest Echo speaker is the Echo Dot. While it is tiny, the downside to the speaker is that it still requires users plug it into a wall outlet in order to keep it powered. This does reduce its portability a bit, but it seems that Amazon has decided to address that by launching a portable version of the Echo speaker powered by batteries.