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 […]
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.
Smart speakers like Google Home and Amazon Echo have always been in the buzz for the potential security/privacy issues.However, this time it is something more interesting.It looks like that you can remotely control a smart speaker powered by Siri, Google Assistant, or Alexa by just using a laser beam.The concept behind the flaw involves a bug in MEMS (microelectromechanical system) microphones.The microphones are so sensitive that they detect the laser […]
Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo aren’t exactly known for their audio quality. Instead, their focus is more on its smarts and its connectivity where the idea is that it will help users connect with their smart home devices and help fetch information. However, who says that it needs to be mutually exclusive?
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Amazon launched a bunch of products that come with its Alexa assistant baked in earlier this year, a microwave and wall clock were some of those products. The company has now started shipping its Echo Wall Clock. The Alexa implementation in this device is a bit different from what many have come to expect from Amazon’s Echo products.
Chances are when someone buys an Amazon Echo speaker, they are most likely buying it for Alexa and the various skills and connectivity options the digital assistant offers. However if you’d like to use your Echo speakers for more than just a medium between you and Alexa, you might be interested to learn that Tidal has launched for the Echo speakers.
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.
Last month Microsoft announced that Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant would be arriving for the Xbox One. Now it looks like both Microsoft and Amazon are further cementing their partnership as Amazon appears to now be bundling a free Echo Dot device with every purchase of the Xbox One console (including the Xbox One S and the Xbox One X).
Amazon’s Echo Spot and Echo Show come with displays which makes it a useful device for watching videos. In fact both the Echo Spot and Echo Show are ideal devices if you have home security cameras as they can be used to watch live streams, but what about when you want to watch videos that have already been recorded?
Smart speakers are great tools that allow users to control their smart homes using nothing but their voice. However for those who are more privacy-minded, smart speakers also represent an instance in which it could potentially be used as a tool to spy on you by malicious hackers. Unfortunately that’s what researchers discovered with Amazon’s Echo.
Alexa can be used to control all kinds of things around the house as long as they are connected to it and part of the network. This includes lighting, thermostats, locks, and more, but now it looks like Amazon has given Alexa a new set of skills which comes in the form of being able to control equalizer and sound settings on your speakers.
The problem with speakers that are always listening is that you sometimes can’t be sure what could trigger it, which in some instances has resulted in some pretty creepy situations. Unfortunately it seems that these are instances that people might need to get used to, according to a report from Metro.