Items tagged with alexa
The smart home category is one of the fastest growing segments and everyone wants a piece of it. That includes Apple, which is looking for another breakout product like the iPhone. Apparently Apple believes that product could be a smart home device similar to Amazon's Echo gadget, but powered by Siri instead of Alexa...
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Amazon Alexa has been gaining new skills at a dizzying pace. Back in early June, Alexa had amassed 1,000 skills, and by the end of that month the number had already jumped to 1,400. Today, that number stands at over 3,000. That’s a remarkable feat for the humble, voice-activated speaker that first launched back in...
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Amazon is tired of being merely an online retailer and is aggressively expanding into brick-and-mortar store locations. The company plans on opening over a dozen pop-up stores in American malls over the next year. The stores will particularly focus on Echo home speakers and Alexa.
While the Amazon bookstore that...
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Let’s pretend that you just asked Alexa to get an Uber for you. You go and get ready, but have no idea when your ride will arrive. In order to get that information, you have to ask Alexa when your Uber ride will be at your door. Amazon’s upcoming update, however, means that Alexa will now update you without being...
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For the first time, Amazon's Alexa voice service is headed to a tablet. It's one of the standout features of Amazon's new Fire HD 8, a budget slate built from the ground up to offer users all-day battery life, faster performance, and double the onboard storage of previous versions Fire HD tablets. The kicker here is...
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Amazon is currently working on a new music services similar in concept to what Spotify offers. The company has plans for a $10 a month subscription that would play all the music a customer wants to stream, wherever they want to stream. The second plan would stream the same music, but would cost half the price and only...
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Artificially intelligent systems are becoming increasingly capable as companies like Amazon build in new functionality and team with partners for creative uses of these technologies. Case in point, Hyundai is the first automaker to launch an Alexa skill, allowing remote voice commands to control connected cars as part...
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Is there anything that Alexa can’t do? The Alexa-powered Echo first launched nearly two years ago and it has grown from a seemingly tame voice-activated “smart” speaker to a home automation hub that features over 1400 “Skills”. And the Echo family itself has grown to include the Echo Tap and Echo Dot.
Today, August...
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Who knew from the outset that Amazon’s Echo smart speaker and its underlying Alexa voice assistant would become this popular and have such a huge backing from the developer community? But as Amazon’s Alexa Skill Kit, Alexa Voice Service and Alexa Fund turn a year old, we’re seeing even more greatness added to the...
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Pebble Core backers on Kickstarter are getting a little something extra. They will be first to experience Amazon Alexa on Pebble’s infinitely hackable ultra-wearable when shipping begins in early 2017. The company claims to be bringing “Amazon’s acclaimed voice services to a fully-independent, 3G-connected wearable...
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We’re not sure that many people expected great things to come from Amazon’s Echo speaker when it was announced back in late 2014. After all, a voice-activated speaker seemed like a superfluous gadget in our increasingly crowded digital lives. However, Echo, which is powered by the Alexa engine, has become one of...
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When Amazon infused its Alexa digital assistant into a cylindrical device and called it Echo, many were left scratching their heads. "Who on Earth would need such a thing?" Well, Echo might be the perfect example of something you don't realize is cool, or useful, until you actually use it. If you want proof that Echo...
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Amazon is bringing Alexa, its voice powered digital assistant, to a wider audience, and this time it doesn't require the purchase of a smart speaker like Echo. Alexa is now available right inside your browser as part of a project called Echosim.io, which uses 3D JavaScript animations and Alexa Voice Service (AVS)...
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Teslas are pretty darn adept at pulling into and out of tight parking spaces and garages all own their own through a feature called Summon, but what's really cool is combining the auto-park function with Amazon's smart Echo speaker. That's exactly what developer and cloud connected platforms advocate Jason Goecke did...
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Amazon's AI assistant Alexa can help you get a lot accomplished with nothing more than your voice, but it does have its limits. What if you wanted to know what happened on a show that already aired, for example? Or, for that matter, an episode that hasn't even aired yet? It might prove a bit complicated if the proper...
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A new Indiegogo campaign is looking to make smartwatches a bit more pervasive in our modern lives. The CoWatch leverages the powerful Alexa Voice Services (AVS) platform, which is a first for a smartwatch. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen some rather intriguing third-party devices with Alexa power; look no further...
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Pretty soon it might be easier and quicker to list the things Amazon's Echo speaker can't do rather than what it can. The list of tricks runs deep, from firing up Spotify to summoning an Uber driver. Heck, you can have Echo order a pizza if you're craving Domino's. If all that weren't enough, a new app created by the...
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The Amazon Echo has been a pretty hot gadget to have around the home. At its core, the Echo is a smart speaker system which can respond to voice commands care of Amazon's digital personal assistant named Alexa. Alexa can queue up your favorite playlist, remind you about your meetings for the day, re-order toilet...
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Amazon's Echo smart speaker and digital assistant keeps getting smarter and smarter it seems and it's beginning to pay dividends for the company. So much so that recent reports note that Amazon's Echo is the most popular Bluetooth speaker in the etail channel right now, besting strong competitors like Bose, Sonos and...
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It’s hard to believe that an e-commerce company that was started over 20 years ago has yet to take part in Super Bowl festivities. But such its the case with Amazon, which has instead poured its money into building out its infrastructure, padding its vast streaming video library, and adding additional perks for its...
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Wouldn't it be rad (yes, I said rad) if James Lipton was always on call to provide a dramatic reading of a novel? I'd also be delighted to sit back and listen to James Earl Jones narrate a grisly tale, or Morgan Freeman read just about anything, even a telephone book. Perhaps they'd be willing for the right amount of coin, but in lieu of what's
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Not long ago, Amazon announced a revamped Fire TV with a handful of new and upgraded features including 4K Ultra HD video support and Alexa functionality. Although the original Fire TV which we reviewed last year had voice capabilities, those voice controls were limited to searching for content and applications. With Alexa built in, the...
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