Fans of the show South Park who watched the season premiere last night got more than the usual fart jokes and foul-mouthed rants: Amazon Echo and Google Home devices were woken up throughout the episode, triggered by commands from the characters. Of course, hilarity — or headaches, depending on your point of view — ensued. [More]
Alexa
Google Assistant Begins Takeover Of Home Appliances; Alexa & Cortana Make Friends
By 8.30.17
It was a big day in news for connected-home devices, with Google announcing plans to put its Home technology on a slew of new appliances, while two competing digital assistants — Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana — began to make nice with each other. [More]
Amazon Really Wants Echo Devices In The Hands (And Dorm Rooms) Of College Students
By 8.29.17
If you want future developers of technology to create new things for your product, try giving it to engineering students for free. Amazon is experimenting with that at one college, giving away an Echo Dot (list price $49.99) to every student in a new dorm at Arizona State University. [More]
Updated Amazon Dash Wand Includes Alexa, Is Basically Free For Prime Members
By 6.15.17
Since Amazon first debuted the Dash Wand in 2014, the tool has gone from a stick that could add grocery items to your shopping list to a $49 stick that lets Prime members order anything Amazon sells. In the latest update, Amazon is basically making the wand free (for Prime subscribers), integrating its Alexa digital assistant, and giving users the power to buy their items directly instead of having to check out on Amazon’s site. [More]
Amazon’s Alexa Inches Closer To Human With Ability To Whisper, Raise Voice
By 4.28.17
Sure, talking to a speaker definitely isn’t the same as talking to your friend, but if you have an Echo — or other device with Alexa integration — it may soon seem more like a human-to-human convo. [More]
Google Home Now Recognizes Specific Users’ Voices, Allows For Multiple Accounts
By 4.20.17
In a move to differentiate its Google Home voice-activated assistant from competitors like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, or Microsoft’s Clippy (yes, we know it’s Cortana, but we prefer Clippy), Google has tweaked its Google Home assistant to allow for multiple users, each of whom can supposedly be uniquely identified by their voice. [More]
Samsung Launches Bixby, Its Answer To Siri & Alexa
By 3.20.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Move over Siri, Cortana, and Alexa, there’s a new voice-controlled artificially intelligent assistant in town: Samsung’s Bixby. [More]
Why Amazon’s Alexa Can’t Tell You If It’s Connected To The CIA
By 3.10.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
Is your Amazon Echo device — and its virtual assistant Alexa — somehow connected to the CIA? A video of one Echo refusing to answer that question both amused and alarmed (but mostly amused) viewers, but Amazon is now chalking it up to a glitch that has since been fixed. [More]
Amazon Hands Over Echo Recording Related To Murder Investigation
By 3.7.17
Just two weeks after Amazon filed a motion claiming that turning over information stored on an Echo speaker located inside a murder suspect’s home would be a violation of privacy, the e-commerce giant abandoned its argument after the suspect in the case consented to the release of the information. [More]
Here Are Your Discounts, Freebies, And Bagels To Celebrate National Pizza Day
By 2.9.17
What are your plans for National Pizza Day? What, you didn’t know that today was National Pizza Day? We can’t blame you, actually, but the non-event means that restaurants, rest stops, and even Amazon’s Alexa-powered devices have special promotions and deals going on that are meant to move more pizza. [More]
Your Star Trek Dreams Are Closer To Reality Now That Amazon Echo Responds To “Computer”
By 1.24.17
If you’ve ever stared longingly at your smart devices and wished they would respond when you’re doing your best Capt. Jean-Luc Picard impression, we’ve got some good news for you: Amazon has added “computer” to its list of words that will wake up its digital assistant Alexa on Echo devices. [More]
Rogue Hungry Child Uses Alexa To Order $160 Worth Of Cookies, Doll House Without Parents’ Permission
By 1.5.17
You can buy just about anything using Amazon’s Alexa, including apparently four pounds of cookies and a doll house without having to ask your parents first. [More]
Amazon’s Alexa Integrated Into LG Refrigerator & Creepy, Blinking “Hub Robot”
By 1.4.17
Amazon doesn’t really want to sell you Echo connected home speakers. It wants to you to use the Echo to buy stuff from Amazon. So it makes sense that the company’s virtual voice-activated assistant Alexa is continuing to branch out into other manufacturer’s products that can then be used to purchase items from Amazon. [More]
Amazon To Start Selling Actual FireTV TVs, Make Alexa Do More Things
By 1.3.17
CES — the annual Consumer Electronics Show — is about to light up Las Vegas for the rest of the week. So ’tis the season for tech news to come rolling on in from far and wide. Today’s big announcements come courtesy of Amazon, which wants to put its Fire interface and AI assistant Alexa basically everywhere. [More]
Alexa Has Very Explicit Response To Toddler’s Seemingly Innocent Song Request
By 12.30.16
In what could either be an innocent mistake or a set-up by wise adults, Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa gave one toddler a very interesting answer to his request to hear a specific song. [More]
Report: Amazon Working On An Alexa-Controlled Speaker With A Touchscreen
By 11.29.16
Are we heading toward a future where you control everything in your home by speaking to a disembodied voice? Amazon certainly seems to be going in that direction, with a new report that it’s working on a premium speaker powered by Alexa, a sort of souped-up Echo, featuring a large screen. [More]
AT&T Customers Can Now Use Amazon’s Alexa To Send Text Messages
By 11.17.16
Amazon is adding another feature to make life easier for Echo users, well, at least those with AT&T wireless plans: AT&T customers can now tell Alexa to send text messages. [More]
Guy Makes Alexa Speak Through A Robotic Singing Fish Just Because He Can
By 11.4.16
Sure, you can have Amazon’s digital assistant Alexa speak to you through an Echo, but why not have it respond to commands from the mouth of a wall-mounted singing fish? [More]
