Following the news that Google’s new Home Mini connected-home hubs were recording users thousands of times per day because the device refused to stay asleep, Google has permanently disabled the touch-sensitive panel on the top of the Home Mini. [More]
digital assistants
Google Permanently Disables Home Mini’s Top Touch Panel After Device Recorded When It Shouldn’t Have
By 10.12.17
Google Home Mini Starts Waking Up Thousands Of Times A Day, Recording Everything It Hears
By 10.11.17
Sure, it’s useful to have your digital assistant ready to help you out with just a verbal command to turn it on. But Google was forced to issue a software update recently after some of its new Home Mini devices started waking up thousands of times a day on its own, and recording any and every sound it heard. [More]
Alibaba Goes After Amazon Echo With $73 Voice-Activated Speaker
By 7.5.17
Amazon’s Echo is about to have some more competition in the digital assistant arena: China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba will start selling a $73 voice-activated speaker. [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]
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]
Amazon Patents Pocket-Sized, Voice-Controlled Drones
By 10.19.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
There you are, driving up and down rows of cars, looking for the right parking spot. What if you could release a tiny drone into the air, and tell it to help out with the search? That’s the kind of future Amazon is looking toward with a new patent for voice-controlled drones that can fit in your pocket. [More]
Amazon Alexa Goes Mobile, But Only On Amazon Tablets
By 9.8.16
Amazon’s 2016 strategy seems to be “put Alexa everywhere possible.” The digital assistant has been popping up in all manner of hardware of late. The newest is both the most and least surprising: the most because it’s finally a mobile device, but the least because it’s one manufactured by Amazon itself. [More]
Lenovo Says It’s Talked With Amazon About Bringing Alexa To PCs
By 9.1.16
We’ve gotten used to Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa adding new capabilities to her repertoire, like buying Prime-eligible products, paying credit card bills, ordering pizza, and then leading workouts to exercise off said pizza, but thus far she’s done it all from within the Amazon’s line of devices like the Echo and Echo Dot. That might be changing. [More]
Facebook Reportedly Working On A Personal Digital Assistant Who Lives In The Messenger App
By 7.14.15
When it’s time to buzz about a reported new tech feature, having a recognizable code name is kind of a must-have. So it goes with Facebook’s new rumored project, a personal digital assistant nicknamed “Moneypenny,” after the secretary character in James Bond movies. [More]
