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Tech NewsCommerceAmazon’s Alexa Can Now Ask You Follow-Up Questions
Responding to demands from consumers for “an Alexa, but make it talk even more,” Amazon announced on Wednesday that its latest digital assistant model will be able to infer a user’s “latent goals,” and will use those to pose follow-up questions to users. If you ask your new Alexa how long it takes to cook … Continued
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ReviewsHome Entertainment & Smart HomeThe New Amazon Echo Is Round (Also It Sounds Good)
It’s round. That’s the story, folks. In all seriousness, you can’t talk about the fourth-generation Amazon Echo without acknowledging its new globular shape. Visually, it’s a significant departure from the cylindrical Echoes of yore, but it’s more than just Amazon telling you, “Oh, it’s a ball now.” It’s also a way of saying, “This one … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgets10 Tips and Tricks to Help You Get the Most Out of Your Amazon Echo
Amazon has refreshed its Echo line again, and this time the speakers are shaped like balls rather than cylinders—though all of the key functionality remains the same. Your Echo can do so much more than summon Alexa, so we’ll steer clear of giving you a long list of commands you can use—you already know most … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech NewsGadgetsHow to Make It Easier to Control Smart Home Devices From Your Phone
Setting up your smart home and controlling it from your phone is easier than it’s ever been. Both Android 11 and iOS 14 include features to further simplify smart home management. Here’s how to set everything up and make sure your smart lights, cameras, thermostats, and other devices can all be operated from a single … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech NewsCommerceSoon You Can Ask Alexa to Forget Everything You Ever Said
Privacy is the big thing that gives people the heebie-jeebies when it comes to digital assistants like Alexa. But at Amazon’s devices and services event today, the company announced it was expanding privacy settings with regard to voice recordings. Later this year, you’ll be able to say, “Alexa, delete everything I’ve said.” According to Amazon, … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceAmazon’s Echo Is Now a Ball
Amazon has upgraded its Echo lineup, giving the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Dot with Clock a spherical design that looks less awkward in your house than a cylinder or puck. The Kids’ Edition Dots got similar treatment but instead of a bright candy cane design, these little guys now have Panda and Tiger faces … Continued
By John Biggs -
Tech NewsGadgetsBypass Siri With This Stick-On Smart Speaker That Brings Google Assistant and Alexa to Your iPhone
The three most popular AI-powered smart assistants are all available on the iPhone, but only Siri can hear and acknowledge your voice requests while the phone is locked. For Alexa and Google Assistant, you have to be actively using your iPhone and have the Amazon or Google apps open to access them. That’s a problem, … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceAmazon’s Alexa for Landlords Is a Privacy Nightmare Waiting to Happen
You know that clip of Steve Carell from The Office where he’s shouting “No, God! No, God, please no! No! No! Nooooooooo!” That’s how I feel about Amazon’s announcement that it’s adding a new service to Alexa for landlords. It’s called Alexa for Residential that, according to Amazon, “makes it easy for property managers to … Continued
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Tech NewsAlexa’s Opinion of ‘All Lives Matter’ Is a Big Fail
While Google, Apple, and Amazon generally do their best to keep their voice assistants apolitical, all three have decided to program answers to the questions “Do Black lives matter?” and “Do all lives matter?” It’s a good thing that all three affirm that Black lives, do in fact, matter. But where Google and Apple’s virtual … Continued
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Tech NewsSiri Whistleblower Goes Public to Protest Lack of Consequences for Apple
Last summer, an anonymous contractor revealed that Apple had contractors listening to private conversations, unknowingly recorded by their devices, as part of a “grading” system to improve Siri. Now, the whistleblower has gone public in a letter sent to European data protection regulators, decrying the lack of action taken against Apple for violating people’s privacy. … Continued
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Tech NewsElderly Covid-19 Victim Spent Days Pleading for Help With Her Alexa Smart Device Before Death
LouAnn Dagen, a 66-year-old woman in Michigan, spent days pleading for help from her Amazon Echo Show before she died of covid-19 on April 4, according to a new report from local NBC affiliate WFLA. Dagen lived at a nursing home where at least 31 residents and five staff have tested positive for the new … Continued
By Matt Novak -
Tech NewsGadgetsMarshall’s New Itty Bitty Smart Speaker Packs Big Sound
Marshall’s latest smart speaker is an unusually small boy. How small? The new Uxbridge Voice, which is integrated with Amazon Alexa, measures a mere 5 by 6.6 by 4.8 inches. For reference, the Uxbridge Voice is just a smidge taller than an iPhone XS Max, which measures 6.2 inches tall. That’s not quite as small … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityUnplug Your Smart Speakers While You’re Working From Home
Whether you just started working from home or have been for a few weeks now, it’s a good idea to turn off your smart speakers sooner rather than later; your Alexa or Google Home could be listening in on all those confidential work calls. Smart home devices not only listen to us when we don’t … Continued
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Tech NewsThe Shows on Netflix That Could Be Triggering Your Smart Speaker
As smart speakers have become a ubiquitous part of our day-to-day lives, so too has it become clear these devices may not be as private as they appear at first blush—that they may be listening in even when they shouldn’t be, that recordings may contain sensitive information that we didn’t realize was being uploaded to … Continued
By Catie Keck -
Tech NewsGadgetsThis Cheap Adapter Makes Every USB-Powered Gadget Wifi Controlled
If you’re all in on the idea of making your home smart and automated, a company called Sonoff has created a simple adapter that will add wifi connectivity to any USB-powered device allowing it to be powered on and off without you ever having to lift a finger. In addition to becoming the ubiquitous way … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceAlexa: Would U?
From the dawn of time to the release of Her and beyond, man has dreamed of the day they could bone a sex machine. Friends, that day is now upon us… if you’re fine with Amazon recording it. On Wednesday, Bloomberg Businessweek tweeted out a copy of their latest cover, linking to a feature article … Continued
By Tom McKay -
Tech NewsCommerceAmazon Quietly Reveals Plan to Put Alexa in Almost Everything
Just when you thought Alexa wasn’t integrated into enough stuff, Amazon has casually announced a new way to add the artificially intelligent voice assistant to even the cheapest, dumbest things. The new technology is capable of running Alexa with the most basic processors and less than 1MB of memory. That means you might soon mean … Continued
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Tech NewsGadgetsHow to Find and Delete Everything You’ve Ever Said to Your Digital Assistants
Most of us are comfortable using digital assistants to ask about the weather, or the traffic on the way to work, or just how many years it’s been since our favorite sports team actually won anything—but what’s happening to all of our voice commands and queries? And just how many human beings are listening in … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech NewsYour Google Home and Alexa Can Be Used to Eavesdrop and Phish For Your Passwords
It’s no secret that smart speakers are listening in on you despite the excuses that manufacturers make. But while you may have thought it was just Google and Amazon listening in, security researchers have found Alexa and Google Assistant speakers can be manipulated by hackers to eavesdrop and phish for your passwords. The vulnerability—dubbed Smart … Continued
