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Tech NewsGadgets40 New Tricks For Your Amazon Echo
Amazon recently announced that the Alexa AI powering its Echo and other hardware has now learned 1,000 “skills” (up from just 135 in January). In case you’re not up to speed with all the new tricks, we’ve picked out 40 of our favorites—you can discover the other 960 yourself. Our previous Echo guide focused on … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech News
Siri Is Finally Going to Be Useful
For months, rumors have been swirling that Apple was planning on rolling out some big changes to Siri, its chirpy digital assistant. Onstage at WWDC today, the company finally unveiled those updates, and—surprise, surprise—they’re mostly in line with the earlier whispers. Apple announced two major updates at its annual developer conference. First, Siri will finally … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerce
Amazon Wants Alexa to Tell When You’re in a Bad Mood
Virtual assistants are getting scarier—I mean, fancier—with rumored features like facial recognition and integrated Google services. Then there’s Alexa, which can’t even perform a Google search. As the arms race ramps up, Amazon hopes like Alexa best if she can tell when you’re mad and apologize quickly enough for not knowing which album you want … Continued
By Angela Chen -
Tech NewsCommerceWatch a Fool Destroy an Expensive Cinema Camera
Getting a buttery smooth tracking shot requires special camera gear, like a Steadicam rig. It also requires a skilled operator, very unlike the man in this video. Demonstrating a stabilizing rig at the recent Cine Gear Expo in LA, he failed to keep a secure hold on the Arri digital cinema camera it was supporting, … Continued
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Tech News
Apple’s Amazon Echo Competitor Sounds Goddamned Terrifying
Earlier this week The Information reported that Apple is making a smart hub to compete with the very cool Amazon Echo and recently announced Google Home. This is not shocking. Consumer technology companies’ new favorite thing is to get their remarkably well-designed talons into every aspect of our lives. If we want the convenience they … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Tech News
You Can Now Use Your Amazon Echo To Control Your Nest
Google might be working on a competitor for Amazon’s Echo, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not willing to play along with the consumer giant. You can now use Alexa to control your Nest thermostat. Nest has opened up compatibility for the Amazon Echo, Fire TV, Tap and Echo Dot, and provided a list of … Continued
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Tech News
Report: Google Is Secretly Working on an Amazon Echo Competitor
A new report from The Information says Google is working on its own personal assistant hub, similar to Amazon’s Echo. Only recently, through a series of updates and new hardware, has the Echo grown into a gadget worthy of its original transformative promise, and Google’s apparently taken notice. Although details about the new product are … Continued
By Darren Orf -
Tech NewsCommerce
Amazon’s Alexa Is Not Even Remotely Secure and I Really Don’t Care
Forty-eight Cadbury Creme Eggs are en route to my house and it’s all Alexa’s fault. Alexa is incredibly useful. It gives you the weather as you stumble to the bathroom in the morning, and the news as you stumble back to your bedroom. It plays smooth jazz for your dog when you’re away and sets … Continued
By Alex Cranz -
Tech NewsGadgets
Everything You Can Say to Your Amazon Echo
Voice control is one of the core capabilities of the Amazon Echo: the tall, black cylinder comes with a basic remote and some on-board buttons, but speaking commands and questions is the most intuitive way of interacting with it. If you’re wondering just what your Echo can do and which commands it responds to, here’s … Continued
By David Nield -
Tech NewsCommerce
You Can Now Order an Uber From Amazon Echo
With pizza delivery and Spotify integration under its belt just this week, Amazon’s now adding Uber support to its Alexa-powered speaker. Starting today, you can can yell “Request an Uber,” or lots of other variations on that phrase, and an Uber you shall receive. We managed to quickly setup the service under the “Skills” tab … Continued
By Darren Orf -
Tech NewsCommerce
Domino’s Super Bowl Stunt Lets You Yell at Alexa to Order Pizza
Amazon Echo’s added a lot of neat abilities since its launch in 2014, but this just might be the laziest of them all: Alexa can now order pizza. Mmm, delicious technological progress. As part of an Amazon-Domino’s PR schtickfor this Sunday’s Super Bowl, Alexa’s been outfitted to personally order pizza for you when asked. In … Continued
By Darren Orf -
Reviews
There’s a new update forAmazon Echo that adds a bunch of new features, like news headlines on a particular topic, more smart home controls, and better control over alarms and timers. The full list of Alexa’s tricks is over on Amazon’s site. [Amazonvia Engadget] Contact the author at [email protected].
By Chris Mills -
Tech NewsGadgets
Amazon Echo takes one more step to becoming the benevolent central hub (or Hal 9000) to your future smart home. After connecting with Belkin’s WeMo smart devices this past May, a web-cached blogpost shows Amazon’s Echo now controlling SmartThings devices, Samsung’s acquired smart home division. Neat. [TechCrunch]
By Darren Orf -
Tech NewsCommerce
You’re About to Start Finding Amazon’s Echo AI In Unexpected Places
Could Amazon actually win the race to build the most widely-used AI voice platform? As unlikely as it sounds, Amazon is pushing far harder than Microsoft or Apple to get its technology into the hands of other companies. Today, Amazon said it would make Alexa—the voice-controlled assistant that sits inside its Echo hardware—free to any … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceAmazon Echo Review: I Just Spoke to the Future And It Listened
It only took me a few hours to get cozy with my new assistant. “Alexa,” I barked at the nine-inch black cylinder on my coffee table, “Shut up.” The lights on top of the cylinder went dark; the embarrassing 90s music playing from its speaker cut out. “Alexa, what’s the weather?” I paused with anticipation. … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceWhy Is My Digital Assistant So Creepy?
Siri, Cortana and Alexa are robotic personal assistants, but they are also women. They live in your pockets, their skinny smart phone bodies executing your every command. They are intimate with you. But they are also, as Microsoft VP Joe Belfiore said at the Windows 10 keynote last week, “a member of your family.” It’s … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceIf Amazon Echo Said What It Was Really Thinking
Amazon’s Echo looks promising. It’s Amazon’s most interesting—and important—product in years, if it lives up to its promise. But what if it works, and also hates you? Amazon’s original promo is pretty optimistic (if also a little awkward). Redditor The_Invincible is a little less so, and edited together a new promo video that offers an … Continued
By Eric Limer -
Tech NewsCommerceARRI Alexa Camera Shoots Beautiful Video with Little Light
The new ARRI Alexa, a $60,000 professional 2K camera, shows off its chops in this gorgeous footage of a violin maker at work. The amazing part? You’re seeing the camera working with the light of two, 100W desk lamps. The video itself was shot at 800 ISO, which has been described by DP Tom Faehrmann … Continued
By Mark Wilson -
Tech NewsCommerce
ARRI Alexa Camera: Digital Cinematic Bliss
I may never shoot on an ARRI Alexa camera—after all, it’ll cost around $60,000 this summer—but a man can dream, can’t he? ARRI, makers of legendary film cameras, has finally unveiled the full specs of their upcoming digital camera, the Alexa. It’s an interesting camera—its Super 35 CMOS Bayer sensor (ARRI’s own) can shoot uncompressed … Continued
By Mark Wilson